Land of the Yankee Fork State Park is a history-oriented public recreation area covering 521 acres (211 ha) in Custer County, Idaho, United States. The state park interprets Idaho's frontier mining history, including the ghost towns Bayhorse, Bonanza, and Custer. The interpretive center near Challis has a museum and gold panning station. Challis Hot Springs became a unit of the park in 2022. The park was created in 1990 with the purchase of twenty acres where the interpretive center is located two miles south of Challis. It is operated by the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the United States Forest Service.
Insider tip — Challis in the Salmon River Mountains of central Idaho is a small ranching town gateway to the Lost River Range — the highest mountains in Idaho — and the Frank Church Wilderness. Challis Hot Springs on the Salmon River has served trappers, ranchers, and wilderness travellers since the Shoshone-Bannock peoples used these waters, providing thermal bathing in a landscape of extraordinary western American wilderness where the Salmon (River of No Return) cuts through ancient volcanic granite.
