Basin, Montana
Encyclopedia
Basin is a census-designated place
(CDP) in Jefferson County
, Montana
, United States
. It lies about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of the Continental Divide
in a high narrow canyon along Interstate 15 about halfway between Butte
and Helena
. Basin Creek flows roughly north to south through Basin and enters the Boulder River
on the settlement's south side. The population was 255 at the 2000 census.
Archaeologists have discovered evidence of human habitation from 10,000 years ago at a site near Clancy
, 20 miles (32 km) from Basin. From about 2000 BCE through the mid-19th century, nomadic tribes hunted bison
in the grassy valleys that trend east, away from the Rocky Mountains
and into the plains. By the time miners found gold in the streams in and near Basin, most of the these tribes of Indians
had been forced onto reservations
by the U.S. government.
Basin rests above the Boulder Batholith
, the host rock for many valuable mineral ores found in this part of Montana. After the town became a hub of gold and silver mining, Basin's population peaked at about 1,500 in first decade of the 20th century but gradually declined as the mines were depleted. Abandoned mining equipment, closed or barricaded mine portals, and the ruins of a smelter and ore concentrator remain in Basin in the 21st century.
Historic buildings from Basin's heyday form much of the core of the CDP's small business district, which includes a fire station, a post office, two restaurants, a bar, a commercial gallery, small specialty shops. Basin has a small elementary school, its own water system, and a low-power radio station. Local volunteers and elected trustees provide limited services to the settlement, but it relies on the government of Jefferson County, Montana, for law enforcement and other services. From 1993 through 2011 Basin was home to the Montana Artists Refuge.
Micropolitan Statistical Area
, is at 46°16′36"N 112°16′4"W (46.276564, -112.267756). It lies at an elevation of 5335 feet (1,626 m) above sea level along Interstate 15 about 27 miles (43 km) north of Butte
and 35 miles (56 km) south of Helena
in the narrow canyon of a small river. Basin Creek flows south through the center of Basin to its confluence with a larger stream, the Boulder River
, which flows east along the south side of Basin. No paved roads except the interstate highway, which runs along the river canyon, connect Basin to other towns. About 10 miles (16 km) upstream on Basin Creek lies the Continental Divide
. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 12.8 square miles (33.2 km²), all land.
In the late Cretaceous (roughly 81 to 74 million years ago), molten rock (magma
) rose to the Earth's surface in and near what later became Jefferson County and eventually formed an intrusive body of granitic rock up to 10 miles (16 km) thick and 100 miles (161 km) in diameter. This body, known as the Boulder Batholith
, extends from Helena to Butte, and is the host rock for the many valuable ores mined in the region. As the granite cooled, it cracked, and hot solutions infiltrated the cracks to form mineral veins
bearing gold and other metals. Millions of years later, weathering allowed gold in the veins to wash down to the gravels in Basin Creek, Cataract Creek, and the other creeks near Basin, as well as the Boulder River.
The Basin area is underlain by the quartz monzonite
of the Boulder Batholith. The batholith is overlain by dacite
from the Tertiary
Period (roughly 65 million to 1.8 million years ago) and andesite
from the late Cretaceous
Period. The andesite and monzonite are cut by dikes
of dacite and rhyolite
.
that existed during the last major Ice Age
about 12,000 years ago. Because the middle of the continent was covered with sheets of ice, people who migrated south did so on trails along the edges of glaciers melted by seasonal warming. One such trail, called the Great North Trail, is thought to have followed the Rocky Mountain Front
into Montana, passing close to Helena, 24 miles (39 km) north of Basin, and continuing into the east-central part of the state. Evidence of these early Paleo-Indians or Clovis
people has been found at three sites, one of them the McHaffie site near Clancy
about 20 miles (32 km) north of Basin. The age of the Clancy artifacts is estimated to be 10,000 years. The Clovis people are thought to have disappeared in about 4,000 to 5,000 BCE when the Montana climate became more dry and would not support the animal populations the Clovis needed to survive.
