November 11, 1930.
PIONEEDS AGREE ABOUT EXISTENCE OF BRIDGE ON WEST PARK STREET
Butte has grown up. The city is now so ancient that the disputes are cropping up over early-day landmarks. Chris Jorgensen rites the Standard from Warm Springs that the last time he was in Butte lie was contradicted by other pioneers when he remarked that “In, the young days of Butte there was a bridge, fully 201) feet long, somewhere between Walker’s place and Symon’s store.”
Mr. Jergensen says: “They declared that no bridge ever existed on that street, although I crossed it many times when Butte depended on Deer Lodge for Its produce. The bridge was erected about 1875 and stood many years.” He asks for corroboration of his statement.
Mrs. Joseph Sinsel, of 621 Colorado Street, who came to Butte in 1884, remembers the bridge referred to by Mr. Jergensen. She locates the structure In the vicinity of the McKinley Savage optician establishment of today,
The late Joe Hoar, well-known miner, who lived In Butte from his boyhood, was fond of relating that on Sunday afternoons It was his custom, In summer to “lie under the bridge, among the bushes and read stories that might not have been approved of in a Christian home of that day as Sunday literature—”Murderous Mike.” “The Mad Man of the Mountains,” “Two-Gun Kate” and the like.”
“Other old-timers bear similar testimony. The preponderance of the evidence is on the side of Mr. Jergensen, members of the Butte Pioneers’ club state.