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Helena National Forest (406) 449-5201 |
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Historic Mining on the Helena National Forest: A Brief Synopsis
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In the 1860’s, miners combed the mountains of southwestern Montana for gold, silver and other precious metals. Their simple pick, shovel and pan technology soon gave way to more aggressive hydraulic mining involving water, ditches, flumes and hoses. Gold mixed in stream (placer) deposits was washed free of gravel and sand, and collected in rocker and sluice boxes. Entire streambeds became fields of waste rock. The economic trade-off was millions of dollars worth of gold and precious metal. Colorful but short-lived mining camps sprang up in mountain gulches surrounding the diggings. Abandoned mining camps were washed away by subsequent placer and dredge mining or became ghost towns. |
Diamond City, 1884 Photo Courtesy of the Montana Historical Society |
When the rich placers played out in the 1870’s, the search for the “mother lode” began. This hailed the advent of hardrock lode mining and laid the economic foundation of many Montana communities. Lode mining involves excavating and processing of an ore body in order to free the gold and other precious metals embedded in its matrix. Once hauled from underground tunnels, the ore was crushed in stamp and ball mills. The crushed ore concentrate was transported to smelters in Anaconda, East Helena and far away Wales for final processing. Lode mines were dirty, noisy and dangerous places to work.
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By the turn of the 20th century, lode mines of varying scale and fortune operated throughout southwestern Montana. Especially productive mines produced millions of dollars worth of precious metals. Flotation cell technology became the economic salvation of mining in Montana and the West in the late 1920’s. It allowed the mining of low-grade ore bodies after the richer deposits were exhausted. During the Great Depression, some mines remained solvent while others were operated at a subsistence level or went belly-up. |
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World War II gave the mining industry a much-needed economic boost. The machinery of modern warfare depended on metal. In 1943, the Government passed an order that closed all mines not engaged in the production of strategic metals such as lead, copper, and zinc. This wartime order and ensuing economic speculation led to a period of unparalleled productivity at many southwestern Montana mines.
In the 1950’s, mining in the West changed. Open-pit
mining was more cost efficient and safer. Ore concentrating and
processing technology evolved. Corporate capital was needed to keep operations
afloat. Most small corporate and family mining operations could not compete.
Many are now historic mining ruins.
A Mining Example: Charter Oak Mine and Mill
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Charter Oak Mine |
The ruins of abandoned placer and lode (underground) mines are a common sight on the Helena National Forest. Exploration and prospecting on public land has resulted in thousands of prospect pits, trenches and mining shafts. When placer or lode claims seemed promising, the land was usually patented and thus came out of government ownership. Mines and mills were then developed on patented land but the resulting waste rock piles (from excavating tunnels) and tailings piles (from milling the ore) was often strewn across adjacent public land. These areas are now the scene of toxic mine waste cleanup. |
A significant exception to this pattern of patenting mining developments is the Charter Oak Mine and Mill, located in the Little Blackfoot River south of the community of Elliston. It lies on National Forest land and contains standing buildings and mining-milling buildings and equipment. The mine has been stabilized and interpreted, and is open for public visitation on select summer weekends.
| Briefly, Charter Oak was a lode mine and mill active off and on from 1916 to 1955. The Hopkins family ran the first Charter Oak operation as a stamp mill until the stock market crash of 1929. The mine was inactive during the first years of the Great Depression. In 1942, the Hopkins & Sons Mining Company developed the 50-ton flotation mill you see today. The Hopkins brothers and leaseholder James Bonner operated the mine throughout World War II and into the 1950s. World War II brought great productivity to the mine. Designated a strategic metals mine by the federal government, Charter Oak produced lead and zinc essential to fighting the war. |
John Hopkins & Charlie Anderson, Charter Oak Mine |
By 1955, Charter Oak was in decline. Market conditions, lack of investment capital, and technological changes all played a role in its demise. The mine changed hands and lease- holders several times but little hardrock mining was done. Ore from surrounding mines was assayed at Charter Oak as a business. In the 1980’s, plans to upgrade the mill to process the older tailings and waste rock at Charter Oak were unsuccessful. Never patented, this mine on public land became Forest Service property in 1995.
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Golden Messenger Mine |
Toxic waste rock and mill tailings were removed from Charter Oak from 1996-1998. The historic mine has been stabilized and interpreted by the Forest Service with the invaluable assistance of Passport in Time program volunteers and Helena High School X-CEL program students. Charter Oak is one of a handful of standing World War II-era lode mines still in existence on public land in the West. For this reason, theCharter Oak mine was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. |
Some additional reading:
Charter Oak Mine and Mill Historic Preservation Plan, Elliston Mining District, Helena National Forest. 2003, Carl M. Davis, USDA Forest Service, Helena National Forest.
Frothers, Bubbles and Flotation, A Survey of Flotation Milling in the Twentieth-Century Metals Industry. 1998, Dawn Bunyak, National Park Service, Intermountain Support Office, Denver.
Gold Camps & Silver Cities, Nineteenth Century
Mining In Central and Southern Idaho. 1983. Merle W. Wells, Idaho
Department of Lands, Bureau of Mines and Geology, Moscow.
Hard Rock Epic, Western Miners and the Industrial Revolution, 1860-1910.
1979, Mark Wyman, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Mining Frontiers of the Far West 1848-1880. 2001, Revised Edition, Rodman Wilson Paul, 2001, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Montana Pay Dirt, A Guide to the Mining Camps of the Treasure State.1963, Muriel Sibell Wolle, Swallow Press, Ohio State University, Athens.
The Mining Camps Speak, A New Way to Explore Ghost Towns of the American West. 1998, Beth and Bill Sagstetter, Benchmark Publishing of Colorado, Denver.
Western Mining. 1970, Otis E. Young Jr., University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Links:
Heritage Resources
Forest Prehistory
Prehistoric Rock Art
Industrial Helena Limekilns
Forest Service History-Moose Creek
Ranger Station
Lewis & Clark Expedition
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USDA Forest Service - Helena National Forest
Last Modified: Thursday, 17 May 2007 at 12:55:22 EDT