Hell Gate, Montana
Encyclopedia
Hell Gate is a ghost town
at the western end of the Missoula Valley in Missoula County
, Montana
, United States
. The town was located on the banks of the Clark Fork River
roughly five miles downstream from present-day Missoula
near what is now Frenchtown
.
, the advance of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet
created an ice dam
on the Clark Fork which created Glacial Lake Missoula
. After the Missoula Floods
and the final draining of Glacial Lake Missoula about 11,000 BCE, the lake sediment dried and became the fertile Missoula Valley.
The Hell Gate Valley is framed by the Rattlesnake Mountains to the north and northeast and the Bitterroot Mountains
to the southeast, south, and west. Since the early 1900s, the area has been surrounded by the Lolo National Forest
. The eastern mouth of the valley is defined by a narrow pass between Mount Jumbo
and Mount Sentinel
, which leads to Hellgate Canyon. The western mouth is less well-defined and narrow, and leads to Ninemile Divide.
The community of Hell Gate was located at 46°53′0"N 114°5′13"W (46.8832566, -114.0870563), at an elevation of 3,123 feet (952 m).
(or Flathead) Native American
tribe often traveled through the Missoula Valley on their way east to bison
hunting grounds. As the Salish passed through the valley's narrow eastern and western mouths, members of the Blackfeet
tribe would often attack and kill them. The Salish called the valley lm-i-sul-étiku, which transliterally
means "by the cold, chilling waters" but which the Salish used metaphor
ically to mean "the place chilled with fear". The entire valley was heavily wooded, and ideal for ambush.
The first white Americans to see the Missoula Valley were the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
, who explored the Clark Fork River on their way back east after reaching the Pacific Ocean
. Meriwether Lewis
and a small group of men passed through the Missoula Valley and camped near the confluence of the Rattlesnake River and the Clark Fork on July 4, 1806. English-Canadian explorer David Thompson
visited the area in 1811, and mapped much of the valley and the surrounding peaks (including Mount Jumbo).
French
trappers passing through the valley in the 1820s were horrified to see so many remains of Salish in the deep canyons which formed the valley's entrances, and called the valley "Porte de l'Enfer," or the "Hell Gate." The next known white to visit the area was the British fur trapper Alexander Ross
in 1824. In 1841, the Roman Catholic
priest
Father Pierre-Jean De Smet
passed through the Hell Gate Valley, bringing with him what were probably the first wagons and ox
en to enter what would eventually become Montana. Jesuit
missionaries soon followed and settled in the Hell Gate Valley (as the Missoula Valley was then known), but did not remain due to the hostility of local Indian tribes.
In 1852, half-breed
explorer Francois Finlay (also known as "Benetsee") discovered gold in what is now Gold Creek
near the eastern mouth of the valley, but it was not a commercially viable deposit and no gold rush occurred. A year later, Isaac Stevens
, Governor of the Washington Territory
(which at the time included western Montana), led a railroad
survey party through the valley. Impressed with the suitability of the entire western Montana area for white settlement, Stevens negotiated the 1855 Hell Gate Treaty
, signed by the Bitteroot Salish, Pend d'Oreilles
, and Kootenai tribes at Council Grove near Hell Gate, which established the Flathead Indian Reservation
. Peace with the local Native American tribes increased traffic in the area, and the Hell Gate Valley became the preferred transportation route from Montana to the west. Significant numbers of pack mule trains traveled through the valley, eventually leading to the settlement of Hell Gate itself. The Mullan Road
approached the area in the winter of 1859-1860.
