Category: History

-From Great Falls Tribune / Kristen Inbody

ZORTMAN – You have to aim for Zortman to end up in this small town in the Little Rocky Mountains.

U.S. Highway 191 south of Malta is a lonely road anyway, about 100 miles with only scattered farmhouses. Those Zortman-bound turn off 191 about 40 miles south of Malta onto seven miles of winding road, the vast prairie quickly giving way to mountains.

The Little Rockies were a blank space for me on the map, home to some of the very few Montana towns I hadn’t seen. I fixed that problem on a recent Hi-Line trek.

A town built on gold mining, Zortman has gone from 2,000 residents in the 1920s to about 50, “48 nice people and two grouches,” according to a sign. The town is surrounded by colorful rocky outcroppings.

Meet the locals at the Miners Club Cafe, or check out the rustic jail across the street (excellent photo opportunities). Quaint Saint Joseph Catholic Church is on a hill overlooking the town and also photo-worthy.

To the south is the ghost town of Landusky, but our destination was Hays and the Mission Canyon.

St. Paul Mission, founded 128 years ago this September, is through the small town of 850 on the Fort Belknap Reservation. According to the mission, when a Jesuit scouted the area in 1886, he wrote: “The cattle country with grazing land: the best I ever saw. Timber: that whole mountain range is thickly covered from the bottom to the top of the mountains. Water: seven beautiful creeks, running into the Milk River, clear as crystal, sweet as honey. Cultivating land: at all the creeks, but especially at ‘Peoples Creek’; at least 15 miles long remaining near the mountains is a deep, wide valley of the best garden-land, enough to make the whole tribe here very rich and happy.”

Don’t miss the small shrine to Our Lady of the Little Rockies, erected in the 1930s.

Just past the mission, continuing on the main road through town, one arrives in the

The most famous spot is the Natural Bridge (look to your right as you drive into the canyon). The arch of rock is dotted with scraggly trees. Picture Outlaw Harvey Kid Curry on the lam when the Little Rockies were wild.

Circumnavigate the mountains to see Fort Belknap Agency along U.S. Highway 2, 31 miles north. Lodgepole is out-of-the-way but a scenic detour.

Don’t let the Little Rockies be terra incognita on your map of Montana.

-By Rick and Susie Graetz

Indians migrating through this territory north of the Missouri River called them “the island mountains.” From a distance, they resemble atolls rising from the prairie sea of north central Montana. Although not very lofty (the highest point is 5,720-foot Antoine Butte), they reach 2,500 feet above the surrounding plains and can be seen from 75 miles away. To the people in towns like Roy and Malta, this 50-square mile mass of igneous and sedimentary rock is a favored landmark.

Much of early-day Montana can be described as being the Wild West, but the Little Rocky Mountains and the country rolling south into the Missouri Breaks was perhaps the epitome of the Old West etched on movie screens. A little over 100 years ago, the characters of those times … cattle barons, gold seekers, outlaws, cowboys, vigilantes, rustlers and horse thieves went about their ways here. And before they were forced off the land, the free-roaming Plains Indians hunted enormous bison herds that passed in the shadow of these mountains.

Gold brought the white man into the gulches of the uprises of Montana. There are records of an 1852 gold find, but mining didn’t begin on any scale until the finding of “color” in southwest Montana in 1884.

In 1893, Pike Landusky hit it big in a canyon near the site of the town named after him. At about the same time, gold was also found to the northeast in Ruby Gulch. Here, Pete Zortman established a mill to extract the precious metal from the ore. The town that grew up below the bonanza took on his name.

One of the Little Rockies most written about happenings involved a bar room killing. Pike Landusky, himself a legend, met his end at the hand of Harvey “Kid” Curry, one of the wild Curry Brothers Gang, who frequented the Little Rockies. The stories vary, but the shooting supposedly took place in 1894 during a Christmas celebration in Jew Jake’s Saloon. This event started “Kid” Curry on the outlaw trail for real as he joined up with the likes of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. A hideout in the badlands south of the mountains kept them safe from “the long arm of the law.”

The Little Rockies’ beginning as a roaring, almost lawless frontier outpost fueled by the shiny nuggets of small placer claims, soon evolved into a rich mining district. This mineral extraction business culminated in 1979 with the development of a large mine by Pegasus Gold. In 1998 though, bankruptcy shut it down; today reclamation of the mine is underway.

Most of the land in the Little Rocky Mountains is part of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, home to the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes. The Gros Ventres live along the mountains in the Hays – Lodgepole area, while the Assiniboine have settled at Fort Belknap Agency along the Milk River to the north.

Though they did use it for vision quests, early-day Indian tribes feared the island range as they believed bad spirits lived there. Eagle Child and Mission Peak were, and still are, sacred points to the Gros Ventres. Tribal medicine men climbed them to fast and meditate. Legend has it that no one ever stayed beyond three days … terrifying visions forced them to retreat.

Today, the tribes are working on developing the tourism potential of the mountain segment of their reservation. When mining reclamation is completed, a road will be constructed crossing the Little Rockies (it was there in the past) connecting Zortman (off the Reservation) with Mission Canyon on the southwest side of the range.

