Ghost Towns of Idaho (E-O)

County: Blaine
Zip Code: 73658
Latitude / Longitude: 35°55′59″N 98°35′30″W / 35.93306°N 98.59167°W / 35.93306 -98.59167
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Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Eagle City is a small rural community located on State Highway 58 in western Blaine County, Oklahoma, United States. Established on the Frisco Line before statehood, the post office was named Dillon. The Dillon Post Office opened on July 26, 1902. The name was changed to Eagle City on September 4, 1909.
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Era, ID

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Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Fairview, ID

County: Power
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 42°51’1″N 112°52’10″W
Elevation: 4,393 ft (1,339 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Fairview is an unincorporated community located in Power County, Idaho, United States.
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Flint, ID

Florence, ID

County: Idaho
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 45° 30′ 4″ N, 116° 1′ 42″ W
Elevation: 6,080 ft (1,850 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Florence is a ghost town in Idaho County, Idaho, United States. About 14 air miles (22 km) east-northeast of present-day Riggins in remote north central Idaho at an elevation of 6,080 feet (1,850 m). It was settled as a mining camp in the winter of 1861. Almost concurrent with its settlement, Washington Territory established Idaho County on December 20, 1861 in anticipation of a gold rush that brought over 9,000 residents within the first year., The town quickly became the seat with the first district court taking place at Florence on 22 September 1862. While the rich placer gold fields in the Florence Basin brought thousands of prospectors and contributed to the establishment of Idaho Territory in 1863, the rush to Florence was short-lived as intensive mining depleted the richest ground. At the first census of Idaho Territory, only 575 residents remained. By the territorial census of 1864, the population dwindled further to 254 residents. Even in its decline, Florence continued as the county seat until 1 June 1869 when the territorial legislature moved the county seat to the Warren’s Camp settlement of Washington. The town thrived again from 1895–1900, based more on lode mining.
Remains: The discovery of gold around Pierce and Orofino in 1861 drew thousands of prospectors into the Clearwater River area of present-day north-central Idaho, east of Lewiston. With all the best ground claimed, many newcomers began to look elsewhere. In late summer 1861, a party of men headed south toward a local divide between the Clearwater River drainage and the Salmon River watershed. At that time, much of that area was still part of the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. (A new treaty in June 1863 reset the reservation boundary.) Perhaps because of Indian protests, the party split at some point. A smaller band of five made their way into a high mountain basin about thirty miles (50 km) south of today’s Grangeville. There, they found very rich placer gold along most of the nearby streams in August 1861. Despite mutual promises to keep the find quiet when they returned to Elk City for supplies, word quickly got out. The camp went briefly under the name of Millersburg, but a miners’ meeting soon settled on Florence in November 1861. That was the name the town had when the Washington territorial legislature made it the seat of Idaho County on December 20, 1861. By the time winter took hold, the camp reportedly held nearly two thousand men. Unfortunately, the winter of 1861–1862 “proved to be one of the coldest in the history of Idaho.” No one knows how many men died from the cold, but one newspaper writer had “no doubt that at least one hundred men have perished from the cold.” Survivors told horrific stories of near-starvation, frostbite, and widespread snow-blindness.
Current Status: Then the town slowly faded away, having only ten inhabitants in 1940, and was totally abandoned sometime after 1951.
Remarks: Early returns seemed to justify their hopes, but both the lode and placer booms were fairly short-lived. By around 1900–1905, those hopes had faded and the town had to depend upon small-scale, essentially individual operations after that. Even that had ended by around 1940 when the census recorded just ten people in Florence. In 1951, when Sister Alfreda Elsensohn published her history of Idaho County, the handful of Florence inhabitants no longer received local mail delivery. It’s not clear when the last resident moved away (or passed on). Today, only a few building foundations and an overgrown cemetery remain. The Florence Basin is several miles west of the Gospel Hump Wilderness, which was designated a wilderness area in 1978. The basin is over 4,000 vertical feet (1,220 m) above the Salmon River, five air miles (8 km) north of its confluence with French Creek. After flowing westward across the state, the river turns north at Riggins; Florence is also twelve miles (20 km) east of the river as it nears Lucile (elev. 1,650 ft (500 m)).

