P a g e 4 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 Camping: Little Joe Campground operated by the USFS is located on the paved Wise River Road on your way to Coolidge and is the closest RV friendly campground to the ghost town. There are numerous scenic boondocking sites along the Wise River just off of Wise River Road. Several nice campsites can be found by turning northwest off of Wise River Road at: N45° 37.735 W113° 04.711 If you choose to boondock closer to Coolidge, you will find a place along (dirt) Old Polaris Road at: N45° 31.648 W113° 04.405 Upper Camp While the Coolidge town site contained the typical buildings of a frontier mining camp along with the mill to process the ore, most of the ore processed by the mill came from the Idanha tunnel, located high above town located at what was known as the upper camp. The only developed transportation link between the upper camp and Coolidge (lower camp) was an inclined cable rail line straight up the mountain. Today the rails are gone and from the top all you can make out is the old clear cut through the trees. In fact, if you stand at the edge of the mountain where the ore was loaded into the rail cars you are unable to see the rail terminus or town far below. Due to this geographical break between Coolidge and upper camp, you will want to treat the two as individual destinations when you visit. Let's explore upper camp: As mentioned above, most of the silver ore processed by the mill in Coolidge came from the Idanha tunnel at the 300-foot level of the mine (levels were numbered from top to bottom), which was located at the upper camp 800 vertical feet above the mill. Ore from the Idanha could be lowered internally through the mine via a raise to the lower tunnel at the 1000foot level where electric locomotives hauled ore cars a quarter mile to the mill. Ore from other shafts and adits at the upper camp was brought to the mill via a rail cable car system that ran steeply down the mountain side from an ore bin at the upper camp to an ore bin located just north of the lower mine tunnel portal in the town of Coolidge. The rail cable car employed a gravity system where loaded cars going down the mountain pulled the empty cars back to the top. The rail system had an unusual three rail track design so the rail cars could pass each other. From the ore bin at the bottom, ore was transferred to the lower electric locomotive, which hauled it to the mill. Courtesy of https://northwestrving.com Upper Camp Cabin Due to the separation from the town of Coolidge below, upper camp emerged to support the mining and
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