"MCRy track layers reached Bernice, five miles west of Basin in June 1888. While never a town, several mines were located on the hillsides above Bernice, and Lake Wilder was only two miles south.  Just across the Boulder River to the north was the former stage station at Calvin's Ranch.  It marked the end of the HBV&B's  [Helena, Boulder Valley and Butte RR] attempt to parallel the MCRy to Butte, its rails reaching there the year before.

The Montana Central Railway

Basin is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, Montana, United States.

Named for the many large boulders in the vicinity, the town of Boulder Valley was established in the early 1860s as a stagecoach station on the route between Fort Benton and Virginia City.[5] It later became a trading center for nearby agricultural areas and the Elkhorn,