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.

Cerro Gordo, California

Cerro Gordo (Fat Hill) is a ghost town now, but once it was so important that it helped transform Los Angeles from a sleepy small town to an important city. Around 1870, nine tons of silver-lead bullion per day was being smelted and transported to Los Angeles for shipment. Cerro Gordo had a population of 4500, so goods to support all these people were sent on the returning 14 mule ore wagons. Los Angeles prospered with all this commercial trade.

Cerro Gordo sits at 8500' elevation, about 5000' above Owens Dry Lake. This photo shows the Yellow Grade Road that climbs the mountain over a very steep gravel road with plenty of switchbacks and dramatic drop-offs. The large building is the American Hotel, and the building to the left is the Crapo house.

When the owners of Cerro Gordo passed away, the ghost town was closed to the public. Recently, a caretaker was placed on site and the town was opened for tours. We were extremely lucky to be given a tour by Jim Phillips and his three-legged dog "Patch". They are on the porch of the American Hotel in this photo.  When we were through exploring, Jim invited us into the old Belshaw House, where he lives, to relax and tell stories.

The American Hotel still has a beautiful old bar inside.  The portrait over the bar is Jody Stewart Patterson.  She and her husband, Mike, owned the town until she died in 2001 and Mike in 2009.

There are mines, old equipment, and artifacts everywhere you look.  This old ore bin and trestle dangle up the hill from the town.  After the silver and lead played out, the population decreased, then zinc mining brought back a few people about the turn of the century.  That lasted about 20 years before Cerro Gordo became a ghost town.

The corrugated steel building may have been a store once, but now it is a museum of sorts.  It is stuffed full of dusty relics found all over the mountain and in the mines.  The building on the right is the Belshaw House, where the smelter operator once lived.

I found her inside the museum.  Could the exotic spirit of Lola be trapped here in the dust and rust?

We revisited Cerro Gordo in 2015.  You can see my post about that visit here:
http://rosswalkerphotos.blogspot.com/2015/06/cerro-gordo-revisited.html