The Judith Mountains are located in central

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

in the Central Montana Alkalic Province in Fergus County, just to the northeast of

Lewistown, Montana Lewistown is a city in and the county seat of Fergus County, Montana, United States. The population was 5,952 at the 2020 census. Lewistown is located in the geographic center of the state, southeast of Great Falls and northwest of Billings. Fi ...

. Judith Peak is the highest summit of this range, with an elevation of .

History

To the southeast of Judith Peak lies the remains of

Fort Maginnis Fort Maginnis was established during the Indian wars in the Department of Dakota by the U.S. Army. It was the last of five forts: Keogh (1876), Custer (1877), Missoula (1877), Assinniboine (1879), and Maginnis (1880) - built following the defeat ...

. Fort Maginnis was built in 1880 to protect the cattle ranches, the gold mining camps in and around the Judith Mountains and the Carroll Trail. The fort was constructed following the

battle of the Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, No ...

. In 1879,

Granville Stuart Granville Stuart (August 27, 1834 – October 2, 1918) was a pioneer, gold prospector, businessman, civic leader, vigilante, author, cattleman and diplomat who played a prominent role in the early history of Montana Territory and the state o ...

and his friend Samuel T. Hauser along with Helena banker Andrew J. Davis established the ''Davis, Hauser and Stuart'' (DHS) cattle company. Stuart was made the general manager of the DHS brand and Stuart located the ranch headquarters on on the southern slopes of the Judith Mountains near Flat Willow Creek. The DHS Ranch was one of the largest open range cattle operations in the Central Montana prairie in the 1880s.

Mining and geology

The geology the range includes

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

, and

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, ...

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago ...

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

age which were intruded by alkaline intrusives of

monzonite Monzonite is an igneous intrusive rock, formed by slow cooling of underground magma that has a moderate silica content and is enriched in alkali metal oxides. Monzonite is composed mostly of plagioclase and alkali feldspar. Syenodiorite is an o ...

syenite Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). Some syenites contain larger prop ...

to tinguaite composition of Cretaceous to

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

age. Epithermal gold and silver

veins Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated ...

are found along the intrusive contacts. The mountains were the center of gold and silver mining in the 1800s and current exploration continues.Gies Mine (Red Metal Claim group; Gies Mine; Elk Peak project; Bertha claim group), Cone Butte Sub District, Warm Spring District (Gilt Edge District; Gold Hill District; Maiden District), Fergus Co., Montana, USA
/ref> The old mining camps of Maiden and Gilt Edge were built during the mining boom in the 1880s and 1890s. Southwest face Judith Mountains

References

External links

Judith Mountains
Mountain ranges of Montana Landforms of Fergus County, Montana {{FergusCountyMT-geo-stub

History

Mining and geology

See also

References

External links