This information is used with permission from Ellen Baumler. Her book entitled “Historic Helena Walking Tours” provides a great insight into Helena’s amazing history. The book can be purchased at the Montana Historical Society and many downtown shops.
“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.”
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