Garnets, Vigilantes, and Gold Dredges

Montana 287, MP 22, near Alder

The Ruby River was called the Passamari by the Shoshoni Indians and the Stinking Water by the miners in the early 1860s. Later, it was mistakenly renamed the Ruby, although the gems found along its length were actually garnets.

The road through the valley that connected Virginia City and Bannack was the haunt of prospectors, road agents, and vigilantes after gold was discovered in Alder Gulch in 1863. The road eventually became known as the Vigilante Trail in the 20th century. During the Twenties, distinctive signs with the dreaded vigilante numbers 3-7-77 on a blue, white and red background marked the trail.

The large gravel piles to the west are the tailings of gold dredging operations that occurred here over a twenty-year period beginning in 1899. The Conrey Placer Mining Company operated monster dredge boats that literally churned the gulch inside-out, creating huge piles of gravel where only a tangle of scrub brush and stunted trees could grow. It was the final chapter.