Today I’m back in Mackay, Idaho, to take another look at the famous mountain tramway. This time, I’m focusing on the main upper tram tower. The tower is on private land, but visitors can still come up and explore the outside.
In this video, I walk around the tower, show the details you can still see up close, and explain what makes this structure a standout piece of Idaho’s mining-era history. I also ensure I follow the rules by not entering the tower.
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So I'm still doing the Mackey, Idaho mine tour. There's a better view of the Mackey town site.
I decided to show you guys this. This is the main tram tower. This is where everything came in
and then was loaded onto the buckets and went three and a quarter miles that way. This is an
impressive structure. There's really no easy way to get up. The main road is back filled with
materials. A little grease bucket there as I am slipping and sliding. So that looks like it was
a pulley of some sort. You see the fine teeth on one side. Oh, there we go. Look at that.
That's a brake band. This was the main drive system here. It went up there and this is to
stop the steam engine. I knew that was going to happen. Now when you do this tour, you can check
out the outside of the structures. But some of this stuff is on private property and they tell
you that at the beginning of the road. And these people are kind enough to let us still explore
them. But you got to respect and not, like somebody did here, break their way in. This has no mechanical
equipment in it anymore anyways. This road here, though it looks nice, down at the bottom part
it's filled in with rocks and there's a gate. Look at the size of these ore bins.
This was collecting material for all the mines on this mountain. Okay, yeah, see you just got to
respect what's going on. Someone's shooting their gun. They've been doing a lot of target practice.
There's the trestle. So this was just a quick glimpse in what was at this site. I know this
was a very short video, but if you made it to the end, I appreciate you. Let's get you excited,
do some exploring, do it, have fun, be safe, and I'll catch you guys on the next one.
