Basin is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, Montana, United States. It lies nearly 10 miles (16 km) southeast of the Continental Divide in a tall narrow canyon along Interstate 15 nearly halfway amongst Butte and Helena. Basin Creek flows roughly speaking north to south through Basin and enters the Boulder River on the settlement’s south side. The population was 212 at the 2010 census, down from 255 at the 2000 census.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of human habitation from 10,000 years ago at a site close Clancy, 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Basin. From not quite 2000 BCE through the mid-19th century, nomadic tribes hunted bison in the grassy valleys that trend east, away from the Rocky Mountains and into the plains. By the epoch miners found gold in the streams in and close Basin, most of these tribes of Indians had been goaded onto reservations by the U.S. government.

Basin rests above the Boulder Batholith, the host stone for many vital mineral ores found in this portion of Montana. After the town became a hub of gold and silver mining, Basin’s population peaked at very nearly 1,500 in the first decade of the 20th century but gradually declined as the mines were depleted. Abandoned mining equipment, closed or barricaded mine portals, and the ruins of a smelter and ore concentrator remain in Basin in the 21st century.

Historic buildings from Basin’s heyday form much of the core of the CDP’s little business district, which includes a blaze station, a read out office, two restaurants, a bar, a advertisement gallery, and little specialty shops. Basin has a small elementary school, its own water system, and a low-power radio station. Local volunteers and elected trustees offer limited facilities to the settlement, but it relies on the paperwork of Jefferson County for enactment enforcement and extra services. From 1993 through 2011, Basin was house to the Montana Artists Refuge.