The following is a list of ghost towns in Idaho. A ghost town is an abandoned village, town or city, usually one which contains substantial visible remains. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions or uncontrolled lawlessness.
Classification
[edit]Barren site
[edit]- Sites no longer in existence
- Sites that have been destroyed
- Covered with water
- Reverted to pasture
- May have a few difficult to find foundations/footings at most
Neglected site
[edit]- Only rubble left
- Roofless building ruins
- Buildings or houses still standing, but majority are roofless
Abandoned site
[edit]- Building or houses still standing
- Buildings and houses all abandoned
- No population, except caretaker
- Site no longer in existence except for one or two buildings, for example old church, grocery store
![](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Burke_idaho_overlook_%2815187629870%29.jpg/175px-Burke_idaho_overlook_%2815187629870%29.jpg)
Semi-abandoned site
[edit]- Building or houses still standing
- Buildings and houses largely abandoned
- Few residents
- Many abandoned buildings
- Small population
![](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Bayhorse_Ghost_Town.jpg/174px-Bayhorse_Ghost_Town.jpg)
Historic community
[edit]- Building or houses still standing
- Still a busy community
- Smaller than its boom years
- Population has decreased dramatically, to one fifth or less.
Table
[edit]Name | Other names | County | Location | Settled | Abandoned | Current status | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aline | Teton County | 1888 | 1901 | First settlement of Latter-Day Saints in the area.[1] | |||
Bayhorse | Custer County | 1877 | 1897 | Historic | A former mining town turned state park[2] | ||
Bonanza | Bonanza City | Custer County | 1877 | Abandoned | [2] | ||
Burgdorf | Idaho County | 1860s | Before 1945 | Semi-abandoned | |||
Burke | Shoshone County | 1887 | 1991 | Semi-abandoned | A mining town that closed after several natural disasters. | ||
Caribou City | 1897 | 1930 | [citation needed] | ||||
Chesterfield | Caribou County | 1879 | After 1928 | A former Mormon settlement, now open to the public as a tourist attraction.[3] | |||
Cobalt | Lemhi County | 1950s | [2] | ||||
Comeback Mining Camp | 1862 | [2] | |||||
Copper Queen | |||||||
Custer | Custer County | 1879 | 1910 | [2] | |||
De Lamar | Owyhee County | 1888 | |||||
Florence | Idaho County | 1861 | sometime after 1951. | ||||
Gilmore | Lemhi County | 1902 | 1930s | ||||
Golden Age camp | [2] | ||||||
[2] | |||||||
Joseph | Idaho County | 1883 | 1887 | ||||
Joseph Plains | Idaho County | ||||||
Leesburg | Lemhi County | July 16, 1866 | by the end of World War II | [2] | |||
Mount Idaho | Idaho County | 1892 | 1922 | [4] | |||
Placerville | Boise County | 1862 | 1899 | [2] | |||
Rocky Bar | Elmore County | December 1863 | 1960s | ||||
Ruby City | Owyhee County | November 1863 | |||||
Sawtooth City | Blaine County | 1879 | 1888 | [2] | |||
Silver City | Owyhee County | March 10, 1863 | 1890 | ||||
Strevell | Cassia County | 1974 | |||||
Vienna | 1878 | 1879 | [2] | ||||
White Knob | Custer County | 1884 | 1928 | ||||
Yellow Jacket | 1943 | 1945 | [2] |
1897 Gallery
[edit]-
Burke in 1888
-
The former hotel in Burgdorf
-
Silver City in 1892
-
A preserved cabin in Chesterfield
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Jenson, Andrew. Encyclopedic history of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints,. Salt Lake City, Utah. p. 868. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Weis, Norman D. (1971). Ghost Towns of the Northwest. Caldwell, Idaho, USA: Caxton Press. ISBN 0-87004-358-7.
- ^ Oregon. "Idaho pioneer cabin moved to Chesterfield site". OregonLive.com. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
- ^ Adkison, Norman B. (July 1, 1962). "Bustling, booming Mount Idaho now nothing but a ghost town". Lewiston Morning Tribune. p. 1–sec.2.