The settlement of Hell Gate was founded in 1860 by Frank L. Worden and Captain Christopher P. Higgins. Higgins had come through the Hell Gate Valley with Governor Isaac Stevens' railroad scouting party in 1853, and now the two men built a log cabin and turned it into a store. Worden and Higgins had intended to settle at Fort Owen
in the Bitterroot Valley
, but instead chose the Hell Gate Valley because it was halfway between Fort Owen and the federal government trading post
at Jocko
on the new Indian reservation. This, they believed, would draw more traffic than a store closer to either existing settlement. The Worden and Higgins store was the first commercial building in the state of Montana not classified as a trading post. In August 1860, Worden and Higgins brought a pack train of 76 mule
s over the Mullan Road from Walla Walla
to stock the store. Their goods included the first safe
in the region. Several other cabins were soon built around the store that same year. One of the town's first residents was Judge Frank H. Woody of Walla Walla. The store was set up in a tent (the town's first structure), but purchased hewn cottonwood tree logs from David Patee, a white settler who had settled near the eastern mouth of the Hell Gate Valley, and quickly built a 16 foot by 18 foot (4.9 meter by 5.5 meter) rectangular building with a sod
roof. The men were joined by the town's fourth resident, a French citizen named Narcisse Sanpar. Another new resident was "Captain" Richard Grant, the father of Johnny Grant (co-founder of the Grant-Kohrs Ranch
), and who along with David Patee had helped supply the logs the Worden and Higgins store was built with. In December 1860, the Territorial Legislature of the Washington Territory
(which at that time included much of what is today western Montana) organized a system of county government, and established Missoula County. Hell Gate was named the county seat
, and Montana's first county election was held there in 1861. Montana's first trial was also held in the town (in Bolte's saloon) in 1862 (a man sued a local farmer for killing a horse he had leased to him).
Hell Gate grew quickly. Worden and Higgins built a second store in 1861. W.B.S. Higgins built the town's first residence in early 1861, and P.J. Bolte its second in the autumn of that year (it doubled as a saloon
). John Mullan
established "Cantonment Wright" at the confluence of the Blackfoot
and Hell Gate rivers in November 1861 in preparation for completion of the Mullan Road. The Road reached the Hell Gate Valley in 1862, bringing additional white settlers into the area. What is likely the first wedding of white Americans in the state of Montana occurred at Hell Gate on March 5, 1862 (George P. White married Mrs. Josephine Mineinger), and the first white American child was born in the county of Missoula was born near Hell Gate on February 13, 1862. The first lawsuit in the state also occurred at Hell Gate in March 1862 (a man sued a farmer for killing a horse which the man had leased to him). The arrival of the Mullan Road led to the establishment of a stagecoach
station in the town. Goods brought by steamboat
up the Clark Fork to the Cabinet Rapids
were transported over a new, groomed trail which connected with the Mullan Road just west of town. Camel
pack trains took goods and gold regularly over the Mullan Road to the rapidly growing Inland Empire
. Sometimes as many as five pack trains a day passed through Hell Gate. At times, goods were so plentiful that they sold for less than they did at their starting point in St. Louis, Missouri
. In 1863, the discovery of gold at Alder Gulch brought hundreds of settlers to the region, allowing Hell Gate to prosper. That year, Henry Buckhouse built the town's first and only blacksmith
shop. St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, the first Christian
church (rather than mission) in the state of Montana, was built in the small town in 1863. Catholic missionaries also built St. Peter's Mission in the town, served as a base for missionary work from the 186os to 1884 (even surviving Hell Gate's abandonment). The United States Congress
organized the Montana Territory
on May 26, 1864. The new territorial legislature recognized the county of Missoula, and placed the county seat at Hell Gate. In the summer of 1864, Tyler Woodward of the firm of Woodward & Clements built a second store in Hell Gate and P.J. Shockley built a boarding house. When the Montana Territory was organized, Woodward was elected Missoula County commissioner, and was postmaster
in Hell Gate.
