Forest Service News Release

Forest Service

Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest

Dillon Ranger District

420 Barrett St

Dillon, MT 59725

Contact: Cat McRae, Public Affairs Officer, Catherine.mcrae@usda.gov or (406) 925-3353

Web:           http://www.fs.usda.gov/bdnf

Facebook: The Forest Service: Beaverhead- Deerlodge National Forest

Twitter:      https://twitter.com/BvrhdDrldgeNF

BDNF-23-05

Camp Caroline in the Homestake Mining District

Dillon, Mont., August 15^th, 2023 -- The Forest Service is proud to announce ‘Camp Caroline’, on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest (BDNF) in Montana, as the first historic Black community site on National Forest System Lands recorded and documented in the Northern Region. While individual homestead sites associated with Montana’s early day Black residents are recorded on neighboring forests, Camp Caroline is the first predominantly Black community recorded in Montana. In a state known largely for its cowboy and western history, Montana history contains many untold histories of the ethnically diverse communities that played pivotal roles in developing Montana during the Copper King era.

The knowledge of this diverse history led BDNF Historical Archeologist Ayme Swartz on a quest to research African American sites. Ayme knew that Montana had an untold, ethnically diverse history and started combing through newspaper archives and Forest Service archaeology files. One name kept popping up, associated with a homestead and boarding house located at an area called “Homestake” on the BDNF’s Butte Ranger District – the name of the Brown Family.

Local stories and initial research lead Swartz to believe Camp Caroline and the greater Homestake Mining District had great significance to Montana’s early and influential Black residents. Camp Caroline became the enclave for Butte’s Black hard rock miners because Black miners were not allowed underground by the large mining companies owned by the Copper Kings until 1944.

While Camp Caroline was the nexus for the Black community in the Homestake Mining District, it was by no means the limit of their presence on the land. Numerous Black families staked their own mining or homestead claims in the surrounding area, living, working, and recreating on what is now National Forest System land.

The BDNF, working in partnership with the University of Montana-Missoula (UM) Anthropology Department and Montana State University-Bozeman (MSU) History Department has completed two sessions of a multi-year academic field school, in 2022 and 2023, studying the mostly African American mining community of Camp Caroline.  The partnerships created with UM and MSU have multiple benefits: the Forest gets much needed assistance in recording an under-represented site, some students get the skills and confidence to apply for federal jobs, and other students get the research material to continue their higher education.

The most prominent names associated with Camp Caroline and the Homestake Mining District are the Flagg and Brown families. Both families became leading members of Butte’s historic Black community. The Flaggs and the Browns are mentioned frequently in The New Age, Butte’s Black newspaper, and both families were very active with Butte’s African Methodist Episcopal Church. Catherine Van Horne is another name that frequents the Homestake Mining District historical archives.  Catherine was a former “seamstress” from Chicago and New York. She funded $75,000 ($2,078,106 in today’s dollars) of capital funding through stock holdings in the “African-American Mining Company of Montana”, and managed the operations of the Mine and Mill for several years before leaving Montana in the late 1890s. Not much more is known about Catherine Van Horne; a female mine owner, employing and supporting the Black community during the Butte Copper King wars.

This project fully embodies the Forest Service’s motto of “Caring for the Land and Serving the People.” By locating, studying, and interpreting these sites, the BDNF cares for the cultural resources present on the land.  The story of Montana’s early Black residents has only recently begun to be told.  What has been told about it largely centers around Montana’s larger urban communities, whereas this tells the story of what is believed to be a predominantly Black, independent mining community on the periphery of one of America’s most significant mining centers.  The BDNF hopes to bring the story of Camp Caroline alive for visitors through physical and virtual interpretation in the coming years, allowing visitors to the area to learn the rich history of the community while they enjoy their public lands.

“It means the most to me to give back the voice. All too often, historical documents are not correct for one reason or another.  Archaeology has a chance to confirm, contradict, and/or contribute to history. Giving the gift of history to the local community of Butte and a place for the African American community to call their own while partnering with the youth of America is the most rewarding feeling, especially when I can do all this in my home state,” said Swartz.

Although it is said that our history does not define our future, it can and does inform our present.

“Black history isn’t a separate history. This is all of our history, this is American history, and we need to understand that. It has such an impact on kids and their values and how they view Black people.” -Karyn Parsons