Helena owes its existence to gold-bearing quartz lodes in the hills south of town. Gold washed out of the hills into Last Chance Gulch, where the Four Georgians discovered it in 1864. The rich strike drew hundreds of men and women to the area, including James Whitlatch, discoverer of Helena's mother lode. His Whitlatch-Union Mine gave rise to Unionville, a camp with stores, saloons, a Chinese laundry, boarding houses, a school, and an extensive complex of stamp mills and warehouses. By the early 1870s, the Unionville district was the largest producer of gold bullion in the United States and seemed headed for prominence, but its fortunes reversed when, in 1897, the gold-bearing lode in the Whitlatch-Union Mine disappeared under a fault. Efforts to relocate it failed, the company abandoned the mine, and other district mines survived only for a time before closing as well. By the early 20th century, fewer than one hundred people remained in the area. Unionville's proximity to Helena has kept it from obscurity, and today it thrives as a bedroom community with its mining heritage still evident.