The Wild Horse (Wildhorse) River flows south-southwest from its head waters near Mount Ruault to its mouth on the Upper Kootenay River near Fort Steele. The river has been known by a number of names since its discovery in 1863, including Stud Horse Creek, Lone Horse Creek and Wildhorse Creek. A recreational panning reserve is located on the lower Wild Horse River for a distance of approximately 3 kilometres inland from the river mouth.

Regionally, the area is located on the eastern edge of the Belt Basin. The Belt Basin is formed by the Middle Proterozoic Belt Super group. The Purcell Super group is comprised of a thick accumulation of calcitic and carbonate rocks that are interpreted to have been deposited in a large intercratonic basin.

Locally, the area is underlain by moderately north-dipping sediments of the upper part of the Creston Formation and the lower part of the Kitchener Formation. The Creston Formation consists mainly of medium- to thick- bedded mauve siltstone and white quartz arenite, overlain by interbedded green argillaceous siltstone and minor quartz arenite. The Kitchener Formation conformably overlays the Creston Formation. The Kitchener Formation is composed mainly of carbonate and carbonate- rich calcitic sediments of thinly laminated dolomite, buff and light- green dolomitic siltstone, argillaceous dolomite, rare oolitic limestone, green siltstone and massive dolomite.

Placer gold was discovered on the Wild Horse (Wildhorse) River in 1863 and by 1864 approximately 1500 prospectors were encamped in the area. Over the next three years an estimated 7874.9 to 31 500 kilograms of gold was recovered (Halladay, L.B. (1979-04-27): Re: Maus and Wildhorse creeks placer leases). No official records from this time are available.

During 1874 through 1950, it is recorded that a total of 1186.65 kilograms of gold was produced from the Wild Horse River (Bulletin 28). The largest nugget was reported to be slightly more than 1.112 kilograms (Barlee, N.L. (1972-07-01): The Guide To Gold Panning In British Columbia).

In the 1930’s, hydraulic mining operations were performed by Mr. Drayton. Around the same time, a miner is reported to have drifted on bedrock for two years, yielding an average gold grade of 2.5 grams per cubic metre and totalling 1332.5 grams of gold (Halladay, L.B. (1979-04-27): Re: Maus and Wildhorse creeks placer leases).

In 1963, churn drilling and seismic surveys, by Veezay Minerals, identified a deeply buried channel of pay gravels east of the river, near the south western slopes of Lone Peak.