Unionville, MT

Unionville is an unincorporated Lewis and Clark County community four miles south of Helena, in Oro Fino Gulch. It began as the camp for the Whitlatch-Union Mine, which opened in 1864, returned to operation in 1905, and produced gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead. The mine made Unionville a settlement rather than just a scatter of claims, and old buildings still mark the mining camp's footprint. Helena's edge is close, but Unionville keeps its own story: a hard-rock camp born with the territory's gold rush and carried forward by people who stayed after the richest ore was gone. Its roads still lead through mining country, not a suburban extension.