On Saturday, July 22, the Elkhorn Landowners Protective Association met in the town of Elkhorn, where a celebration ensued. Thanks to a $5,000 grant from American Rescue Act Funds the ELPA began updating old signs and creating new ones around the ghost town, located 18 miles northwest of Boulder.
ARPA administrator Leah Lewis wrote the grant proposal to secure funding for the project. Once the funding was secured, Elkhorn property owner Bruce Bell went to work on the signs, which serve as a walking tour of Elkhorn,
“[Bell] did a phenomenal job researching each sign to make sure the history was accurate and as complete as possible,” Elkhorn resident John Smith said.
Bell worked in cooperation with Smith, the Boulder Heritage Center, Donna Gilmer, the Fred W. Bell collection, the University of Montana Mansfield Library, the Jefferson County Museum, Butte Silver Bow archives and other individuals and organizations.
“We’ve had a lot of support,” Bell told The Monitor.
Many of these photos are used on the signs. In addition, Bell’s son-in-law Eric Hensley is developing an audio tour that visitors will be able to access from their cell phones. It is still to be determined when this feature will be available.
Bell has also applied for a grant (Lewis also wrote this proposal) to replace the large Forest Service sign visible upon entering Elkhorn.
Other Business
• During the July 22 meeting mining engineer Steve Lloyd spoke on future plans for the Elkhorn mine. According to John Smith, Lloyd said the mine needs to be able to process ore from Elkhorn at the Montana Tunnels facility in Jefferson City. Montana Tunnels has to raise money to meet its bond of $41 million.
Lloyd told those at the meeting that there are good gold deposits in Elkhorn and the challenge is to find investors.
• Fish, Wildlife and Parks representative Mark Filonczuk also spoke with members of the ELPA. He was thanked by those in attendance for FWP’s placement of a temporary outhouse at Elkhorn Park. The outhouse will be in operation from June through mid-September. It is located behind Gillian Hall.
According to Smith, Filonczuk also told those in attendance there will be some foundation work done on the buildings, which will probably start in September. FWP is also planning to replace some steps at Fraternity Hall, however, it lost its maintenance person and is currently trying to hire another one to do the work.
