Ghost Towns of Mackay, Idaho

Cliff City and White Knob emptied partly because the ore learned to travel. In 1903 the White Knob Copper Company laid a seven-mile electric railway down the hill to its smelter at Mackay, two Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives hauling eighty-ton trains through drifts ten feet deep. Seven managers in turn failed to make the mines pay, and in 1905 the company was sold and the electric engines gave way to a geared Shay. In 1917 and 1918 a three-mile aerial tramway replaced the rails. A self-guided tour on Mine Hill now climbs past what is left of all of it.

What the plaque says

Ghost Towns of Mackay, Idaho Cliff City and White Knob were bustling mining towns established west of Mackay in the late 1800s. After copper was discovered in the White Knob Mountains in 1879, Cliff City and White Knob sprang up to support the mines. The boomtowns were home to hundreds of miners, and boasted stores, saloons, a post office, school and theater. Both towns died out in the early 20th century, as Mackay became the regional mining center and the copper industry waned. 509 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by the Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Borah Peak Earthquake Fault Scarp — 21 mi
  In 1983 the valley floor dropped seven feet in a second, and a truckload of hunters dropped with it.

More markers nearby

• Mount McCaleb — steps away
• Goddin's River — 9.2 mi
• Earthquakes — 21 mi
• Mount Borah — 21 mi