a little history

The town of Basin began as a 19th century mining camp near the confluence of Basin Creek with the Boulder River. Gold deposits at the mouth of Cataract Creek, about 0.5 miles downstream of Basin were reported as early as 1862. Placer mines soon proliferated up every draw, and the town population grew to 1500. By the early 1900s, Basin boasted of two smelters, two railroads, four rooming houses, a drug store, three hotels, three grocery stores, a bank and 12 saloons. Mining virtually ceased by 1920, taking much of the town’s population with it.

The Basin Flotation Mill (aka the OT Mill), was constructed in 1950. The compound included a ball mill, tailings impoundment, and support structures (office and garage).  The Mill was used for ore mined from small hard-rock mining operations across Montana. The mill used crushing, grinding, and froth flotation to produce a concentrate. This technique, first used in Montana in 1911, is commonly used for the recovery and upgrading of sulfide ores. The mill had the capacity to process approximately 150 tons a day and could target trace metals such as lead, silver, copper, and gold.

the mill

The mill ceased operations in 1989. In 2025, the mill compound was taken down and the mill equipment was removed and sold to a equipment company in Canada. All of the mill equipment is being restored and will be sold for mining operations in Mexico or South America. All that remains at the site of the Mill compound is the hopper which is situated inside the large two-story metal building. This historic landmark is a reminder of miners who lived, worked and died in the mining industry in Montana.

 the warehouse

The warehouse, now the Art Mine performance space, was built and historically housed an assay lab to perform tests to identify and measure the amount, purity, or activity of a specific substance in a rock sample. This lab collected and tested rock samples from mines to determine the amounts of gold, silver and zinc as well as other materials in the samples. In addition, at the time of the purchase, the warehouse had over 15,000 boxes of core samples from geographic areas around Montana. These samples were acquired by the School of Mines in Butte for further testing.