Garnet Town, ID

Gem, ID

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Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1886
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Comments: Gold was initially discovered in the early 1860s in the mountains to the north of the Snake River basin. Silver, copper, and other minerals were subsequently discovered. Idaho experienced boom after boom, and mining towns arose overnight, boomed, and then disappeared as the miners left for the latest rush. Significant amounts of silver, zinc, and lead were discovered by miners in Burke Canyon in 1884 at the Tiger Mine. The Tiger Mine was sold to S.S. Glidden for USD$35,000. The community of Gem, just south of Burke, had already been established in 1886. Both Gem and Burke attracted various miners as well as a large number of Swedish immigrants.
Remains: On July 10, 1892, miners called a strike which developed into a shooting war between union miners and company guards. The first shots fired were exchanged at the Frisco mine in Frisco in the early morning hours of July 11. The gunfire ignited a stick of dynamite in the Frisco Mill, causing the four-story mill to explode, killing six people. The violence soon spilled over into the community of Gem. From there, union miners who had successfully shut down both the Frisco and the Gem mines, traveled to the Bunker Hill mining complex near Wardner, to the west, and closed down that facility as well. The Idaho National Guard and federal troops were dispatched to the area. The incident marked the first violent confrontation between the workers of the mines and their owners.
Current Status: After another fire wreaked further havoc on the canyon in July 1923, the Northern Pacific railroad considered discontinuing railway service through the canyon after damage to the depot; the railroad also cited increased automobile traffic as a reason for discontinuing the line. By 1939, the rail to Burke had been officially closed, and the tracks removed.
Remarks: Burke Canyon was the site of several natural disasters as well. Two major avalanches struck the canyon in the twentieth century: One on February 4, 1890, which killed three; and another in February 1910, which buried twenty-five people, killing all. In the days after the February 1910 avalanche, snow and rock continued to dislodge from the canyon walls, inflicting additional damage on the towns of Burke and Mace, and causing numerous deaths. In August of that year, the Great Fire of 1910 would cause further damage to the communities in the canyon. Three years later, in May 1913, the communities were stricken by heavy rains that resulted in significant floods.

Gibbonsville, ID

County: Lemhi
Zip Code: 83463
Latitude / Longitude: 45°33’20″N 113°55’23″W
Elevation: 4,570 ft (1,390 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Gibbonsville is an unincorporated community in Lemhi County, Idaho, United States. Gibbonsville is 26 miles (42 km) north of Salmon. Gibbonsville has a post office with ZIP code 83463.
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Remarks: Gibbonsville is named for John Gibbon.

Gilmore, ID

County: Lemhi
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Elevation: 7,186 ft
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Gilmore is an unincorporated community in Lemhi County, in the U.S. state of Idaho.
Remains: A post office called Gilmore was established in 1902, and remained in operation until 1957. The community was named after John T. “Jack” Gilmer, a businessperson in the stage coach industry (a postal error accounts for the error in spelling, which was never corrected).
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Golden Age Camp, ID

County: Boise
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Comments: Four miles upstream from Pioneerville, a Mr. Wells and 75 men began a mining operation called The Golden Age Mine and the camp was called Golden Age Camp. During the early 1900s the town had two mills, a dozen houses, to miner’s bunkhouses with recreation hall and a two-story hotel. The Diana School was soon constructed. The two mills turned out about $3000 in gold per day.
Remains: This operation was cut short when the mine shafts began to be flooded with water from Grimes Creek and had to be abandoned. There are still a few mining remnants.
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Graham, ID

