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Dusting Off the Old Ones

Early Montana Happenings

It was in 1864 that the first schools in Montana were started at Virginia City and at Bannack--and it was on July 12 of that year that gold was discovered in Last Chance Gulch (Last Chance Gulch, by the way, is Helena's present main street). On December 12, l864, the first territorial legislature met at Bannack. On February 7, 1865, Virginia City became Montana's territorial capital. In that same year, gold was discovered in Confederate Gulch. On April 9 to 14, 1866, the first constitutional convention was held at Helena, while in that same year, 1866, that Nelson Story arrived in the state with a herd of cattle. On August 1, 1868, David Carpenter filed the first homestead entry in the Helena Land Office (at that time the Helena Land Office served the entire Territory of Montana). And it was on May 29, 1869, that Miss Gwenllain Evans, the first of her sex, filed on a homestead a few miles east of Anaconda. The first census was taken in Montana in 1870--it showed 20,595 whites and 32,412 Indians. It was in 1872 that Yellowstone Park was created. The capital was moved from Virginia City to Helena in 1875, and it was on June 25 of the next year, 1876, that the Custer .Massacre took place. On October 8, 1878, Chief Joseph surrendered in the Bear Paw Mountains to General Nelson A. Miles. In 1878, a miners' union, known as the Butte Workingmen's Union, was organized with 216 members. We don't expect you to remember all of these dates, but most of them are dates that will long be remembered in Montana history.