About 2,000 years ago, a new prehistoric people known as the Late Hunters appeared in Montana, thriving on a bison
(buffalo) population living in open grassy areas on the plains and in river valleys. The earliest tribes are thought to have been the Kootenai
, who stayed west of the Continental Divide, and the Flathead
(Salish), and Pend d'Oreilles
, who ventured east of the mountains into and east of the Three Forks country, 46 miles (74 km) southeast of Basin. In the 17th century, the Crow
entered Montana from the east and the Shoshone
from the south. Pressed by other tribes retreating west from white European settlers, the Blackfeet
moved into Montana around 1730. Acquiring horses and firearms, and numbering about 15,000, they formed alliances with other incoming tribes, the Assiniboine and the Gros Ventres
, and by the mid-18th century dominated the state. When the white explorers Lewis and Clark
traveled up the Missouri River
to Three Forks, they found only Blackfeet and Blackfeet allies. Heavily dependent on bison, the nomadic life of the Blackfeet "came to an abrupt end in the early 1880s when the buffalo became almost extinct."
During the 1870s, a few years after the first white miners began looking for gold near Basin, the last large-scale battles between the U.S. government and the Indians took place in Montana. The Marias Massacre
(also known as the Baker Massacre), occurred in 1870 about 150 miles (241 km) northeast of Basin. Others, the Battle of the Little Bighorn
and the Battle of the Rosebud
, were fought in 1876 about 250 miles (402 km) from Basin in the southeastern part of the state. By then, most first peoples had been moved to reservations
, which were far from Basin.
extended the full lengths of Cataract and Basin Creeks. When a settlement was established in Basin, the buildings at the mouth of Cataract Creek were gradually moved to Basin, and the Cataract camp was abandoned.
Searches for the lode
veins on both creeks succeeded by the 1870s and eventually led to significant lode mining at the Eva May, Uncle Sam, Grey Eagle, Hattie Ferguson, and Comet mines in the Cataract Creek district and the Bullion, Hope, and Katy mines in the Basin Creek district. By 1880, the settlement at Basin became the local source of supplies for mines and miners.
, who owned mines in Butte
, took over the properties left by the Glass brothers and improved them. By then, Basin had a population of 1,500, four rooming houses, a drug store, three hotels, a bath house, three grocery stores, a bank, a newspaper, and 12 saloons.
An unpublished manuscript on file with the Montana State Historical Society describes life in Basin between 1906 and 1910 in great detail. Two railroads, the Northern Pacific
on the north side of the Boulder River, and the Great Northern on the south side, served the city; both had depots and warehouses in Basin and carried passengers as well as freight. The Glass brothers' smelter had been set up on the north side to process concentrated ore delivered by rail from out of town or from the mills on the south side. Infrastructure included a weight scale for ore cars and an overhead tram to carry ore across the river from the reduction mill to the smelter. Although the smelter was a "massive unit" equipped with furnaces, conveyors, and machinery ready for operation, it "never turned a wheel".
While the smelter sat idle, mining activity continued on the south side of the river in the Hope-Katy mine complex, at the Hope Mill, which crushed and separated ore, and at the Basin Reduction Works. Flume
s carried water from upstream on Cataract Creek and Basin Creek to a storage reservoir in town and supplied water to the mills as well as the town's fire hydrants. A separate flume carried water to the mills from upstream on the Boulder River. At the Basin Reduction Works, Corliss steam engines
, driven by the coal-fired boilers, provided power to run the mine hoists
and the mill machinery, and an electric generator powered by a water wheel
made electricity for factory lights and the arc lights
at Basin's street intersections. Surplus tailings
were discharged into the river and into a dam built for the purpose downstream of Basin.
In addition to homes, Basin structures between 1906 and 1910 included a dance pavilion, a grandstand, a baseball diamond, and a playground near the confluence of Basin Creek with the river. A footbridge connected the playground with a picnic area on the south side of the river. Meeting places included churches, a union hall, and a two-story building shared by the Fraternal Order of Eagles
, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
, the Masons
, and Eastern Star
. Among the town's businesses were a hardware store, a bakery, livery stables, several "units of harlotry", a blacksmith shop, a brewery specializing in Basin Beer, a sawmill, and a dairy barn from which "milk was delivered in five-pound buckets", sometimes with covers.
In 1909, after Heinze abandoned his properties in Basin, the Butte and Superior Mining Company used buildings and machinery at the site of the Basin Reduction Works to treat zinc ore by a new process called froth flotation
. Sued for patent infringement, the company shut down its Basin plant in 1912. Max Atwater, a mining engineer who had worked for Butte and Superior, obtained a license for the process and ran a smaller zinc-extraction plant in Basin from 1914 through 1918. His wife, Mary Meigs Atwater, described Basin as "a mining camp, subject to recurring periods of boom and bust... A tiny telephone office and a drugstore died with the end of our era of boom... Just above the town were the headframe of our mine, and the old mill, and the never-quite-finished skeleton of a projected smelter."
