An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho, Part 251

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1524

USA > Idaho > Kootenai County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 251
USA > Idaho > Nez Perce County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 251
USA > Idaho > Shoshone County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 251
USA > Idaho > Latah County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 251

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WEIPPE.

Weippe is the trading point of the prairie and re- gion which bears that name in the southern portion of Shoshone county. The town-site is on the north- ern end of the prairie, on Ford's creek. R. J. Ander- son owns a general store, which, though not on the town-site, is really a portion of the town; Welling- ton Landon, the pioneer settler, conducts a small es- tablishment, in which he dispenses refreshments of various kinds to the weary traveler; Frank Gaffney has a small general store; Jolin Tory a blacksmith shop, and W. W. Gardner conducts the Weippe Hotel and livery barn, and also the postoffice. In 1895 a comfortable little schoolhouse was erected by the dis- trict, and here school is maintained for six months during the year. At the present time there are eighteen pupils under the instruction of Miss Coontz. R. J. Anderson's saw mill is near the town of Weippe, a plant having a capacity of about 16,000 feet of lumber a day, and employing many men. Three and a half miles west of town a smaller mill is operated by the Barry Brothers. Tributary to Weippe is a prosper- ous stock-raising and farming community, and the prospect that the town will increase materially in the future is flattering. It would seem that development of the vast timber resources in the neighborhood of Weippe would alone prove an incentive to the growth of a town of respectable size.

DELTA.

Delta is situated on Beaver, at the mouth of Trail, creek. There is only a semblance of the old placer center now left. The Mascot Gold Mining Company has acquired the ground upon which the town stood, and is at present engaged in removing buildings, fences, etc. At one period Delta had 1,000 inhab- itants, and was a formidable rival of Murray, but with the decline of placer industry in the North Fork country it steadily fell off until there were left only a

handful of the former population. Two years ago the dredge company entered the field and acquired the claims upon which the town is located. Aside from dredge work there is little to maintain a town at this point. Individual prospectors and miners go either to Murray or Wallace for supplies. The mining com- pany, however, has set aside a small tract of land just above the old town, and on this ground the few busi- ness buildings needed in the future will be built. Al- ready Thomas Shuster, an '83 pioneer, has erected a commodious and comfortable hotel on the new site and other business men contemplate a revival of building. Should future conditions demand a large town there is no doubt but that the ground can be secured. Mrs. Emma McNall is Delta's postmistress, and she, with her husband, also conducts a small store.

THIARD.

Another of the North Fork's old placer towns is Thiard, formerly Myrtle, although with the excep- tion of a few residences and one business house, noth- ing of importance remains of a once lively and bus- tling mining camp. In 1885-6 the population of "Myrtle" was close to a thousand people, and therc was more gold dust handled at that point than in any other place in the Cœur d'Alenes. The town was named after the daughter of one of the locators of the Myrtle claims. Several years ago 'the postoffice was abandoned, but subsequently re-established. The name Myrtle had been taken by another town in the state, however, so the place was christened Thiard. in honor of one of its pioneers. It is situated on Trail creek, one mile east of Delta. By numerous individual miners there are a number of claims still being worked, and with reasonable success. George Woods is the postmaster, merchant and landlord.

GREER.

Another thriving reservation town, situated on the Clearwater Short Line Railway, in southern Shoshone county, is Greer. It is the first station below Kamialı and the first above Orofino, four miles above the inouth of Jim Ford's creek. The site is similar to that of Stites in that it is on a narrow strip of land in the bed of Clearwater canyon, which at this point is pre- cipitous and narrow. Greer is the gateway to southern Shoshone county ; practically all shipping is done from here; here is situated the old Greer ferry, con- necting the town with Nez Perces prairie. Two excellent wagon roads climb the sides of the canyon at this point, neither road having a grade averaging over Io per cent. The road into the Weippe and Pierce City regions is an old one, but the one going to the prairie was constructed by John Greer, aided by a few settlers, in 1800.

The settlement at this point of the river dates back to 1861, when Colonel William Craig and Jacob Schultz built a ferry here to accommodate travel to the Oro Fino mines. The Witts, Caleb and his son

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HISTORY OF NORTH IDAHO.

