Three Major Gold Strikes in Montana Chapter 6, Section 1

The Big Picture One word changed the landscape of Montana forever – “Gold!” For the first time, thousands of Americans flooded into Montana in search of gold. Also, gold created an economic pattern called the boom-and-bust cycle. A gold strike would bring sudden activity to a place, followed by a quiet period before another sudden burst of activity.

First Gold Rush in the West: California The first gold rush in the west started in California in 1848 at Sutter’s Mill. Nearly 250,000 people rushed to California in 1849. These prospectors fanned out across gulches and creeks, seeking their fortunes. Merchants and farmers rushed in after the miners to sell them supplies, food and mining equipment.

First Gold Rush in the West: California Each gold strike caused a new wave of prospectors to flood into an area. They worked their claims until they played out (ran out of gold) then moved on. By the 1850’s, California was overcrowded. Miners headed back east in the backrush, mining in places like Montana that had been overlooked before.

Major Montana Strikes In the early 1850’s, a fur trapper named Benetsee discovered a small amount of gold in the Deer Lodge Valley. The Métis trapper was the first to discover gold in Montana. It wasn’t much, but enough to start people talking.

Major Montana Strikes A few years later, two brothers also found a small amount of gold in the valley. Granville and James Stuart found gold at a spot they named Gold Creek. When they wrote a letter to their brother to join them, it sparked a small gold rush into Montana.

Grasshopper Creek Becomes Bannack In July of 1862, a prospector named John White found gold along Grasshopper Creek, a tributary of the Beaverhead River. Miners there named it so because there were so many grasshoppers there. The excitement sent hundreds of people there that summer.

Grasshopper Creek Becomes Bannack Miners soon staked out the entire length of Grasshopper Creek. They built a small town and named it Bannack, after the tribe that lived nearby. By April, there were 1,000 people living in Bannack and its mine produced $5 million ($90 million today.)

Grasshopper Creek Becomes Bannack Rumors spread that you could pull up a sagebrush plant in Bannack, shake out its roots over a pan, and collect a handful of gold dust. In reality, mining was grueling work requiring hard labor. Though there was gold in Bannack, few men actually struck it rich.

Alder Gulch: A Fortunate Accident Nearly a year later in 1863, two prospecting parties left Bannack to search for gold near the Yellowstone River. This was Crow territory. The Crow disliked miners because they trespassed without offering anything to trade. The tribe forced the prospecting party back to Bannack.

Alder Gulch: A Fortunate Accident On their way back, the party stopped along a stream that was tangled with alder bushes. One of the men scratched at the bedrock with a knife. That day, Bill Fairweather found a “scad” (a lot) of gold at Alder Gulch.

Last Chance Gulch As soon as Alder Gulch was all staked out, rumors begin to spread about gold somewhere else. In 1864, one group that raced after such rumors were called the “Four Georgians,” because they used a gold-panning technique called the “Georgia method.”

Alder Gulch: A Fortunate Accident The four men spent months mining without any luck. They decided they would try once more, then leave. On this final try, the Four Georgians struck gold at Last Chance Gulch. Here, they found gold plentiful and easy to remove. The site quickly boomed into the town of Helena, where over $19 million of gold was produced. ($221 million today)

Hard Work and “Slim Pickin’s” While prospecting for gold sounds exciting, placer mining required many hours of backbreaking work. Prospectors suffered through frostbite from mining in the winter, and worked through intense heat and clouds of mosquitoes in the summer. Placer Mining is the separation of loose gold and nuggets from dirt, sand and gravel in a creek bed. Popular images show grizzled old prospectors with white beards, but most miners were young men.

Immigrants Flood In By the late 1870’s, there were more than 500 mining towns in Montana. Though most did not last more than a couple years, Native Americans were now not the only people permanently living here. In four years, placer mining produced $1.1 billion in gold (today) in Montana.

Major Routs into Montana Those who could afford it came to Montana by steamboat, stopping at Fort Benton. From there, they took a stagecoach or wagon to the mining camps. As steamboats became more popular, Fort Benton became a major hub for transporting people and goods.

Major Routs into Montana Northern Overland Route Mullan Trail Corinne Road Bozeman Trail Many people traveled the Mullan Road, a 624 mile long dirt trail that connected Fort Benton to Walla Walla, Washington. From the south, the Corrine Road connected Utah to Virginia City. Others could take the Bozeman Trail from the Oregon Trail to Virginia City. Finally, others crossed the Dakotas on the Northern Overland Route on their way to Fort Benton.

Life in the Gold Camps Montana’s first gold camps were dirty, smelly and loud. Most miners lived in tents, lean-tos and log cabins. Hogs were allowed to feed along muddy streets filled with horse manure. As time went on though, stores, hotels and saloons were built by merchants looking to “mine the miners.”

Life in Gold Towns By the end of its first year, Virginia City had a grocery store, bakery, barbershop, post office, churches, schools and a telegraph office. The assayer’s office was important because the assayer determined the value of gold. In every town the saloons and dance halls served as the social center for the single, young men who made up most of the town’s population.

Life in the Gold Camps Mining camps relied on freight trains (wagons pulled by oxen or mules) for goods. At first, most of the miners’ food was shipped in by freight trains. This included coffee, sugar, flour, bacon, beans and salt. Food was expensive because it had to be shipped so far. Sometimes, shipping problems led to food shortages, like 1864’s “flour riot” where the price of a 100 lb bag of flour skyrocketed to $150 ($2,000 in today’s money.)

The Food Problem Riots broke out in Virginia City and a troop of men went from door to door collecting all the town’s flour so that everyone could have an equal amount. Fortunately for miners, as time went on farms and ranches were built to supply the towns with food.

Settlers Used the Land in a New Way Unlike Native Americans, private ownership of land was very important to the settlers. Towns sprang up in the middle of tribal territories and cut off Indian peoples’ access to traditional lands and water. Farmers also plowed up bison grazing ground.

Prejudice Takes Hold Prejudice often turned into violence. In 1864, 500 gold prospectors stampeded into the Sun River area in Blackfeet territory. When winter came, the miners would have starved but a Blackfeet chief named Little Dog fed them. Despite this help, several miners killed four of the Blackfeet. From then on, the Blackfeet chased off gold seekers.