The most extensive and successful mining of the Hope-Katy vein began in 1919, when the Jib Consolidated Mining Company began work on the property. When this company acquired the mines, they comprised 3500 feet (1,067 m) of workings. Over the next five years, Jib expanded these to more than 15000 feet (4,572 m), and in 1924 the company became the largest gold producer in Montana. In that year, the combined Jib mines produced about 33000 ounces (935,534.3 g) of gold, 182000 ounces (5,159,613.2 g) of silver, 282000 pounds (127,913 kg) of copper, and 199000 pounds (90,264.9 kg) of lead. In 1925, however, the Jib properties passed from the mining company to trustees for creditors, and production declined. This was the last of Basin's mining booms. Since then, small-scale mining, reworking of old mine dumps, and placer mining has continued in the region.
. The practice is controversial because of the "well-documented ill effects of high-dose radiation on the body."
In 1975, the Basin community formed water and sewer districts and, using federal grants to cover about 60 percent of the costs, built a water delivery, sewage, and waste-handling system. By 1990, Interstate 15 had replaced the entire length of U.S. Route 91
in the state. The centerline of the Interstate followed the track of the former Great Northern Railway through town.
In 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency
added the Basin mining area to the Superfund
National Priorities List because of mining-waste problems in and near town. The mining area comprised the watersheds of Basin and Cataract Creek and part of the Boulder River. Contaminants included arsenic
, copper, cadmium
, lead and other metals. Cleanup of the mining wastes at the Buckeye-Enterprise, Crystal and Bullion mines in the Basin Creek and Cataract watersheds was completed in 2002, and the removal of mine waste from Basin was completed in 2004.
of 2000, there were 255 people, 113 households, and 69 families residing in the CDP. The population density
was 19.9 people per square mile (7.7/km²). There were 146 housing units at an average density of 11.4 per square mile (4.4/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 95.29% White, 1.57% Native American, 0.39% Asian, and 2.75% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.96% of the population.
There were 113 households out of which 29.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.3% were married couples
living together, 5.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.9% were non-families. 32.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.93.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 26.7% under the age of 18, 4.7% from 18 to 24, 29.4% from 25 to 44, 31.0% from 45 to 64, and 8.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 94.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.8 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $22,500, and the median income for a family was $30,000. Males had a median income of $26,250 versus $15,714 for females. The per capita income
for the CDP was $11,878. About 23.4% of families and 32.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 56.0% of those under the age of 18 and 16.7% of those 65 or over.
through sixth grade. Older students attend school in Boulder, Montana
, about 9 miles (14 km) east of Basin.
The town's small business district includes a bar, two restaurants, a traveler's inn, small specialty shops, and a pottery gallery. A low-power radio station, KBAS-LP
, 98.3 FM, owned by Jefferson County Disaster and Emergency Services, broadcasts from Basin.
County, state, and federal agencies provide most of the government services available in Basin. Local residents serve as elected trustees of the Basin Fire District and its volunteer fire department. Elected trustees also oversee the Basin Water and Sewer District. The Jefferson County sheriff's department provides law enforcement, and other county departments offer trash removal and recycling, emergency management services, and road maintenance. The county health department has a clinic in Boulder, 9 miles (14 km) east of Basin, and the county courthouse, district court, and the nearest branch of the county library are also in Boulder. The United States Postal Service
has a post office in Basin.
Census-designated place
A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...
(CDP) in Jefferson County
Jefferson County, Montana
-National protected areas:*Deerlodge National Forest *Helena National Forest -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 10,049 people, 3,747 households, and 2,847 families residing in the county. The population density was 6 people per square mile . There were 4,199 housing units at an...
, Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It lies about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of the Continental Divide
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...
in a high narrow canyon along Interstate 15 about halfway between Butte
Butte, Montana
Butte is a city in Montana and the county seat of Silver Bow County, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. As of the 2010 census, Butte's population was 34,200...
and Helena
Helena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...
. Basin Creek flows roughly north to south through Basin and enters the Boulder River
Boulder River (southwestern Montana)
The Boulder River is a tributary of the Jefferson River, approximately 71 mi long, in southwestern Montana in the United States.It rises in the Rocky Mountains at the continental divide in the Deerlodge National Forest in western Jefferson County...
on the settlement's south side. The population was 255 at the 2000 census.
