100 MONTANA: INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES 



district, south of Helena, ^YhiIe the placers of Last Chance Gulch, now the main 

 street of Helena, yielded $16,000,000. While the district is an old one, there 

 are many iiromising claims awaiting exploration and development. There has been 

 no change in the situation since the state mining engineer in his biennial report 

 for 1911-1912 said : "The Rimini district and the districts adjacent to Helena 

 afford great opportunities for investments. These districts merit more attention 

 from the mining public than they have so far been accorded. ... I am strongly of 

 the opinion that were a limited amount of capital judiciously expended in the de- 

 velopment of these several districts, as good mines as have been found in the 

 state would be discovered. All that is necessary is for capital to become interested 

 in the proper development of the many himdreds of promising bearing prospects." 

 The county has produced commercially gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc. It also 

 has sapphires, phosphate, fluorite, marble, brick and fire clay, dimension and 

 structural slate and much building stone. Coal is reported to exist. More than 

 SOO.O(X) acres of the county are in national forests. The lumber output is small, 

 the cut being principally poles, lagging and cordwood. 



The only custom silver-lead smelter in the state is located at East Helena, 

 while at Helena are manufacturies for the production of biscuits and crackers, 

 candy, coffee and tea, mining machinery and structural steel. 

 Many Public farm machinery, ornamental lighting standards, brick, tile and 

 Offices terra cotta, dairy products, soap, glycerine, store and office 



fixtures, granite and marble works, tents and awnings and 

 large book and job printing establishments. Helena is an important jobbing 

 center, chiefly in hardware, groceries, men's clothing and automobiles. There are 

 many public offices, in addition to the state offices, located at Helena. These 

 include a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of the Ninth district and fourteen 

 federal offices of a state-wide character, besides the United States Veterans' 

 Bureau, the U. S. Veterans' Hospital at Fort Harrison, and the War Finance Cor- 

 poration, and several other federal district offices. It is asserted there are 

 more federal than state employes in Helena. 



The main line of the Northern Pacific crosses the southern part of the county, 

 the Havre-Butte branch of the Great Northern runs north and south, and another 

 Great Northern branch out of Great Falls has its terminus at Augusta, in the 

 northern area. A main east and west highway crosses the county; the middle 

 route of the Park-to-Park highway, from the Gardiner entrance of Yellowstone 

 to the eastern portal of Glacier Park, runs north and south and is also a link in 

 the Banff-Grand Canyon road. 



Helena, the largest city, situated on the southern rim of the Prickly Pear 

 valley, was founded as. a mining camp in 1S64. It has developed into an attrac- 

 tive residential community, and besides being the governmental center is also 

 the financial center of the state. The state fair is held at Helena each fall. 

 Among other institutions of a state-wide character located here are the State 

 Girls' Vocational School, the Odd Fellows* Home, the Masonic Home, the Mon- 

 tana Children's Home Societ.v, the St. Joseph's Orphan Home, the House of the 

 Good Shepherd and the Florence Crittenden Home. 



Two denominational colleges are located at Helena. Mount St. Charles, 

 under Catholic auspices, and the Intermountain Union College. The last named 

 was under Methodist auspices the past 20 years, but in 1923 a merger was effected 

 with the Presbyterians. The- only veterans' vocational school in the state is main- 

 tained at Helena. Fort Harrison, three miles west of Helena, has been converted 

 into a veterans' hospital of 300 beds for tuberculosis patients. 



Besides the smelter at I^ast Helena, the town also serves a considerable 

 agricultural district. Augusta is the principal town in the northern end of the 



