The monthly Rear View column features historic photo stories from The Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History at The Community Library.

In the early years of the Wood River Valley’s mining boom, many small towns sprang up beyond Bellevue, Ketchum and Hailey. Our towns survived the mining boom and bust that occurred in many parts of the West, but many of the smaller towns didn’t survive and became ghost towns.

Initially, in the boom and bust, there was a fevered search for gold, and running into silver in pursuit of gold was a nuisance. Then, when silver mining technology developed in Nevada and Colorado, miners sought paydays from silver and lead in central Idaho, where a lot of it was found.

This photo is of Bullion, a town 7 miles west of Hailey, out Croy Canyon, nestled in a Y

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