Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 76 It seemed like the mountains every- where in the state held riches lying there for the taking. It is not surprising, then, that people bought into the rumor that great wealth must lie beneath the uniquely beautiful landscape that is now Glacier National Park. Enter Elizabeth Collins: an ex- traordinary, strong, independent woman in early Montana history. She came to Montana from a small farm town in Iowa and initially made her way as a mining camp cook and a nanny; later, she would become a miner herself. She was one of the ear- liest prospectors in Glacier. She tried to develop a mine in the Mineral Creek Basin above McDonald Lake in the late 1880s. After three summers working the mine with no apparent success, a professional geologist recommended she abandon her efforts. She went on to find wealth as a cattle baron from her ranch outside of Choteau and earned the nickname "Cattle Queen of Mon- tana." Officially named "Cattle Queen Creek," this tributary of Mineral Creek recognizes her early presence in the park. As an aside, there is an old film with this title, starring Barba- ra Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan, that was actually filmed, in part, outside the St. Mary area of Glacier. By the beginning of the 1890s the search for wealth under Glacier be- came more organized. Finding little evidence of com- mercially viable ore on the west side of the Continental Divide, ru- mors began to swirl of rich veins of copper ore on the east side. How- ever, the east side was part of the Blackfeet Reservation and off limits to white prospectors. The mere fact that these lands were inaccessible just served to increase the credibility of these rumors. Eventually, enough pressure was put on the federal government to gain access to these lands that a commission was established to "negotiate" with the tribe to purchase the land from the Continental Divide to the base of the mountains. Finally in 1896, for $1.5 million, the tribe signed away its ownership of what became known as the "Ceded Strip." Also, in return, the tribe was guaran- teed rights to continue to use the land for hunting, food gath- ering, and other cultural purposes that they had practiced there for millennia. It was opened for mining in 1898, though some "sooners" had already staked claims. In all, over 2,000 claims were made by approximately 300 people. When the Ceded Strip was incorporated into the new Glacier National Park 12 years later, the tribe lost all A view of the Cracker Mine Cracker Lake ore

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