Millie Ringold

Millie Ringold (1845 - 1906) (also known as Millie Ringgold) was an African American gold prospector and boarding house proprietor in Yogo, Montana in the United States. She was the last recorded resident of Yogo, a mining district in the Little Belt Mountains known for Yogo sapphires.

Early life Ringold was born enslaved in either Maryland or Virginia in the United States in 1845. In 1863, when she was around 18, President Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation, which freed slaves in the American South.

By the 1870s, she was working as a nurse and servant for a U.S. Army General. She stayed in Fort Benton, Montana after the general was transferred, working as a local entrepreneur and boarding house proprietor.

Gold prospecting Charles Marion Russell's painting A Quiet Day in Utica, which features Millie Ringold stood in front of Lehman's General Store. Ringold is thought to have arrived in Yogo in 1879 after the discovery of gold nearby kicked off a gold rush in the Little Belt Mountains. She reportedly arrived with a wagon, two condemned Army mules, and $1,600 that she used to establish a hotel, restaurant, and saloon in the area where she sang and played music. The painting also is said to feature Millie's five gallon coal oil can, which she drummed while singing songs.