40 Fun Facts About Helena, Montana

By 1888, gold-rich Helena, Montana, was said to have more of which residents per capita than any city in the world?

Millionaires numbered about 50 in Helena by 1888, their fortunes made from the gold camp. Their money built the ornate Victorian neighborhoods the city still shows off.

Pumpkinville and Squashtown were proposed names for Helena, Montana, at an 1864 meeting held just before which holiday?

Halloween was one day away when the camp's men met on October 30, 1864, to name the gold camp. Tomah was also suggested before Helena won out.

Which Hollywood star of classic Westerns, a two-time Best Actor Oscar winner, was born in Helena, Montana, in 1901?

Gary Cooper left Helena High School after two years to work as a cowboy on his family's ranch. His Oscars came for Sergeant York and High Noon.

Which natural disaster struck Helena, Montana, in October 1935, wrecking its newly completed high school?

An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 hit on October 18, 1935, the largest in a swarm of about 1,800 tremors. Four people died, and many residents lived in tents for weeks.

Which metal covers the exterior of the dome of the Montana State Capitol, the neoclassical landmark in Helena?

Copper sheathes the dome, which was made taller in 1901 after officials asked for a more imposing building. One architect objected, wanting a low dome that was pure Greek.

Which country music star worked at a lead smelter and pitched semipro baseball near Helena, Montana, in the 1960s?

Charley Pride pitched for the East Helena Smelterites, and the team manager paid him extra to sing before games. He lived in Helena until 1967.

The twin-spired Cathedral of Saint Helena in Helena, Montana, was modeled on a church in which European capital?

Vienna's Votivkirche was the model, because the cathedral's architect had studied in the Austrian capital. The twin spires rise 230 feet over Helena.

An 1870 expedition organized in Helena, Montana, explored the region that became which national park?

Yellowstone was made a park in 1872, and expedition member Nathaniel Langford of Helena became its first superintendent. Mount Washburn there honors the leader, Henry Washburn.

Measurable snow has fallen in Helena, Montana, in every month of the year except which one?

July is the only month with no measurable snowfall on record in Helena, where even August brought six inches in 1992. The city is dry all the same, averaging only about 11 inches of precipitation a year.

During World War II, the U.S. Army set up Camp Rimini near Helena, Montana, to train which animals?

Sled dogs were trained at Camp Rimini, along with pack dogs, between 1942 and 1944. A dog sled race called Race to the Sky commemorates them.

What name did four prospectors give the creek bed where their 1864 gold strike founded Helena, Montana?

Last Chance Gulch was named by a party ready to give up after weeks of fruitless digging, who saw it as their final try. Helena's downtown walking mall now follows its course.

The prospectors credited with the 1864 gold strike that founded Helena, Montana, are remembered as the Four what?

Georgians is a stretch, since only John Cowan came from Georgia and the others hailed from Alabama, Iowa and England. The name may instead refer to a method of working placer gold.

Helena, Montana, was named in 1864 at the suggestion of John Summerville after a township in which U.S. state?

Minnesota's Helena Township was the namesake, and Summerville said it he-LEE-na. The HEL-e-na heard in Helena, Arkansas, took over around 1882.

Which Montana city, championed by tycoon Marcus Daly, lost the 1894 statewide vote that kept the capital in Helena?

Anaconda had Daly's energetic campaign behind it, but his rival William Andrews Clark championed Helena. Voters kept the capital where it was.

Which gold rush town served as Montana's territorial capital until the government moved to Helena in 1875?

Virginia City had been the capital since 1865, when it took the title from Bannack. Helena then kept the seat of government when Montana became a state in 1889.

Helena is the capital of Montana, but which other city is the most populous in the state?

Billings is Montana's biggest city, while Helena ranked only sixth in the state at the 2020 census. Helena is also among the least populous state capitals in the country.

Which actress from Helena, Montana, famous for The Thin Man films, has a downtown arts center named after her?

Myrna Loy made her stage debut at 12, dancing at Helena's Marlow Theater. The Myrna Loy Center opened in 1991, not far from her childhood home.

Which science fiction author, later founder of a new religious movement, lived as a boy in Helena, Montana?

L. Ron Hubbard was born in Nebraska in 1911, and his family settled in Helena in 1913. He wrote pulp fiction for years before founding Scientology in the 1950s.

Which explorer named the Gates of the Mountains, the towering river canyon north of Helena, Montana, in 1805?

Meriwether Lewis wrote in his 1805 journal that the cliffs rose 1,200 feet straight from the water's edge. He called the spot the gates of the rocky mountains.

Canyon Ferry Lake, a popular reservoir about 20 miles east of Helena, Montana, was created by damming which river?

Missouri water backed up behind Canyon Ferry Dam, finished in 1954, to form Montana's third-largest body of water. The old town of Canton lies beneath it.

Which Western artist painted the 25-foot mural of explorers meeting the Salish in Montana's Capitol in Helena?

