Elkhorn Mine Before being destroyed

Summer of 1977 treessel from mine to mill

Mom Dad in front of the Elkhorn mine and Mill in 1979 ->

SPECIAL FEATURE

Elkhorn Mine Montana
in 1979
Before It Was Looted

From 1919 to 1979, 60 years, these cabins
stood without aging.

From 1979-1998, just 19 years, they were destroyed to this state they are in now.

This was allowed by the U.S. Forest Service
not keeping 'vandles' out.

So now, Some locals have taken to calling them
'The U.S. Forest Circus'

That is my Dad and
me in the summer of 2006.

Two Above and the one below: A mine called Elkhorn Mine occupied this area. It was large enough to dwarf a Home Depot. It covered the entire mountainside and down into this field. It had 3 huge stirring wheels that used cyanide for leaching the gold out of the ore.

Gold cyanidation (also known as the cyanide process or the MacArthur-Forrest Process) is a metallurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to water soluble aurocyanide metallic complex ions. As of 2005 it is the most commonly used process for gold extraction. Due to the highly poisonous nature of cyanide, the process is controversial.

It was a mine and mill combined where there was a railroad built in to here and a power plant both just for this mine. The mine tunneled down so deep that iron beams were buckling under the weight. The mine did not run out of gold, it ran out of a way to hold the ground from caving in.

The town of Coolidge was built here for the miners and was just down from the mine. It had a school, church as well as restaurant, homes saloons bank, assay office and cook house.

you can see a ore shoot. all that remains of the mine...

My Dad in front of the Elkhorn mine and Mill in 1979

Coolage in 1979

Miners were paid $3.50 to $4.75 per day. there were
100 to 250 working the mine and mill at any one time.