James, conducted the ferry for a time; then Schultz took over the property and operated it until 1870. He was followed by John D. Reed, who acted as ferry- man for four years, after which D. W. C. Dunwell purchased the property. The ferry was destroyed at the time of the Nez Perces Indian war. lohn Greer and John Molloy acquired possession of the historic ferry in the fall of 1877, Mr. Greer subsequently pur- chasing Molloy's interest. He is now sole owner. The boat is first class and is well maintained by its owner, who is as well known in central Idaho as any other man in the region.

When the railroad came up the Clearwater in 1899 Mr. Greer formed a partnership with John Dunn and platted a town-site on the north forty acres of the former's homestead. Seventeen acres addi- tional were subsequently platted, making the aggre- gate size of the town-site fifty-seven acres. To the railroad company a right-of-way fifty feet in width was donated, together with a tract of land 1,000x250 icet, the latter being for yard purposes. The com- pany has rewarded this generous action by building an extensive system of sidetracks at this point and a commodious depot. Usually a new town's pioneer en- terprise is a store; a blacksmith shop led the van in Greer. William Varner and John Bush built such a shop on the town-site in the spring of 1889. John Gamble ran up a livery stable ; in October came E. T. Lensegraff, John and Albert Carlson, and they opened a general store under the firm name of Carlson Broth- ers & Company. Albert Carlson and Mr. Lensegraff still conduct the business. The succeeding general mercantile store was that of the Clearwater Mercan- tile Company, composed of Edward Crosson and Duke Robbins, who came to Greer in the spring of 1900. Later the business was purchased by Means & Bell, and subsequently the Noble Brothers secured the property.

This same spring William Davis erected a store in Greer which he sold to Erb Brothers in 1902. The first hotel was called the Montana House, and was con- ducted in a portion of Carlson Brothers & Company's store building by R. W. Tanner. This hostelry was established in the fall of 1899. Mr. Tanner was suc- ceeded in 1900 by Carlson Brothers & Company, and they in turn by W. P. Wilson. Two years ago the latter built a new hotel building across the street from the old one, and subsequently sold it to J. I. Coontz, the present proprietor. Such is a condensed history of the beginning of Greer.

In 1902 John Greer presented to the school dis- trict a site for a suitable edifice, and a small structure was at once erected on the ground. The first term was taught by Miss Cora Fabrique. Miss Lulu Pal-

merton is the present school mistress and has under hier instruction fifteen pupils. A nine months' school term is maintained. As yet there are no churches in the town, though this step of progress will, doubtless, shortly be taken by the community. Two large ware- houses are required to handle the grain which is shipped annually from Greer, that of the Vollmer Clearwater Company, of Lewiston, and Kerr, Gifford & Company, of Portland. From M. B. Erb, manager of the former warchouse, which handles approxi- mately three-fifths of the business, it was learned that liis house bought nearly $40,000 worth of grain last season. This firm purchased 5,554 sacks of wheat, 12,27I sacks of flax, 4.387 sacks of oats and 4.459 sacks of barley, practically all of which came from Nez Perces prairie.

At present Greer is an unincorporated village, con- taining only about one hundred people, but it is stcad- ily growing and will, doubtless, continue to grow for several years, as the country tributary fully warrants a much larger trading point on the river. The size and importance of the Pierce City mining district also favor Greer to a great extent. Nearly all the traffic to that region passes through the town. The Pierce City Stage Company operates a six-times-a-week con- veyance between Greer and Pierce City, the line be- ing conducted by Samuel Elben. A summary of the business houses and professional men of Greer closes this article :

General stores -- Carlson &

Lensegraff, Erh Brothers, Noble Brotliers. Hotel-J. I. Coontz. Drug store-Harry M. Richardson. Livery barn-Charles Stenzil. Blacksmith shop-William Varner, John Greer. Cigars, confectionery, etc .- E. Howard Dul- mage. Barber-Joseph Bradley. Postmaster-Pat- rick Keane. Northern Pacific station agent-J. S. Hall.

AHISAHKA.