Archaeologists have discovered evidence of human habitation from 10,000 years ago at a site near Clancy
Clancy, Montana
Clancy is a census-designated place in Jefferson County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,406 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Helena Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Clancy is located at ....
, 20 miles (32 km) from Basin. From about 2000 BCE through the mid-19th century, nomadic tribes hunted bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
in the grassy valleys that trend east, away from the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
and into the plains. By the time miners found gold in the streams in and near Basin, most of the these tribes of Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
had been forced onto reservations
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
by the U.S. government.
Basin rests above the Boulder Batholith
Boulder Batholith
The Boulder Batholith is a small batholith in southwest Montana, exposed at the surface as granite and serving as the host rock for rich mineralized deposits at Butte, Montana and other locations....
, the host rock for many valuable mineral ores found in this part of Montana. After the town became a hub of gold and silver mining, Basin's population peaked at about 1,500 in first decade of the 20th century but gradually declined as the mines were depleted. Abandoned mining equipment, closed or barricaded mine portals, and the ruins of a smelter and ore concentrator remain in Basin in the 21st century.
Historic buildings from Basin's heyday form much of the core of the CDP's small business district, which includes a fire station, a post office, two restaurants, a bar, a commercial gallery, small specialty shops. Basin has a small elementary school, its own water system, and a low-power radio station. Local volunteers and elected trustees provide limited services to the settlement, but it relies on the government of Jefferson County, Montana, for law enforcement and other services. From 1993 through 2011 Basin was home to the Montana Artists Refuge.
Geography and geology
Basin, part of the HelenaHelena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...
Micropolitan Statistical Area
Helena micropolitan area
The Helena Micropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties in western Montana, anchored by the city of Helena....
, is at 46°16′36"N 112°16′4"W (46.276564, -112.267756). It lies at an elevation of 5335 feet (1,626 m) above sea level along Interstate 15 about 27 miles (43 km) north of Butte
Butte, Montana
Butte is a city in Montana and the county seat of Silver Bow County, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. As of the 2010 census, Butte's population was 34,200...
and 35 miles (56 km) south of Helena
Helena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...
in the narrow canyon of a small river. Basin Creek flows south through the center of Basin to its confluence with a larger stream, the Boulder River
Boulder River (southwestern Montana)
The Boulder River is a tributary of the Jefferson River, approximately 71 mi long, in southwestern Montana in the United States.It rises in the Rocky Mountains at the continental divide in the Deerlodge National Forest in western Jefferson County...
, which flows east along the south side of Basin. No paved roads except the interstate highway, which runs along the river canyon, connect Basin to other towns. About 10 miles (16 km) upstream on Basin Creek lies the Continental Divide
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...
. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 12.8 square miles (33.2 km²), all land.
In the late Cretaceous (roughly 81 to 74 million years ago), molten rock (magma
Magma
Magma is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and is expected to exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and dissolved gas and sometimes also gas bubbles. Magma often collects in...
) rose to the Earth's surface in and near what later became Jefferson County and eventually formed an intrusive body of granitic rock up to 10 miles (16 km) thick and 100 miles (161 km) in diameter. This body, known as the Boulder Batholith
Boulder Batholith
The Boulder Batholith is a small batholith in southwest Montana, exposed at the surface as granite and serving as the host rock for rich mineralized deposits at Butte, Montana and other locations....
, extends from Helena to Butte, and is the host rock for the many valuable ores mined in the region. As the granite cooled, it cracked, and hot solutions infiltrated the cracks to form mineral veins
Vein (geology)
In geology, a vein is a distinct sheetlike body of crystallized minerals within a rock. Veins form when mineral constituents carried by an aqueous solution within the rock mass are deposited through precipitation...
bearing gold and other metals. Millions of years later, weathering allowed gold in the veins to wash down to the gravels in Basin Creek, Cataract Creek, and the other creeks near Basin, as well as the Boulder River.
The Basin area is underlain by the quartz monzonite
Quartz monzonite
Quartz monzonite is an intrusive igneous rock that has an approximately equal proportion of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars. The plagioclase is typically intermediate to sodic in composition, andesine to oligoclase. Quartz is present in significant amounts. Biotite and/or hornblende...
of the Boulder Batholith. The batholith is overlain by dacite
Dacite
Dacite is an igneous, volcanic rock. It has an aphanitic to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. The relative proportions of feldspars and quartz in dacite, and in many other volcanic rocks, are illustrated in the QAPF diagram...
from the Tertiary
Tertiary
The Tertiary is a deprecated term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...
