Montana's Early Days

Anxious to create new free territory during the Civil War, President Lincoln established the Montana Territory in 1864.  Montana was then "unstable" frontier. The first governor, Sidney Edgerton actually fled the state after months of Indian raids, including the Sioux, Shoshone, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Flathead and the Blackfoot.

Until the 1850s the settling of Montana was sparse. It wasn't until 1862, when a small amount of gold was discovered at Grasshopper Creek and the first Anglo settlement was born, almost 20 years after most of the West and Northwest. In 1864, the discovery of gold in Last Chance Gulch brought prospectors to Montana and qualified it for territorial status.  It wasn't until 25 years later that it qualified for statehood.

On July 14, 1864 four prospectors (called the 4 Georgians - John Cowan, D. J. Miller, John Crab, and Reginald  Stanley).spotted signs of gold in a gulch off the Prickly Pear valley (modern day Helena).  They were eager to reach what they thought were richer gold finds farther to the north and so passed it by.  After striking out in the Kootenal area, they decided to take one "last chance" on finding gold and returned to the Helena area.  When they found a rich deposit there  on July 1864, they marked their claims and named the new mining town "Last Chance Gulch".

Last Chance Gulch proved to be the 2nd biggest placer gold deposit in Montana, producing some $19 million worth of gold in just 4 years.  Thousands of miners came, and the four original prospectors added to their fortunes by establishing the town as a place for food, lodging and supplies. The city's main street is named Last Chance Gulch and lies close to the winding path of the original gulch.

Unlike many of the mining towns, however, Last Chance Gulch did not disappear when the gold gave out....
Next time...Last Chance Gulch grows up!

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