Hopes were so high for the Cracker Jack and Bullshead Mine on the shoulder of Mt. Wilbur that the exploration activity for the two combined under the “Michigan and Montana Company” and was capitalized at a figure of $300,000- worth nearly $9 million in 2019. Amazingly, a 16,000 pound ore concentrator was hauled from “Fort” Browning to Cracker Lake- first on a 12-mule wagon and then block and tackled up Canyon Creek. It took 29 days and even having seen the remains of the giant machine with my own eyes, I don’t understand how they got it up there. The contractor, Charles Nielson of Browning, was paid the princely sum of $25 per day for the transportation gig. The miners set up the steam-operated monstrosity on site…and never found enough ore to use it. They did manage to dig the mine out to a length of at least 1,300 feet. Entry is prohibited by the park service, so don’t even think about it!

To support the flurry of (astoundingly unsuccessful) mining exploration, a boomtown sprang into being in the area now known as “Cracker Flats” and was quickly named for one of the main financial backers of the mines- David Greenwood Altyn. The ramshackle mountain town reached its peak between 1899 and 1902 with a population nearing 800 people. (Babb and St. Mary combined can’t boast 800 people as I’m typing this in the winter months of 2019). Altyn boasted a post office, a general store, multiple saloons, a hotel, and even a newspaper office surrounded by the cabins and tents that served as homes for the miners. In its only known published issue, Altyn’s Swift Current Courier boasted headlines reading “The Growth of Altyn Assured “ and “No Doubt About The Permanency Of The Swift Current Mines.”