Bayhorse

Overview

A silver camp on Bayhorse Creek

Prospectors came up Bayhorse Creek in 1864 hoping for gold to rival Leesburg, and found only a little. Silver was the prize. In 1872 W. A. Norton, Robert Beardsley and J. B. Hood struck a rich vein, Tim Cooper opened the Ramshorn Mine high on the mountain, and the Beardsley brothers worked a mine overlooking the camp. The town was founded in 1877, and by 1880 it had a stamp mill and a smelter. Six beehive kilns burned wood into charcoal to fire it.

The 1880s were the good years. The mines produced $300,000 in silver in 1882, and by 1885 about 300 people lived in the narrow canyon with three stores, a hotel, five saloons and a refinery that cast silver bars. Legends of America adds a stone Wells Fargo office, assay offices and two cemeteries. By 1900 the district had yielded more than $10 million in silver, lead and copper ore.

The decline was slow. The Ramshorn held on to 1888, a fire took several buildings in 1889 and the kilns were cold by 1896. When the last mines closed in 1915, the town emptied, though miners came back for short runs as late as 1968. The townsite stayed in private hands until the state bought it in 2006. It opened to visitors in 2009 as part of Land of the Yankee Fork State Park, with Custer and Bonanza over the mountains to the west.

Video

Along the fenced walkway to the mill and kilns

A small group walks the townsite from the paved lot and its pay station, along the rail-fenced gravel path past the two-story saloon, cabins, a stone building and an old truck cab. The mill is boarded and locked, with fresh timber on its entrance. Up the road the stone charcoal kilns stand behind a fence, partly fallen in, and the walk ends in a gravel yard of mining machinery below the mill. The group stays outside the buildings; one is signed Keep Out. The narration guesses at what several buildings were; the interpretive signs on site and our sources are a better guide. At the mill one of the group stands on a fence rail to look in. Stay on the walkway.

Play “Preserved Ghost Town In The Mountains *Bayhorse Idaho” from YouTube

Timeline

Silver, smelter and slow decline

1. 1864Small gold veins bring a few prospectors to Bayhorse Creek, in a search for another Leesburg. The gold is thin.
2. 1872W. A. Norton, Robert Beardsley and J. B. Hood find a rich silver vein. Tim Cooper's find becomes the Ramshorn Mine, and the Beardsley brothers open a mine above the camp.
3. 1877The town is founded and hard-rock mining for silver and lead begins, though Wikipedia says real building waits until 1880.
4. 1880A stamp mill and a smelter are finished.
5. 1882The smelter is enlarged. The mines turn out $300,000 in silver that year.
6. 1885About 300 people, with a mill, three stores, a hotel, a restaurant, a meat market, a lodging house and five saloons. A refinery lets the district ship silver bars.
7. 1888–1889The Ramshorn stays productive to 1888, while other mines begin to fail. A fire in 1889 burns several buildings.
8. By 1896The beehive charcoal kilns that fed the smelter are abandoned.
9. By 1900More than $10 million in silver, lead and copper ore has come out of the district.
10. 1915The last mines close and the town is left empty. Short revivals follow, the last in 1968.
11. Mar 15, 1976The Bayhorse townsite is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
12. 2006–2009The state buys the privately owned townsite in 2006 and opens it to the public in 2009 as part of Land of the Yankee Fork State Park.

What's left

Mill, cabins and kilns

Bayhorse lines a single dirt street along the creek. Wikipedia describes preserved house ruins and mining equipment along it and intact charcoal kilns. Legends of America lists the stone Wells Fargo building, the Bayhorse Saloon, the mill and a number of cabins, and a small cemetery on a hill by the road, already unkempt on its writer's 2008 visit, whose markers it now says are gone, leaving only crumbling fences. The kilns are farther up the road past the townsite. A photo from July 2015 shows the timber mill building standing on the slope with collapsed buildings around it. A visit video posted in March 2025 shows a paved parking lot with a pay station, a gravel walkway fenced with wooden rails through the town, the mill boarded up and under repair, a fenced yard of mining machinery and a Keep Out sign on one building. Its creator found the six kilns fenced off, and says none is intact. Stay on the walkway.

The park publishes a Bayhorse trail map and oral history online. The old mines on the slopes are hazards, so stay out of open workings and off the mine dumps.

On the historic maps below, the 1929 Bayhorse sheet marks the Ramshorn and Beardsley mines and Little Bayhorse Lake above the town, and the Salmon River to the east. The 1963 Bayhorse sheet draws the buildings strung along the creek, with a cemetery and the coke ovens up the canyon to the west. The 1982 sheet adds the Pacific, Skylark, Riverview and Turtle mines around the town.

• Mill
• Stone Wells Fargo building
• Bayhorse Saloon
• Cabins and house ruins
• Mining equipment
• Beehive charcoal kilns (abandoned by 1896)
• Cemetery with fenced graves

Historic maps

Bayhorse on USGS maps, 1929–1982

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19291:125,00019571:250,00019631:24,00019821:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Challis is the closest town, and the park's interpretive center is nearby. From Challis the route runs south on US 93 and ID 75 along the Salmon River, then up Bayhorse Creek Road. From Boise, the drive crosses the mountains by Lowman and Stanley.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Bayhorse in photos

The mill building on the slope above the townsite, July 2015Beehive charcoal kilns, July 2015

Visitor reports

Been to Bayhorse?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Bayhorse

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Idaho index.

• Clayton10.2 mi S · Custer
• Custer19.0 mi W · Custer
• Bonanza20.6 mi W · Custer
• Chilly30.8 mi SE · Custer
• Sawtooth City43.4 mi SW · Blaine
• Ketchum49.7 mi S · Blaine
• Gilmore51.6 mi E · Lemhi
• Atlanta57.7 mi SW · Elmore

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Bayhorse": county, 2WD road, climate, the search for gold to rival Leesburg, the silver vein, the 1880s and 1890s, the 1915 shutdown, the charcoal ovens.
2. Wikipedia, "Bayhorse, Idaho", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, the 1877 founding and 1880 building, the 1882 smelter and $300,000, the 1885 population and businesses, the refinery, the $10 million by 1900, the March 15, 1976 listing, the 2006 purchase and 2009 opening, what is visible.
3. Legends of America, "Bayhorse, Idaho: Silver in the Yankee Fork Mining District", updated October 2025: the 1864 gold, the 1872 discoverers, the Ramshorn and Beardsley mines, the 1880 mill and smelter, the six kilns, the 1888 decline and 1889 fire, the 1915 closing and 1968 revival, the remains and the cemetery, the approach on Bayhorse Creek Road.
4. Idaho Parks and Recreation, "Land of the Yankee Fork State Park", updated October 19, 2026: the seasonal closure from October 26, 2026, the $7 motor vehicle entrance fee, the interpretive center, the Bayhorse trail map and oral history.
5. Dave Explores, "Preserved Ghost Town In The Mountains *Bayhorse Idaho", YouTube, posted March 30, 2025: the video on this page; the pay station, the fenced walkway, the locked mill under repair, the machinery yard, the fenced kilns, none intact.
6. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• The mill building on the slope above the townsite, July 2015: Sassygirljenna, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Beehive charcoal kilns, July 2015: Sassygirljenna, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Bayhorse 1929, 1:125,000; Challis 1957, 1:250,000; Bayhorse 1963, 1:24,000; White Cloud Peaks 1982, 1:100,000.