At the mouth of the north fork of the Clearwater is situated the little trading town of Ahsahka. This peculiarly named hamlet was called into existence bv the building of the railroad through the canyon, which widens out into a miniature valley at this point, and the erection of McLean Brothers' saw mill near the junction of the two streams. This saw mill has a capacity of 20,000 feet a day, requiring the assistance of many men around the mill, on the river and in the woods. All tillable land is owned by Indians, and Ahsahka possesses one of the five Indian churches on the reservation. A. M. Pierce & Son opened a store here in 1899, which is at present owned and conducted by T. Y. Cox. Mrs. Cox acts as postmistress and Frank Surprise conducts a hotel.

CHAPTER VI

DESCRIPTIVE.

Shoshone county is one of the important divisions of what is colloqually known as the "Panhandle" of Idaho. From Montana it is separated by its eastern boundary, the Bitter Root, and their northerly ex- tending spurs, the far-famed Cœur d'Alene moun- tains. These, with Shoshone county's southern boun- dary, the Lolo fork, and a line northward from the Clearwater, near the Seventh Standard parallel, to a point in the immediate vicinity of Lake Pend Oreille, inclose, in an area of 4,400 square miles, one of the richest mineral producing sections of the United States. The census of 1900 gives the county a population of 11,950.

As Shoshone is the oldest county in the state, created December 21, 1861, so, too, it is the richest in mineral wealth. Its history, comparatively recent, when considered in connection with those of other states, and which is treated in extenso in another chap- ter of this work. is punctuated with surprising and un- expected discoveries, mineral strikes under abnormal conditions, acuie and sensational crises in industrial circles, but always steadily progressive and constantly developing new and valuable resources.

The general contour of Shoshone county, from the Lolo fork to its northern limits, is a succession of mountain ranges, from two to eight thousand feet in height, seared and seamed with canyons and gulches, through which wind and twist in innumerable convo- lutions sparkling streams of the purest water, alive with salmon and trout and affording the one indis- pensable requisite to profitable mining. The fauna is represented by elk, bear, deer, moose and mountain sheep. Grouse, pheasants and ptarmigan are abund- ant, and the more ambitious hunter may seek, not 1111- successfully, the cougar, lynx and bob-cat. It is still a wide field for the prospector and the many rumors of lost mines, abandoned ledges, yet rich with fabu- lous indications, are never-failing incentives held be- fore the eyes of enthusiastic explorers.

When more amply developed the lumber interests of Shoshone county will constitute a source of great wealth. A dense growth of pine, fir, cedar, hemlock and spruce timber lines the banks of rivers and creeks and spreads over the flanks of the mountains. Con- tiguous to the south branch of the 'Clearwater lie

extensive reaches of agricultural and grazing lands, not thickly settled even at the present day, but which. in the future are destined to become the comfortable homes of thousands. Since 1860 placer mining on Oro Fino creek has been prosecuted with varying suc- cess, but activity in the later methods of quartz mining is constantly increasing.

Climatic conditions in Shoshone county are, prob- ably, more varied than in any other locality in the state. Light winters prevail along the Clearwater river, snow never being sufficient to warrant the pur- chase of hand-sleds or sleighs. To the north and east one experiences sharp fluctuations in climate, varying with the distance traveled and altitude gained. Ten miles from the Clearwater river there is an abundance of snow in the winter months, and residents enjoy ex- cellent sleighing, while a distance of thirty or forty miles insures sleighing from December until March, and through the months of January and February se- vere cold weather prevails, averaging from fifteen to twenty degrees below zero. Throughout the northern and eastern portions of the county the winter season is not so severe as it is on the same latitude east of the Rocky mountains. Quoting from the North Idaho Home Finder, published at Orofino: "The summer nights are comfortably cool, no mosquitoes, and a shady spot is pleasant and agreeable in warm weather. There are no cyclones in Shoshone county and a sun- stroke lias never been known. Stock, such as cattle, sheep, horses, hogs and mules, feed on the river ranges the year round, and are found in good condi- tion every month in the year."

