Comet, Montana Ghost Town

The last ghost town we visited on our summer camping trip, Comet, Montana, was one of my favorites.  Comet’s first mining claim was in 1869 by John W. Russell and the town was started in 1876.  The area was called the High Ore Mining District.

A row of old cabins greets visitors as they enter town.  There were about 300 people here until the mines started to play out and Comet was described as a ghost town in 1913.

In 1926 the Basin Montana Tunnel Company built a 200 ton concentrator which became the second largest mining venture in Montana.  Local mines went on to produce over 20 million dollars of silver, gold, lead, zinc, and copper.  The mill shown here with the bunkhouse was closed in 1941 and the equipment salvaged.

There are lots of wonderful old buildings like this boarding house.  Miners stayed here for 75 cents room and board.

There wasn’t enough left of this truck to identify it, but my guess is it was used to haul ore, based on the 16 leaf springs.  Comet is privately owned and there is one occupied house, so private property must be respected.  However, buildings can be viewed from the road.

There are still a few houses scattered across the hillside.  The town once had a school with 20 pupils, but they were outnumbered by the 22 saloons.

We had some pretty good clouds that day, and some of them worked well with the collapsing buildings.

There is usually an opportunity for interesting detail photos in places like Comet.

Comet was built on mining, so I will end with a photo of a mine headframe with a trestle connected to an ore bin. There is still a winch in a small building with a cable leading to the shaft on top of the hill.

Remember, these photos are copyrighted and should not be used for any purpose without permission, and usually a small payment, unless used for charitable or academic purposes.

The Shane Cabin

Linda and I stayed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for two nights so we could explore Grand Teton National Park.  After seeing most of the popular sights we left the crowds and drove to the Gros Ventre River Road.  Here we found a cluster of three log buildings popularly known as the Shane cabin.

This is an old homestead with a remarkable history in popular culture.  It started In 1916 when Luther Taylor homesteaded here.

Extra care was made to make the cabin comfortable.  The inside of each log was flattened, insulated with newspapers, whitewashed and covered with layers of decorative wallpaper.  The marks of the ax or adze can still be seen, but the paper covering is gone.  Through a window we could see one of the outbuildings.

In 1948 the property was sold to rancher Andy Chambers and his son Roy, who rented the cabin out for a couple of years.  The cabin had been vacant for a while when it was used in the 1953 movie "Shane" and has been abandoned since then.  The black and white photo shows the other remaining outbuilding.

This beautiful view of the Grand Tetons was probably one reason the cabin was selected for the iconic western movie, thought by many to be one of the best ever.

Now the cabin is returning to the earth.  The roof and floor are gone, and the cabin’s floor joists balance on a few remaining foundation rocks.  No one has tried to preserve the site and there isn’t even a sign to describe its wonderful history as a homestead and then a movie star.

Please be aware that these photos are copyrighted.  They must not be used without my permission.

Monarch Mine, Nevada

After leaving Sprucemont, Nevada (see the previous post), we continued up Spruce Mountain about two more miles.  The road got much rougher, although it was not nearly as difficult as we expected.  I did use four-wheel drive, and in one or two places low range, and was glad I recently added skid plates to my truck.

Our first view of the mine area included a few houses along a side road.  The area is very steep, with houses on different levels of the hillside.

Most of the buildings are frame houses, but there is one cabin made from massive logs that probably dates back to the earliest days of the mine, around 1899.

This is a true ghost town.  Many buildings are totally collapsed, and those that are still standing have a lot of damage.  Some look like they were nice at one time, but now the wallpaper is peeling and the ceilings coming down.  But, their positions high on the mountains had great views from the windows.

There is a huge crumbling ore bin right in the middle of the residences, and a mine shaft nearby, so miners didn’t have to go far to work.  The gigantic timbers were held together with massive nuts, bolts, and square washers.  Now many are gone, and others are beautifully rusty.

The Monarch Mine was a big producer of lead during World War I.  According to the USGS website, 

"About $200,000 worth up to 1902; 21,000 tons ore worth $475,000 from 1919 to 1921; more production through 1952. Total production was over $1,000,000 worth, including some zinc and copper."

This photo gives some idea of how steep the mountain is, and how houses were built on plots leveled out of the hillside.  We enjoyed exploring the townsite, but didn’t stay long because snow flurries started, and we were a long way from pavement.  The Spruce Mountain mining area was well worth the visit.

I hope you enjoy the photos, but please respect the copyrights and do not use them for any purpose without permission.

Mysterious Giant Arrows

There are dozens of giant concrete arrows scattered across the landscape of America, and most people don’t know they exist.  It turns out they are part of an old visual navigation system for Air Mail pilots.  In the early days, there was no electronic equipment for navigating aircraft, so in 1924 a system of beacons and arrows was devised by the Postal Service.  50 foot towers with rotating beacons were placed on giant concrete arrows, 50 to 70 feet long that pointed the way to the next beacon and arrow.  Most of them have disappeared now, but it is fun looking for the ones that remain, and there are a few web sites that give location clues.

For many years I have enjoyed searching for, and photographing, interesting and obscure sights across the West, often with long-time camping buddies Bruce Gregory and Stephen Johnson.  Recently they found two of these arrows in the Nevada desert, and since I wasn’t with them I was determined to find one of my own.  Bill Parslow and I found this arrow at Strevell, an Idaho ghost town.

 At one time, a beacon was located on the square patch of concrete on the arrow, but most of the beacons were demolished and the steel used during WWII.  You can see the cut off supports in the first photo.

On the way to Strevell, I spotted this beacon at Malad City Airport.  It strongly resembles the ones used with the arrows, and I believe Malad had an arrow at one time, but I have no idea if this was originally an Air Mail beacon.

We found this arrow after figuring out its location from an image on Google Earth, and were able to drive through a gap in a fence, across a field, and park right next to it.  I took a ladder so we could get a higher angle photo of the arrow.  The concrete ruins at the tail of the arrow housed a generator and fuel to light the beacon.

I hope to be able to search out and photograph more of these mysterious arrows on occasion.

After we were done with the arrow, we photographed this ruin which I later learned was part of Mary’s Café.  There isn’t much more left of Strevell, but we found concrete pads scattered in the sagebrush where there used to be other buildings.  I even found the remains of another beacon and learned that there was once an airport here with a large beacon system.  We celebrated the successful day with pie at Mollie’s Café in Snowville, Utah before the long drive home.

All images are copyrighted and cannot be used for any purpose without permission.