Bi-Metallic Aerial Tramway

Location: Granite Ghost Town State Park, Granite County, Montana Coordinates: 46° 18.995′ N, 113° 14.805′ W Voice: Mark Twain Word Count: 1024

There is a certain kind of man who looks at a mountain and sees an obstacle. There is another kind who looks at the same mountain and sees a challenge. And then there is the mining engineer, who looks at a mountain and sees a problem in logistics that can only be solved by stringing a wire rope across the sky and hanging buckets from it.

In 1889, the Bi-Metallic Mining Company of Granite, Montana, found itself with a very large problem in logistics. They had a mine that was producing silver ore with the enthusiasm of a counterfeiter, but the mine was located on top of a mountain that was entirely unsuited for the construction of a large-scale milling operation. The ore had to be transported down the mountain to the valley below, where the company was building a massive 100-stamp mill.

The traditional method of moving ore down a mountain involved wagons, mules, and a great deal of profanity. It was slow, expensive, and subject to the whims of the weather, which in Montana can be described as generally hostile. The Bi-Metallic Company, being composed of men who preferred their profits to be large and their expenses to be small, decided that wagons and mules were entirely inadequate for the task at hand.

They turned to the Bleichert system of aerial tramways, a marvel of German engineering that involved a continuous loop of wire rope suspended from wooden towers. It was a system that had been proven in the rugged terrain of Europe, and the Bi-Metallic Company decided it was just the thing for the rugged terrain of Montana.

The construction of the tramway was a monumental undertaking. It required the clearing of a right-of-way through the dense timber, the erection of massive wooden towers, and the stringing of miles of heavy wire rope. The men who built it were a hardy breed, accustomed to working in conditions that would make a sensible man reconsider his career choices. They worked through the summer and into the fall, battling the elements and the terrain with equal determination.

When it was completed in 1889, the Bi-Metallic Aerial Tramway was the longest in the United States. It stretched for 9,750 feet, a distance of nearly two miles, and dropped 1,225 feet in elevation from the mine to the mill. It was a continuous loop of wire rope, supported by wooden towers that marched down the mountainside like a line of very tall, very rigid soldiers.

The tramway was a masterpiece of efficiency. It consisted of a stationary track cable, upon which the ore buckets rode, and a moving traction cable, which pulled the buckets along. The buckets, each capable of holding several hundred pounds of ore, were spaced at regular intervals along the line. As a full bucket arrived at the mill, it was automatically dumped, and the empty bucket was returned to the mine on the other side of the loop.

It was a system that operated with the relentless precision of a clockwork mechanism. The tramway could transport hundreds of tons of ore a day, rain or shine, snow or sleet. It eliminated the need for wagons and mules, and it reduced the cost of transportation to a fraction of what it had been.

The tramway was not just a marvel of engineering; it was a spectacle. The sight of the ore buckets gliding silently through the air, suspended high above the treetops, was a source of endless fascination for the residents of Granite and Philipsburg. It was a visible symbol of the wealth and power of the Bi-Metallic Company, a company that had conquered the mountain and bent it to its will.

But the glory days of the Bi-Metallic Aerial Tramway were short-lived. In 1893, the silver market collapsed, and the great mines of Granite shut down. The tramway, which had once carried the wealth of a mountain, now hung silent and empty. The wooden towers began to rot, the wire rope began to rust, and the forest began to reclaim the right-of-way.

Today, only remnants of the tramway remain. A few of the wooden towers still stand, their timbers weathered and gray, leaning precariously against the sky. Sections of the wire rope lie rusting in the underbrush, a silent reminder of the men who built the longest aerial tramway in the United States.

When you stand among the ruins of the Bi-Metallic Aerial Tramway, you can almost hear the hum of the wire rope and the clatter of the ore buckets. You can almost see the men who built it, their faces grimed with sweat and dirt, their eyes fixed on the mountain they had conquered. It is a place where the past is not just remembered; it is felt in the very air you breathe.

It is a monument to the ingenuity and determination of the men who built the West, men who looked at a mountain and saw not an obstacle, but an opportunity. They were men who believed that with enough wire rope and enough determination, anything was possible. And for a few brief years, they proved it.

See Also:

• Granite Ghost Town
• Miner's Union Hall
• Philipsburg Historic District

References: [1] Historical Marker Database, Bi-Metallic Aerial Tramway, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=49547 [2] The Verdigris Project, Butte, America's Story Episode 213 - Granite Ghost Town, https://www.verdigrisproject.org/butte-americas-story-blog/butte-americas-story-episode-213-granite-ghost-town