By A. H. KOSCHMANN and M. H. BERGENDAHL - USGS 1968
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Gold production in Ravalli County, in western Montana, has come chiefly from placer deposits along Hughes Creek. Of the 9,055 ounces of gold the county produced from 1904 through 1945, about 8,000 ounces was from these placers (Lyden, 1948, p. 132). From 1946 through 1959 the Hughes Creek district produced 336 ounces, including 36 ounces of lode gold.
No production figures are available for the years before 1904; however, Lindgren pointed out (1904, p. 88) that the Hughes Creek placers were known since the early days of mining and that claims had been staked out for a distance of 15 miles from the mouth to the divide. It is therefore highly probable that the Hughes Creek district had a total output of more than 10,000 ounces of gold.
