Emigrant Gulch

In August 1864, three men, who came to Montana on the Bozeman Trail, arrived here and found people already hard at work mining the creek. The new arrivals decided to try their luck farther up the rugged gulch, finding pay dirt high up the side of Emigrant Peak. The strike caused a stampede that drew several hundred miners and a few women to this remote area deep in Crow Indian country. The miners worked the gravel with moderate success for several weeks before cold weather drove them down to Yellowstone City, near the mouth of Emigrant Gulch. The settlement was a collection of fifty rough log cabins with dirt roofs and elk-hide floors. Supplies ran short during that winter; flour was scarce and tobacco cost $300 a pound, making it worth its weight in gold. The only thing plentiful was venison – for breakfast, lunch, and dinner during the long winter months. In the spring, the shortages ended and the men went back to work on their claims. By 1866, most of the miners drifted away because of played out placer gold mines and trouble with the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne Indians on the Bozeman Trail. The Emigrant Gulch strike was not a fabulous one, but snug stakes rewarded many of the pioneers for their energy and hardships.