The story
Pony — named for a diminutive prospector, not the animal — milled gold from the Tobacco Root Mountains through the 1880s-90s, building unusually grand stone blocks for a camp its size, including the Morris State Bank whose granite shell is the town's landmark.
A famous 1900s mill venture (the Elling/Mineral Hill cyanide plant) flopped expensively, and Pony settled into the long tail: today around a hundred residents, a landmark bar, and National Register streetscapes make it a living near-ghost in a gorgeous dead-end valley.
What remains today
The stone bank and school, Isdell mercantile, mill ruins uphill, and an occupied historic district.
Questions from the field
- Is Pony, Montana abandoned?
- No — about a hundred people live there. It's a 'living ghost': boom-era stone ruins and an active little community sharing one street grid.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Pony — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Pony's permanent record.
No field reports yet — sign in to file the first.
Sources consulted
- — USGS GNIS feature 1797467
- — NRHP — Pony Historic District
- — Madison County histories