's "road agent
" gang, and other members of the Plummer gang took up residence in Hell Gate in late 1863 and began a reign of terror against the townspeople. Bolte's saloon had gone out of business in 1862, but Skinner bought the place in 1863 and reopened the bar. Skinner himself preferred to sit on the safe in the original Higgins and Worden store, leading many in the town to believe that the Plummer gang intended to rob the safe of its $65,000 in gold dust. On the night of January 27, 1864, a group of 21 vigilante
s (part of the notorious Montana Vigilantes, who had instituted a reign of terror of their own in the state) from Alder Gulch
rode into Hell Gate and rounded up Skinner and the other outlaws. A brief trial was held in Worden and Higgins' store, and four members of the Plummer gang were sentenced to death. Skinner and two others were hanged from a pole which was ripped loose from the town corral
and put upright. One was hanged in a barn next to the store, another from a tree outside the store.
In March 1864, several young Pend d'Oreilles Indian men (led by the chief's son) killed a prospector near the town of Clinton, Montana
. The townspeople of Hell Gate, worried that an Indian uprising might begin, sent for help to the town of Alder Gulch. The Pend d'Oreilles tribe, worried about retaliation, forced their chief to turn the his son over to the people of Hell Gate. After a very brief trial, the young man was hanged from a pole in the town corral.
Additional deaths also occurred in the town. In the autumn of 1864, a settler named Matt Craft shot and killed a young man named Crow after Crow allegedly insulted Craft's wife at the tent the couple lived in. At about the same time, William Cook reopened the town saloon. Two Irishmen
, McLaughlin and Doran, got into an argument while playing cards and exchanged gunfire in the saloon. McLaughlin was killed, but Doran escaped uninjured. Doran was arrested, but released. Cook, the saloonkeeper, was also shot and died a few days later. The last death in the town was that of J.P Shockley, who committed suicide
in the early spring of 1865.
, flour mill, and new store at the site of present-day Missoula
, and all the residents of Hell Gate moved to the new town practically overnight. Rather than take the town name with them, they adopted as the new name of their town the (garbled) Indian word for the valley, "Missoula." The only residents were farmers, who had settled nearby. The county seat was moved from Hell Gate to Missoula in 1866.
By 1913, little was left of the town (which was now part of a privately owned ranch) except for a few buildings and four burial mounds of the Plummer gang. The site of the ghost town was featured as a stop on a self-guided tour promoted in a guide book
to the state of Montana written by the Federal Writers' Project
in 1939.
at the eastern mouth of the Missoula Valley. Although the river and valley would be renamed, the steep gorge cut by the Clark Fork to the east of the Missoula Valley is still known as Hellgate Canyon. The U.S. Postal Service
maintains a Hell Gate Station in downtown Missoula, and the Missoula County Public School System operates Hellgate High School
, one of the oldest and largest high schools in the state of Montana.
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
at the western end of the Missoula Valley in Missoula County
Missoula County, Montana
-National protected areas:*Bitterroot National Forest *Flathead National Forest *Lolo National Forest *Rattlesnake National Recreation Area-Demographics:...
, Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The town was located on the banks of the Clark Fork River
Clark Fork (river)
The Clark Fork is a river in the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho, approximately long. The largest river by volume in Montana, it drains an extensive region of the Rocky Mountains in western Montana and northern Idaho in the watershed of the Columbia River, flowing northwest through a long...
roughly five miles downstream from present-day Missoula
Missoula, Montana
Missoula is a city located in western Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. The 2010 Census put the population of Missoula at 66,788 and the population of Missoula County at 109,299. Missoula is the principal city of the Missoula Metropolitan Area...
near what is now Frenchtown
Frenchtown, Montana
Frenchtown is a census-designated place in Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is part of the 'Missoula, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area'. The population was 883 at the 2000 census...
.
Geography
Hell Gate lay at the west end of the Missoula Valley. About 13,000 BCECommon Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
, the advance of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet
Cordilleran Ice Sheet
The Cordilleran ice sheet was a major ice sheet that covered, during glacial periods of the Quaternary, a large area of North America. This included the following areas:*Western Montana*The Idaho Panhandle...
created an ice dam
Ice dam
An ice dam occurs when water builds up behind a blockage of ice. Ice dams can occur in various ways.-Caused by a glacier:Sometimes a glacier flows down a valley to a confluence where the other branch carries an unfrozen river...
on the Clark Fork which created Glacial Lake Missoula
Glacial Lake Missoula
Glacial Lake Missoula was a prehistoric proglacial lake in western Montana that existed periodically at the end of the last ice age between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago...
