State atlas · filed under ID

Ghost Towns of Idaho

Idaho's basins are ringed with gold and silver camps — the Boise Basin once out-peopled everything between Denver and Portland — and its ghosts died the usual mountain deaths: exhausted veins, burned business rows, and roads that never quite arrived.

646 sites surveyed across Idaho — 6 charted with full records so far, entered by year of settlement. The rest are awaiting verification.

✕Charted — click for the recordSurveyed — records pending

Survey note

The federal place-name archive records 646 vanished or historical sites in Idaho — ghost towns, mining camps, townsites, and railroad stops. We chart them a few at a time, as the records can be verified. Every mark on this map is a place that once had a name.

TownYearsLast pop.Classification

Silver CityOwyhee Co.1864–19420Verified Ghost Town BayhorseCuster Co.1877–19150Historic Townsite CusterCuster Co.1879–19110Historic Townsite GilmoreLemhi Co.1880–19290Verified Ghost Town ChesterfieldCaribou Co.1881–19400Historic Townsite BurkeShoshone Co.1887–19910Vanished Place

Society Pro

See Idaho as the surveyors drew it, 1879 to 1919

173 USGS survey sheets from those years cover Idaho. Pro lays them over today's map with a swipe between then and now, and adds every mine feature, lost place and mineral site the federal record holds for the state.

16,635mine features

10,328mineral sites

255lost places

173survey sheets

The full survey ledger

Every vanished town the federal archive records in Idaho — each with its own record page, verified and expanded over time.

AbbeyTwin Falls Co.Advent HollowLatah Co.AikmanGem Co.Alder CityCuster Co.Alturas CityElmore Co.AntelopeButte Co.AustinTwin Falls Co.BickelTwin Falls Co.BlacksAda Co.BoraxShoshone Co.Boulder CityBoundary Co.BovardLatah Co.BugtownCanyon Co.BullionShoshone Co.BuswellLatah Co.Cape HornCuster Co.CarbonateShoshone Co.Caribou CityBonneville Co.Carothers PlaceOwyhee Co.ChambersLatah Co.CliffCuster Co.CloverValley Co.CottonwoodOwyhee Co.CraneWashington Co.CrystalCuster Co.DaleValley Co.DempseyBannock Co.DorseyShoshone Co.EloValley Co.Empire CityOwyhee Co.FairburnNez Perce Co.Fort BoiseCanyon Co.FrenchPayette Co.Garden CityCuster Co.GrahamBoise Co.GreentimberFremont Co.HadenTeton Co.HaytownJerome Co.HazelCassia Co.HeathWashington Co.HillsdaleJerome Co.HillsdaleAdams Co.HowellBoise Co.IloLewis Co.IndependenceMadison Co.JamestownLatah Co.KaufmanClark Co.Keenan CityBonneville Co.KyleShoshone Co.LeducBlaine Co.LevelJefferson Co.LidyvilleLatah Co.LodiFremont Co.LyondaleKootenai Co.MacGregorValley Co.MarshGem Co.MasoniaShoshone Co.Mountain HomeLatah Co.NealAda Co.NelsonOneida Co.NelsonShoshone Co.Old WilliamsburgCaribou Co.Orchard HomesLatah Co.Oro FinoClearwater Co.PetersonBingham Co.PottsvilleShoshone Co.RiversideBonner Co.SandsOwyhee Co.Sawtooth CityBlaine Co.SinkerOwyhee Co.SnowNez Perce Co.South BoiseAda Co.Spanish TownElmore Co.SteamboatShoshone Co.SunsetShoshone Co.Sweet SageButte Co.TaneyNez Perce Co.TindallOwyhee Co.TiptonCassia Co.TopazBannock Co.TrailtonBingham Co.UlyssesLemhi Co.White KnobCuster Co.WilliamsburgCaribou Co.WoodsideLewis Co.WrightKootenai Co.YaleLatah Co.Yellow DogLatah Co.

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