Residents Win Fight To Save Mining Camp

The town’s fight to save two abandoned copper-mining buildings from a salvage company is over.

Timber Creek Inc., of Hailey, canceled its contract with Honolulu Copper Co., which owned the buildings, to salvage White Knob - an old mining camp - last month and has left the area.

“We’re just happy the threat to our buildings is gone,” said Earl Lockie, president of the South Custer Historical Society and member of the White Knob Historic Preservation committee.

Mackay residents now have formed a committee to preserve the old mining camp and are raising money for interpretive signs for the area. The committee is writing grants and researching other abandoned sites on the hill to see if the owners will allow the town to preserve them.

The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management also are helping. They will create a trail system along the old Shay railroad line, which was used to ship the copper ore.

Residents fought to save White Knob since learning Timber Creek planned to salvage the abandoned camp’s compressor building and head house.

The company planned to tear down the turn-of-the-century ruins, refurbish the timber and sell it to residents in resort towns throughout the West.