Confederate Gulch is a steeply incised valley on the west facing slopes of the Big Belt Mountains. Its small stream drains westward into Canyon Ferry Lake, on the upper Missouri River Valley near present day Townsend, Montana. In 1864 Confederate soldiers on parole from the American Civil War made a minor gold discovery in the gulch, but in 1865 the discovery of the sensationally rich Montana Bar—one of the richest placer strikes per acre ever made—led to other rich gold strikes up and down the gulch, and touched off a frantic boom period of placer gold mining that extended through 1869. From 1866 to 1869 the gulch equaled or outstripped all other Montana Territory mining camps in gold production, producing an estimated $19 to $30 million in gold—late 1860s money. For a time, the gulch bec