The brothers could not winter over in southern Idaho nor could they seek refuge in Salt Lake City because of the ongoing conflict between the United States and the Mormons called the Mormon War. Instead they befriended a former fur trapper Jake Meek who wintered a small cattle herd in the Beaverhead Valley. On October 10, 1857, Granville and James Stuart and Jake Meek crossed Monida Pass 200 miles north into the Beaverhead Valley and what was to become Montana Territory in 1864. They established a camp along the Beaverhead River near present-day Dillon, Montana. Others were already in the valley. Many former fur traders had adopted the practice trading one good cow or oxen for two trail weary animals on the Oregon Trail during the summer. They overwintered the animals in the Beaverhead to get them healthy for the next summer. One of these traders was French-Canadian Richard Grant, father of Johnny Grant who established the Grant Ranch in Deer Lodge in 1862. For three years, the Stuart brothers traded cattle, horses and other goods between the Big Hole valley, the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Valley and Fort Bridger in Southern Wyoming. In the fall of 1860, along with their friend Reece Andersen, the Stuarts decided to move north into the Deer Lodge Valley. They established a camp on Gold Creek (Benetsee Creek), where in 1852 a French prospector, Francois Finley (Benetsee) had discovered gold. In the spring of 1858, while doing a bit of prospecting along Gold Creek, the Stuarts along with Reece Anderson found enough gold to make them want to return. In 1861 the Stuarts decided to settle permanently in the Deer Lodge Valley along the Clark Fork River and Mullan Road. The road gave the Stuarts good access to supplies at Fort Benton to the east and from Walla Walla to the west. They built a small cabin along Gold Creek. Many other prospectors joined in the rush to the Deer Lodge Valley in search of gold in the early 1860–1862. Johnny Grant in 1859 built a cabin at Little Blackfoot Creek and later in 1862 a ranch at Cottonwood Creek. Those prospectors that congregated along Gold Creek called their community "American Fork", while at the other end of the valley, Grant called his growing community Cottonwood. With the discovery of gold in Alder Gulch in the summer of 1863, most of the inhabitants of the valley moved south to Virginia City including the Stuarts. However, the Stuarts wanted to sustain a presence in the Deer Lodge area.