. After the Missoula Floods
Missoula Floods
The Missoula Floods refer to the cataclysmic floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ice age. The glacial flood events have been researched since the 1920s...
and the final draining of Glacial Lake Missoula about 11,000 BCE, the lake sediment dried and became the fertile Missoula Valley.
The Hell Gate Valley is framed by the Rattlesnake Mountains to the north and northeast and the Bitterroot Mountains
Bitterroot Mountains
The Northern and Central Bitterroot Range, collectively the Bitterroot Mountains, is the largest portion of the Bitterroot Range, part of the Rocky Mountains, located in the panhandle of Idaho and westernmost Montana in the Western United States...
to the southeast, south, and west. Since the early 1900s, the area has been surrounded by the Lolo National Forest
Lolo National Forest
Lolo National Forest is located in western Montana, United States with the western boundary being the state of Idaho. The forest spans 2 million acres and includes four wilderness areas; the Scapegoat and the Bob Marshall Wilderness are partially within the forest while the Welcome Creek and...
. The eastern mouth of the valley is defined by a narrow pass between Mount Jumbo
Mount Jumbo
Mount Jumbo is an iconic mountain that overlooks the city of Missoula, Montana. The mountain is northeast of the city’s downtown and, in its majority, is publicly owned. In 1996, Jumbo was purchased from private landowners and protected from development...
and Mount Sentinel
Mount Sentinel
Mount Sentinel, originally known as "Mount Woody," is a small mountain located to the east of the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont. At a height of 1,958 feet and an elevation of 5,158 feet, Mount Sentinel also features the hillside letter "M", a large concrete structure 620 feet up its...
, which leads to Hellgate Canyon. The western mouth is less well-defined and narrow, and leads to Ninemile Divide.
The community of Hell Gate was located at 46°53′0"N 114°5′13"W (46.8832566, -114.0870563), at an elevation of 3,123 feet (952 m).
Native American and white settlement
Members of the Bitterroot SalishBitterroot Salish (tribe)
The Bitterroot Salish are one of three tribes of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana. The Flathead Reservation is home to the Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles tribes also.-Language:...
(or Flathead) Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe often traveled through the Missoula Valley on their way east to bison
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
hunting grounds. As the Salish passed through the valley's narrow eastern and western mouths, members of the Blackfeet
Blackfeet
The Piegan Blackfeet are a tribe of Native Americans of the Algonquian language family based in Montana, having lived in this area since around 6,500 BC. Many members of the tribe live as part of the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with population centered in Browning...
tribe would often attack and kill them. The Salish called the valley lm-i-sul-étiku, which transliterally
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
means "by the cold, chilling waters" but which the Salish used metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ically to mean "the place chilled with fear". The entire valley was heavily wooded, and ideal for ambush.
The first white Americans to see the Missoula Valley were the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, or ″Corps of Discovery Expedition" was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by two Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, Meriwether Lewis and William...
, who explored the Clark Fork River on their way back east after reaching the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. Meriwether Lewis
Meriwether Lewis
Meriwether Lewis was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark...
and a small group of men passed through the Missoula Valley and camped near the confluence of the Rattlesnake River and the Clark Fork on July 4, 1806. English-Canadian explorer David Thompson
David Thompson (explorer)
David Thompson was an English-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, known to some native peoples as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer"...
visited the area in 1811, and mapped much of the valley and the surrounding peaks (including Mount Jumbo).