The United States Geological Survey of 1900 gives the various altitudes of Shoshone county as follows :

Osburn, 2,521 feet; Summit (two-mile divide), 4,081 feet ; Beaver Station, 2,785 feet ; Delta, 2,517 feet ; Murray Summit, 3,321 fect; Littlefield, 2,930 feet ; Raven, 3,060 feet ; Sullivan, 3,477 feet ; Summit (between Idaho and M.), 4,862 feet; Wallace, 2,728 feet; Gem, 3,197 feet ; Burke, 3,736 feet; Glidden Pass (Bitter Root), 5,768 feet ; Dobson Pass (county road), 4,174 feet.

Writing upon the conditions and possibilities of the Cœur d'Alenes in 1891, Mr. H. W. Ross said :

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HISTORY OF NORTH IDAHO.

As to the permanency of the productiveness of the mines of the district, it is a matter of great importance and always subject to considerable discussion. Opinions on such things are largely a matter of personal judgment, and correct con- clusions hardly come within the range of human possibility. The dynamic forces that distributed the mineral wealth of the earth seem to have acted in few places the same way. Char- acteristic features that are significant of much in one place have little significance in another. In this respect Coeur d'Alene is an anomaly. Miners who were familiar with the characteristic features of the principal mining camps 'of the continent regarded the geological structures and dispositions of ores in the Coeur d'Alenes with doubt and unfavorable opinions. Miners who believed that they had seen all the conditions peculiar to veins and ore, and entertained the idea that some of these conditions were essential to profitable inines, were not the ones who undertook the development of the mines of this district, but mostly men whose minds were not hampered by experience elsewhere, or with fixed opinions that any particular features were essential to mines, except ore, and it is safe to say that these men have not only been successful in an ordinary way, but beyond their most sanguine expectations.

The best judgment on undeveloped prospects is liable to err, but as developments proceed the predominating tendency is usually a safe guide. The mineralization of a particular portion of the earth is usually by the same agency and the same characteristics prevail throughout. In this respect the mines of Coeur d'Alene are remarkable. The surface values were, indeed, meagre, and without many of those conditions indicating productiveness of ore, and the predominating tendencies are the expansion of ore bodies and productiveness of ore, as explorations are directed downward. There have been some remarkable instances of this character in the de- velopmentof the district's mines, and it is well worthy of going on record. The peculiar geological structure covers a large area of country, and the same predominating tendencies prevail throughout. It is evident that these ores are not incidental to any other feature, but that they are permanent and fixed features of the geological structure, and that they will continue to produce to a depth as far as modern mining appliances will extract it.

Geologically speaking. the formation is closely bedded schists of the same general character, occasionally grading into quartzite, and in places alternating with slate. At one place in the midst of the district a granite dome seems to have protruded through the bedded rocks, but no other eruptive rocks appear in the district. The lines of strike of these stratified rocks are nearly due east and west and tilted up to angles varying from forty-five degrees from the horizon to nearly vertical. The mineralization or deposition of ores throughout the district is a subject of considerahle contro- versy, some contending that the ores are contained in filled fissures, or veins interposed between beds of schistose rocks, while others argue that but few, or none, of the mines are veins at all, but simply mineralized country rocks, especially at Wardner, where the ore-bearing ground is of such unusual width as to almost preclude any idea of a vein in the usual sense. The mineralized rock is identical with the country formation on cither side, and entirely conformable to the dip and strike of the stratification.

The theory is that the minerals were deposited and held in solution in a gaseous form at the same period as the sedi- mentary beds, and that the metamorphosis of the sedimentary materials and mineral matter to a crystaline texture was con- temporaneous, and by the same agency, and that throughout subsequent disturbance in mountain making and the tilting up of these metamorphine beds the ore and rocks retained their relation to each other; and that the ore-bearing ground is but a mineralized zone of indefinite width. Evidence in sup- port of this is that in places clean rock grades insensibly into clean galena within the same plane of stratification, and that these planes are conformable to the dip and strike of the country rock. This mineralized zone at Wardner is known to be 500 feet wide in places, and extends from the Miners' De- light, near the Sullivan, to the Tyler, nearly one mile in length. Near the Sullivan two parallel claims are located upon the

zone, each of them with large outcrops of ore. It is also well demonstrated by underground explorations, through the Sullivan mine, into the Mammoth, the adjoining claim.

