This class C silver mining town is located on Bayhorse Creek Road, along north side of Bayhorse Creek, five miles west of SH 75 at a point seven miles south of Challis.
It’s said the town and the creek flowing through the narrow canyon got their name from an old prospector who wandered through the area in 1864 riding a bay horse.
Early prospectors did find placer gold and other minerals here but it was the later discovery of rich lodes of lead silver that catapulted Bayhorse into a prime mining area.
While W. A. Norton and A.P. Challis were among those who found promising veins of silver in the canyon, Tim Cooper’s discovery in 1877 was among the richest of the lot.
It’s said Cooper found the mother lode while hunting for a big horn sheep and that’s why the mine that was built on that location was subsequently called the Ramshorn.
According to historical records the Ramshorn and other mines in the area produced about 10 million dollars worth of silver and lead ingots by 1898.
The remnants of the Ramshorn mine sit midway up a steep mountain slope a few miles above the old town of Bayhorse. Further up the mountain, about two thousand feet above the creek, are what’s left of another mining operation, the Skylark. A tram system brought ore from both mines down to the valley floor and a loading station. From there it was transported by wagon to the mill at Bayhorse. Stone kilns just outside of town provided the charcoal necessary for the final step in the operation, the smelting process.
The actually town of Bayhorse probably never had more than a few hundred residents. The limited flat ground in the canyon was quickly filled with mills, saloons, stores and boarding houses although some miners did find small patches along the creek to build rustic cabins. After the initial boom years mining faded and most folks moved on.
Although there was a brief resurgence beginning in the 1920s Bayhorse eventually joined the ranks of Idaho’s ghost towns.
A cemetery is located west of the charcoal kilns, which are located west of town.
In 1976, the entire community was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[1] The town property was purchased by the state in 2006 and opened to the public in 2009 as part of the Land of the Yankee Fork State Park.[2]
- Lat: 44.3976983 / 44° 23’ 52” N
- Long: -114.3117306 / 114° 18’ 42” W
- W-Ctr Sec 2, T12N, R18E, BM (Boise Base Line & Meridian)
Cemetery:
- Lat: 44.398161
- Long: -114.319332
- E-Ctr Sec 3, T12N, R18E, BM
Coke Ovens:
- Lat: 44.397639
- Long: -114.315469
- E-Ctr Sec 3, T12N, R18E, BM
