Ghost Towns in the Helena Area

There are several ghost towns still scattered through the hills surrounding Helena - some even still have a few living residents:

Unionville. Just southwest of Helena. Helena's Last Chance Gulch was panned clean quickly after its discovery in 1864, but hard rock mining in Unionville kept Helena afloat from 1870 til 1875.

Park City, Dry Gulch and Springtown. Beyond Unionville and further up Grizzly Gulch, the Park City Mine yielded ore worth millions of dollars and once was home to these settlements.

Head west on Highway 12 over MacDonald Pass to Avon. Take Highway 141 north from Avon for three or four miles and jog right for five miles to Blackfoot City, an 1865 town that still can be recognized.

Keep going and the loop takes you back to Belmont and Marysville. There's not much to recognize in Belmont anymore; it was active around 1880. With a brewery, 27 saloons, 3,000 residents and three newspapers, Marysville once was one of the most thriving gold towns in the area. It remains one of the best preserved. The local Catholic church was fully restored in the 1980s, and old abandoned buildings still line Marysville's street.

Finally, you can drive to the east side of Canyon Ferry on Highway 284, then take Highway 360 up Confederate Gulch. Nine miles along the gravel road is the recognizable site of Diamond City. The road continues past Watson and the site of now-vanished Fort Logan.