Historic Stamp Mill, Brogan Park, Idaho City
Idaho City, Boise County
- Grants: 2021 – Repair of dry rot to wooden support structure and restoration of Stamp Mill machinery
Location: 503 Montgomery Street, John Brogan Park, Idaho City, Idaho 83631
Restoration and display of the Historic Stamp Mill was completed in 2023 as part of an ongoing interpretive project spearheaded by the Idaho City Historical Foundation. Dubbed the ‘Idaho City Mining Trail’, ICHF maintains many artifacts of significance that help tell the story of Idaho’s mining history from the boom in the latter half of the 19th Century onward.
The Stamp Mill, used for crushing ore, will serve as the centerpiece of the display located behind the Boise Basin Museum. Rocks are inserted into the mill, and the different sized stamps hammer down on the raw material, pulverizing the rock, allowing gold or other precious metals to be separated out more easily. Machines of this type can be traced as far back to the Hellenic period of Ancient Greece around the 3rd Century BC. Automated mills were commonly used to render ore during the Roman Empire, and this would continue up through the Middle Ages.
The first Stamp Mill in the United States was constructed in 1829, and they soon became commonplace in mining communities across the country. This particular mill was finished on July 6, 1868, and withstood many years of heavy use before eventually succumbing to the elements long after Idaho City’s gold mines closed for good.
