From Curiosity to Ownership: Our Adventure In Gilmore, Idaho

By Jon Waraas - First Published: April 10th, 2024

I talk about Gilmore, Idaho and why we are building a cabin there (hint.. it's fun!)

Gilmore, Idaho is a small "ghost town" near Leadore, Idaho which is roughly 10 miles from the Idaho/Montana border. We are building a small cabin there.

I put the ghost town part in quotes because the town has kind of blown up in popularity over the last few years. Now there are a few "full timers" that live there year round. So guess its not really a ghost town anymore.

I first visited Gilmore was with my girlfriend Tiffany back in 2019. We visited the place en route to our vacation in Spokane, Washington.

I was hooked on Gilmore ever since we first went there.

What Is Gilmore, You May Ask?

Gilmore is an old mining town that was established in the 1880's to mine silver, gold, lead, etc. The town flourished for a few years before a slow death until nobody was left living there. Over the last few years however, Gilmore's popularity has picked back up.

Here is the longer version..

Back in the 1880's, veteran miner Joe Bush was the first to establish a successful mining claim in the Gilmore area.

He then sold his claim to Edgar G Ross in 1902 for roughly $3500.00, which was a good sum of money back then.

Edgar Ross was a successful business man from Pennsylvania, which took Joe's small mining claim, and turned it into a multi-million dollar operation.

In the early 1900's, Edgar purchased all of the lots available in the valley below the mining operations, and called the city Gilmer, Idaho.

However, when they submit the charter paperwork, it came back as "Gilmore" instead of "Gilmer". They tried to dispute the incorrect name, but were denied. So the name Gilmore stuck.

The town flourished for roughly 20-25 years, even once hitting a population of 800 people.

The good times lasted until the great depression hit and ore prices tanked. Then the power plant burnt down in 1929.

The final nail in the coffin was the railroad leaving town in 1939.

After that, residents slowly started moving away until none where left.

Then in 1970's, a man named Dick Moll started living in Gilmore and taking care of the place. Which preserved a lot of the history that still is here today.

That is a very very basic description of Gilmore and its history. There's still a lot more to tell.

Why Buy Land In Gilmore?

As soon as we visited Gilmore, I loved it. I'm a history nerd and would loved to own a piece of property inside an old ghost town.

During that first visit, I wrote down the website of one of the realtors selling land up there. I was interested in it right away!

In the 60's or 70's (I'll have to double check this) a man bought most of the private town lots, and then started selling them slowly over time.

In the spring of 2020 I bought my first lot in Gilmore, from that man's son. The "large" lots are roughly 50 feet wide by 132 feet in length. Back then the lots were selling for $9,000 each.

At first I put up some simple sign posts and called the place "Camp Badger" because of the old badger den on the lot. We camped on "Camp Badger" a few times, and it was fun, but its too windy up there for a tent. We wanted protection from the wind and sun. We wanted a cabin.

So in January of 2021, I bought two more lots just below and adjacent to my current one. This is where we wanted to build a cabin. We called these new lots "Camp Bluebird" because of all of the bluebirds around the Gilmore area (there's a lot!).

By this time in January 2021, there were still a lot of lots available, with roughly 30%-40% of the private lots still up for sale.

But by March of that same year, all of the lots were sold. Apparently everyone took their Covid checks and bought land :/ the rest of the lots sold out within a few months.

It took a couple years of savings, but in 2023 I was able to buy a Amish build cabin and had it delivered to the lots. It took a lot of work to get the cabin in place, but we were able to get most of the important work done in 2023.

Then in February of 2024 I got some good news, my neighbor in Gilmore moved to Colorado and wanted to sell his two lots. I took those lots off his hands, and took over an unfinished building that he built as well. But now having 4 attached lots gives me the opportunity to put in a legal septic system.

No work has been done at Gilmore since last November. We went up there the other days, and there is still too much snow to do any meaningful work up there.

This summer we are excited to get back working on the cabin. We have to build a outhouse right away, then hopefully we will have some time to build a deck. However, there it lots and lots of landscaping work that needs done this year as well.

There is still so much to do, and tell. But for today, that's my story about Gilmore, the reason why we are building a cabin there, and our future plans. I hope you enjoyed this blog post, stay tuned for more about our adventure in Gilmore :)

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