{{Short description|Mountains located in Central Montana}} {{Infobox mountain | name=Judith Mountains | image= Montana_winter_aerial.jpg | image_caption=The Judith Mountains in winter | country=United States | state=Montana
| | parent=Rocky Mountains | borders_on= | highest= Judith Peak | elevation_ft=6428 | coordinates = {{coord|47|13|08|N|109|13|43|W|type:mountain_scale:100000|format=dms|display=inline,title}} | map= | map_caption= }}
The '''Judith Mountains''' are located in central Montana<ref>{{GNIS|id=806782|Judith Mountains}}</ref> in the Central Montana Alkalic Province in Fergus County, just to the northeast of Lewistown, Montana.
Judith Peak is the highest summit of this range, with an elevation of {{convert|6428|ft|m}}.
==History== To the southeast of Judith Peak lies the remains of Fort Maginnis. Fort Maginnis was built in 1880 to protect the cattle ranches, the gold mining camps in and around the Judith Mountains and the Carroll Trail. The fort was constructed following the battle of the Little Bighorn.<ref>[http://fergus.mtgenweb.org/mtmaginnis.htm ''The Building of Fort Maginnis,'' Lewistown News-Argus, Sunday, December 14, 1997 ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425155800/http://fergus.mtgenweb.org/mtmaginnis.htm |date=April 25, 2012 }}</ref><ref>[http://wikimapia.org/8554827/Fort-Maginnis-1880-1890 Fort MaGinnis on Wikimapia]</ref><ref name=BLM>{{Cite web |url=http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/mt/field_offices/lewistown/judith_moccasin/feb08mtg.Par.99831.File.dat/cultural.pdf |title=Judith/Moccasin Mountain Collaboration Cultural Resource Management Zane Fulbright February 21, 2008 |access-date=December 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602134537/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/mt/field_offices/lewistown/judith_moccasin/feb08mtg.Par.99831.File.dat/cultural.pdf |archive-date=June 2, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
In 1879, Granville Stuart and his friend Samuel T. Hauser along with Helena banker Andrew J. Davis established the ''Davis, Hauser and Stuart'' (DHS) cattle company. Stuart was made the general manager of the DHS brand and Stuart located the ranch headquarters on {{convert|800|acre|ha}} on the southern slopes of the Judith Mountains near Flat Willow Creek.<ref name=Reese>{{cite journal |last=Reese |first=William S. |title=Granville Stuart of the DHS Ranch, 1879-1887 |journal=Montana The Magazine of Western History |volume=XXXI |number=3 |date=July 1981 }}</ref><ref name=MacMillan>{{cite journal |last=MacMillan |first=D. |title=The Gilded Age and Montana's DHS Ranch |journal=Montana: The Magazine of Western History |volume=20 |number=2 |date=Spring 1970 |pages=50–57 |jstor=4517454 |publisher=Montana Historical Society}}</ref> The DHS Ranch was one of the largest open range cattle operations in the Central Montana prairie in the 1880s.<ref name=Remley>{{cite journal |last=Remley |first=David |title=Granville Stuart, Cowman: "To Struggle against an Adverse Fate" |journal=Montana: The Magazine of Western History |volume=31 |number=3 |date=Summer 1981 |pages=28–41 |jstor=4518584 |publisher=Montana Historical Society}}</ref>
==Mining and geology== thumb|Double-terminated quartz from Judith Peak. The geology of the range includes limestone, sandstone, and siltstone of Cambrian to Cretaceous age which were intruded by alkaline intrusives of monzonite, syenite to tinguaite composition of Cretaceous to Tertiary age. Epithermal gold and silver veins are found along the intrusive contacts.<ref>[http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/cm/vol44/CM44_207.pdf Bindi, Luca, ''Lenaite from the Gies Gold–Silver Telluride Deposit, Judith Mountains, Montana, USA;'' The Canadian Mineralogist, Vol. 44, pp. 207-212 (2006)]</ref> The mountains were the center of gold and silver mining in the 1800s and current exploration continues.<ref name=BLM/><ref>[http://www.mindat.org/loc-107292.html Gies Mine (Red Metal Claim group; Gies Mine; Elk Peak project; Bertha claim group), Cone Butte Sub District, Warm Spring District (Gilt Edge District; Gold Hill District; Maiden District), Fergus Co., Montana, USA]</ref> The old mining camps of Maiden and Gilt Edge were built during the mining boom in the 1880s and 1890s.<ref name=BLM/>
thumb|center|750px|Southwest flank of the Judith Mountains from Big Spring Creek
==See also== * List of mountain ranges in Montana
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.montanahikes.com/Judith_mountains.php Judith Mountains]
{{Montana}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Mountain ranges of Montana Category:Landforms of Fergus County, Montana Category:Volcanism of Montana
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