Elkhorn Mountain Volcanoes

The ore the panel credits to the batholith built a smelter town a few miles west of here. Silver was found on Alta Mountain in 1869, and the Alta became one of Montana's richest silver mines; Samuel Hauser's company smelted its ore at Wickes through the 1880s, and the town grew to about 1,500 people by 1893. The East Helena smelter of 1889, the silver crash of 1893 and fires in 1900 and 1902 finished it. A beehive charcoal kiln still stands, and the Montana Central's 6,145-foot Wickes Tunnel, opened in 1888, is abandoned.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Montana State Capitol — 12 mi
  A copper-domed capitol won in a copper kings' election, with a Russell painting that put the Salish at the center.

More markers nearby

• Freighters — steps away
• The Prickly Pear Diggings — 9.0 mi
• Unionville — 10.0 mi
• Benton Avenue Cemetery — 14 mi