FEBRUARY 2024 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter From The Roundup Record, June 23, 1911 CONFEDERATE GULCH HAD THE RICHEST PLACER MINES ON EARTH; DIAMOND CITY, ONCE RIVAL OF HELENA, IS NOW BUT A MEMORY Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ Some 35 miles northeast of Helena is an abandoned, worked out placer gulch, in which four or five ruined log cabins stand, victims of the slow decay of time. Years ago they surrendered to the fierce assaults of winter blasts, and with sagging ridge poles and crumbling walls, they represent in sorry fashion the only monument that remains of what was once one of the most flourishing and hopeful of Montana's boom gold camps. The list of Montana post offices today does not contain the name of Diamond City, but that was the proud appellation of the hustling, prosperous mining center that half a century ago was as well known as Helena, Virginia City or Bannack, and was considered a much better camp than Butte. Neither would a list of Montana mining districts in 1920 contain the name of Confederate Gulch, yet for the area mined that almost forgotten gulch was the richest gold-producing district ever found in the Treasure state. No Montana mining city ever rose to prominence with a greater rush than did Diamond City or sank into oblivion so quickly. One day in the 60's a heavily laden freight outfit pulled away from its streets with two and onequarter tons of gold dust, valued at $900,000, the clean-up of one short season's work of three or four men on a rich bar. And yet a decade later the course of the camp had been run, and what had been the mining capital of eastern Montana and the county seat of Meagher county was settling down to slow but sure decay. Forty years ago, in 1880, its former population of several thousands had dwindled to 64 men, women and children, and in 1883 Judge Cornelius Hedges, who visited the old place that summer, wrote: "Diamond City is desolate, deserted and dreary to behold in the shreds of its departed glory, yet those who knew it in the days of its pride,
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