French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
trappers passing through the valley in the 1820s were horrified to see so many remains of Salish in the deep canyons which formed the valley's entrances, and called the valley "Porte de l'Enfer," or the "Hell Gate." The next known white to visit the area was the British fur trapper Alexander Ross
Alexander Ross (fur trader)
-Fur trader and explorer:Ross emigrated to Upper Canada, present day , from Scotland about 1805.In 1811, while working for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, Ross took part in the founding of Fort Astoria, a fur-trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River...
in 1824. In 1841, the Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
priest
Priesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
Father Pierre-Jean De Smet
Pierre-Jean De Smet
Pierre-Jean De Smet , also known as Pieter-Jan De Smet, was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus , active in missionary work among the Native Americans of the Midwestern United States in the mid-19th century.His extensive travels as a missionary were said to total...
passed through the Hell Gate Valley, bringing with him what were probably the first wagons and ox
Ox
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
en to enter what would eventually become Montana. Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
missionaries soon followed and settled in the Hell Gate Valley (as the Missoula Valley was then known), but did not remain due to the hostility of local Indian tribes.
In 1852, half-breed
Half-breed
Half-breed is an historic term used to describe anyone who is mixed Native American and white European parentage...
explorer Francois Finlay (also known as "Benetsee") discovered gold in what is now Gold Creek
Gold Creek (Montana)
Gold Creek is a creek in southwestern Montana, United States, on Interstate 90 northwest of Garrison, between Butte and Missoula. It flows through parts of Granite County and Powell County and empties into the Clark Fork at the ghost town of Goldcreek , northwest of the town of Garrison.In 1852,...
near the eastern mouth of the valley, but it was not a commercially viable deposit and no gold rush occurred. A year later, Isaac Stevens
Isaac Stevens
Isaac Ingalls Stevens was the first governor of Washington Territory, a United States Congressman, and a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War until his death at the Battle of Chantilly...
, Governor of the Washington Territory
Washington Territory
The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 8, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington....
(which at the time included western Montana), led a railroad
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
survey party through the valley. Impressed with the suitability of the entire western Montana area for white settlement, Stevens negotiated the 1855 Hell Gate Treaty
Treaty of Hellgate
The Treaty of Hellgate was signed in Hellgate on July 16, 1855 between Indian commissioner Isaac Stevens and the Native American tribes located in western Montana. The treaty was ratified by Congress, signed by President James Buchanan, and proclaimed on April 18, 1859.The tribes involved in the...
, signed by the Bitteroot Salish, Pend d'Oreilles
Pend d'Oreilles (tribe)
The Pend d'Oreilles, also known as the Kalispel, are a tribe of Native Americans who lived around Lake Pend Oreille, as well as the Pend Oreille River, and Priest Lake although some of them live spread throughout Montana and eastern Washington...
, and Kootenai tribes at Council Grove near Hell Gate, which established the Flathead Indian Reservation
Flathead Indian Reservation
The Flathead Indian Reservation, located in western Montana on the Flathead River, is home to the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles Tribes - also known as theConfederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation...
. Peace with the local Native American tribes increased traffic in the area, and the Hell Gate Valley became the preferred transportation route from Montana to the west. Significant numbers of pack mule trains traveled through the valley, eventually leading to the settlement of Hell Gate itself. The Mullan Road
Mullan Road
Mullan Road was the first wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains to the Inland of the Pacific Northwest. It was built by US Army Lieut. John Mullan between the spring of 1859 and summer 1860. It led from Fort Benton, Montana, the navigational head of the Missouri River to Fort Walla Walla,...
approached the area in the winter of 1859-1860.
