Helena, Montana

Helena /ˈhɛlᵻnə/ is the capital city of the U.S. State of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,190 and the Lewis and Clark County population at 63,395. Helena is the principal city of the Helena Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Lewis and Clark and Jefferson counties; its population is 77,414 according to the 2014 Census Estimate.

The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. Professional sports teams include the Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns Tier III Junior A hockey team. The city is served by Helena Regional Airport (HLN).

History

The Helena area was long utilized by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. Evidence from the McHaffie and Indian Creek sites on opposite sides of the Elkhorn Mountains southeast of the Helena Valley show that people of the Folsom culture lived in the area more than 10,000 years ago. Before the introduction of the horse some 300 years ago, and since, other native peoples, including the Salish and the Blackfeet, utilized the area seasonally on their nomadic rounds. By the early 1800s people of European descent from the United States and British Canada began arriving to work the streams of the Missouri River watershed looking for fur-bearing animals like the beaver, undoubtedly bringing them through the area now known as the Helena Valley. Yet like the native peoples none of them stayed for long.