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PARKS
Helena National Forest
History
While visitors may often feel they're venturing into untracked wild country, most of the Helena National Forest at one time or another has felt the eager feet of gold miners. The city of Helena itself grew up in an area known as"Last Chance Gulch," a name bestowed on the ravine where gold was discovered in 1864. The unusual nature of the Helena gold strike played a significant role in the area's permanent settlement. Rather than only placer metals, miners found large deposits of granite bound gold and silver embedded in veins of quartz. Extracting such riches called for larger, long-term mining operations the kind that quickly gave Helena the kind of stable population few other gold towns could muster.
More than one hundred years and millions of dollars in gold later, mining continues to play an important role on the Helena National Forest. As was true so long ago, the majority of today's mining efforts seek gold and silver, which many experts believe still exist on these national forest lands in sizable quantities.
Oil and gas exploration also occurs on the Helena National Forest. Much of the national forest sits over the western Overthrust Belt--a geological formation that in places holds great petroleum reserves and has created interest in oil and gas exploration and leasing on the Helena National Forest.
National forest officials now face the challenge of balancing mining and oil and gas development with an increasing demand for recreation. Visitors from nearby Missoula, Bozeman, and Great Falls, as well as from other states, are starting to realize the Helena holds rich recreational opportunities for hunting, hiking, skiing, snowmobiling, fishing, and off-highway vehicle use. This national forest's attributes likely will make it a favorite spot in years to come for those who love the Rocky Mountain out-of-doors.
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