The New International Encyclopædia/Helena (Montana)

HELENA. A city, the capital of Montana, and the county-seat of Lewis and Clarke County, 73 miles north by east of Butte; on the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific railroads (Map: Montana, C 2). It lies at an elevation of 4200 feet, in Prickly Pear Valley, a fertile agricultural district, and is surrounded by a highly productive mineral region. It is the commercial centre of the State; is extensively engaged in gold, silver, and iron mining; and has foundries and machine-shops, flour, saw, and planing mills, quartz-crushing plants, and smelters. From the famous Last Chance Gulch which traverses the city, it is estimated that more than $30,000,000 worth of gold has been mined. Helena was settled as a mining camp in 1864, and laid out as a town in the same year, and was incorporated in 1881. The city is the seat of the Montana Wesleyan University (Methodist Episcopal), opened in 1890, and has public, State, and other libraries, and a United States Assay Office. The State Capitol is an imposing structure. Under the general code provision passed in 1895, the city government is vested in a mayor, elected biennially, and a unicameral council which confirms the executive's nominations to all subordinate offices except those of police magistrate and city treasurer, which are filled by popular election. Population, in 1890, 13,834; in 1900, 10,770.