“Ill-armed and half-starved, they were still desperate men, to
whom danger had lost all fears: for what was death that
they should shun it to cling to such a life as theirs?”
~AC Doyle
In the 1830’s of western Montana, it’s no secret that gold was plentiful and available for the taking. And for the early excavators, it was perhaps the greatest individual opportunity that has ever existed in our nation’s history to become wealthy beyond measure.
But as thousands of people flooded into the territory, more and more dirt had to be moved to find less and less gold. And although it’s hard to imagine, in less than two decades, Montana’s gold reserves had been almost completely tapped out.
While many new arrivals quickly realized the futility of searching for a few precious nuggets of gold among mountains and mountains of rock, there were some who remained undeterred by the circumstances. In fact, so intense was the desire for gold by prospectors, that historical accounts further document that some miners literally starved to death while digging for gold in the Montana territory.
What’s particularly remarkable about these accounts is the fact that the body’s desire for food during periods of starvation is so intense that men will oftentimes resort to cannibalism to remain alive–thus validating the fact that man’s desire to gain riches is perhaps the strongest appetite of all.
In the mining shacks that still adorn the Montana rails, vestiges of prospector’s last meals are readily visible to remind all who will listen about the futility of pursuing wealth above all things.
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