GHOST TOWN--CUSTER, IDAHO

Almost exactly in the rugged center of Idaho on the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River

 (also known as The River of No Return) is a ghost town named after the 

General Custer gold mine.  The town of Custer was founded in 1879 not long after a 

mother lode of gold was discovered along the river. 

Gold was extracted from the rocks using stamping mills.  The heavy machinery 

was hauled to the area by mule packers along the rugged trails from places 
as far away as Salt Lake City, Utah.

The town reached its peak population of about 600 in 1896.  It had houses, stores, 

restaurants, a school and plenty of saloons. By 1904 the mines and the mill closed 

when the gold played out.  By 1911 it had become a ghost town, but not before 

millions of dollars of gold had been recovered.

Some of the settlement has been restored and preserved.   
We visited after Labor Day so the buildings were boarded up and…

…the museum in the old school was closed.

Still we could peek inside the buildings and see some of the old furniture and antiques.

Other items were left to rust and return to the earth.

Some lady must have been so pleased to have a new stove 
in her cabin kitchen…

…hauled all the way from St. Louis…

 …by horses or mule team.

The Empire Saloon now serves as the gift shop.

Next to the saloon was a vintage outhouse. 

Fortunately for visitors there were also better facilities provided by the Forest Service.

 Everywhere we walked there were bits of broken glass and pottery left behind 

by the people who lived in the old mining town.

Most of the glass was purple, indicating it was made between 1860 and 1915 

when glass makers used manganese instead of lead due to lead shortages 

created by the Civil War.  Glass containing manganese eventually

 turns a light purple when exposed to sunlight.

The road that leads to Custer and its sister city, Bonanza, follows the river up the canyon. 

The whole river bed looks like it’s been churned up by a giant monster gopher.

  Once placer mining was exhausted the owners of the gold claims knew

valuable gold still existed so they joined together and

in 1939 they built a huge dredge the size of a hotel.  

It could dig down 35 feet to haul up the gravel ore.  

The dredge washed and separated the rock and dirt from the gold. 

It operated until 1949, pulling out another 16 million dollars in gold.

On a whim I picked up a rock about the size of a baseball 

and threw it against another rock.  

I kept the piece that split off and put it in my pocket.

I didn’t notice until I was home that…

I could see flashes of light and metallic sparkles in the rock 

when I turned it in the sunlight.