Lozeau famous for I-90 exit and 1869 gold rush

While recently visiting with his grandfather, Superior High School Principal, Chris Clairmont, found out something new about his ancestors. His great, great grandfather was Adolph Lozeau, originally pronounced Adolphe L’Oiseau. He was of Canadian descent and homesteaded what is now called the Lozeau exit, located between Superior and Alberton.

But what made Adolph even more famous, was that he was the one who “spilled the beans” about the recent discovery of gold in Cedar Creek, causing the Cedar Creek Stampede of 1869.

“I guess I’m related to a loud mouth,” Clairmont said with a laugh, when he found out about his celebrity relative.

Adolph had trapped and hunted for the Hudson Bay Company prior to his move to this area. He went to Minnesota and worked on the barges on the Missouri River, running freight to trading posts along the Missouri. He then ended up in St. Louis, where he spent some time.

When the gold rush was going on in California, he decided to try his luck, but he got into a gunfight and fled to Oregon where he went to the Frazier River which is located near Hope, British Columbia. There, he participated in the gold stampede of 1858. After that, he went to Walla Walla, and met his future wife, who was part of the Salish tribe.

After they were married, they moved to the Superior area, where they lived with the Indians. He made several trips to the Bitterroot with his family and lived with the tribes there. He finally settled near Superior, which is now called Lozeau. It was there where the couple ran a boarding house.

It was in the fall of 1869, when Louis Barrette and B. Lanthier crossed paths with Adolph. The two had panned 370 dollars worth of gold in three weeks on Cedar Creek, according to the excerpt from “Frenchtown Valley Footprints” by the Frenchtown Historical Society. They stopped at the Lozeau ranch, which was situated on a prairie North of the confluence of Cedar Creek on the Clark Fork River.

They wanted to keep their find a secret, knowing that if they went to Frenchtown to get supplies, everyone would get suspicious. This is when they sent Adolph to Frenchtown for supplies.

Unbeknown to the two, their deliveryman was “a sociable Frenchman, who loved people and whiskey”. While on his journey, he stopped off at a local tavern called Henry Larivee’s. This is where he got drunk and told the crowd about the discovery of gold.

Early the next morning, Barrette and Lanthier stopped at the Lozeau’s, expecting to get a hardy breakfast. Instead they were greeted by an excited mob of men. That morning, they all ate a breakfast of boiled beans and before daybreak, a hundred men headed for Cedar Creek. The gold rush was on.

Years later, in the 1890s, the home burned and the Lozeau family moved near Moiese, Montana. This is where Adolph was finally laid to rest.