From 1942 through 1958, the county was credited with 56,295 ounces of gold. Total output for this period was 514,430 ounces. 22) listed annual gold production data for Lemhi County from 1874 through 1942. 21) estimated that the total gold production of Lemhi County to 1911 was worth $13,702,256 (about 665,060 ounces), of which $6 million represented the output of placers before 1881. In recent years byproduct gold from copper-cobalt ores in the Blackbird district caused a significant increase in gold output. Nearly all the gold discoveries in Lemhi County were made before 1900, and most of the production, which was largely from placers, occurred in the early days. Gold placers and then lode deposits were discovered at Yellow Jacket in 1868. The town of Leesburg was soon founded and became a base from which discoveries were made in the northern part of the county at Gibbonsville, Moose Creek, Bohannon Bar, and Yellow Jacket (Umpleby, 1913b, p. In 1866, prospectors from the Elk Creek area found gold on Napias Creek in the unexplored north-central part of Lemhi County. BERGENDAHL - USGS 1968Ĭlick here for the Principle Gold Producing Districts of the United States Index

Thistle creek dredge history