SEPTEMBER 2022 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter From the Dillon Tribune June 5, 1891 Montana’s Ghost Town Loop– Canyon Creek, Vipond Park & Quartz Hill Accessed via: https://montananewspapers.org Welcome to part four of Montana’s Ghost Town Loop (article links can be found at end of this article) which brings us back to our starting point and completes the loop. This 70-mile loop tour in southwest Montana passes through scenic territory with plenty of camping options while visiting ghost towns and mining camps that helped establish the state. You will find it easy to social distance yourself from others and world events as you enjoy this loop. If you missed the last entry you can read it here. This week we will visit the very photogenic Canyon Creek Charcoal Kilns, the ghosts of Vipond Park and the ghost town of Quartz Hill. Canyon Creek Charcoal Kilns Furnaces in a smelting operation require large amounts of fuel to heat the ore in order to release the precious metal trapped within. The choice of fuel for the nearby Glendale smelter we visited in the last installment was charcoal. Charcoal is produced by burning cord wood under controlled conditions. In the early 1880's, twenty three brick kilns were constructed on Canyon Creek, about five miles from the Glendale smelter, where timber was abundant along with clay for making the bricks. These kilns employed scores of men, both to operate and to harvest the huge amounts of wood to keep them burning around the clock. A good wood cutter who could cut and deliver two cords of wood per day was paid $8 - 10 for his efforts. As wood was depleted in the immediate area around the kilns a wood chute was conCourtesy of https://northwestrving.com
P a g e 2 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 Courtesy of https://northwestrving.com structed up the steep hillside to the north to access the large plateau area above known as Vipond Park. If you look up the hillside from the kilns you can still spot the remains of the platform used to load the wood into the chute. The forest service has restored three of the kilns to their original appearance and installed interpretive signs. Click here to learn more about the kilns. Vipond Park Interpretive Signs Tell the Story of the Kilns Vipond Park and the mining district that followed were named after the Vipond brothers who settled in the area in 1868. In April of that year, John Vipond filed the first mining claim in the area. His brothers soon joined in prospecting the area and discovered what would become the Gray Jockey mine the next year. During the ensuing years, the Gray Jockey mine and mill yielded 22,789 ounces of silver from 2,161 tons of ore taken from the mine. The remains of the Gray Jockey are one of the few mining ruins visible from the Quartz Hill Road which you will be traveling between Quartz Hill and the kilns. Courtesy of https://northwestrving.com It’s Been Years Since a Vipond Miner Walked Through This Door Other notable mining properties in the area that were discovered and mined in the late 1800’s include: • The Queen of the Hills Mine, which employed about 50 men to develop a producing gold mine and construct a 10-stamp mill at the site. In the early 1900’s, the mine and mill traded hands, more improvements were made, but little if any profitable ore was mined. The area around the Queen of the Hills contains the largest amount of ruins in the area. • The Old Faithful Mine was probably the largest producer in Vipond. It produced a total of 1,037 tons of ore, yielding 69,512 pounds of lead, 6,700 pounds of zinc, 2,582 pounds of copper, 1,576 ounces of silver and 268 ounces of gold. Judging by the newer ruins at the site, it looks like mining attempts occurred here until the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. Tableware still sits on the counters and canned goods are in the cupboards in one old cabin. Courtesy of https://northwestrving.com Structure at Queen of the Hills Mine
P a g e 3 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 · The Keystone Mine contains a couple of old cabins located on a hill above several collapsed mine openings. I was unable to find any historical production data on the mine, but it appears it was mined in the 1880’s and again as late as the 1930’s. Courtesy of https://northwestrving.com Ghost town books and websites will make reference to Vipond as if a centralized town once existed. From my research and visiting the area, Vipond was never a town, but more of a settled area, so don’t expect to find a main street with abandoned buildings lining the sides. What you will find are scattered ruins hidden off side roads in a very scenic forest setting. With that said, those that desire to seek out the ghosts of Vipond Park should have a good map, GPS navigation, good wayfinding skills along with an appropriate vehicle for traveling old mining roads. Coordinates of the mines listed: • Gray Jockey: N45° 41.648 W112° 56.000 • Queen of the Hills: Multiple ruins below the mine: N45° 40.282 W112° 56.891 A large building with a nice view of Vipond Park: N45° 40.407 W112° 56.930 (Just north of here is an old log cabin with trees growing within it) Mine adit: N45° 40.332 W112° 57.137 Mine shafts: N45° 40.402 W112° 57.271 • Old Faithful Mine: N45° 41.536 W112° 56.835 • Keystone Mine Cabin: N45° 42.465 W112° 56.177 Another cabin: N45° 42.420 W112°56.231 • Other ruins not mentioned above: The remains of a cabin can be found at: N45° 40.555 W112° 54.809 • Remains of two more cabins can be found at: N45° 40.695 W112° 54.754 These were probably housing and/or related to the wood cutting operations. Quartz Hill Cabin Overlooking Vipond Park This is an easily reached ghost town via Quartz Hill road with a handful of standing structures and a photogenic mining head frame. Quartz Hill was featured in a previous post which you can view here.
