Spokane (ghost town)

The story

Spokane was founded in 1890 as a mining camp targeting gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, and mica. Unlike most Black Hills camps, which boomed and busted within a few years of the 1870s rush, Spokane's biggest year came much later: in 1927 its mine reportedly generated $144,742 in profits, reinvested in a school and new miners. The operation couldn't sustain itself and the mine closed around 1940. On public Forest Service land, Spokane is unusually intact, with a barn, schoolhouse, water tower, miners' cabins, a mill, and a headframe still standing rather than just foundations.

Everything that was here

• 1890–1940

  Spokane (ghost town)Ghost Town

  Deep in Black Hills National Forest sits one of South Dakota's best-preserved ghost towns — a mining camp that didn't hit its biggest payday until 1927, decades after most Black Hills gold booms had already gone bust.

  See the map in 1891 →

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Nearby history