The New World Mining District

The district the panel calls finished nearly came back. In 1989 Crown Butte Mines, a subsidiary partly owned by Canada's Noranda, proposed a large underground gold mine on Henderson Mountain, upstream of Yellowstone, and the fight that followed led UNESCO to list the park as a World Heritage Site in danger. In August 1996 President Clinton announced a settlement: $65 million in federal assets for the company's claims, and $22.5 million from Crown Butte toward cleaning up acid drainage left by a century of mining. The property passed to the Forest Service on August 7, 1998.

What the plaque says

The New World Mining District Prospectors discovered rich mineral deposits in the Beartooth Mountains near here in 1874. Christened the New World Mining District, the area included claims with colorful names like Miner's Delight, Hidden Treasure, Southern Spy and Silver King. The miners established a small camp called "Shoo Fly" in recognition of the district's most productive mine. By 1880, however, they changed the name to Cooke City in honor of Jay Cooke Jr., a major investor in the mines. The Shoo Fly Mine was located 9,300 feet up Miller Mountain and could only be worked when the snow conditions permitted access to it. From about 1878 until the late 1880's, the mine produced gold, copper, and lead-silver ore, much of which was processed in smelters at Cooke City. Deep snow and lack of transportation facilities slowed the developement of the district's rich mines. By the early 1890's, miners had abandoned many of these mines and others worked only seasonally. The Shoo Fly Mine had closed by 1893 and never reopened. Today, waste rock dumps, collapsing adits, and decaying mining structures are testament to the New World Mining District's vibrant past.

Where it stands