GILMORE

Rich lodes of lead-silver ore discovered near the Birch Creek divide in the Lemhi Mountain Range prompted the establishment of the Upper Lemhi Mining District in 1880.

But large-scale mining did not take off in the area until after the turn of the century when a Pennsylvania man, Edgar Ross, bought much of the mountain just outside the town of Gilmore. Ross's mine called the Pittsburgh Idaho and a rival mine named the Latest Out were the two largest operations on the mountain.

One logistical problem for the mines was getting their ore to the rail line at Dubois, Idaho eighty-five miles away. Mule drawn ore wagons were replaced in 1906 by a large steam engine with four ore cars attached. The idea might have worked, but the cars wore out after only a dozen trips.

After the steam engine experiment, the Pittsburgh mine decided it was time to build a railroad. In 1910 the Gilmore and Pittsburgh railroad was completed, solving the transportation problems. Now large quantities of ore could be shipped reasonably.
In only a year of rail freighting the mine production for the area equaled the entire total of all the previous years.

1910 marked the beginning of the peak years for Gilmore. For the next decade the mines on the mountain would prosper. In fact, during this time Gilmore was actually considered for the county seat. Mining continued through the twenties until the Great Depression hit. Then President Franklin Roosevelt set the prices on precious metals so low the mines couldn't operate profitably and they shut down.

In the late 1930's the Gilmore mines made a comeback of sorts, but at that point it was strictly gold mining. Then when World War Two started Congress passed a moratorium on gold mining and that spelled the end for Gilmore. A few people hung on all the way until the 1960s, but by the time Dick Moll arrived in the 1970s he was the towns only resident. Today, Moll now has a couple of new neighbors, but for the most Gilmore remains a ghost town.