A Haunted Weekend, Part II

Last weekend I started out on Friday by visiting Bannack State Park, the site of the first gold rush in Montana, as well as the first territorial capitol of Montana. The buildings are deteriorating but are being maintained, for the most part, so the roofs are watertight and thus don't fall.

I was camping at Grasshopper Campground, which is on the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway, just south of Elkhorn Hot Springs. I wanted to explore the byway further and get to Butte in the afternoon to put up last Sunday's blog.  I broke camp and started out without breakfast or coffee, planing to stop somewhere along the way for same.

Fog was pretty heavy, especially in the valleys. I listened to the radio as I drove, and found out I was heading into unhealthy particulate levels from the smoke of two wildfires. I started climbing as soon as I got to the road and soon came to some (probably) breathtaking views. But alas they were hidden under the smog.  But I could see that I would have been able to see alpine meadows, above the tree line.  I stopped at all the campgrounds along the way. (Grasshopper is the best one, followed by Price Creek.) Over two hours after I'd left my camp, I got to Mono Campground.  When I stopped to explore, I found both a trail and a sign that said Elkhorn Mine was only four miles further down the side road. So I  had to stop there also.

This mine and ghost town was an entirely different experience. I hike in and most through all the mine area as well as the town before I met any people. And this is not being maintained, except possibly for one house that is still standing.

The town of Coolidge, Montana was only in existence for 28 years, from 1914 - 1932. But what a change in just over a person's lifetime. Today it is mostly rubble.  The mine was never profitable and then a flood took out the train track and several bridges, it was the killing blow to the town. The town was established to support the silver mine, but there was never enough silver to get the mine to full production.  I felt a much greater sense of people's struggle to make a living here, than at Bannock.

Map of Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway with Coolidge Ghost Town marked

View of the Upper Mill 

Closer view of Upper Mill

This can has probably been here at least 80 years

Not sure what this was used for but it seemed to be a huge rotating tube

I could envision living in it but couldn't figure how to add a bathroom.  

The town and mill had electricity and phone service - this is a fuse box I found near the mill

The mine entrance

A cooking stove  - there were several sitting outside the homes

I saw this dragon caught in the wood and had to capture it with my camera

The town must have had a jail

The only house that is still intact

Wash basins in the intact house

Interior view of the intact house

There were a lot of golden-mantled ground squirrels around

And I was interested in seeing just how important a roof is to maintaining the rest of the house. I was reminded of way houses in hurricane areas now have to have the roof tied to the walls of the house, because walls can't stand without the roof.

This house will probably be walls and rubble by next year

A decorative part of what was maybe a ruined stove

Almost deconstructed by nature

Walls are giving way

There was a crooked little house

A view of part of the town

This roof had blown of its house intact and landed in Mono Creek, forming a waterfall inside itself

I got lost in the past and spent about three hours here before heading on up to Wise River and turning to go to Butte. I didn't get there until after two o'clock so didn't get my breakfast. Instead I drank a pot of tea with my Chinese food before going to the library and putting up the blog.

Then I went all the way back to the same camp  to get out of the worst of the smoke, and got the same camp site.  The two ghost towns and the hike to Sawtooth Lake (Wednesday's blog) made for a wonderful weekend.  Then I got to help with the lesser scaup roundup for three marvelous days - I'll tell you all about it Wednesday.

A Haunted Weekend - Part 1

Throughout the week, I watched the weather. Friday was supposed to be stormy, and one of the areas I contemplated visiting even had a fire warning  - from possible dry lightning.  I didn't relish camping way out in the woods, only to find a wildfire had cut off my route back. I dithered about only doing day stuff, but I live too far away for anything to be closer than about 4 hours.

Friday morning sky

I got up to see a red sky Friday morning, and finally decided to go to Bannack State Park, the best preserved of Montana Ghost towns.  My rationale was that I could always just come back home if the weather turned really bad. I piddled around and finally left around 9:A. M.  I needed to mail a package to first went to the post office at Dillon. Then I had to make a detour into the Dairy Queen for a Blizzard before going on to Bannack.

