In the summer of 1902, people traveling through the Silver Lake country near Anaconda, Montana, began telling stories about a strange figure hiding in the hills.
They called him a wild man.
He was said to run at the sight of other people, disappearing into the brush before anyone could get close. Those who claimed to have seen him described a frightening figure: barely clothed, sunburned, bearded, with leaves tangled in his hair and every sign of a man who had been sleeping outdoors for weeks.
Soon, the rumors took on a name.
Several weeks earlier, a miner named August Swanson had vanished after telling relatives in Anaconda that he planned to prospect in the Georgetown district near Silver Lake. He was expected to return before heading home to Big Hole, but he never came back. Searches failed to find him, and his disappearance remained a mystery.
Then came the reports of the wild man near the Gold Coin Mill.
Was this strange figure really August Swanson, lost, frightened, and driven out of his senses by some unknown hardship in the Montana hills? Or was Silver Lake’s “wild man” someone else entirely?
In July 1902, residents planned to find out.
Is August Swanson the Silver Lake Wild Man?
ANACONDA, Montana. — August Swanson, a miner who disappeared several weeks ago, is now thought to have been found in the person of a crazy man who is reported to live in the hills in the vicinity of the Gold Coin Mill, near Silver Lake.
Many people who have been in the Silver Lake country say that there is a wild man there who runs away at the approach of his fellows and hides in the brush.
Swanson has relatives in Anaconda, but he was a resident of Big Hole before his disappearance. E visited Anaconda, and when he left here he told his relations that he was going to prospect the Georgetown district, near Silver Lake, but would return before going home to the Big Hole.
He never came back and all searches for him did not find him.
Now many people believe that the man who lurks in the brush near Silver Lake and fleeces his fellowmen is Swanson. Residents of the Georgetown country say that this individual is clad in few clothes, has leaves in his hair, an unkept beard, a sunburned face, and bears every mark of having slept out in the woods and lost his senses.
An effort will be made to run the wild man down.
Source: The Butte Inter Mountain. Butte, Mont. July 30, 1902
