Not Quite A Ghost Town: Check Out Rimini, Montana

People don't come to Montana for beaches and theme parks.

It's spring, and most of us are mapping out our summer travel plans. Out-of-state adventures are certainly fun, and if you want to visit places with major theme parks, it's a necessity; after all, Montana isn't known for its roller coasters.

Read More: Montana's Best Lakes

However, the Treasure State is fun to explore in other ways, including our ghost towns. These ghost towns, or almost-ghost towns, are scattered from the eastern plains to the Montana-Idaho border. There are dozens (if not more) of these once-prospering communities in Big Sky Country that are now little more than crumbling, real-life history books.

Welcome to Rimini, Montana.

Tucked in a mountain valley west of Helena, you'll find Rimini, MT (pronounced "rim-in-eye"). Originally dubbed "Young Italy", the town was named after a 13th-century Italian noblewoman named Francesca da Rimini, who was popularized in Dante's Inferno. 

Historians note the play was quite popular at the theaters in Helena when Rimini, MT was founded in the mid-1860s, and the name choice for the bustling mining camp won out over Lee Mountain.

Silver mines put Rimini on the map.

Like many of Western Montana's early settlements, Rimini sprang up for the rich ores found beneath the surface. Gold discoveries brought many settlers to Montana, but other mineral discoveries quickly followed, and so did the miners and fortune seekers.

Butte is known for its copper deposits, while the mountains around Helena were rich with silver and other minerals (including gold). Rimini prospered for several years, growing to a peak population of around 300 by 1890. It's estimated that over $700,000,000 in ores were extracted in the Rimini area.

From hustle and bustle to bust.

Like so many other mining towns in Montana, Rimini experienced the boom and the bust; in this case, it took around 50 years. By 1926, the last active commercial mining claim in the area shut down operations.

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Today, Rimini is home to a handful of residents, some seasonal, a few are year-round. Some of the former mining town structures have been repurposed into houses, while others lie in their slowly crumbling state, nature patiently waiting to reclaim the timbers of a once-booming town.

If you explore Rimini, MT, please remember that most of the buildings are private property and trespassing is illegal. Rimini offers unescorted viewing, and some interpretive signs are on-site.