Basin is a minor site that wouldn’t be in this book except that it is so close to Comet, the following entry (pages 204–207). As long as you’re going to Comet, take a look at Basin.
A sign placed before you enter Basin states that you are in approximately the center of a mining district that extended from Butte to Helena. It also says that the area’s ore was initially sent to smelters as far away as Wales and Germany. It fails to mention, however, that the journey became unnecessary when towns such as Basin, right down the road, and Wickes, about ten miles away, came into being. Basin and Wickes had smelters.
Basin, originally called Basin City, was the site of modest placer gold deposits found in 1880. It was gold hard-rock mines, along with silver and lead deposits, however, that held the real promise for Basin, which had a peak population of about fifteen hundred. Gold mining and smelting operations kept the town alive through the Silver Crash of 1893, with production lasting into the 1920s before shutting down, partially as the result of a stock fraud.
WALKING AND DRIVING AROUND BASIN
One thing to notice as you enter town on Basin Street is the variety of materials used in the town’s structures. In fact, they chronicle the major steps in the gentrification of a community: You’ll see buildings of hand-hewn timber, cut stone, milled lumber, and brick. On your left is an attractive, wood-frame Catholic church with an unusual diagonal entrance and bell tower. On Quartz Avenue, which heads north from Basin Street, is the two-story, clapboard Basin Grade School, featuring a bell tower complete with bell.
West of town are the remains of the 1903 Glass Brothers Smelter: a large stack, a long flue, and stone foundations. Across the interstate from the smelter ruins are mill foundations.
The Rainville Memorial Cemetery is east of town. Return toward the interstate .4 of a mile from the middle of town. Turn left on Cataract Creek Road, and angle left almost immediately onto a road that goes north .2 of a mile to the graveyard.
The large stack and its flue are the principal remains of the Glass Brothers Smelter in Basin.
WHEN YOU GO
From Nevada City, head west on Montana Highway 287 for 28 miles to Twin Bridges. Take Montana Highway 41 and then Montana Highway 55 for 28 miles north to Whitehall, where you join Interstate 90. From there, it’s 22 miles west to Butte, which features a remarkable, decaying, historic downtown.
From Butte, take Interstate 15 northeast for 27 miles to Exit 156, Basin.