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 Getting There You have a choice on approaching / visiting all three sites as they are linked together by through roads from the towns of Wise River and Melrose with camping options at both ends of the route. The author chose to visit the charcoal kilns and Vipond Park from the Melrose side from his existing campsite near Glendale, while visiting Quartz Hill via the very well maintained gravel road from the Town of Wise River. Those with suitable RVs like a 4x4 class B van or pop up truck camper mounted on a four wheel drive truck might consider driving from end to end. Quartz Hill Main Street Courtesy of https://northwestrving.com Here are the instructions for reaching the sites from the Melrose end of the route: To reach the Canyon Creek Charcoal Kilns: Turn right on Canyon Creek Road on the west "outskirts" of Glendale which we visited in the last entry. Continue on Canyon Creek Road for about 5 miles, until you reach the kilns at: N45° 40.771 W112° 52.215 To reach Vipond Park from the kilns continue on Canyon Creek Road for just over 1.5 miles until you reach a junction with a hard right turn at: N45° 40.237 W112° 53.834 Take the right hand turn which will take you up a fairly steep one lane road to Vipond Park at the top. To reach the ghost town of Quartz Hill from Vipond Park, continue on Quartz Hill Road through Vipond Park for approximately 8 miles. Camping See the last entry for areas to camp at the Melrose end of the route. Click on the previous Quartz Hill entry for areas to camp at the Wise River end of the route. I hope you have enjoyed this loop trip though a portion of Montana’s historic mining areas and the many options to camp while social distancing yourself from others. Montana Ghost Town Loop Series: Part 1 - Coolidge, Part 2 - Bannack & Farlin, Part 3 - Glendale, Hecla, Lion City & Trapper City, Part 4 - Canyon Creek, Vipond Park By Dave Helgeson for https://northwestrving.com/ Dave Helgeson is the MHRV Show Director. He and his wife love to travel across the west in their RV. Dave writes about all things RVing but loves to share destinations and boondocking advice.
P a g e 5 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 MINING CAMP DANGERS Epidemics were fairly commonplace throughout the nineteenth century and knew no social boundaries. Rich or poor, no person was immune. Typhoid and cholera plagued mining camps because miners quickly polluted the water source. But measles, whooping cough and diphtheria also invaded the communities. The great silver camp of Elkhorn that flourished in the 1880s has a particularly pathetic legacy, reminding us that sometimes the sacrifices of parents—leaving home and family for new opportunities—were minor compared to the sacrifices they imposed on their children. Dr. William Dudley served as camp doctor but could do nothing when a diphtheria epidemic in 1889 claimed most of Elkhorn’s children. His wife was pregnant with their second child, and the Dudleys left Elkhorn abruptly, leaving their first born son, a casualty of the epidemic, buried in the hillside cemetery. During that same year, on September 27, Harry Walton, 9, and Albin Nelson, 10, found a quicksilver container full of black powder. Adults filled these containers to detonate for community celebrations like the Fourth of July, and had overlooked this one. The boys managed to explode it and blew themselves to bits. They share a grave in the small cemetery. Young boy in a coffin. Illness knew no social boundaries in Montana’s mining camps. Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives Mining-related accidents were a hazard to children, and explosives and mine shafts were not the only perils. Dredging created its own danger. At Bannack in 1916, three girls were enjoying the warmth of a summer afternoon, splashing and wading in Grasshopper Creek. Laughing and talking, they waded out into a pond created by the dredge boat, not realizing they had gone too far. Suddenly the girls stepped off a ledge into nine feet of water. None could swim. Twelve-year-old Smith Paddock heard the commotion and managed to pull two of the girls out, but the third girl, sixteen-year-old Dorothy Dunn, drowned. -Ellen Baumler Ellen Baumler is an award-winning author and Montana historian. A master at linking history Dorothy Dunn, second in line on the left, wading in the dredge pond at Bannack. Courtesy of Kathie Stachler, Dorothy's great-niece. with modern-day supernatural events, Ellen's true stories have delighted audiences across the state. She lives in Helena in a century-old house with her husband, Mark, and its resident spirits. To view and purchase Ellen’s books, visit: http://ellenbaumler.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO WOULD ENJOY THIS NEWSLETTER?? The digital version is FREE to all and we love to share! Just have them send us an email at ghosttownsofmontana@gmail.com with NEWSLETTER in the subject line to be added to the mailing list. Thank you!
