Discover the Keystone Ghost Town was a wild silver mining town, in the 1880's, where silver lode was discovered. Look for the dilapidated old buildings that are about to fall down. It is located in Mineral County, Montana.
Explore the Pardee Ghost Town. This town had silver seams that were located close to the top soil. Find out why the place is hard to find. It was mined from about 1898 through 1930, but when the Iron Mountain Mining Company failed to follow a new Montana state law that required all mines to have two openings, the authorities closed it down. Located also in Mineral County, Pardee is behind the town of Superior, Montana, to the north about 10 miles away.
Visit the Montana City Ghost Town. It is a small "Old Town" in the area of Libby, in Lincoln County, Montana. Find out who refurbished the Theatre and Saloon and had them moved to the Cedar Creek area, in the 1980s.
Discover the Coloma Ghost Town is named the Mystery Camp. Find out why the local folks won't say much about what they know about the mystery behind this town. Located in Missoula County, Montana, Coloma was active from about 1893 to 1906, when gold was discovered worth about $250,000. The town was active twice afterward until about 1950. The ruins are still there, among the old trees and brush.
Visit the Elkhorn Ghost Town, located high in the Pioneer Mountains. Find out when silver was first discovered and by whom. It has been whispered that the name came from a man named Bill Roe when he found a pair of Elkhorns in the area. This mine was first worked by a company located "back East." Silver ore was found and carried by teams of bulls to Corrine, Utah, and then loaded onto railroad cars, which transported it to San Francisco. It was then transferred to the ships which sailed it to Swansea, Wales, where it was produced into several varieties of metal.
Explore the Coolidge Ghost Town. In 1914, the Coolidge, Montana mining work had just started to thrive in the mine's tunnel. This town had both Telephone service and electricity provided by a power line carrying 65,000 volts running from Divide, over the hill to Coolidge. Find out what the final completion cost was. With more growth forming in Coolidge, the schools were organized in October, 1918. Then a post office was established in 1922. Five years later the school district offices were abandoned. By 1932, there was no more post office. Mail was ordered to transfer to the town of Wise River, Montana. The two mining camps that resulted were the Idanha, which was the one located above the Elkhorn and the Mill sight. The Idanha was the best producer of the two mines. The mill did not operate to capacity very often. Three months in 1922-1923, and four months in 1925 were all that was recorded. Shipment was stopped in 1927, when the Wise River Dam broke. A section of the railroad was destroyed. It was repaired in 1930, but it was too late to save the mine because prices had already gone down. The years that followed produced nothing of great worth.
Discover Glendale Ghost Town. A 40 ton lead smelter was built at Glendale, Montana in 1875. It was used for the processing of silver and lead. Four years later it burned down, but was enlarged and rebuilt. It was a real producer, some 90 pound bars of bullion then were transported to the American Smelting and Refining Company, out of Omaha, Nebraska and refined. Nearly 1,000,000,000 bushels of charcoal and smelter per year were used. Then a disaster happened in 1893 when the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed, which caused the prices for silver to drop substantially. In 1900, the Glendale smelter was purposely torn down and destroyed. These mines of Glendale had produced over 22 million dollars in silver.
Explore the Melrose Semi-Ghost Town. There are a couple of the original buildings remaining here. Being located on a main thoroughfare in the County of Silverbow has had an impact on extending the existence of this Semi-Ghost Town. It was not a mining camp in the first place, but it did help to supply the mining camps that were in the general area. Only 20 miles from the continental divide, it has an elevation of over 5,000 feet. It is very cold in the winter time and cool in the summer. Look for the few log cabins that have survived.
Visit the Silver Bow Ghost Town. It is also located in Silverbow County, near Highland City, which is on the south side of Butte, Montana about 15 miles. Between the years of 1865 and 1875 it was considered an extraordinary gold-producing boom town. Discover the miners cabins which are still standing. Find the cemetery. Hunt for the old water lines made of logs and leather for joints that are still there. The water lines were created to wash the gold off. The road is a very good Forest Service road. This city was actually sitting on the Continental Divide.
