Drummond

Between Deer Lodge [1] and Drummond, the Clark Fork River is squeezed by the Flint Creek Mountains and the Garnet Range into an increasingly narrow valley.

Montana’s gold rush began here. In 1860, James and Granville Stuart were panning in Gold Creek when their pans showed color. Word of the gold strike brought in a flood of prospectors from the spent gold rushes in other parts of the West.

Gold Creek was never a rich producer, and only a few temporary shacks ever occupied this gold camp. Years later, however, better technology allowed developers to extract the remaining gold with dredges—as the mounds of tailings attest.