Bayhorse is one of the nicest ghost towns in Idaho. It certainly wasn’t the largest mining town in Idaho – not even close. However, it’s picturesque location in rugged central Idaho along with it’s well-preserved structures make it a fascinating place to explore.
In its heydays, the town was home to hundreds of miners who worked very productive silver of gold mines in the area. It is was one of the most productive silver mining towns in the state in the late 1800s producing an estimated over 6.3 million oz of silver and about 37 million pounds of lead. The region also produced considerable amounts of gold, copper, and zinc.
This made this area quite attractive to miners who came and settled in the town in large numbers. Once the ores were exhausted the mines closed and the town died. However, the townsite was cleaned and today is open to the public.
Early History
A lone prospector driving two bay horses was the first man who discovered gold along the Salmon River in the area of what is now Bayhorse. This was back in 1864, when prospectors were just starting to explore Idaho and find gold hidden within the mountains and streams.
He told others about his discovery and this brought in more prospectors seeking gold. But, because the first people to be told about the man could not remember his name, they described him as a man with two bay horses. This eventually became the name of the town that sprung up after the news of the discovery of gold.
As many prospectors poured into the area, it soon became apparent that the gold deposits in the region were not particularly rich. This forced many prospectors to abandon the river and start searching in creeks and gulches around the region. They seemed to find gold in just about any of the creeks around this part of central Idaho, but few of the deposits were particularly rich. Most of the men moved on.
The Silver Strike at Bayhorse
Silver was eventually discovered in the area in 1873 by men searching for gold and the first claim registered. In 1877 a very rich silver-lead vain was discovered and the Ramshorn Mine built. This started a major silver rush which brought thousands of miners to the area.
By the summer of 1878, Bayhorse had transformed into a major silver mining are in Idaho with several silver mines such as the Ramshorn and the Beardsley mines. These mines employed hundreds of miners who settled in the town of Bayhorse making it an important commercial center in the region.
As silver mining expanded there was an increasing need for a smelter to process the ore. In 1880 a large smelter was constructed in the town to serve several nearby mines. This was followed by the creation of several charcoal kilns to supply the smelter. This brought more people in the town to work in both the kilns and the smelter. The town was now booming with business and several permanent buildings came up.
Silver production was at the peak from 1883 to 1889 as the new smelter was used to the maximum. T the ore was running out fast and production dropped drastically. This forced the closure of the smelter in 1889. The closure was short-lived as the smelter was reopened after four short years in 1893 and was in operation until 1897 when it closed down again before finally being dismantled.
Declining Silver Ore and the Clayton Smelter
By this time silver mining in Bayhorse had declined greatly. However, the mining continued in several mines until 1925 when the remaining mine was shut down. During this period the small quantities of ore mined here were ferried to the silver smelter in Clayton.
The closure of the last mine marked the end of the town as most of the miners moved to other places in search of work. Several efforts were put in place to revive the mining but no major success was ever reported. The most important efforts to revive silver mining in Bayhorse came in 1951 when the company mining silver built a mill at the town but the production only lasted a few years and was not as large as the previous years.
Also Read: The Spectacular Copper Mining History of Butte, Montana
And: Miners are Finding Gold Nuggets in Montana… Big Ones!
The Preservation of the Bayhorse Mines
Efforts to preserve the old Bayhorse townsite began in the early 1970s. In 1976 the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This was in recognition of its contribution to silver production in Idaho.
In 2006, the townsite, the Pacific Mine, the Ramshorn Mine, the Skylark Mine and the Beardsley Mine were bought from the private owners by the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.
The department then embarked on the process of cleaning and reclaiming the old structures at the town. Some of the original structures cleaned up include the Wells Fargo building and the Bayhorse saloon building at the townsite, the Skylark Mine, the Ramshorn Mine, the Pacific Mine and the Beardsley Mine. All these were opened for public visitation in 2009.
The department has also been working to restore other historic features of the town. You can now visit the old Bayhorse town to learn about the history of silver mining and see firsthand some of the tools and equipment used in the mining.
One of the neatest attractions at the Bayhorse site are the charcoal roasting kilns. There are several of these kilns just above the townsite that you can still see today when you visit.
Next: A Recent Visit to Idaho’s Yankee Fork Gold Dredge
