Page 122 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Montana
Helena, capital city of Montana
Founded 1864
Elevation 3,875 ft (1,181 m) Population 28,190
Metro 76,850
Helena lies beside a small stream on the edge of the Rocky Mountains. The mountains make this area a rainshadow, and it is semi-arid, with trees only in the river valleys.
From these mountains rivers eroded rocks, and in some places they cut through gold veins. The gold was then carried in the river waters where it settled out in the river beds and became what miners would later call placer deposits.
Before the arrival of European Americans and Canadians, the area that would become Helena was home to Native Americans for thousands of years. People of the Folsom culture lived in the area more than 10,000 years ago. More recently it was home to the Salish and the Blackfeet who were nomadic hunters and used this land seasonally. The first Europeans were trappers, looking for animals to trap, and to sell their pelts. But they did not set up any permanent settlement. Things changed
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