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East Helena

Travel Montana

East Helena Directory Listings

A view from 1939:

EAST HELENA, (3,901 alt., 1,039 pop), is a smelter town with many foreign-born inhabitants, most of whom came from the Balkans shortly after 1900. During prohibition many turned to the home-brewing practiced in their native lands; their products became so popular that a number left their jobs at the smelter to devote their entire time to easing the dry throats of the nearby capital. Legislative sessions brought miniature booms. With the repeal of prohibition, however, smelting again became East Helena's chief industry.

The Lead Smelter and the Zinc Recovery Plant (both open on application at office), connected by a slag conveyor, are operated jointly. Zinc, lead, gold, and silver ores from Idaho and Montana are reduced in 4 furnaces whose united annual capacity is 300,000 tons of ore and concentrates.

Source: Montana: A State Guide Book; Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Montana; September, 1939.