Ghost Town Profile: White Knob Idaho
White Knob was a mining town in Custer County Idaho that was(is) near the town of Mackay and in the foothills of where else? the White Knob Mountains. The reason I am compiling my first ghost town profile on White Knob is that it is a success story, albeit a modest one just like the kind we would like to reproduce here at Ghost Town Project.
After the copper mining operation of White Knob was shut down the town quickly set into decline, with the school closing (a main indicator of the last nail in the coffin for many ghost towns) just 4 years later.
The town once had high end infrastructure to transport people and ore, but after the mine shut down as did most of the amenities (despite it not being located in a totally desolate area). Indeed an aerial tramway and an electric railway would have been wonders to behold when they were built towards the end of the 19th century, especially in rural Idaho.
Why is this a success story you may be asking? Well, despite never being for package sale (it is currently owned by the BLM, Private individuals and several presumably inactive mining interests), in 1999 the Mackay historical preservation society was formed and raised $250,000 for the preservation of the old mine site, the reinforcement of tram towers and to put up informative signs along main trails.
This success story is a modest one however in our opinion as it is still depopulated, something of a museum, which serves its purpose well but is not the full restoration project that we at Ghost Town project would like to undertake. Nonetheless however it is inspiring that an abandoned town like this was able to secure that sum of money (enough to purchase some entire towns and get rolling on repair) in 1999, despite its relative remote location and obscurity.
(I do not own any of the photos posted and all copyrights belong to their respective owners, watermarked or otherwise)