Grasmere, ID

County: Owyhee
Zip Code: 83604
Latitude / Longitude: 42°22’36″N 115°52’57″W
Elevation: 5,089 ft (1,551 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Grasmere is a ghost town in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Idaho, in Owyhee County. Located on State Highway 51, it is 32.5 miles (52.3 km) north of the border with Nevada and 58.5 miles (94.1 km) south of Mountain Home. In 2000, the average median household income for the ZIP Code Tabulation Area that includes Grasmere and Riddle was $30,921. Grasmere’s elevation is 5,089 feet (1,551 m) above sea level.
Remains: Grasmere was the former site of a small gas station/bar& grill/post office, and still hosts a remote United States Air Force station manned by active-duty airmen from the nearby Mountain Home Air Force Base and Idaho Air National Guard airmen from Gowen Field in Boise. The station operates the flight training range over Bruneau Canyon of the Bruneau River just east of here for aircraft from their bases and other nearby bases in the region (such as Hill Air Force Base and Fairchild Air Force Base).
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Remarks: Grasmere has an unattended general aviation airport in service since April 1956, owned by the Idaho Transportation Department. rasmere was the fictional location for the 2008 Jacquie Rogers novel, Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues.

Greyhound Mine, ID

Helena, ID

County: Karnes
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Latitude / Longitude: 28° 57′ 14″ N, 97° 49′ 24″ W
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Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Helena is a ghost town in Texas, approximately 70 mi (110 km) southeast of San Antonio in Karnes County. The seat of Karnes County from 1854 to 1894, Helena was once known as the self-proclaimed “toughest town on earth” in the mid-19th century. It was named for the second wife of Lewis Owings, Helen Marr Swisher (1831–1910).
Remains: The town was the birthplace of the so-called “Helena Duel”, in which the left hands of two opponents are tied together with buckskin and each fighter is given a knife with a three-inch blade—too short to reach a vital organ or cause a single fatal stab. After the combatants are whirled around a few times, they slash away at each other until one bleeds to death from the accumulation of cuts and stabs. Crowds of spectators would view this gory, gruesome spectacle and even bet on the outcome.
Current Status: Helena is a ghost town allegedly because of the vendetta that Colonel William G. Butler (1831–1912) had against the town he blamed for the death of his son, Emmett Butler, who had been killed by a stray bullet from a saloon brawl on December 26, 1884. A few days later, Colonel Butler went to Helena with a group of cowhands and demanded to know who had shot his son and found that none of the townspeople was willing, to tell the truth. Enraged, Colonel Butler reportedly shouted: “All right! For that, I’ll kill the town that killed my son!” Following through on his threat, Butler, a veteran of the American Civil War and a wealthy rancher, arranged for the tracks of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway to be built 7 mi (11 km) away from Helena. Then, in a bitterly contested election in 1894, the county seat was moved from Helena to Karnes City. Helena quickly died.
Remarks: The popular character actor Jim Davis played the role of Colonel Butler in the 1969 episode “The Oldest Law” of the syndicated television series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Robert Taylor not long before Taylor’s own death. Tom Lowell (born 1941) played Emmett Butler; Stacy Harris, the corrupt Mayor Ackerson, and Tyler McVey, Parson Blake.