Founding and growth
The first settlers in the Hell Gate Valley arrived in late December 1856 to begin preparations for a permanent settlement (Hell Gate). This first group of men consisted of Judge Frank H. Woody, James Holt, Bill Madison, Bill "Pork" West, and a man with the last name of Jackson. They cut timber for the settlement throughout the winter, and in the spring moved to the future site of Hell Gate where they raised cattle and established the first garden and farm in the valley. In the fall of 1857, they built two houses with the timber they had cut. A handful of additional settlers took up residence in the valley from 1857 to 1895.The settlement of Hell Gate was founded in 1860 by Frank L. Worden and Captain Christopher P. Higgins. Higgins had come through the Hell Gate Valley with Governor Isaac Stevens' railroad scouting party in 1853, and now the two men built a log cabin and turned it into a store. Worden and Higgins had intended to settle at Fort Owen
Stevensville, Montana
Stevensville is a town in Ravalli County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,553 at the 2000 census.-History:Stevensville is officially recognized as the first permanent settlement in the state of Montana...
in the Bitterroot Valley
Bitterroot Valley
The Bitterroot Valley is located in southwestern Montana in the northwestern United States. It extends over 100 miles from remote Horse Creek Pass north to a point near the city of Missoula...
, but instead chose the Hell Gate Valley because it was halfway between Fort Owen and the federal government trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
at Jocko
Old Agency, Montana
Old Agency is a census-designated place in Sanders County, Montana, United States. The population was 95 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Old Agency is located at ....
on the new Indian reservation. This, they believed, would draw more traffic than a store closer to either existing settlement. The Worden and Higgins store was the first commercial building in the state of Montana not classified as a trading post. In August 1860, Worden and Higgins brought a pack train of 76 mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
s over the Mullan Road from Walla Walla
Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...
to stock the store. Their goods included the first safe
Safe
A safe is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or damage. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face removable or hinged to form a door. The body and door may be cast from metal or formed out of plastic through blow molding...
in the region. Several other cabins were soon built around the store that same year. One of the town's first residents was Judge Frank H. Woody of Walla Walla. The store was set up in a tent (the town's first structure), but purchased hewn cottonwood tree logs from David Patee, a white settler who had settled near the eastern mouth of the Hell Gate Valley, and quickly built a 16 foot by 18 foot (4.9 meter by 5.5 meter) rectangular building with a sod
Sod
Sod or turf is grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of thin material.The term sod may be used to mean turf grown and cut specifically for the establishment of lawns...
roof. The men were joined by the town's fourth resident, a French citizen named Narcisse Sanpar. Another new resident was "Captain" Richard Grant, the father of Johnny Grant (co-founder of the Grant-Kohrs Ranch
Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site
Established by Canadian fur trader Johnny Grant, and expanded by cattle baron Conrad Kohrs, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site commemorates the Western cattle industry from its 1850s inception through recent times. The park was created in 1972, and embraces 1,500 acres and 90 structures. The...
), and who along with David Patee had helped supply the logs the Worden and Higgins store was built with. In December 1860, the Territorial Legislature of the Washington Territory
Washington Territory
The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 8, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington....
(which at that time included much of what is today western Montana) organized a system of county government, and established Missoula County. Hell Gate was named the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
, and Montana's first county election was held there in 1861. Montana's first trial was also held in the town (in Bolte's saloon) in 1862 (a man sued a local farmer for killing a horse he had leased to him).
Hell Gate grew quickly. Worden and Higgins built a second store in 1861. W.B.S. Higgins built the town's first residence in early 1861, and P.J. Bolte its second in the autumn of that year (it doubled as a saloon
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
). John Mullan
John Mullan
John Mullan is a Professor of English at University College London. He specialises in 18th century fiction. He is currently working on the 18th-century section of the new Oxford English Literary History....
established "Cantonment Wright" at the confluence of the Blackfoot
Blackfoot River (Montana)
The Blackfoot River, sometimes called the Big Blackfoot River to distinguish it from the Little Blackfoot River, is a snow-fed and spring-fed river in western Montana. The Blackfoot River begins in Lewis and Clark County at the Continental Divide, 10 miles northeast of the town of Lincoln...
