This made travel on the
mountain trails safer than it had been; and the rich Last Chance
Gulch on which the city of Helena now stands attracted a
tremendous population almost at once. The historian above cited
lived there. Let him tell of the life.
"One long stream of active life filled the little creek on its
auriferous course from Bald Mountain, through a canyon of wild
and picturesque character, until it emerged into the large and
fertile valley of the Pas-sam-a-ri...the mountain stream
called by Lewis and Clark in their journal "Philanthropy River."
Lateral streams of great beauty pour down the sides of the
mountain chain bounding the valley.... Gold placers were
found upon these streams and occupied soon after the settlement
at Virginia City was commenced.... This human hive, numbering
at least ten thousand people, was the product of ninety days.
Into it were crowded all the elements of a rough and active
civilization. Thousands of cabins and tents and brush wakiups...
were seen on every hand. Every foot of the gulch...was
undergoing displacement, and it was already disfigured by huge
heaps of gravel which had been passed through the sluices and
rifled of their glittering contents.
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