African American Heritage on Montana's Mining Frontier

FAIN: ZRE-283791-22

Montana Department of Commerce (Helena, MT 59601-6282)
Michael Elijah Allen (Project Director: May 2021 to July 2024)

The interpretation and preservation of three Montana Heritage Commission properties that served as homes and commercial spaces for Black owners, workers, and occupants in Virginia City from the 1860s to 1930s; retains six existing jobs and creates 10 new jobs.

"African American Heritage on Montana's Mining Frontier" is a project to acknowledge, understand, interpret and preserve the contributions of African Americans in the history of Virginia City, Montana. The stories of Black people in the West is a long-overlooked chapter in the 250-year history of our democracy. Our project will focus on the experiences of entrepreneurial African American women and men in the famed mining frontier town of Virginia City, Montana’s second territorial capital. Virginia City is now a National Historic Landmark, widely regarded the best-preserved placer mining camp in the Mountain West, with over 200 period buildings and 1.2 million artifacts. Staff of the Montana Heritage Commission will be joined by scholars and students of African American history to study, interpret and preserve three rare, intact properties that reflect the experiences of former slaves and freemen in the Virginia City gold mining from the 1860s Civil War era through the 1930s.