"How the Horse Helped Build America." The Prickley Pear Diggings historical marker. (Marker reads: The Fisk or Northern Overland Expedition camped on the future site of Montana City just east of the highway in Sept., 1862. The outfit, consisting of 125 emigrants, had left St. Paul June 16, 1862 under the leadership of Capt. James L. Fish for the purpose of opening a wagon route to connect at Ft. Benton with the eastern terminal of the Mullan Road from Walla Walla. They found "Gold Tom," one of Montana's first prospectors, holed up in a teepee near here scratching gravel along Prickley Pear Creek in a search for the rainbow's end. The few colors he was panning out wouldn't have much of a dent in the National debt but about half of the Fisk outfit got the gold fever and decided to winter here. Montana City swaggered into existence in Sept. 1864 but it is only a memory now.)

Reverse side of image: Chapter 11 -- no. 14. Although most ''ghost camps" are generally off the beaten path, Montana City near Helena, on U.S. 91, described here by Montana's unique marking system, is readily accessible to all out-of-state visitors. By 1865, Montana City was one of many rough, swashbuckling camps where gold-fever tempered virtually every thought and action of its adventuresome inhabitants. Exploring of these decayed, deserted cities which once teemed with several thousand inhabitants, offers an unusual vacation treat in the ''Land of Shining Mountains."