Four Georgians

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The Four Georgians were a group of gold prospectors from the U.S. state of Georgia that are traditionally credited for opening the Last Chance Placer of Helena, Montana.

They were John Cowan, D. J. Miller, John Crab, and Reginald (Robert) Stanley. Of the four, the only actual Georgian was Cowan, who hailed from Acworth, Georgia. The other three came from Alabama (Miller), Iowa (Crab) and England (Stanley). It has been speculated that they were named "Georgians" not from where they came from, but because they were practicing the "Georgian method" of placer mining.

In 1864, they left the Alder Gulch prospects of Virginia City, Montana Territory, heading north to find richer prospects. After prospecting the Little Blackfoot River, they crossed the Continental Divide to Prickly Pear Creek, finding nothing but "colors" they moved further north. Still finding little gold after six weeks of hard work, they returned south to a place that they had earlier named Last Chance Gulch. It was so named because the group had decided if good gold could not be found there they would give up on the whole area.

On July 14, 1864, they dug two prospect pits on Last Chance Gulch upstream from their earlier efforts. Both pits revealed flat gold nuggets and gold dust. Eventually, Crab and Cowan were sent back to Virginia City for more supplies and the Last Chance bonanza began. In 1867, the Four Georgians sold out their claims. It was said that they needed a heavy wagon to haul just their gold dust back to civilization.

A Georgian genealogist^[1] suggests instead that the "Four Georgians" were: John Cowan, his nephew Frank Cowan, Henry Rusk, and Bill Palmer. These four are indeed all Georgians, knew each other, and mined gold in Montana. As Cowan is listed in both lists, it is probable that all seven men were among the group that opened the Last Chance Placer of Helena, Montana for mining.