The Richest Hills: Mining in the Far West, 1865-1920

FAIN: BH-50363-10

Montana Historical Society (Helena, MT 59601-4514)
Paula E. Petrik (Project Director: March 2010 to June 2012)
Richard Sims (Co Project Director: March 2010 to October 2010)
Kirby Lambert (Co Project Director: October 2010 to June 2012)

Two one-week Landmarks workshops for eighty school teachers on gold, silver, and copper mining in the American West, with visits to Virginia City, Helena, and Butte, Montana.

Using Montana as a case study, the workshop, The Richest Hills: Mining in the Far West, 1865-1920, will utilize three significant landmark sites--Virginia City, Helena, and Butte, Montana--to explore placer gold mining, silver mining, and industrial copper mining, as they relate to the issues of racial and cultural diversity in the West, the built environment and its relationship to the industry of mining, the relationship between capital and labor in the mining industry, and finally the importance of mining to the industrialization of America.