Spanish Peaks Sculpted Relief

The Spanish Peaks, avg el. 8,441 feet (2,573 m),[1] is a mountain range between Bozeman, Montana and Ennis, Montana in Gallatin and Madison County, Montana. It is a sub-range of the much larger Madison Range, itself a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains. The hydrological divide of the range serves as the border between Gallatin and Madison County, Montana. The Spanish Peaks are made up of 1.6 billion year-old gneiss, making them the oldest peaks in the Madison Range, predating the rest of the range by 50-60 million years. Gallatin Peak, el. 11,015 ft., is the highest peak in the group.

Spanish Peaks-According to an oral history that Little Face, a Crow scout, told Lieut. James H. Bradley in 1876, these mountains were called Ol-ku-shu Ah-naht-si Ah-rah-sah-ti (Canyon where Spanish Stop). According to tribal legend the Crow found six Spanish trappers in the Gallatin Canyon around 1836. Stories of a rich gold mine found by these Spaniards helped fuel an abortive gold rush in the Gallatin Canyon around 1900. No mine and little gold have ever been found.
There was a small settlement called Spanish in the 1880s. It had a church that last ten years and a school that operated from 1883 until 1949.