The Queen of the Judith Basin

The camp the panel describes was built on Army ground. Fort Maginnis went up in 1880 about four and a half miles east, and Maiden and its mines fell inside the post's military reservation. In 1883 the government ordered everyone in town to vacate. Residents protested, and the compromise cut the reservation back to leave the town and its mines outside it. When Fergus County was created two years later, the county seat went to Lewistown. The 1905 fire the panel names was followed by a second in 1927.

What the plaque says

The Queen of the Judith Basin The old mining camp of Maiden, now a ghost town, is located about 10 miles east of here. She roared into existence in April 1880 when "Skookum Joe" Anderson, Frank McPartland, and Dave Jones discovered placer gold in the heart of the Judith Mountains. Jennie Connely named the camp after her daughter, called "Little Maiden" by the bullwhackers who brought them to the new mining camp. At its height in 1884, over 1,500 people called Maiden home. The mining camp's narrow main street snaked through the gulch, leaving barely enough room on both sides for businesses and homes. In 1882, the camp boasted of several general merchandise stores, a meat market, hotel, restaurant, a clothing store, and eight saloons. Maiden boomed for five short years and then began a long slow decline that ended when fire leveled the camp in 1905. "Skookum Joe" and Dave Jones located the first hard rock mine, the War Eagle, high in the mountains above Maiden in 1881. Others soon followed, including the Spotted Horse, the Maginnis, and the Collar. Miners considered the ore "high grade" and found it in pockets throughout the mountain range. The Maiden area mines produced over $5 million in gold and silver before mining ended there in the early twentieth century.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Lewistown — 9.0 mi
• The Judith Basin Country — 10 mi
• The Nez Perce Conflict of 1877 — 10 mi
• Lewistown Army Airfield — 10 mi