Joe Maurice arrived from Belgium in 1883 at the age of 13. He married young and established a homestead here in the Gold Creek drainage. (over the hill from Wise River) A horse kicked the sight out of his right eye, but still he scratched out a living, raising some cattle and panning a little gold. During the harsh winter of 1905 his wife died of diphtheria: that spring, his two little children died of typhoid fever. It is believed he buried them all in the graveyard on this hill. Joe passed away in 1967 at the age of 97.

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