and Hell Gate rivers in November 1861 in preparation for completion of the Mullan Road. The Road reached the Hell Gate Valley in 1862, bringing additional white settlers into the area. What is likely the first wedding of white Americans in the state of Montana occurred at Hell Gate on March 5, 1862 (George P. White married Mrs. Josephine Mineinger), and the first white American child was born in the county of Missoula was born near Hell Gate on February 13, 1862. The first lawsuit in the state also occurred at Hell Gate in March 1862 (a man sued a farmer for killing a horse which the man had leased to him). The arrival of the Mullan Road led to the establishment of a stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
station in the town. Goods brought by steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
up the Clark Fork to the Cabinet Rapids
Cabinet Gorge Dam
Cabinet Gorge Dam is a concrete gravity-arch hydroelectric dam on the Clark Fork River, in the U.S. state of Idaho. The dam is located in the Idaho Panhandle, just west of the Montana border. Cabinet Gorge Reservoir extends into Montana, nearly to Noxon Rapids Dam...
were transported over a new, groomed trail which connected with the Mullan Road just west of town. Camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
pack trains took goods and gold regularly over the Mullan Road to the rapidly growing Inland Empire
Inland Empire (Pacific Northwest)
thumb|The Inland Empire regionThe Inland Northwest, or Inland Empire, is a region in the Pacific Northwest centered on Spokane, Washington, including the surrounding Columbia River basin and all of North Idaho....
. Sometimes as many as five pack trains a day passed through Hell Gate. At times, goods were so plentiful that they sold for less than they did at their starting point in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. In 1863, the discovery of gold at Alder Gulch brought hundreds of settlers to the region, allowing Hell Gate to prosper. That year, Henry Buckhouse built the town's first and only blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
shop. St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, the first Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
church (rather than mission) in the state of Montana, was built in the small town in 1863. Catholic missionaries also built St. Peter's Mission in the town, served as a base for missionary work from the 186os to 1884 (even surviving Hell Gate's abandonment). The United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
organized the Montana Territory
Montana Territory
The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 28, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Montana.-History:...
on May 26, 1864. The new territorial legislature recognized the county of Missoula, and placed the county seat at Hell Gate. In the summer of 1864, Tyler Woodward of the firm of Woodward & Clements built a second store in Hell Gate and P.J. Shockley built a boarding house. When the Montana Territory was organized, Woodward was elected Missoula County commissioner, and was postmaster
Postmaster
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...
in Hell Gate.
Death in Hell Gate
Hell Gate was the scene of notorious lynchings in 1864. Once in the town's history, the Worden and Higgins store had been robbed. Cyrus Skinner, a member of Henry PlummerHenry Plummer
Henry Plummer served as sheriff of what became Bannack, Montana, from May 24, 1863 until January 10, 1864, when he was hanged without legal system trial by the controversial Montana Vigilantes. [Notes of historical clarification: the original Idaho Territory, declared July 4, 1863 at Lewiston,...
's "road agent
Highwayman
A highwayman was a thief and brigand who preyed on travellers. This type of outlaw, usually, travelled and robbed by horse, as compared to a footpad who traveled and robbed on foot. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads...
" gang, and other members of the Plummer gang took up residence in Hell Gate in late 1863 and began a reign of terror against the townspeople. Bolte's saloon had gone out of business in 1862, but Skinner bought the place in 1863 and reopened the bar. Skinner himself preferred to sit on the safe in the original Higgins and Worden store, leading many in the town to believe that the Plummer gang intended to rob the safe of its $65,000 in gold dust. On the night of January 27, 1864, a group of 21 vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
s (part of the notorious Montana Vigilantes, who had instituted a reign of terror of their own in the state) from Alder Gulch
Alder Gulch
Alder Gulch is a place in the U.S. state of Montana, where gold was discovered on May 26, 1863 by William Fairweather and a group of men, including Barney Hughes, Thomas Cover, Henry Rodgers, Henry Edgar and Bill Sweeney who were returning to the gold fields of Bannack, Montana...
rode into Hell Gate and rounded up Skinner and the other outlaws. A brief trial was held in Worden and Higgins' store, and four members of the Plummer gang were sentenced to death. Skinner and two others were hanged from a pole which was ripped loose from the town corral
Corral
Corral is a town, commune and sea port in Los Ríos Region, Chile. It is located south of Corral Bay. Corral is best known for the forts of Corral Bay, a system of defensive batteries and forts made to protect Valdivia during colonial times. Corral was the headquarters of the system...
and put upright. One was hanged in a barn next to the store, another from a tree outside the store.