Herbert, ID

Herman, ID

Hump Town, ID

Idaho City, ID

County: Boise
Zip Code: 83631
Latitude / Longitude: 43° 49′ 43″ N, 115° 49′ 56″ W
Elevation: 3,907 ft (1,191 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Idaho City is a city in and the county seat of Boise County, Idaho, United States, located about 36 miles (58 km) northeast of Boise. Idaho City is part of the Boise City-Nampa, Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Remains: Idaho City was founded in December 1862 as “Bannock” (sometimes given as “West Bannock”), amidst the Boise Basin gold rush during the Civil War, the largest since the California gold rush a dozen years earlier. Near the confluence of Elk and Mores Creeks, its plentiful water supply allowed it to outgrow the other nearby camps in the basin, such as Placerville, Pioneerville, and Centerville. As its population swelled, the new Idaho Territorial legislature changed the town’s name to “Idaho City,” to avoid confusion with Bannack, in present-day Beaverhead County, the southwestern corner of Montana. At its peak during the mid-1860s, there were more than 200 businesses in town, including three dozen saloons and two dozen law offices. Its 1864 population of 7,000 made it the largest city in the Northwest, bigger than Portland. Wood was the prime source of both shelter and heat, which caused Idaho City to burn four times: 1865, 1867, 1868, and 1871. Five businesses on Main Street burned again in the early hours of June 5, 2015. In 1863, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church was established; it was the first Catholic parish in the new Idaho Territory and the church was completed the following year. Idaho City is an important location in local Masonic history. The Grand Lodge of Idaho was founded in Idaho City in 1867. Idaho Lodge No. 1 was originally located in Idaho City but is now in Boise.
Current Status: The population was 485 at the 2010 census, up from 458 in 2000. During the boom, the greater Boise Basin population numbered in the tens of thousands, but most departed the mountains once mining declined. Idaho City’s population fell below 900 by 1870 and was down to 104 by 1920. The modern economy relies mainly on hunting and fishing tourism, and visits to the many historic sites, including the Boot Hill Cemetery. Outside of town, the mining tailings of the era are ubiquitous. Senator Frank Church announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president from the porch of the county courthouse in Idaho City in March 1976. His grandfather had settled there in 1871 and his father was born there in 1889. Chase Clark, Church’s father-in-law, had announced his candidacy for governor in Idaho City in 1940.
Remarks: Four thousand Chinese lived in the Idaho Territory from 1869 to 1875. Like many Chinese immigrants, they came to “Gold Mountain” to work as miners, or found work as laundrymen and cooks. The store of Pon Yam, a prominent Chinese businessman Pon Yam House from 1867 is one of the only remaining buildings from Idaho City’s Chinese. Although today Chinese are rarely seen except as tourists, the 1870 census reported at 1,751 Chinese who were nearly half of city residents. Annie Lee was one legendary Idaho city woman who like Polly Bemis, escaped enslavement from the “world’s oldest profession”. She escaped from a member of the Yeong Wo Company in the 1870s to Boise to marry her lover, another Chinese man. Charged by her owner with grand larceny, she told a judge that she wanted to stay in Boise City. The judge subsequently granted her freedom.

Iron Springs, ID

Ketchum, ID

County: Blaine
Zip Code: 83340
Latitude / Longitude: 43°40’52″N 114°22’18″W
Elevation: 5,853 ft (1,784 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1880
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Comments: Ketchum is a city in Blaine County, Idaho, United States, in the central part of the state. The population was 2,689 at the 2010 census, down from 3,003 in 2000. Located in the Wood River Valley, Ketchum is adjacent to Sun Valley and the communities share many resources; both sit in the same valley beneath Bald Mountain, with its world-famous skiing. The city also draws tourists from around the world to enjoy its fishing, hiking, trail riding, tennis, shopping, art galleries, and more. The airport for Ketchum, Friedman Memorial Airport, is approximately 15 miles (24 km) south in Hailey. Originally the smelting center of the Warm Springs mining district, the town was first named Leadville in 1880. The postal department decided that was too common and renamed it for David Ketchum, a local trapper and guide who had staked a claim in the basin a year earlier. Smelters were built in the 1880s, with the Philadelphia Smelter, located on Warm Springs Road, processing large amounts of lead and silver for about a decade.
Remains: After the mining boom subsided in the 1890s, sheepmen from the south drove their herds north through Ketchum in the summer, to graze in the upper elevation areas of the Pioneer, Boulder, and Sawtooth mountains. By 1920, Ketchum had become the largest sheep-shipping center in the West. In the fall, massive herds of sheep flowed south into the town’s livestock corrals at the Union Pacific Railroad’s railhead, which connected to the mainline at Shoshone. After the development of Sun Valley by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1936, Ketchum became popular with celebrities, including Gary Cooper and Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway loved the surrounding area; he fished, hunted, and in the late 1950s bought a home overlooking the Wood River in nearby Warm Springs. It was there he committed suicide; he and his granddaughter, model, and actress Margaux Hemingway are buried in the Ketchum Cemetery. The local elementary school is named in his honor.
Current Status: Every Labor Day weekend, Ketchum hosts the Wagon Days festival, a themed carnival featuring Old West wagon trains, narrow ore wagons, a parade, and simulated street gunfights. The Clint Eastwood film Pale Rider (1985) was partially filmed in the Sawtooth Mountains nearby Ketchum.
Remarks: Ketchum is located at an elevation of 5,853 feet (1,784 m) above sea level. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.08 square miles (7.98 km2), of which, 3.05 square miles (7.90 km2) is land and 0.03 square miles (0.08 km2) is water. However, two mountain streams, Trail Creek and Warm Springs Creek join the Big Wood River in Ketchum.

