The Pioneer Cabin was built when Wilson Butts, a veteran of the California gold rush, arrived at Last Chance Gulch in Helena with the first wave of miners in the summer of 1864 and built a one room cabin, rough-hewn and chinked. His Brother Jonas with wife Louanna and family moved in and expanded the cabin the following spring. When the claim failed to support the family, Louanna’s housekeeping skills provided income with miner’s gladly paying $2.20 a pound for her butter.

Louanna and Jonas built the front portion of the Pioneer Cabin in 1865. It was two separate cabins while the family lived there. The family of 5 lived in the front cabin and the bachelor brother lived in the rear cabin where the family also did their cooking. The two separate cabins were later connected, probably by the Gilpatricks who were the second residents.

The Gilpatricks occupied the cabin next and planted the locust trees seen in front of it. George Mitchell occupied the cabin from 1903-38 and ran a coal and wood business at the rear. It is the oldest documented dwelling in Helena, and the only documented miner’s cabin built during the first months after the Last Chance discovery.

Former Montana First Lady Grace Erickson led the effort in December 1938 of the Last Chance Gulch Restoration Association to purchase the property and restore it as the Pioneer Cabin Museum. The Association owned and maintained the Pioneer and Caretakers Cabins until they gave the property title to the State of Montana in 2005. The Montana Heritage Commission currently manages Reeder’s Alley.