carpenter snow creek mining district

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James Neihart, a local prospector, was the namesake for the small mining town of Neihart. Mining began in the area in the 1880s when silver deposits were discovered near the future Neihart town site. Mines yielded primarily silver, lead and zinc ores. During the 1920s, lead and zinc were produced in large quantities. The mining district has been largely inactive since the 1940s, although some mines have reported mine development work and some sporadic production. The Carpenter Snow Creek Mining District Superfund Site (CSCMD) lies in the Little Belt Mountains of southern Cascade County. The site encompasses approximately 9,000 acres with mine tailings, waste rock and mine-influenced waters present throughout the site, due to the many inactive and abandoned mines. The State of Montana’s Abandoned Mine Bureau identified, inventoried and sampled these inactive mines in the Carpenter Snow Creek area in the early 1990s. Sampling showed the presence of a variety of metals in the area surface water and soils that are found in concentrations known to produce risk to human health and the environment. The CSCMD site was listed on the Superfund National Priorities List in 2001.