... and it was the discovery of gold which caused the city of Helena to be born. Now the State Capital and one of the larger cities in the state, Helena immediately prospered when gold was discovered in Last Chance Gulch, right in downtown Helena. The site of the discovery is now occupied by the
First National Bank, immediately east of the
Montana Club, which is where this bronze plaque is mounted. Quite old, we know it to have been in place in 1924 and very likely much earlier. It could be as old as the building, which was completed in 1905. It is in its original position on the east side of the Montana Club a few feet north of the corner entrance.
DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN LAST CHANCE GULCH
ON THIS PLACER MINING CLAIM GOLD WAS DISCOVERED ON JULY 14, 1864 BY JOHN COWAN AND JOHN CRAB OF GEORGIA, BOB STANLEY OF LONDON, ENGLAND AND D.J. MILLER OF CALIFORNIA, KNOWN AS "THE GEORGIANS" WHO WERE RETURNING FROM AN UNSUCCESSFUL OROSPECTING EXPEDITION TO THE KOOTENAI COUNTRY. THIS DISTRICT WAS CALLED "LAST CHANCE GULCH" UNTIL OCTOBER 30TH 1864, WHEN IT WAS NAMED HELENA.
THIS MEMORIAL OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THESE PIONEERS IS ERECTED
BY THE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTANA
AND THE
SOCIETY OF MONTANA PIONEERS
SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS,
CIRCUMSPICE.
Last Chance Gulch
A group of miners out of provisions and down on their luck took one last chance as they swung through this gulch on July 14, 1864. They found “color,” and soon miners trickled in, a few at a time, panning, sluicing, and hastily building shelters on their claims. The discovery men became known as the Four Georgians for reasons the community soon forgot. Historians speculate that since one of the miners was from Georgia, where gold was mined before discoveries in the West, they were probably practicing a Georgian method of placer mining.
In the great frenzy to get at the precious metal, miners soon stripped the landscape of everything green, churned up the soil, and built their buildings along the claims that followed Last Chance Stream through the gulch. In October, residents gathered to properly name the mining camp known as Last Chance. After some discussion, they dubbed the new settlement Helena after the Scott County, Minnesota, hometown of one of the men. Last Chance Gulch produced 19 million dollars’ worth of gold in the first four years.
Only so much gold lies close to the surface, and so when placer mining was finished, hydraulic mining changed the landscape even more drastically. Workers used powerful pressure hoses to viciously wash the hillsides. Montana’s capital city thus rose from the mining camp. By the 1890s, Helena’s spectacular architecture and cosmopolitan ambience won the city its nickname, “Queen City of the Rockies.” The historic layers tell of the journey from gold camp to capital city.
From the City of Helena