Gold West Country

Gold West Country covers the southwestern corner of Montana, the high mountain-and-mining country between the Continental Divide and the Idaho line. The terrain is dominated by the spine of the Rockies — the Anaconda, Pioneer, and Tobacco Root ranges — drained by the upper Missouri River as it forms at Three Forks and the Big Hole River cutting south. Helena, the state capital, sits at the eastern edge. Eight counties cover the region. Lewis and Clark holds Helena; Butte-Silver Bow holds Butte (the historic copper-mining city); Anaconda-Deer Lodge holds Anaconda and the Berkeley Pit; Powell holds Deer Lodge and the Old Montana Prison Museum; Beaverhead holds Dillon and the Big Hole National Battlefield; Madison holds Ennis on the Madison River. Bannack State Park (the first capital of Montana Territory, now a ghost town) and the Big Hole National Battlefield carry the major historical sites; the Pintler Wilderness and Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park anchor the public-land scenery. Most trips here run mining-history-and-fly-fishing themed. Helena handles the state-capital itinerary — the State Capitol, Last Chance Gulch, the Cathedral of St. Helena; Butte runs the World Museum of Mining and the Berkeley Pit; the Madison and Big Hole rivers carry serious fly fishing; Bannack and the surrounding ghost towns fill day trips.