Keuterville, ID

Landore, ID

Leesburg, ID

County: Lemhi
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 45° 13′ 26″ N, 114° 6′ 50″ W
Elevation: 6,653 ft (2,028 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Leesburg is an unincorporated community in Lemhi County, Idaho, United States. It lies at 45°13’26″N 114°6’50″W (45.2238080, -114.1139647), along Napias Creek in the Salmon National Forest, west of Salmon. Its altitude is 6,653 feet (2,028 m). The community possessed a post office as late as 1942, but it has since closed.
Remains: Leesburg was established after gold was discovered at the Leesburg Mine on July 16, 1866. The mining town was named for General Robert E. Lee because most of the settlers were Southerners.It once had a population of 7,000, including Chinese; 100 business firms; and a main street a mile long. Miners dug over 400 miles of ditches to carry water to sluice out gold. By 1930 placer mining was carried on nearly entirely by hydraulic methods. The mine produced nearly $16,000,000 in gold prior to 1938.
Current Status: Little remains of the original community. The entire site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975.
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Marshall Lake, ID

County: Custer
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 44.158286°N 114.98635°W
Elevation: 7,720 ft (2,350 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Marshall Lake is a small alpine lake in Custer County, Idaho, United States, located in the Sawtooth Mountains in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. Sawtooth National Forest trail 528 (Alpine Way trail) leads directly to Marshall Lake.
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Current Status: Marshall Lake is in the Sawtooth Wilderness, and a wilderness permit can be obtained at a registration box at trailheads or wilderness boundaries. The lakes sits just to the east of Williams and Merritt Peaks.
Remarks: The lakes is most easily accessed from the Redfish Lake or Stanley Ranger Station trailheads.

Mineral City, ID

Moose City, ID

Mount Idaho, ID

County: Idaho
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 45° 54′ 14″ N, 116° 4′ 56″ W
Elevation: 3,640 ft (1,110 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Mount Idaho is a ghost town in Idaho County, Idaho, United States. The town served as county seat of Idaho County from 1875 to 1902.
Remains: A 45-mile (72 km) stretch of trail opened in 1860 in the Mount Idaho area is believed to be one of the earliest examples of a toll road on record in the region. According to local legend, the owner of this road, Mose Milner, was forced to sell the area to Loyal P. Brown after being permanently disabled in a fight with a mountain lion. Brown is considered the founder of Mount Idaho. The town of Mount Idaho was founded around 1862 as an outpost serving nearby gold mining areas. By 1873 Mount Idaho was connected by stagecoach with Lewiston.
Current Status: There are still many of the original buildings as well as the cemetery.
Remarks: During the 1877 Nez Perce War, a hotel in Mount Idaho served as a hospital. Some of the dead from that conflict were buried in the town’s cemetery. By 1892 Mount Idaho was in competition with nearby Grangeville, some 3.5 miles (5.6 km) away, as the main town in Idaho County. The county seat was moved from Mount Idaho to Grangeville ten years later. By 1922, when the town’s post office closed, Mount Idaho had been effectively assimilated by Grangeville.

Muldoon, ID

Murray, ID

County: Shoshone
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Latitude / Longitude: 47° 37′ 38″ N, 115° 51′ 31″ W
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Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Murray is an unincorporated community in Shoshone County, Idaho, United States. It is twenty miles from Wallace along Dobson Pass Road.
Remains: The community was named for George Murray, a mining prospector. Murray was one of several boisterous mining camps that became active in the late 1880s in Northern Idaho. Mines operated in the area from the 1880s to the 1950s. A Northern Pacific railroad line served the community for two years during the 1910s. A post office was established at Murray in 1884, and remained in operation until 1959.
Current Status: Today Murray is inhabited by prospectors, loggers, and retirees. Two businesses remain open, the Sprag Pole Restaurant and Museum and the Bedroom Goldmine Bar.
Remarks: The Sprag Pole occupies one of the town’s original buildings, built in 1884.

Eagle City, ID