Period (roughly 65 million to 1.8 million years ago) and andesite
Andesite
Andesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite,...
from the late Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
Period. The andesite and monzonite are cut by dikes
Dike (geology)
A dike or dyke in geology is a type of sheet intrusion referring to any geologic body that cuts discordantly across* planar wall rock structures, such as bedding or foliation...
of dacite and rhyolite
Rhyolite
This page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...
.
First peoples
Archeologists think it likely that the first people to live in Montana crossed from Asia to North America over the Bering Land BridgeBering land bridge
The Bering land bridge was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles wide at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages. Like most of Siberia and all of Manchuria, Beringia was not glaciated because snowfall was extremely light...
that existed during the last major Ice Age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
about 12,000 years ago. Because the middle of the continent was covered with sheets of ice, people who migrated south did so on trails along the edges of glaciers melted by seasonal warming. One such trail, called the Great North Trail, is thought to have followed the Rocky Mountain Front
Rocky Mountain Front
The Rocky Mountain Front is an area extending over 100 miles from the central regions of the U.S. state of Montana to southern Alberta, Canada. Here, the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains and Canadian Prairie in an abrupt elevation rise of between 4,000 to 5,000 feet...
into Montana, passing close to Helena, 24 miles (39 km) north of Basin, and continuing into the east-central part of the state. Evidence of these early Paleo-Indians or Clovis
Clovis culture
The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture that first appears 11,500 RCYBP , at the end of the last glacial period, characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools...
people has been found at three sites, one of them the McHaffie site near Clancy
Clancy, Montana
Clancy is a census-designated place in Jefferson County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,406 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Helena Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Clancy is located at ....
about 20 miles (32 km) north of Basin. The age of the Clancy artifacts is estimated to be 10,000 years. The Clovis people are thought to have disappeared in about 4,000 to 5,000 BCE when the Montana climate became more dry and would not support the animal populations the Clovis needed to survive.
About 2,000 years ago, a new prehistoric people known as the Late Hunters appeared in Montana, thriving on a bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
(buffalo) population living in open grassy areas on the plains and in river valleys. The earliest tribes are thought to have been the Kootenai
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation are the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles Tribes. The Flatheads lived between the Cascade Mountains and Rocky Mountains. The Salish initially lived entirely east of the Continental Divide but established their...
, who stayed west of the Continental Divide, and the Flathead
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation are the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles Tribes. The Flatheads lived between the Cascade Mountains and Rocky Mountains. The Salish initially lived entirely east of the Continental Divide but established their...
(Salish), and Pend d'Oreilles
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation are the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles Tribes. The Flatheads lived between the Cascade Mountains and Rocky Mountains. The Salish initially lived entirely east of the Continental Divide but established their...
, who ventured east of the mountains into and east of the Three Forks country, 46 miles (74 km) southeast of Basin. In the 17th century, the Crow
Crow Nation
The Crow, also called the Absaroka or Apsáalooke, are a Siouan people of Native Americans who historically lived in the Yellowstone River valley, which extends from present-day Wyoming, through Montana and into North Dakota. They now live on a reservation south of Billings, Montana and in several...
entered Montana from the east and the Shoshone
Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
from the south. Pressed by other tribes retreating west from white European settlers, the Blackfeet
Blackfeet
The Piegan Blackfeet are a tribe of Native Americans of the Algonquian language family based in Montana, having lived in this area since around 6,500 BC. Many members of the tribe live as part of the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with population centered in Browning...
moved into Montana around 1730. Acquiring horses and firearms, and numbering about 15,000, they formed alliances with other incoming tribes, the Assiniboine and the Gros Ventres
Gros Ventres
The Gros Ventre people , also known as the A'ani, A'aninin, Haaninin, and Atsina, are a historically Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe located in north central Montana...
, and by the mid-18th century dominated the state. When the white explorers Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, or ″Corps of Discovery Expedition" was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by two Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, Meriwether Lewis and William...
traveled up the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
to Three Forks, they found only Blackfeet and Blackfeet allies. Heavily dependent on bison, the nomadic life of the Blackfeet "came to an abrupt end in the early 1880s when the buffalo became almost extinct."
