TOSTON -- Much of the little-known history of coal mining in Broadwater County would likely have faded from memory, if not for the efforts of local self-trained historian John Stoner.

For a brief time, coal looked to have a golden future in Broadwater County. Several enterprises had plans for hiring hundreds of miners, but none of this came to pass.

At the center of the story is Charles Porter Grove, a colorful prospector and former slave, who appeared in the Radersburg area in the 1870s.

Grove was the first to discover coal in the county and widely promoted it along with some of his other mining ventures.

On Sept. 8, 1882, Grove filed a "declaration of occupancy," for a 160-acre area on the hillsides above Big Springs and the Missouri River, south of Toston.

A declaration of occupancy, according to Stoner, was a form of legalized squatting that was widely in use in Broadwater County. The land actually belonged to the federal government.

Grove later called his claim Mammoth Coal Mine. The name, however, appears to apply more to Grove's imagination and schemes than to the actual amount of coal ever mined there, according to Stoner's research self-published in "Coal Mines of Broadwater County: A Nearly Forgotten Industry, 1884-1920s."

Early newspaper reports of Grove and his enterprises were glowing and optimistic.

The Townsend Tranchant newspaper reported Feb. 10, 1886: "Mr. Charles P. Grove, one of our oldest prospectors for mines in this district, arrived from Bozeman last evening, and will proceed to open up the Mammoth coal mine, near Toston. Mr. Grove has just got back from the east with his bride, and will build and reside at the Springs near his mine."

That issue also reports that Grove would be hiring four or five men to begin mining and that a spur line from the railroad would be serving the mine.

A few weeks later, an article reports that "Mr. Porter contemplates building a large house this spring, to which he will move his wife and family. ... He will also build a hotel and billiard hall at the Springs in the canyon near the Mammoth coal mine. A side track is to be laid to this mine by the 10th of May."

Stoner attributes this description to Grove's overactive imagination. The house, hotel and billiard hall never materialized, nor did a Northern Pacific Railroad spur.

"Broadwater Bygones" reports Grove would print up brilliantly lithographed mining stock and travel back to Illinois, Tennessee, Maryland and Kentucky, where he would sell it to emancipated slaves, telling them he would only sell the stock to members of his own race.

Over the years Grove's reputation as a mining promoter eroded, as did his fortune.

The Townsend Messenger on April 12, 1895, reported, "Chas. Porter Grove, the black scoundrel, is again at his old tricks of duping the members of his own race. He is now in New Orleans selling (mine) stock at five dollars per share to the most gullible of the colored citizens of that city. It would be a good thing for Montana and the colored people every where, if this lying, villainous scoundrel was swung up to a telegraph pole and there left to furnish food for the buzzards. He is a rank fraud."

Grove died Jan. 6, 1911. The Townsend Star on Jan. 14, 1911, wrote, "The interesting career of Charles Porter Grove, well known in this part of Montana, and at one time purported to be very wealthy, came to a sad ending on New Year's night, when he probably froze to death going from Radersburg to his claims about eight miles distant in Johnnie's Gulch."

Upon his death, the Helena Independent reported that Porter Grove was well known about Helena a score of years before, and had a "spectacular mining career.

"Grove was a smooth talker. ... He made several trips east and became a sensation. Columns about him and his mines appeared in eastern newspapers.

"For a time Grove and his wife lived like monarchs," the article reports, and he apparently attracted a number of prominent white men as investors in his mining ventures.

"Then the tide turned. The mines failed to pay." The stockholders' money was gone, and stories circulated that Grove had "salted" the claims.

"Grove's reputation as a mining promoter vanished as quickly as did his money. From a palatial residence, the Groves moved into a smaller dwelling, and from a well dressed seller of lithographed mining stock certificates, he became a prospector, and digging away at some hole in the earth, and always believing himself on the verge of the big strike," the paper reported.

Grove's wife divorced him and secured work to support their family.

His health failed, and he was sent to the county hospital, but ran away.

He came home, demanding his wife "grub stake" him so he could go up into the hills and prospect, which he did.

The irony of his failed dreams wasn't lost on the Helena Independent writer.

"A peculiar coincidence in connection with Grove's mining operations is that within the past year or two the Radersburg district, practically abandoned after Grove had gone broke, has developed into one of the richest gold camps in the state."

For all its hype, there is little evidence that much mining ever took place at Grove's Mammoth Coal Mine, according to Stoner.

Historians have incorrectly credited Grove's mine with providing coal to the Toston Smelting operation, said Stoner. Most, if not all, of the coal for the brief history of the smelter, from 1885 to 1888, came from the Six Mile Coal Mine, located along Six Mile Creek.

Coincidentally, this mine was called for a while the Mammoth Mining and Coal Company. It too was "squatting" on land that didn't belong to the group of Toston citizens who filed a claim on it. The Northern Pacific Railroad owned the land.

And the developers of this mine also dreamed of having their own railroad spur, which never materialized.

A July 20, 1887, article in the Townsend Tranchant reports "The Six Mile Coal Co. ... have their mine opened up in fine shape and are prepared to fill all orders promptly."

The mine sold coal at $4 per ton at the mine, or $8 per ton if delivered to Townsend.

An 1888 article spoke of extensive mine improvements and that the coal is well suited for "furnace, parlor and kitchen."

However, just as the coal mine was gearing up, "the prime focal point ... of its existence," the Toston Smelting Company, was closing, says Stoner.

The last traces of the smelter were just cleansed from the landscape this year as part of a Department of Environmental Quality cleanup.

Coal dreams still burned bright in the county in 1897. An article in the Townsend Star reported on the Toston coal mines near Six Mile Creek, saying it was "an industry that gives promise of future greatness."

But greatness failed to materialize.

The coal continued to sell, primarily for domestic purposes, for decades to come.

The Six Mile Creek mines produced coal up to the start of World War II, according to Stoner's research. Local ranchers were still hauling home loads of coal for their personal use up through the 1950s.

While the Six Mile operation never lived up to its founders' dreams, it "brought an interesting diversity to (Broadwater County's) mining history," writes Stoner.

The final chapter on coal was written by Western Coal & Coke Company, which came into being in 1907, long after the Toston smelter was closed.

Two prospectors, Hildo Johnson and John Segerhammer, first happened on this outcrop in late 1899.

The mine developed in the hillsides one mile west of the former town of Lombard, which lay on the banks of the Missouri River south of Toston.

Plans called for building up to 100 beehive coke ovens to distill the coal into coke.

The primary customer was the Trident cement plant upriver from Lombard near the headwaters of the Missouri River, said Stoner.

Although this coal mine did have a railroad spur, it wasn't enough to make the mine profitable.

Only 12 of the beehive ovens were ever built, said Stoner. And only a few "runs" or batches of coke were ever made and shipped.

Stoner blames that mine's demise and coal mining's brief history in the county on the coal's poor quality .

The local coal was bituminous, which has a lower carbon content and produces less energy than anthracite coal, he writes.

But coal still contributed a valuable chapter to Broadwater County's history.

While gold-mining history has long overshadowed that of coal mining in Broadwater County, "(coal) provided a needed commodity at a reasonable price, provided employment for those in need, and provided a few 'dreams to chase' even though unsuccessful," Stoner concludes.

And it's provided hours of fascination for Stoner.

"It's a chore of love," he said of his research. "I have a curious mind."

After Stoner heard mention of coal mining in the Toston area, he felt compelled to unearth the story.

"That's why I do this, to bring it out in the open and make it permanent."

Reporter Marga Lincoln: 447-4074 or marga.lincoln@helenair.com