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Ghost Towns
Behind them came the trappings of civilization: Merchants set up shops, saloons prospered and liquor flowed freely, prostitutes established houses of ill-repute, churches were constructed, city governments elected, and tent cities sprang up to house the itinerant miners.
South Pass was one of these mining meccas. In 1867, a party of Mormons discovered the Carissa lode in what is now Atlantic City launching South Pass’s gold rush. For a few years, an estimated 2,000 transient miners and their camp followers flocked to the windy sagebrush plains of South Pass. They built towns, set up schools, established luxury hotels and bars, and created small cities in the middle of the barren hills of southern Wind River Country. South Pass City, Atlantic City, Lewiston, and Miners’ Delight were just a few of the bustling communities that flourished during the mining heyday. But the boom passed quickly. Placer gold—or the gold found in rivers and streams—played out in a few years and most of the prospectors moved on to the next boom abandoning their temporary towns behind them.
Today South Pass City has been reconstructed and is maintained as a state historical site where people can travel back in time to the by-gone era when honky tonk music poured out of the saloons and crowds of people filled the quiet streets. Atlantic City, (link to Atlantic City info.) which is just a few miles from the South Pass City historic site, was never deserted and continues to offer visitors a curious blend of old and new, including the authentic Atlantic City Mercantile, built in 1893 and in operation ever since. A few miles further down the road, the dilapidated remains of Miner’s Delight —a few tumbled down buildings, hunks of rusted metal and broken glass, and some remnants of old buck and rail fencing—provides visitors with a true ghost town experience.
But Miner’s Delight wasn’t always a ruin. In 1868, Chicago Tribune reporter James Chisholm visited Wyoming’s gold mining boomtowns and wrote of Miner’s Delight, “The meat market exhibits at present a variety and abundance of choice food such as would be deemed no small treat in an Eastern city. Elk, deer, antelope, buffalo and bear and all in fine condition.” While the food was good in Miner’s Delight, Chisholm was less enthusiastic about the women he met there. “Society in the city of Miner’s Delight consists of three females. The first is a plump, dumpling-faced woman built very much in the shape of a bale of cotton drawn together in the middle, and with a big coal scuttle on the top…The second is a shadowy secluded kind of being whose profile I have had a few glimpses of while passing her cabin door…. The third I will call Dalilah. She is not beautiful. She is not handsome…Therefore, I don’t mingle in society.”
Stories also tell of buried treasures around Wind River Country, including several caches of gold that are believed to be hidden near Miner’s Delight, as well as the “Oregon Trail Treasure” that is reputed to be stashed along the Sweetwater River in the Red Desert, and Old Ike’s lost mine, which is located near Lander according to local lore.
The South Pass gold boom died out in the late 1870s, but gold mining continued for many more years at the Carrissa Mine, which operated into the 1940s. In 2003, the Carrissa was purchased by the state of Wyoming and added to the South Pass Historic Site. The mine is currently undergoing reconstruction and stabilization to make it safe for visitors.
South Pass was one of these mining meccas. In 1867, a party of Mormons discovered the Carissa lode in what is now Atlantic City launching South Pass’s gold rush. For a few years, an estimated 2,000 transient miners and their camp followers flocked to the windy sagebrush plains of South Pass. They built towns, set up schools, established luxury hotels and bars, and created small cities in the middle of the barren hills of southern Wind River Country. South Pass City, Atlantic City, Lewiston, and Miners’ Delight were just a few of the bustling communities that flourished during the mining heyday. But the boom passed quickly. Placer gold—or the gold found in rivers and streams—played out in a few years and most of the prospectors moved on to the next boom abandoning their temporary towns behind them.
Today South Pass City has been reconstructed and is maintained as a state historical site where people can travel back in time to the by-gone era when honky tonk music poured out of the saloons and crowds of people filled the quiet streets. Atlantic City, (link to Atlantic City info.) which is just a few miles from the South Pass City historic site, was never deserted and continues to offer visitors a curious blend of old and new, including the authentic Atlantic City Mercantile, built in 1893 and in operation ever since. A few miles further down the road, the dilapidated remains of Miner’s Delight —a few tumbled down buildings, hunks of rusted metal and broken glass, and some remnants of old buck and rail fencing—provides visitors with a true ghost town experience.
But Miner’s Delight wasn’t always a ruin. In 1868, Chicago Tribune reporter James Chisholm visited Wyoming’s gold mining boomtowns and wrote of Miner’s Delight, “The meat market exhibits at present a variety and abundance of choice food such as would be deemed no small treat in an Eastern city. Elk, deer, antelope, buffalo and bear and all in fine condition.” While the food was good in Miner’s Delight, Chisholm was less enthusiastic about the women he met there. “Society in the city of Miner’s Delight consists of three females. The first is a plump, dumpling-faced woman built very much in the shape of a bale of cotton drawn together in the middle, and with a big coal scuttle on the top…The second is a shadowy secluded kind of being whose profile I have had a few glimpses of while passing her cabin door…. The third I will call Dalilah. She is not beautiful. She is not handsome…Therefore, I don’t mingle in society.”
Stories also tell of buried treasures around Wind River Country, including several caches of gold that are believed to be hidden near Miner’s Delight, as well as the “Oregon Trail Treasure” that is reputed to be stashed along the Sweetwater River in the Red Desert, and Old Ike’s lost mine, which is located near Lander according to local lore.
The South Pass gold boom died out in the late 1870s, but gold mining continued for many more years at the Carrissa Mine, which operated into the 1940s. In 2003, the Carrissa was purchased by the state of Wyoming and added to the South Pass Historic Site. The mine is currently undergoing reconstruction and stabilization to make it safe for visitors.