When I got to Bannack, the sky was partially cloudy but the sun was extremely harsh and the temperature was too hot. So I decided to go find a campsite and come back in the evening.  On the way out, I took a left turn too soon and got to see a lovely huge pasture full of both sheep and hay bales.

I finally reached a main road and got myself oriented and headed back to the correct road.  The road I was looking for was The Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway.  It has lots of camping along it. And it even has a public hot springs with a swimming pool.  I would have checked it out Friday night, but found I'd forgotten my swimsuit.  

The first campsite I found was Grasshopper Campground. It has water, which a lot of the Forest Service campgrounds don't have, and pit toilets. The site was in the woods with most of the tables in the shade, and with large campsites. I soon found a site with only a trailer on one side of me and only two sites from a restroom. The view was back to a mountain of falling bounders and tall evergreen trees. 

The sky was getting blacker and lightening was flashing as I ran to get my tent up.  While I was setting up, a few fat drops of water landed on me. I managed to get the tent completely up before a short shower commenced.  When that one was over, I got all my bedding into the tent, and blew up my pad. Another shower started so I just lay down and read for a few minutes. Minutes later, the sky was mostly clear, so I headed back to visit Bannock. 

There, I found most of the visitors gone and I had an almost solitary experience with the buildings. If I squinted, I could almost see it when it was the capital of the Territory of Montana and many of its occupants were busy mining gold or running stores or saloons. There have been many sightings of ghosts, especially in the Hotel Mead, but none of them showed themselves to me. 

Dr. Rayborn's house is the only one furnished

Bedroom

Baby carriage

Mason's - upstairs and school - downstairs

This desk brought back memories of ones I bought for end tables - and my almost three-year-old daughter who caught her leg in one.  We had to saw her out of the desk.

Hotel Meade

The beautiful staircase inside the hotel

Street view with a few visitors

The Methodist  Church - only church in town

The jail - usually just held a man a few hours before he was hanged

View behind the street

One house had several wallpapered rooms - all flowers

Grasshopper Valley is most ranching - the cows are grazing on government lands while the ranchers are stockpiling hay for winter

This is a haying machine  - think it's called a beavertail

Hay bales were thick

The evening sky promised an end to the rain, even though it was still in the forecast.

A Visit to the Past in Montana's Smallest State Park

This past weekend I visited my friend Kathy, a long-time birding and paddling buddy, who lives near Corpus Christi in the winter and in Bozeman in the summer.  She graciously took me to several places, one of which was Elkhorn State Park within the ghost mining town of Elkhorn, Montana, west of Bozeman.

We missed our turn but found an even better road a few more miles down Interstate 90.  It was a well-maintained dirt road with farms and hills along it. At one spot, there was a scenic rocky outcropping with lots of flowers. in small fields among the trees. We had to stop and take pictures.

Rock formation

Then we had to cut across to our original road.  The crossover road had an old hot spring that had been developed into a hotel with swimming areas top of the springs.   We stopped to check out the old hotel.  I couldn't talk Kathy into taking a soak, so we continued on to Elkhorn.

Beautiful old hotel at Boulder Hot Springs

Elkhorn is an old mining town which primarily mined silver but also mined lead and a little gold.  It was unique in that whole families lived here, rather than mostly just men as was normal in mining towns.

View of Elkhorn and part of the mine and tailings from a hill above the town

These wheels seemed to hold a story of a terrific wreck

The town itself has always had a few residents and most of the old buildings are on private land and are almost gone. The state owns only Fraternity Hall and Gillian Hall.  Mixed among the derelict buildings are weekend cabins a a few full-time residences.

Almost gone

Better days are long gone

Part of mine operation

The mine entrance building

The State Park - Fraternity Hall and Gillian Hall

Kathy 

One of the most poignant parts of our tour was a visit to the cemetery.  Most of the tombstones were on graves of children who died in the diphtheria epidemic of 1889. Many of the tombstones held the names of two children who died days apart. One family lost six children and the mother in one week.  I was glad that most modern families don't have to live with this kind of tragedy today.




The town had a high population of about 2500 people but it rapidly died away as mining slowed in the early 1900's. Tailings were still treated until 1937.

Hope no one was in this car when it was shot up.