Territory. Utah with its Mormon population was kept waiting at
the doors of the Union until 1896. Oklahoma became a State in
1907; Arizona and New Mexico were admitted in 1912.


In Montana as elsewhere in these days of great sectional
bitterness, there was much political strife; and this no doubt
accounts for an astonishing political event that now took place.
Henry Plummer, the most active outlaw of his day, was elected
sheriff and entrusted with the enforcement of the laws! He made
indeed a great show of enforcing the laws. He married, settled
down, and for a time was thought by some of the ill-advised to
have reformed his ways, although in truth he could not have
reformed.

By June, 1863, the extraordinarily rich strike in Alder Gulch had
been made. The news of this spread like wildfire to Bannack and
to the Salmon River mines in Idaho as well, and the result was
one of the fiercest of all the stampedes, and the rise, almost
overnight, of Virginia City. Meanwhile some Indian fighting had
taken place and in a pitched battle on the Bear River General
Connor had beaten decisively the Bannack Indians, who for years
had preyed on the emigrant trains. This made travel on the
mountain trails safer than it had been; and the rich Last Chance
Gulch on which the city of Helena now stands attracted a
tremendous population almost at once. The historian above cited
lived there. Let him tell of the life.

"One long stream of active life filled the little creek on its
auriferous course from Bald Mountain, through a canyon of wild