G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y P a g e 3 Pony, Montana Pony was founded by Tecumseh Smith in 1860-1870. During it’s prime it is rumored to have reached up to 5,000 people, though many people claim that those numbers may have been inflated. Developed as a mining town, the mines around Pony started mining gold and have been open on and off for the last 150 years. Pony is now classified as a living Ghost town as the bank, school, general store and many other buildings have been shut down over the years. Now, he only two remaining businesses are the Pony Bar and the Post Office. Around 150 people still live in this beautiful community. Photo Courtesy of Nancy Nellis Elling-Morris Mill Two coarse rubble stone walls, wooden walls extending above and beyond the stone walls at the rear, and a wooden roof housed this twenty-stamp gold mill built in 1883. Henry Elling (1848-1900) and William W. Morris (18401904) were the mill's original owners. Each of the mill's twenty stamps probably weighed between 500 and 750 pounds. Lifted in sequence by a camshaft, the giant stamps crushed goldbearing quartz into fine sand. The quartz came from Pony area mines, including The Boss Tweed, The Keystone and The ClipPhoto Courtesy of Nancy Nellis Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz per. Once crushed, the ore was placed on one of the mill's four Frue vanners. New technology in 1884, Frue vanners combined a shaking rubber belt with water jets to wash away "gangue" (worthless rock) while leaving the heavier gold-containing particles. The gold-containing particles were then shipped approximately 60 miles north to a smelter at Wickes, where giant roasting furnaces finished the process of isolating the gold. Once the largest operating concentrator in Pony, the mill ran periodically from 1884 until approximately 1926. Today only the east and west walls remain. Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once. Please be sure to share this newsletter with a friend!
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