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Idaho

12 posts

Silver Edsel Mill

Silver Edsel Mill

Not its real name, the mines in this part of Idaho were first worked in the 1880s and 1890s, but development didn’t start in a serious way until the 1920s when the first mill was built on this site. The mill was expanded in 1934 into a 50-ton (per

Stanley Mine

Stanley Mine

Not its real name, this silver mine, high in the mountains of Central Idaho, was a really fun one to explore. It’s a very wet mine, but we found a few ore cars and a flooded shaft station inside. The mine was first worked in 1882, but major production

Blackwater Mine

Blackwater Mine

In the late summer of 2018, we made a visit to a remote mine in Idaho. The ruined inclined tramway was my main interest, but the mine is more extensive than it looks. The mine was first worked around 1900, but it wasn’t until the 1930s that it became

Yankee Fork Gold Dredge

Yankee Fork Gold Dredge

Few gold dredges are left surviving in the lower 48 states, and even fewer are intact. This is one of the few. When I first heard about it, I had to see it. I was not disappointed. The Snake River Mining Company (a subsidiary of the Silas Mason Co.) contracted

Ramshorn and Skylark Mines

Ramshorn and Skylark Mines

I took a trip in 2016 to a couple of mines high up in the Central Rocky Mountains of Idaho. I love finding old mines with tramways, and these two were great. A large silver-lead strike was made at the Ramshorn mine (and the Skylark above it) in 1877, and