Helena was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold rush , and established on October 30, The concentration of wealth contributed to the city's prominent, elaborate Victorian architecture. At the census Helena's population was 32,, [ 8 ] making it the 5th least populous state capital in the United States and the 6th most populous city in Montana. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena area was long inhabited by various indigenous peoples. By the early s, people of European descent from the United States and British Canada began arriving to work the streams of the Missouri River watershed looking for fur-bearing animals such as the beaver , undoubtedly bringing them through the area now known as the Helena Valley.
Gold strikes in Idaho Territory in the early s attracted many migrants who initiated major gold rushes at Grasshopper Creek Bannack and Alder Gulch Virginia City in and respectively. So many people came that the federal government created a new territory called Montana in May The miners prospected far and wide for new placer gold discoveries. On July 14, , the discovery of gold by a prospecting party known as the " Four Georgians " in a gulch off the Prickly Pear Creek led to the founding of a mining camp along a small creek in the area they called "Last Chance Gulch".
He soon filed a mining patent on By fall of , the population had grown to over , and some thought the name "Last Chance" too crass. On October 30, , a group of at least seven self-appointed men met to name the town, authorize the layout of the streets, and elect commissioners. The first suggestion was "Tomah", a word the committee thought had connections to the local Indian people. Other nominations included Pumpkinville and Squashtown [ 22 ] as the meeting was held the day before Halloween.
Other suggestions were to name the community after various Minnesota towns, such as Winona and Rochester, as a number of settlers had come from Minnesota. Later tales of the naming of Helena claimed the name came from the island of St. Helena , where Napoleon was exiled, or was that of a miner's sweetheart. Helena was surveyed by Captain John Wood in for the first time. The original streets of Helena followed the paths of miners, thus making the city blocks of Early Helena various sizes and shapes.
In , Henry D. Members of the expedition included Helena residents: [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ]. By about 50 millionaires lived in Helena, more per capita than in any city in the world. Most of the production occurred before Much of the placer is now under Helena's streets and buildings.
