Discovery of gold in the Montana Rocky Mountains

The existence of gold in Montana was not unknown to the Jesuit fathers, but they had other motives than the gathering of earthly treasure, and they would not risk the souls of their ‘dear Indians’ for the glittering metal. As early as 1852 a half-caste from the Red River settlements, named François Finlay, but known as Benetsee, and who had been to California, prospected on a branch of the Hellgate River, finding the color, but no paying placers. The stream became known as Benetsee Creek; but in 1853 a member of the railroad exploring expedition took out of this stream, being ignorant of Finlay’s discovery, some specimens of gold, from which circumstance it was called Gold Creek by the men of the expedition, which name it retained.