The next day Jernigan and Spillman were fairly tried by a jury of twenty-four miners. The former was acquitted, the latter sentenced to be hung, which sentence was executed in the afternoon of the following day. This was the first expression of Vigilante justice in that portion of the Northwest which afterwards became Montana. Mr. Stuart says, “Spillman was either a man of a lion heart or a hardened villain, for he died absolutely fearless. After receiving his sentence, he wrote a letter to his father with a firm, bold hand that never trembled, and walked to his death as unto a bridal.”
The news of the discovery of the Oro Fino and Florence mines was received at Denver in the Winter of 1861–62, and caused a perfect fever of excitement. Colonel McLean, Washington Stapleton, Dr. Glick, Dr. Leavitt, Major Brookie, H. P. A. Smith, Judge Clancy, Edward Bissell, Columbus Post, Mark Post, and others, all left early in the Spring, taking the route by the overland road, from which they intended to diverge into the northern wilderness at some point near Fort Bridger. Another party under the leadership of Captain Jack Russell left soon after, going by the way of the Sweetwater trail, South Pass, and the Bridger cut-off.
My readers who have never seen the plains, rivers, cañons, rocks, and mountains of the portion of our country travelled by these companies, can form but a faint idea from any description given by them of the innumerable and formidable difficulties with which every mile of this weary march was encumbered. History has assigned a foremost place among its glorified deeds to the passage of the Alps by Napoleon, and to the long and discouraging march of the French army under the same great conqueror to Russia. If it be not invidious to compare small things with great, we may assuredly claim for these early pioneers greater conquests over nature on their journey through the northwestern wilderness than were made by either of the great military expeditions of Napoleon. In addition to natural obstacles equally formidable and of continual occurrence for more than a thousand miles, their route lay through an unexplored region, beset by hostile Indians, bristling with mountain peaks, pierced with large streams, and unmarked with a single line of civilization. Their cattle and horses were obliged to subsist upon the scanty herbage which put forth in early spring. Swollen by the melting snows of the mountains, the streams, fordable in midsummer, could now be crossed only by boats, and frequently the passage of a single creek consumed a week of time. Seeking for passes around and through the ranges, ascending them when no such conveniences could be found, passing through cañons, and clambering rocks, filled the path of empire through western America with discouragement and disaster.