Medicine Wheel Passage
Bald Mountain City State Historic Site, WY

Discoveries of fine-grained gold north of Bald Mountain were made in 1890. "Gold Fever" brought many prospectors to the area over the next 10 years. In 1892, the Fortunatas Mining and Milling Company purchased a group of claims on the head of the Little Horn River and Porcupine Creek. The excitement led to the establishment of Bald Mountain City, the most extensive attempt at a settlement in the Big Horn Mountains. The gold rush ended by 1900 because yields were not enough to pay for the effort of panning.