Winston grew in the Upper Missouri River Valley as a mining boomtown shaped by hard-working, entrepreneurial residents and the area’s abundant minerals, timber, and rich soil. Although activity began in the 1860s and 1870s, the town blossomed after the Northern Pacific Railroad came through the valley in 1883; the railroad station was named for P.B. Winston, and the town, platted in 1892 on 20 acres, later took that name. After the 1864 Last Chance Gulch strike near Helena, prospectors flocked to nearby gulches, including Confederate Gulch, and mines in the Elkhorn Mountains helped put Winston on the map, producing at least three million dollars in gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. Farming and timbering expanded alongside mining to supply miners and their communities. The valley had been inhabited by Native tribes for thousands of years, and in July 1805 Lewis and Clark traveled through the area along the Missouri, reuniting near Beaver Creek as they neared the headwaters. The Missouri remained the valley’s lifeblood, supporting travel, settlement, mining, farming, and later irrigation and recreation through the Canyon Ferry dam projects, while the corridor continued to connect travelers and sustain local life.