During the 1870s, a few years after the first white miners began looking for gold near Basin, the last large-scale battles between the U.S. government and the Indians took place in Montana. The Marias Massacre
Marias Massacre
The Marias Massacre was a massacre of Piegan Blackfeet Indians by the United States Army which took place in Montana during the late nineteenth century Indian Wars.-Background:...
(also known as the Baker Massacre), occurred in 1870 about 150 miles (241 km) northeast of Basin. Others, the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
and the Battle of the Rosebud
Battle of the Rosebud
The Battle of the Rosebud occurred June 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and a force of Lakota Native Americans during the Black Hills War...
, were fought in 1876 about 250 miles (402 km) from Basin in the southeastern part of the state. By then, most first peoples had been moved to reservations
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
, which were far from Basin.
Camp
The town of Basin began as a 19th century mining camp near the confluence of Basin Creek with the Boulder River. Gold deposits at the mouth of Cataract Creek, about 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) downstream of Basin were reported as early as 1862. Prospectors staked claims and built cabins, and within a few years placer miningPlacer mining
Placer mining is the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment....
extended the full lengths of Cataract and Basin Creeks. When a settlement was established in Basin, the buildings at the mouth of Cataract Creek were gradually moved to Basin, and the Cataract camp was abandoned.
Searches for the lode
Lode
In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fissure in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock....
veins on both creeks succeeded by the 1870s and eventually led to significant lode mining at the Eva May, Uncle Sam, Grey Eagle, Hattie Ferguson, and Comet mines in the Cataract Creek district and the Bullion, Hope, and Katy mines in the Basin Creek district. By 1880, the settlement at Basin became the local source of supplies for mines and miners.
Boom and bust
Two mines, the Katy and the Hope, owned serially by several different companies between the mid-1890s and the mid-1920s, contributed to Basin's prosperity. In 1894, the Basin and Bay State Mining Company, organized by two brothers named Glass, began expanded operations at these mines. However, flooding and fires caused both mines to close by 1896; the Glass brothers lost control of the property, and the mines went idle. Despite the ups and downs of the local mines and despite several disastrous fires in town, Basin prospered. In 1905, the Basin Reduction Company led by F. Augustus HeinzeF. Augustus Heinze
Fritz Augustus Heinze was one of the three "Copper Kings" of Butte, Montana, along with William Andrews Clark and Marcus Daly...
, who owned mines in Butte
Butte, Montana
Butte is a city in Montana and the county seat of Silver Bow County, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. As of the 2010 census, Butte's population was 34,200...
, took over the properties left by the Glass brothers and improved them. By then, Basin had a population of 1,500, four rooming houses, a drug store, three hotels, a bath house, three grocery stores, a bank, a newspaper, and 12 saloons.
An unpublished manuscript on file with the Montana State Historical Society describes life in Basin between 1906 and 1910 in great detail. Two railroads, the Northern Pacific
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...
on the north side of the Boulder River, and the Great Northern on the south side, served the city; both had depots and warehouses in Basin and carried passengers as well as freight. The Glass brothers' smelter had been set up on the north side to process concentrated ore delivered by rail from out of town or from the mills on the south side. Infrastructure included a weight scale for ore cars and an overhead tram to carry ore across the river from the reduction mill to the smelter. Although the smelter was a "massive unit" equipped with furnaces, conveyors, and machinery ready for operation, it "never turned a wheel".
While the smelter sat idle, mining activity continued on the south side of the river in the Hope-Katy mine complex, at the Hope Mill, which crushed and separated ore, and at the Basin Reduction Works. Flume
Flume
A flume is an open artificial water channel, in the form of a gravity chute, that leads water from a diversion dam or weir completely aside a natural flow. Often, the flume is an elevated box structure that follows the natural contours of the land. These have been extensively used in hydraulic...
s carried water from upstream on Cataract Creek and Basin Creek to a storage reservoir in town and supplied water to the mills as well as the town's fire hydrants. A separate flume carried water to the mills from upstream on the Boulder River. At the Basin Reduction Works, Corliss steam engines
Corliss Steam Engine
A Corliss steam engine is a steam engine, fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849, invented by and named after the American engineer George Henry Corliss in Providence, Rhode Island....