P a g e 6 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 Highland City, Montana Highland City, in the midst of the towering Highland Mountains, is located 26 miles south of Butte. The town in its prime in the early 60’s, was the largest community of Virginia City, Nevada and rivalled that place as a mining and commercial center. Distributing foodstuffs and other supplies to the lesser mining camps, which included Butte, was no small part of the business that helped maintain the city; but gold, discovered in 1863 was the lodestone that drew people to the almost inaccessible Highland Gulch and paved the way for the city’s growth. Crude in its architecture and as crude in its administration of frontier law, Highland City was a typical camp of the early west. Bustling and booming from the stimulus of gold pouring into the pockets of its people, generosity was a habit and poverty was unknown. Men quarreled and killed each other and were hanged forthwith for doing so. Strong liquor was plentiful but was rarely drunk to excess. Dance halls of the frontier type were there, but with little of the petty knavery that characterized the less prosperous camps. The place is still pointed out where a horse thief, captured some 20 miles west in the Big Hole country, was hanged in 1865. Old timers claim that he was the only man hanged in the city for anything short of murder. But while Highland City did not shine as a center of outlawry and speedy justice as did some of the other early camps, it was not lacking in the qualities that make for an orderly, if somewhat arbitrary, enforcement of common law. A committee of safety, known as a vigilance committee, was regularly elected and narratives of the work and worries of this committee are recounted by the surviving few who were numbered among her residents in Highland’s palmy days. Much gold, of a quality singularly pure, came out of Highland Gulch. Evidences of immense placer workings still remain, Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz and in the adjacent gulches, men, whose memories run back to those earlier days, still ply their picks and pans and eke a scanty existence from the reluctant gravel. Occasionally one finds a nugget or a pocket of gold, and hope in an old heart builds a new Highland City on the fast disappearing ruins of the old. The decline of the city was as rapid as its rise. After seven years of affluence the stream of gold came suddenly to an end, an in another year the exodus of people was practically complete. The 600 log structures, many of them two-story dimensions, tumbled rapidly into decay. – This article appeared in The Dillon Examiner, August 26, 1936. Accessed via: http://montananewspapers.org/ Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz
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 The Smith Mine Disaster I visited Smith Mine 3 time and have over 400 photographs from my visits. There were no signs about, “No Trespassing” at the site therefore we just walked in. We only took photographs while we were there, no souvenirs. The end-to-end area we traversed for photographing is just a bit over 1/4 mile. I will annotate some of the photographs that I’m showing. Photo by Shawn Shawhan The Smith Mine Disaster was the worst coal disaster in the state of Montana. It claimed the lives of seventy-five people and destroyed the mining industry of Bearcreek which had been built around it. Photo by Shawn Shawhan The building in the foreground is where the furnaces are located. The building in the far distance is the home of the mine's director. On February 27, 1943, Bearcreek, Montana experienced what remains the worst coal disaster in the state. A combination of carbon monoxide and methane gas created an explosion killing seventy -four of the seventy-seven men working in the mine. The three men to survive were in the mine but did not see the explosion. However, they described feeling a pressure on their ears but hearing nothing before being blasted with air. One of the men rushed to the phone to let the men on the surface know that something was wrong but before he could he was overcome with gas. The other two men were attempting to escape the mine when they were knocked to their feet by the blast of air and then fell unconscious from the gas. Photo by Shawn Shawhan Inside the stores and supplies room. All the cubbyholes in this room still had screws, bolts, nuts, washers, etc. in them. Photo by Shawn Shawhan Photo by Shawn Shawhan Mechanical room for receiving the coal and forwarding it out to chutes for loading into the trains. The explosion knocked out the electricity, preventing the mine’s emergency system from sounding. However, other mines in the area sounded theirs, alerting the other miners as well as those in the town that something was wrong in Smith Mine. Three furnaces in this room that were covered with asbestos. We did not get too close to them.
P a g e 8 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 Men came from adjacent mines and from the town to rescue the men still trapped. Rescuers who went into the mine faced serious danger from the combination of carbon monoxide and methane gas. The farther anyone went into the mine, the more the gas took a toll, with many tripping, falling, hallucinating, or becoming disoriented. One of the rescuers breathed in too much gas and died as a result. The seventy-four men who died either died immediately in the blast or were killed by the gas. The precise extent of the three survivors’ injuries is not documented in the sources, but they did spend a few days in the hospital. Photo by Shawn Shawhan The tragedy deeply affected the victims’ families. Family members spent sixty-three hours waiting to hear what had happened and get updates about their family members. The town was small, so virtually everyone there was a part of a mining family and thus knew or was related to someone who had died. The scale of the loss devastated the families, and many left Bearcreek afterwards because of their grief. Photo by Shawn Shawhan Bearcreek was small before and the disaster only made it worse. The mine closed permanently, and the town’s coal production fell. The biggest hit to the town’s economy and population came when the railroad ceased operating in 1953, ten years after the disaster. The railroad was the easiest way to ship coal, and with it closed, most of the mines followed suit, with the last mine closing in the 1970s. The Smith Mine disaster was effectively the beginning of the end for Bearcreek. - Courtesy of Shawn Shawhan, Check out more of his beautiful photos at: https://abyssart.smugmug.com/? fbclid=IwAR0g5qKKbL-9fGEjGeQOfnoe7G6IIxGIYn298nyBvXDiHu36eR34AqgCzA4
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