P a g e 7 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r SETTLEMENT HISTORY OF THE UPPER TENMILE AREA John Caplice discovered a rich vein in 1864 and soon local mines drew a solid population to the Tenmile area. By 1867 the early settlement, nestled in the shadow of Red Mountain’s soaring 8,800 foot peak, was home to miners working local claims. Lode mining began before 1870, and the mining camp was first known as Young Ireland because many of the miners were of Irish descent. In 1884, citizens petitioned Territorial Governor Schuyler Crosby for a post office, requesting the name of the town as Lee Mountain after the area’s most important mine. Governor Crosby, however, informed the delegation that postal officials did not usually approve names of towns that had more than one word. The governor had just seen a production of the play Francesca da Rimini at Helena’s Ming Opera House and loved it. He suggested the name Rimini (pronounced REE-mee-nee) after the town of that name in northern central Italy. The name stuck. Irish miners assumed the name was Irish because Irishman Richard Barrett played the lead role in the play. The post office approved Rimini’s application. Miners then changed the Italian pronunciation to RIM-in-eye. Rimini boomed as the Northern Pacific Railroad’s Rimini-Red Mountain branch line, which opened in 1886, hauled gold, silver, lead and zinc ore to the smelter at East Helena. Between 1864 and 1928, local mines genPhoto by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz erated some $7 million. The Hotel Rimini served delectable meals and visitors from far-away places strolled along the main street. But mining waned, the post office closed in 1916, and train traffic ended in the 1920s. Mining remnants lie scattered everywhere. From 1942 to 1944, remote Rimini was the U.S. Army’s War Dog Reception and Training Center for the Air Transport Command’s Arctic Search and Rescue Units where dogsled teams trained. Then the town became quiet. Today picturesque Rimini is a patchwork of time periods and home to a handful of residents. – Montana Historical Society Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
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