South Meadow Creek is a stream in Madison County, MT with an elevation of 4,826 feet, or 1,471 meters above sea level. This place is also known as South Fork, Meadow Creek aka McAllister aka Bald Mountain (sub-district).

This placer gold mine totals over 737 feet of creek. With this claim you will be getting the exclusive mineral rights to 20 acres on an excellent spot on the creek for you to work at your leisure.        

The access to the claim is fairly easy and 2WD will be sufficient to get you to the mine. The main road is located about 400-500 feet away from the claim. There is a dirt road/trail that comes off the main road, and leads you into the claim. There is room to park your vehicles, camp, and stage equipment.  Due to the location of the claim, always check the road conditions and weather before heading out to the mine. 

Commodities (Major) - Gold Deposit

Type: Placer   

(Fairly easy 2WD)

The Washington mining district is in the Tobacco Root Mountains and includes the head-waters of Washington, South Meadow and Leonard Creeks. The placers of Washington Bar, a gravel deposit at the mouth of Washington Creek, were discovered in 1864. Placering occurred on Washington Creek and Hogum Gulch, both later worked by hydraulic methods. By 1888 the two creeks had produced half a million dollars in gold from these placer operations. Around 1888, the immense gravel banks were in the hands of the Montana Hydraulic Mining Company which held patents on seven miles of gulches, some 4,500 acres. The gravel assayed at 50 cents per cubic yard and it was estimated that 50 million dollars of gold remained to be recovered. The company constructed a four foot flume and a 30 inch flume to provide water for three hydraulic giants (Cope 1888).  

South Meadow Creek, like its northern counterpart, begins in the southern portion of the Tobacco Root Mountains. Located in the upper portion of this drainage is South Meadow Lake. This naturally occurring lake has now been modified to increase its water storage capacity. Like North Meadow Creek, this stream also originates in thick timber stands, and makes its way down into the valley. Once in the valley, it flows through lush hay meadows and pastureland before reaching its confluence with North Meadow Creek, just west of Ennis Lake.

The gold production of Madison County is exceeded in Montana only by that of Silver Bow and Lewis and Clark Counties. Most of its gold was produced before 1904 from the placer deposits of Alder Gulch, by far the richest placers in the State (Lyden, 1948, p. 80-95). After 1904, lodes became increasingly important gold sources.        

Most of the gold lodes and other auriferous deposits are near the contacts of Precambrian metamorphic and Paleozoic sedimentary rocks with the Tobacco Root batholith and other smaller intrusives and satellite stocks that are probably related to the Boulder batholith (Hart, in Tansley and others, 1933, p. 23-55). Some deposits are in the igneous rocks.    

The more productive lode areas are the Norris, Pony, Renova, Sheridan, Silver Star-Rochester, Tidal Wave, and Virginia City districts.          

The total gold production of the county through 1959 was at least 3,746,000 ounces - 2,605,000 from placers and 1,141,000 from lodes. This must be considered a conservative figure, for as Lyden noted (1948, p. 80), estimates of the Alder Gulch placer production ranged from $50,612,000 to $125 million.

Upper North Meadow Creek--the northern part of this area is underlain by granite and the southern by Cherry Creek gneisses and schists, cut by a dike-like intrusion of hypersthene gabbro. Most of the ore deposits occur as veins in the gneiss, but those of the Frisbie mine are mostly in the gabbro near the gneiss. A few silver veins are known to cut the granite.;      

Lower Meadow Creek--the country rock is granite and gneiss. Ore deposits occur as low grade gold-quartz stringer veins in the altered contact gneiss zone. The ores are oxidized.    

Upper South Meadow Creek--the ore shoots generally occur in synclines resulting from minor folding.    

Alder gulch, just over the hill to the west of Meadow Creek fueled Montana’s most exciting placer gold rush, and the Revenue hill, with its rich gold mines bordering the Meadow Creek area to the north, were attractive destinations for migrating land and gold seekers. Meadow Creek, situated in between those two industrious areas, did not go unnoticed by the ambitious settlers.