List of ghost towns in Idaho explained

The following is a list of ghost towns in Idaho. A ghost town is an abandoned village, town or city, usually one which contains substantial visible remains. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions or uncontrolled lawlessness.

Classification

Barren site

• Sites no longer in existence
• Sites that have been destroyed
• Covered with water
• Reverted to pasture
• May have a few difficult to find foundations/footings at most

Neglected site

• Only rubble left
• Roofless building ruins
• Buildings or houses still standing, but majority are roofless

Abandoned site

• Building or houses still standing
• Buildings and houses all abandoned
• No population, except caretaker
• Site no longer in existence except for one or two buildings, for example old church, grocery store

Semi-abandoned site

• Building or houses still standing
• Buildings and houses largely abandoned
• Few residents
• Many abandoned buildings
• Small population

Historic community

• Building or houses still standing
• Still a busy community
• Smaller than its boom years
• Population has decreased dramatically, to one fifth or less.

Table

Name	Other names	County	Location	Settled	Abandoned	Current status	Remarks
Aline		Teton County		1888	1901		First settlement of Latter-Day Saints in the area.^[1]
Bayhorse		Custer County		1877	1897	Historic	A former mining town turned state park^[2]
	Bonanza City	Custer County		1877		Abandoned
Burgdorf		Idaho County		1860s	Before 1945	Semi-abandoned
Burke		Shoshone County		1887	1991	Semi-abandoned	A mining town that closed after several natural disasters.
Caribou City				1897	1930
Chesterfield		Caribou County		1879	After 1928		A former Mormon settlement, now open to the public as a tourist attraction.^[3]
Cobalt		Lemhi County			1950s
Comeback Mining Camp				1862
Copper Queen
Custer		Custer County		1879	1910
De Lamar		Owyhee County		1888
Florence		Idaho County		1861	sometime after 1951.
Gilmore		Lemhi County		1902	1930s
Golden Age camp
Joseph		Idaho County		1883	1887
Joseph Plains		Idaho County
Leesburg		Lemhi County		July 16, 1866	by the end of World War II
Mount Idaho		Idaho County		1892	1922		^[4]
Placerville		Boise County		1862	1899
Rocky Bar		Elmore County		December 1863	1960s
Ruby City		Owyhee County		November 1863
Sawtooth City		Blaine County		1879	1888
Silver City		Owyhee County		March 10, 1863	1890
Strevell		Cassia County			1974
Vienna				1878	1879
White Knob		Custer County		1884	1928
Yellow Jacket				1943	1945

See also

• List of counties in Idaho

Notes and References

1. Book: Jenson . Andrew . Encyclopedic history of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, . Salt Lake City, Utah . 868 . June 20, 2016.
2. Book: Weis, Norman D. . Ghost Towns of the Northwest . Caxton Press . 1971 . 0-87004-358-7 . Caldwell, Idaho, USA.
3. Web site: Oregon . Idaho pioneer cabin moved to Chesterfield site . 2013-07-06 . OregonLive.com.
4. News: Adkison . Norman B. . July 1, 1962 . Bustling, booming Mount Idaho now nothing but a ghost town . 1–sec.2 . Lewiston Morning Tribune .