Charles M. Russell finished the huge canvas in 1912, and it hangs above the Speaker's chair in the House chamber. The scene shows the Bitterroot Salish greeting the travelers at Ross' Hole.

Which U.S. president helped lay the cornerstone of St. Charles Hall at Carroll College in Helena, Montana?

William Howard Taft did the honors in 1909, when the school was still called Mount Saint Charles College. It was renamed in 1932 for its founder, Bishop John Patrick Carroll.

Which American-Canadian commando unit of World War II trained at Fort Harrison near Helena, Montana, in 1942?

Devil's Brigade was the nickname of the First Special Service Force, which chose the fort for its flat jump terrain and nearby mountains. Recruits were parachuting within 48 hours of arriving.

The Archie Bray Foundation, founded at a brickyard near Helena, Montana, is acclaimed for which art form?

Ceramics residencies are the core of the foundation, which is internationally acclaimed. The first two residents, Rudy Autio and Peter Voulkos, worked in the brick factory by day and made pottery at night.

Reeder's Alley in Helena, Montana, is a row of brick and stone tenements built in the 1870s to house which workers?

Miners rented the one-room tenements that Pennsylvania mason Louis Reeder built between 1872 and 1884. He put up more than 30 of them along what was then Cutler Street.

Helena, Montana's official symbol is the Guardian of the Gulch, a wooden hilltop tower built to watch for what?

Fires swept the early gold camp again and again, so lookouts kept watch from Tower Hill above downtown. An arson attack in 2016 badly damaged the old wooden tower.

Wilmot Collins, elected mayor of Helena, Montana, in 2017, had arrived in the city as a refugee from which country?

Liberia was in the grip of civil war when Collins fled in 1994 to join his wife in Helena. He unseated a four-term incumbent to win the mayor's office.

Which author of A River Runs Through It wrote a book about the 1949 Mann Gulch disaster north of Helena, Montana?

Norman Maclean spent years studying how 13 men died there, 12 of them smokejumpers. His account came out after his death and won a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Dirk Benedict, an actor born in Helena, Montana, played con man Templeton Peck in which 1980s TV action series?

The A-Team made Benedict a household name as Faceman from 1983. Before that he had played Lieutenant Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica.

Which future Baseball Hall of Famer began his professional career in 1978 with the Helena Phillies in Montana?

Ryne Sandberg was 18 when he broke in with Helena's rookie-level Pioneer League club. Minor league baseball stayed in the city until the Helena Brewers left after 2018.

The first Hauser Dam, built northeast of Helena, Montana, failed in 1908 after being made of which unusual material?

Steel was an innovative choice for a dam when it went up between 1905 and 1907, but its footings were undermined in 1908 and the flood swept the valley downstream. Its replacement opened in 1911.

The stained glass of the Cathedral of Saint Helena in Helena, Montana, was made by a firm in which German city?

Munich's Zettler firm made and installed the windows, and claimed the main set surpassed anything from its first 50 years. A Boston craftsman added the uppermost windows by 1926.

Helena, Montana, was named a bronze-level Ride Center in 2013 for which outdoor sport?

Mountain biking earned Helena the title from the International Mountain Bicycling Association, which later raised it to silver. Trails on the city's own peak link to others in the national forest next door.

The Civic Center in Helena, Montana, a Moorish Revival landmark, was built in 1920 as a temple for which group?

Shriners of the Algeria Shrine built it as their meeting hall. The city now owns the building, which holds a 1,925-seat auditorium and a large ballroom.

Which warm, dry mountain wind sometimes brings mild spells to the long, cold winters of Helena, Montana?

Chinook winds blow down the eastern slopes of mountain ranges and can break a cold snap. Helena needs the relief: its record low is minus 42 degrees Fahrenheit.

Colin Meloy, a singer-songwriter born in Helena, Montana, is the frontman of which Portland indie folk rock band?

The Decemberists formed in 2000 after Meloy left his Montana band Tarkio and moved to Oregon. He had fronted Tarkio as a college student in Missoula.

Which prospector grew rich from the Drumlummon Mine and paid for the site of the cathedral in Helena, Montana?

Thomas Cruse gave $25,000 to buy the land in 1905, and his own funeral was the first held in the new cathedral, in December 1914. He named the Drumlummon after his birthplace in Ireland.

Vigilantes in 1860s Helena, Montana, carried out hangings at a landmark that became known as the Old Hangman's what?

Tree cover near the camp had mostly been cut for lumber, so one large survivor became the gallows. Helena's vigilantes executed at least 14 alleged criminals between 1865 and 1870.

In February 1989, what kind of runaway vehicle crashed and exploded near Carroll College in Helena, Montana?

A freight train of 48 runaway cars slammed into a parked train, and the blast broke windows up to three miles away. Most of the city lost power in subzero weather.

Big Medicine, preserved at the Montana Historical Society in Helena, was a rare white example of which animal?

Bison that are white were credited with sacred power, which is how Big Medicine got his name. He lived from 1933 to 1959 on the National Bison Range in western Montana.