Cliff City - Idaho Ghost Town

CLIFF CITY

NAME: Cliff City
COUNTY: Custer
ROADS: 2WD
GRID: 4
CLIMATE: Cool winter/snow and summer.
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Fall, Spring, Summer.

COMMENTS: You must hike to get there.
REMAINS: Many remains in the area.

Three hundred miners once populated Cliff City that had the first smelter on White Knob Mountain. Big Copper was the name of the mine that gave birth to the town that had a two stack, fifty-ton smelter. The smelter operated only a few years and the dream of a copper empire faded rather quickly. Today rock foundations of the huge mill and rusting parts of the smelter are about all that remain. Time has taken its toll on the cabins that once housed the miners. There are no roads leading directly to Cliff City and a visit requires a hike of about a mile. The trail is easily negotiable. Submitted by Henry Chenoweth.

Three hundred miners once populated Cliff City that had the first smelter on White Knob Mountain. Big Copper was the name of the mine that gave birth to the town that had a two stack, fifty-ton smelter. The smelter operated only a few years and the dream of a copper empire faded rather quickly. Today rock foundations of the huge mill and rusting parts of the smelter are about all that remain. Time has taken its toll on the cabins that once housed the miners. There are no roads leading directly to Cliff City and a visit requires a hike of about a mile. The trail is easily negotiable.

Submitted by Henry Chenoweth.

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