Zortman is the “capital” of the non-reservation part of the Little Rockies. The picturesque Catholic Church on the mountainside overlooking town was built by the Whitcomb family in 1911. This historic little white building, used today by several religions, is a favorite wedding chapel for locals and visitors alike. “Main Street” features a cellblock from the first jail as well as two of the original settlement buildings, the Miner’s Club and Kalal’s Bar. A side trip to the old wooded cemetery is both peaceful and interesting. Hard economic times, owing to the closing of the Pegasus mine, have not thwarted community spirit; while preserving its history, the town is also looking toward new opportunities. The Little Rockies’ blend of trees and water, prairie, river breaks and mountain scenery coupled with a colorful past, is viewed as a very good, long lasting asset to be celebrated. Hiking trails will be developed, rock climbing is gaining popularity, gold panning is a major activity (rubies and garnets are also found) and hunting on the land beyond the mountains is being promoted.

On the flat land surrounding the Little Rockies, ranching continues to be the main economic factor. Old time outfits like the Matador Ranch keep the tradition alive.

-Timeline excerpt from High Country News

1855 The Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes move to what will later be known as the Fort Belknap Reservation, named for a U.S. Secretary of War.

Late 19th century Pike Landusky and Pete Zortman strike gold in a corner of the reservation.

1895 Threatened with starvation, the tribes sign the Grinnell Agreement, selling the U.S. government the gold-laden land. Miners stream into the mining towns of Zortman and Landusky.

Early 20th century Mining companies tunnel into the Little Rockies for gold while tribal members use the mountains for vision quests and hunting. Underground mining continues until 1950s.

1979 Pegasus Gold Corp. and its subsidiary, Zortman Mining Inc. (ZMI), build two connected cyanide heap-leach mines named after the original prospectors, Zortman and Landusky. The companies promise not to mine sulfide ore, which creates a lethal brew called acid mine drainage when exposed to air and water.

1979-1990 The mining complex grows. The state health department and the federal Bureau of Land Management approve nine expansions without once asking for a full-scale EIS, even though several state agencies report cyanide spills and other violations of the company’s operating permit.

1990 The Native American group Red Thunder joins with environmental groups to appeal federal permits for Zortman-Landusky’s 10th expansion, warning that it will cause acid mine drainage. The appeal is denied.

1991 Pegasus offers scholarships and environmental monitoring to the Fort Belknap Community Council if tribal members stop opposing the mine. The council refuses.

December 1992 Pegasus and ZMI apply for permits for Zortman-Landusky’s 11th expansion.

June 1993 Red Thunder and a second Indian group, Island Mountain Protectors, give written notice that they intend to file a citizen suit under the federal Clean Water Act. This requires the regulatory agencies to take action within 60 days.

July 1993 After a heavy storm sends a stream of acid mine drainage into the town of Zortman, the BLM requires Pegasus and ZMI to write a new reclamation plan. The EPA finds that the mine has been leaking acids, cyanide, arsenic and lead from each of its seven drainages and cites ZMI and Pegasus for illegally discharging pollution.

August 1993 The state, under heavy pressure from the EPA and citizen groups, files suit against Pegasus and ZMI for violating Montana’s water laws.

June 1995 Because the state’s suit is still unresolved, the EPA files a federal clean-water suit against Pegasus. The tribes later file a similar suit.

July 1996 Although Pegasus and ZMI make no admission of guilt, the federal clean-water suit is settled out of court. The companies agree to follow a detailed plan for controlling pollution, buy a $32 million bond to ensure compliance, and pay $4.7 million to be split among the tribal council, the state, and the federal government. This is one of the largest settlement of a federal clean-water suit.

January 1996 The gold ore is exhausted at the Zortman-Landusky Mine. ZMI keeps operating its heap-leach pads but cannot dig any fresh ore until it receives a permit to expand onto neighboring land.

October 1996 The Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the federal BLM approve the firm’s 11th expansion request, giving it permits to triple the acreage mined by Zortman-Landusky, from 400 to 1,192 acres.

January 1997 The Fort Belknap Community Council, National Wildlife Federation, and Montana Environmental Information Center sue Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality, alleging that the agency’s decision to allow the expansion violates state law. The state agency says ZMI should have been named as a defendant. When the judge offers to do so, a DEQ spokesman responds, “I don’t want them in now, because the case should be dismissed.” The judge asks him why he is defending the mining company.

June 1997 In an unusual move, the federal Interior Board of Land Appeals halts the expansion of the Zortman-Landusky Mine until it has a chance to investigate an appeal of the expansion filed by the Island Mountain Protectors and the tribes.

September 1997 Federal and state environmental agencies fine Pegasus and ZMI $25,300 for violating the clean-water settlement by polluting a stream in the Little Rockies last summer. John Pearson, director of investor relations for Pegasus, says discharges were the result of “acts of God” during “extraordinarily heavy rains.”

October 1997 In order to resume mining, Pegasus proposes to buy private land in the Sweetgrass Hills adjacent to areas where the BLM has banned mining for 20 years. Pegasus would then give this land to the BLM in exchange for land near the Zortman-Landusky Mine. This would allow Pegasus to resume mining on these lands without a permit.

November 1997 Low gold prices and high operating costs force Pegasus to shut its recently opened Mount Todd gold mine in Australia. After Pegasus reports an annual loss of more than $400 million, its stock, which had been as high as $17/share in 1996, falls to under $1/share. The company warns that if it doesn’t get its permit to expand the Zortman-Landusky Mine, it will not be economical to keep leaching gold from the current heap-leach pads after Jan. 1, 1998.

December 12, 1997 Pegasus Gold Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pegasus Gold, files for bankruptcy in Australia. The future of Pegasus Gold is unclear, and the state of Montana wonders if Pegasus’ bonds will be sufficient to pay for reclamation at its four mines.