Pioneer today is in ruins. But they are somewhat interesting ruins because they are man made. This all came about as a result of a feud between county authorities and a mine operator. According to an employee working for a company conducting mining operations in the later years concerning the buildings constructed long before, he said: “Our company would have saved the buildings but when money-made county authorities found we were working here they slammed us with taxes for what they called usable buildings, so we deliberately wrecked them.” Pioneer had its best years in the 1870s with several hotels, general stores, blacksmith shops and the like. Even though man clearly showed he didn’t know what he was doing, a visit is still in order. Submitted by Henry Chenoweth.

Hi. My name is Tom Van Syoc and I live in Evanston Wyoming. I am a ghost town nut. "Nut" being the key word here. I've been known to drive many miles on two track trails rough enough to jar the fillings out of my teeth or ride a horse so far it takes me a week to walk normal again just to look at an old foundation or a town site where nothing is left. Its one heck of a hobby. Since I found your website I have spent more time on this computer than ever before. It is at the top of my favorites list by a long shot. My question is about the ghost town. Pioneer Montana. Were there 2 Pioneers in Montana. The reason I ask is you have it listed in Beaverhead County. The one I know is in Powell County. I was just there a week ago and visited the site. The rancher who owns the townsite opened the gates and anyone can go there. The description you have for the Pioneer you show in Beaverhead cty fits the one in Powell all to well. The rancher has blasted the buildings, the sustantial rock one in particular so not much is left except a couple of log and a couple of frame buildings all but falling down. I have a daughter-in-law whose great grandfather had a saloon in Pioneer and her grandmother and grandfather were born and ranched in Gold Creek all thier lives. Gold Creek is 4 or 5 mile north of the Pioneer town site. I remember her granddad telling me about the good 4th of July celebrations the had at Pioneer in the old days. Her uncle is still ranching at Gold Creek and her and my son have a summer home on the old ranch. So being retired I can go pretty much where I want and plan to spend time up there. A couple of things that might interest you. The creek was dredged 3 times according to my daughter-in-laws uncle. Once early on about the turn of the century, once in the early thirtys and once again in the early fiftys right after the Korean war. There are bits and pieces of the dredge from the thirtys laying around gathering rust but the one from the fiftys is still intact and sitting in its pond on the creek. There are miles of huge rock and dirt piles as a result of all the dredging. Its all well worth looking at. Next time I go up there I will take pictures of whats left and send them to you if you will let me know at sandra shaffer @ hotmail .com. It pobably wont be until next spring as I'm heading to Arizona soon. These Wyoming winters are to much for me any more. Again. thanks for a great website.

The Pioneer Mining District was organized in 1866. Water was brought to the site by various ditches, all, eventually, controlled by cattle baron Conrad Kohrs. Korhrs used his control of the water to buy up claims in the area, and, eventually, control mining in Pioneer. The post office in Pioneer was opened in 1870. At the height of the mining activity, the town had a population of 500 people; four brewries; six saloons; two hotels  and four general stores. When the claims started to play out in the 1880's, Chinese immigrants came in and worked the tailings. A mining engineer from Butte, Montana, Pat Wells, recognized the potential for dredging operations in Pioneer in 1929. Wells bought out all of Kohrs'
holdings and commenced dredging in the area.

Pictures I posted with this update were taken during a visit to Pioneer in August 2008.

Information for summaries was obtained from "Ghost Towns and Mining Districts of Montana" by Terry Halden; "Montana Ghost Towns and Gold Camps" by Wm. W. Whitfield; other sources and original research. - Doc Holliday