Located in southwestern Montana and established in 1865, Jefferson County is Montana's 19th most populous with 10,049 residents according to the 2000 Census. According to the Montana Almanac, Jefferson County is one of the original nine counties of the Montana Territory. The Jefferson River, named by explorers, Lewis and Clark, for President Thomas Jefferson, runs through the county. Jefferson County's slogan "The Undiscovered In-Between" was derived from its location between Bozeman, Butte and Helena. County residents experience the four distinct seasons. Average monthly temperatures, for example in Boulder, range from a low of 8.4 degrees above in January to a high of 82.3 degrees above in July. The annual average precipitation is 11.22 inches.
According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, median income for Jefferson County households in 1997 was $41,820. The county is 1,658.9 square miles in area: 1,656.7 square miles in land area and 2.2 in inland water area.
Jefferson County abounds with natural resources and its economy is based around these, including production agriculture, wood products and mining. The mining industry is centered around two large mines at either end of the county. One large operation, about 1.5 miles off Interstate Highway 90 at State Highway 69, near Whitehall, is the Golden Sunlight Mine. It is an open pit operation that employs about 75 persons and has an annual payroll of about 3.8 million dollars. They process about 7,000 tons of ore per day and recover about 250-300 oz. of gold per day. Montana Tunnels Mining Inc., a subsidiary of Apollo Gold Corporation, is located approximately seven miles from the town of Jefferson City. Montana Tunnels has reserves of 334,000 ounces of gold; 4,000,000 ounces of silver; 114,000 tons of zinc and 42,000 tons of lead contained in approximately 21,000,000 tons of ore. These reserves will be mined between 2002 and 2006 with annual production of approximately 70,000 ounces of gold; 1,000,000 ounces of silver; 27,000 tons of zinc and 10,000 tons of lead.
Another natural resource related business is Ash Grove Cement located near Montana City. Ash Grove, with an 83 person workforce, uses limestone, which is mined locally at a quarry, to produce bulk cement.
Finally, Jefferson County has a burgeoning youth and social services industry centered around several operations in Boulder. These include the Montana Developmental Center, (300 + workforce), a state institution serving people with developmental disabilities. Alternative Youth Adventures (AYA) is also located in Boulder and provides a range of services for troubled youth. AYA employs about 100. The final component of the industry is Riverside Corrections, a state-run detention center for juvenile females, which employs about 30 people.