REBROADCAST | The rise and ruin of Idaho’s lost gold town

EDITOR’S NOTE: This episode originally aired on Dec. 7, 2025.Gold had been discovered in the Sawtooth Mountains.It was 1879, thirty years after the California Gold Rush, and dozens of people from the southern United States had come to central Idaho seeking their fortune.Samuel Holman was an attorney who filed one of the first gold claims in the area. He laid out the plots for a community to establish a mine. Soon after, the townsite of Custer — named for Civil War General George Armstrong Custer — was born.Over the next 31 years, the small community attracted more than 300 people. By 1910, the town folded and quickly faded into history. By the 1960s, it was a historic site managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Today, the old ghost town is managed by a nonprofit called The Land of the Yankee Fork Historical Association. Custer Days, an annual event held on the second Saturday in July, attracts a large crowd every year for tours and reenactments. Thousands of tourists visit the site every summer.On this episode of “It’s Worth Mentioning,” Rett Nelson makes a trip to Custer and interviews Diane Davidson, chair of the Land of the Yankee Fork Historical Association. She has ancestral ties to the area dating back seven generations. They discuss the rise and fall of the short-lived community and the reasons behind it. They also get into the people and players involved in its founding, those who lived in Custer during its heyday, and what daily life was like.Later, they talk about what led to the town’s closure and its rediscovery three decades later.RELATED | Idaho’s newest state park had its grand opening this weekendIdaho’s newest state park, Twin Peaks Ranch State Park, had its grand opening earlier this summer. It’s near Custer, which makes this a timely episode to revisit.Visit the town’s Facebook page for regular updates and stories about the town’s history.Watch previous episodes of “It’s Worth Mentioning” here. Check out the show on Facebook. If you have a tip, guest idea, or comment, email [email protected].