, driven by the coal-fired boilers, provided power to run the mine hoists
Hoist (device)
A hoist is a device used for lifting or lowering a load by means of a drum or lift-wheel around which rope or chain wraps. It may be manually operated, electrically or pneumatically driven and may use chain, fiber or wire rope as its lifting medium. The load is attached to the hoist by means of a...
and the mill machinery, and an electric generator powered by a water wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...
made electricity for factory lights and the arc lights
Arc lamp
"Arc lamp" or "arc light" is the general term for a class of lamps that produce light by an electric arc . The lamp consists of two electrodes, first made from carbon but typically made today of tungsten, which are separated by a gas...
at Basin's street intersections. Surplus tailings
Tailings
Tailings, also called mine dumps, slimes, tails, leach residue, or slickens, are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore...
were discharged into the river and into a dam built for the purpose downstream of Basin.
In addition to homes, Basin structures between 1906 and 1910 included a dance pavilion, a grandstand, a baseball diamond, and a playground near the confluence of Basin Creek with the river. A footbridge connected the playground with a picnic area on the south side of the river. Meeting places included churches, a union hall, and a two-story building shared by the Fraternal Order of Eagles
Fraternal Order of Eagles
Fraternal Order of Eagles International is a fraternal organization that was founded on February 6, 1898, in Seattle, Washington by a group of six theater owners including John Cort , brothers John W. and Tim J. Considine, Harry Leavitt , Mose Goldsmith and Arthur Williams...
, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
Independent Order of Odd Fellows
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows , also known as the Three Link Fraternity, is an altruistic and benevolent fraternal organization derived from the similar British Oddfellows service organizations which came into being during the 18th century, at a time when altruistic and charitable acts were...
, the Masons
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
, and Eastern Star
Order of the Eastern Star
The Order of the Eastern Star is a fraternal organization that both men and women can join. It was established in 1850 by Rob Morris, a lawyer and educator from Boston, Massachusetts, who had been an official with the Freemasons. It is based on teachings from the Bible, but is open to people of all...
. Among the town's businesses were a hardware store, a bakery, livery stables, several "units of harlotry", a blacksmith shop, a brewery specializing in Basin Beer, a sawmill, and a dairy barn from which "milk was delivered in five-pound buckets", sometimes with covers.
In 1909, after Heinze abandoned his properties in Basin, the Butte and Superior Mining Company used buildings and machinery at the site of the Basin Reduction Works to treat zinc ore by a new process called froth flotation
Froth flotation
Froth flotation is a process for selectively separating hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic. This is used in several processing industries...
. Sued for patent infringement, the company shut down its Basin plant in 1912. Max Atwater, a mining engineer who had worked for Butte and Superior, obtained a license for the process and ran a smaller zinc-extraction plant in Basin from 1914 through 1918. His wife, Mary Meigs Atwater, described Basin as "a mining camp, subject to recurring periods of boom and bust... A tiny telephone office and a drugstore died with the end of our era of boom... Just above the town were the headframe of our mine, and the old mill, and the never-quite-finished skeleton of a projected smelter."
The most extensive and successful mining of the Hope-Katy vein began in 1919, when the Jib Consolidated Mining Company began work on the property. When this company acquired the mines, they comprised 3500 feet (1,067 m) of workings. Over the next five years, Jib expanded these to more than 15000 feet (4,572 m), and in 1924 the company became the largest gold producer in Montana. In that year, the combined Jib mines produced about 33000 ounces (935,534.3 g) of gold, 182000 ounces (5,159,613.2 g) of silver, 282000 pounds (127,913 kg) of copper, and 199000 pounds (90,264.9 kg) of lead. In 1925, however, the Jib properties passed from the mining company to trustees for creditors, and production declined. This was the last of Basin's mining booms. Since then, small-scale mining, reworking of old mine dumps, and placer mining has continued in the region.
Since 1960
For about 50 years, the Merry Widow Health Mine in Basin and similar mines nearby have attracted people seeking relief from health problems such as arthritis through limited exposure to radioactive mine water and radonRadon
Radon is a chemical element with symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas, occurring naturally as the decay product of uranium or thorium. Its most stable isotope, 222Rn, has a half-life of 3.8 days...
. The practice is controversial because of the "well-documented ill effects of high-dose radiation on the body."
In 1975, the Basin community formed water and sewer districts and, using federal grants to cover about 60 percent of the costs, built a water delivery, sewage, and waste-handling system. By 1990, Interstate 15 had replaced the entire length of U.S. Route 91
U.S. Route 91
U.S. Route 91 is a north–south United States highway. The highway currently serves as a connection between the Cache Valley area of Utah and Idaho to the Salt Lake and Idaho Falls population centers. Prior the mid-1970s, U.S. 91 was an international commerce route from Long Beach, California...
in the state. The centerline of the Interstate followed the track of the former Great Northern Railway through town.
