514 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



smacks of the olden days when prairie schooner bumped 

 through rugged passes to reach the treasure of the west- 

 ern mountains. Many a pioneer had a last chance gulch, 

 but this last chance proved to be a good one, and the early 



BEAVER DAM . 



Under State protection these animals have increased from a point 

 where they were almost extinct to where one traveling the high- 

 ways of the F"orest may often see their work. 



working of the mines located here produced considerably 

 more than $50,000,000 in gold. Now an auto road winds 

 where before pack train and heavy wagon toiled to bring 

 out the metal found in this canyon, and one of the most 

 popular drives to be found in the section is through this 

 famous mining location. 



Confederate Gulch, another famous placer ground, 

 heads in the Helena National Forest. There stands what 

 is left of Diamond City, once the county seat of Meagher 

 County, and a thriving town of several thousand people. 

 Now, the miners have gone, most of the buildings are torn 

 down, the Forest is gradually covering the great piles 

 of earth and rock left from the placer washings, and the 

 last resident, a Chinaman, China George, lives in his 

 shack with only a cat for company, and dreams of the 

 busy days of the past. These were indeed busy days, for 

 during the mining here Confederate Gulch added to the 

 gold supply of the world bullion worth from $70,000,000 

 to $100,000,000. 



But these reminiscences of the gold rush days are not 

 the only attractions which have a historical setting in the 

 Helena Forest. Lewis and Clark paused here in their 



expedition of exploration to the Northwest. Standing 

 today in all of the scenic beauty which caused these pio- 

 neer adventurers to give it so fitting a name, the Gate of 

 the ^lountains will prove to be one of the unusual attrac- 

 tions of the Helena. It is along the Missouri River, which 

 has just reached lusty young riverhood at this point, and 

 it is in the northwest corner of the Big Belt Division of 

 the Forest. Here the river cuts directly through the Big 

 Belt Mountains, flowing through a canyon with sides of 

 jagged rock partially cloaked with the greenery of fir 

 and spruce. The part of this canyon which constitutes 

 the Gate of the Mountains furnishes one of the few water 

 trips available in all Montana. The canyon is over twenty 

 miles long, with walls rising over three thousand feet 

 above water line. The entire trip to the Gate must be 

 made by water and is a trip worth going miles to enjoy. 

 Following the McClellan road south from Helena one 

 will soon reach the Forest. This is a good mountain road 

 and for several miles its traverses pleasing picnic spots 



LOCAL PEOPLE USE THE HELENA FOR PLAY 



Fall, winter, spring and summer, the hardy Boy Scouts hike in the 



hills of the Helena. Signaling on a winter hike. 



