Helena High School - Vigilante Yearbook (Helena, MT)

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he . HJ! 4' 2 I5 Q 'Q qs QXX ul 4 9 0000 uma S 5' x T. +6 3- , fi Kg, -if 4' Q fs, 'iv 1864 1964 X 89-'I964 'WI S MONTANA, MONTANA, GLORY OE THE WEST. OF ALL THE STATES FROM COAST TO COAST, YOU'RE EASILY THE BEST. MONTANA, MONTANA, WHERE SKTES ARE ALWAYS BLUE M-O-N-T-A-N-A, MONTANA, T LOVE YOU. -Charles C. Cohcm PA E FIXE

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HELENA CENTENNIAL 1864-1964 One hundred years ago, on Iuly 14, 1864 to be exact, the four prospectors whom we call the Four Georgians wandered into a gulch angling out of the mountains and panned it as a last chance for discovery of gold. Most of us, for the three years of our junior high career, viewed each morning in the entrance of the Helena Iunior High the Shope painting which depicts this event. Three years later, as High School Seniors, we leave our school in a year which is not only the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Helena but also the centennial of the Territory of Montana. First called Last Chance City, Helena received its name from the fondness of a pros- pector for his home of that name in Minnesota. Helena became capital of the Montana Territory in 1875 and capital of the state of Montana when statehood was achieved in 1889-75 years ago this year. The old Helena High School still stands, a massive stone structure overlooking Last Chance Gulch, our main street. Another old High School is now the Helena lunior High. Our present Senior High School was opened the fall of 1955 with about half the number of students we have now, and enlarged with a west wing and an addition to the gym- nasium facilities in 1963. One old high school no longer exists. ln 1985 quakes struck Helena and partially destroyed the High School, the current lunior High. The school year was completed in raiload cars parked in the Northern Pacific railway yards. They were hauled off when reconstruction permitted high school classes to resume. One hundred years ago Last Chance Creek, flowing now under our city streets was a shallow trickle of water over a stream-bed heavy with golden wealth. One hundred years ago the site of our Senior High School was a sage-brush hillside on which Indians may have camped. A few years later Chinese came in, started gardening to furnish vegeta- bles for the thousands of miners who had stampeded into Last Chance Gulch and the surrounding territory, and thereafter this point was known as the Chinese Gardens. There is still gold under the concrete of Last Chance Gulch, our main street, and there is gold under the foundation of the Helena Senior High School. Helena is, indeed, the heart of the gold county. For many years a gold dredge worked within the city limits. Helena, and for that matter all Montana, developed because of the presence of the gold fields. Bannack, Vir- ginia City, Confederate Gulch-the great golden gulches whence sprung the mighty Mon- tana of today, the capital city of Helena, and our own Senior High School. PAC E FOUR

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GARY WILSON President MIKE RYAN Vice President STUDENT GCDVERNMENT tx ,M f-- f 1 ': xg. 1 'A t 'R' if'-f.aer?.2w . , - 1 , - 'flgtj' ' .-2. . . n fm . I ' '. f I ' 1 N I ..,. ' - - ., if W I M13 I JI ' 6' 3 3, vt A I al - f r ' f ' if' ' 'I :4 fc 'f . fi 'Q F X f 1 1 .2 1' V J' Nw. ps' .......?.v we M 4 ' fi , KAREN MUNSON KQQ 1 f 1 Secretary LINDA BREWER Treasurer ,,,,,,,f PAGE SIX EXECUTIVE BOARD Lett to right: Steve Meloy. Iunior Rep.: Mike Ryan, Vice pres.: Linda Brewer. Treas.: Gary Wilson, Pres.: Karen Munson, Sec.: Allen Mark, Senior Rep.: Not pictured is Shirley Eaton, Sohpomore Representative.