In 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
added the Basin mining area to the Superfund
Superfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
National Priorities List because of mining-waste problems in and near town. The mining area comprised the watersheds of Basin and Cataract Creek and part of the Boulder River. Contaminants included arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
, copper, cadmium
Cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Similar to zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and similar to mercury it shows a low...
, lead and other metals. Cleanup of the mining wastes at the Buckeye-Enterprise, Crystal and Bullion mines in the Basin Creek and Cataract watersheds was completed in 2002, and the removal of mine waste from Basin was completed in 2004.
Individual mines
Almost opposite the Hope-Katy complex on the south side of the Boulder River in Basin was the Katy Extension Mine on the north side. It produced ore from part of the Hope-Katy lode that had been displaced about 800 feet (243.8 m) to the north by faulting. Other mines within 2 miles (3 km) of Basin included the Lotta, 1 miles (1.6 km) west of town along the route of Interstate 15; the Basin Bell (Latsch), about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of town along Basin Creek; the Boulder, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northeast of Basin on the south slope of Pole Mountain; the Mantle and South Mantle, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of town along Cataract Creek; and the Obelisk, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of town near the road that later became Interstate 15.Climate
July is typically the warmest month in Basin, when highs average 82 °F (27.8 °C) and lows average 48 °F (8.9 °C). December is coldest, when the high temperature averages 33 °F (0.555555555559977 °C) and the low averages 10 °F (-12.2 °C). The highest recorded temperature was 101 °F (38.3 °C) in 2002 and the lowest was -42 F in 1990. June, averaging 2.16 inches (54.9 mm) of precipitation, is the wettest month.Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 255 people, 113 households, and 69 families residing in the CDP. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 19.9 people per square mile (7.7/km²). There were 146 housing units at an average density of 11.4 per square mile (4.4/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 95.29% White, 1.57% Native American, 0.39% Asian, and 2.75% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.96% of the population.
There were 113 households out of which 29.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.3% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 5.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.9% were non-families. 32.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.93.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 26.7% under the age of 18, 4.7% from 18 to 24, 29.4% from 25 to 44, 31.0% from 45 to 64, and 8.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 94.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.8 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $22,500, and the median income for a family was $30,000. Males had a median income of $26,250 versus $15,714 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the CDP was $11,878. About 23.4% of families and 32.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 56.0% of those under the age of 18 and 16.7% of those 65 or over.
Arts and culture
In 1993, a group of professional artists established the Montana Artists Refuge in Basin. The nonprofit organization offered artist residencies in two historic buildings, a former bank and meeting hall and a former dry goods store converted to apartment and studio space. The organization sponsored annual art events including the American Indian Artists Symposium and the Basin City Jazz Art Experience, held in the Basin Community Hall. All types of artists, including potters, painters, musicians, dancers, singers, weavers, and writers, had residencies in Basin. The refuge closed in October 2011.Education, business, and government
A public elementary school, Basin Grade School, serves 15 students, pre-kindergartenKindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
through sixth grade. Older students attend school in Boulder, Montana
Boulder, Montana
Boulder is a town in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Montana, United States. It is on the north bank of the Boulder River between Butte and Helena, slightly east of the Continental Divide, at the intersection of Interstate 15 and Montana Highway 69. The population was 1,300 at...
, about 9 miles (14 km) east of Basin.
The town's small business district includes a bar, two restaurants, a traveler's inn, small specialty shops, and a pottery gallery. A low-power radio station, KBAS-LP
KBAS-LP
KBAS-LP is a low-power FM radio station broadcasting a country music format. Licensed to Basin, Montana, USA, the station is currently owned by Jefferson County Disaster & Emergency Services.-History:...
, 98.3 FM, owned by Jefferson County Disaster and Emergency Services, broadcasts from Basin.
County, state, and federal agencies provide most of the government services available in Basin. Local residents serve as elected trustees of the Basin Fire District and its volunteer fire department. Elected trustees also oversee the Basin Water and Sewer District. The Jefferson County sheriff's department provides law enforcement, and other county departments offer trash removal and recycling, emergency management services, and road maintenance. The county health department has a clinic in Boulder, 9 miles (14 km) east of Basin, and the county courthouse, district court, and the nearest branch of the county library are also in Boulder. The United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
has a post office in Basin.