Untitled Slide

MONTANA

THE GOLD RUSH

• Gold was discovered in 1852.
• Mining began in 1862, gold placers were found at Bannack, Montana.
• Gold found in Virignia City in 1863
• Gold found in Helena and Butte, 1864.

BANNACK

• Gold found july 28th, 1862
• Gold was found in the waters of a creek.
• Bannack gold was about 99% pure, this is compared to most gold at 95%.
• By 1863 there were some 3000 residents
• There werent many laws in Bannack, there were many people being killed.

VIRGINIA CITY

• Six men after leaving bannack traveled upstream and found gold in another area of the stream.
• Within a week hundreds of people were crowding the stream, looking for gold.
• Virginia city was proposed as a 320 acre plot of land.
• Virginia city soon became a prominent city in the Rocky Mountains.

HELENA

• Four miners spotted gold nearby Helena.
• The new mining district was called Last Chance Gulch.
• Almost twenty million dollars worth of gold was found in four years.
• Helena did not die out when the gold was gone, it became the capital.

BUTTE

• At first only gold and silver were found, then an abundance of copper was mined.
• This town was refered to as "The Richest Hill on Earth".
• People from all over Europe came to live.
• This prosperity continued up through 1950.
• In 1950 underground mining switched to open pit mining forming the berkley pit.

SOURCES

• Wikipedia.org
• Legendsofamerica.com
• Virginiacity.com
• History.com