In March 1864, several young Pend d'Oreilles Indian men (led by the chief's son) killed a prospector near the town of Clinton, Montana
Clinton, Montana
Clinton is a census-designated place in Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is part of the 'Missoula, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area'. The CDP was named for General Sir Henry Clinton...
. The townspeople of Hell Gate, worried that an Indian uprising might begin, sent for help to the town of Alder Gulch. The Pend d'Oreilles tribe, worried about retaliation, forced their chief to turn the his son over to the people of Hell Gate. After a very brief trial, the young man was hanged from a pole in the town corral.
Additional deaths also occurred in the town. In the autumn of 1864, a settler named Matt Craft shot and killed a young man named Crow after Crow allegedly insulted Craft's wife at the tent the couple lived in. At about the same time, William Cook reopened the town saloon. Two Irishmen
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
, McLaughlin and Doran, got into an argument while playing cards and exchanged gunfire in the saloon. McLaughlin was killed, but Doran escaped uninjured. Doran was arrested, but released. Cook, the saloonkeeper, was also shot and died a few days later. The last death in the town was that of J.P Shockley, who committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in the early spring of 1865.
Abandonment
Hell Gate collapsed as a settlement in 1865. The settlement had reached a grand total of 20 residents. But Worden and Higgins built a sawmillSawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
, flour mill, and new store at the site of present-day Missoula
Missoula, Montana
Missoula is a city located in western Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. The 2010 Census put the population of Missoula at 66,788 and the population of Missoula County at 109,299. Missoula is the principal city of the Missoula Metropolitan Area...
, and all the residents of Hell Gate moved to the new town practically overnight. Rather than take the town name with them, they adopted as the new name of their town the (garbled) Indian word for the valley, "Missoula." The only residents were farmers, who had settled nearby. The county seat was moved from Hell Gate to Missoula in 1866.
By 1913, little was left of the town (which was now part of a privately owned ranch) except for a few buildings and four burial mounds of the Plummer gang. The site of the ghost town was featured as a stop on a self-guided tour promoted in a guide book
Guide book
A guide book is a book for tourists or travelers that provides details about a geographic location, tourist destination, or itinerary. It is the written equivalent of a tour guide...
to the state of Montana written by the Federal Writers' Project
Federal Writers' Project
The Federal Writers' Project was a United States federal government project to fund written work and support writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program...
in 1939.
The Hellgate area
The Hell Gate has lent its name to several nature and man-made features in the area, including the valley itself, which became known in the 1800s as the Hell Gate Valley. Hell Gate was also the original name of the Clark Fork River, which original settlers believed was formed at the confluence of the Clark Fork and Bitterroot RiverBitterroot River
The Bitterroot River is a tributary of the Clark Fork River in southwestern Montana, USA. It runs for about 75 miles south-to-north through the Bitterroot Valley, from the confluence of its West and East forks near Conner to the Clark Fork near Missoula.Ravalli County and Missoula County...
at the eastern mouth of the Missoula Valley. Although the river and valley would be renamed, the steep gorge cut by the Clark Fork to the east of the Missoula Valley is still known as Hellgate Canyon. The U.S. Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
maintains a Hell Gate Station in downtown Missoula, and the Missoula County Public School System operates Hellgate High School
Hellgate High School
Hellgate High School is located in Missoula, Montana. It is the largest high school in the Missoula County Public School's District of Montana in terms of student body population...
, one of the oldest and largest high schools in the state of Montana.