To the admiration-compelling beauties of the nat- ural scenery of the Coeur d'Alenes no pen of the his- torian can do adequate justice. Innumerable points of interest are found by the traveler through the moun- tains, be he prospector, pleasure-seeker or emigre. Temporary hardships incidental to such an enterprise are rewarded many fold by awesome sublimities, or quiet, sequestered landscapes, tinted by the unrivaled brush of nature. The old Mullan road winds through the most attractive portions of the Coeur d'Alenes. This is a government highway, originally constructed for the purpose of providing transportation facilities between Fort Walla Walla and Fort Benton, previous to the advent of the Northern Pacific Railroad. For many years it was a trail for whites and Indians alike, and even now it is utilized by the Flatheads in their annual incursions through the Bitter Root mountains and into the interior of northern Idaho.

Included in the list of minerals found in Shoshone county are : Gold, in placers and quartz; tellurium; native, crystalized, wire and flaked silver ; copper, sul- phide, arsenical and corbonate; antimony, sulphide ; inagnesia, associated with iron; zinc blende; spathic iron, iron pyrites, arsenical iron ; silver-bearing grey copper ; lead in the following forms- galena or sul- phide, anglesite, cerussite, pyromorphite, platnerite- magnesium : granite ; talc ; slate ; quartz ; quartzite.

Platnerite, one of the minerals named, is rare, hav- ing been found in but few places in the United States. In Shoshone county there are two mines from which platnerite has been taken in limited quantities. These mines are the You Like, at Mullan, and the Mammoth, at Burke. In 1891 men commissioned by the Smith- sonian Institute, Washington, D. C., came to Mullan and obtained specimens of this rare mineral deposit. The lead crystals found in Shoshone county are gen- erally associated with wire silver, and the following inines have produced some beautiful specimens of this ore: Custer, Sierra Nevada, Last Chance and Mam- moth. The Gem mine furnished some fine specimens of pyromorphite, and a number of rare crystals were obtained from the Mammoth. The upper workings of the Frisco contained beautiful specimens of cerussite, exact duplicates of some found in Bavaria. The Nellie inine is noted for spathic iron and antimonial copper. From the towns of Murray and Pierce have been se- cured handsome specimens in the forms of nuggets and gold quartz. Zinc blende is found associated with galena, and, as a rule, is easily eliminated by concen- tration. In the North Fork country is an excellent grade of copper, while along Pine creek is found a fine quality of antimony.

Wherever mill "tailings," or "concretes," impreg- nate water flowing through producing land, the latter is reduced to a worthless condition. This is the condi- tion of the south fork of the Coeur d'Alene river from Mullan westward. The stream is, also, rendered poisonous to cattle and other species of stock. In con- sequence of this a number of lawsuits have been insti-

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HISTORY OF NORTH IDAHO.

tuted against various mining companies. For the pur- pose of obviating this incalculable damage, work has recently been begun on what is to be, eventually, a large dam across the south fork of the Coeur d'Alene, at the mouth of Pine creek, seven miles below Wardner. It is anticipated that by this means the massive affair will retain ali the "tailings" which at present flow down the river and into Lake Coeur d'Alene, for the suc- ceeding ten or fifteen years. The work is the joint enterprise of various mining companies along the stream. It is sincerely hoped that this costly dam will be the means of preventing the destruction of property in the future. The "tailings" contain values of two dollars a ton, and it is thought that the enormous pile of "low grade ores" may be worked to advantage when more delicate machinery is invented to treat it.

Canyon and Nine Mile creeks, converging at Wal- lace, and debouching into the south fork of the Coeur d'Alene river, are wonderful regions when one con- siders the range of their possibilities, together with the amount of development and industrial activity al- ready in progress. In the main the hanging walls of Canyon creek are more silicious than the foot-walls, the fissures cutting through the country rock about north, sixty-five degrees, west, and varying in dip from vertical to eighty degrees to the north, or south, cutting the bedding planes on trend and dip. Belts of quartzite and slate cut through this district. Granite dykes cut through in the vicinity of Gem.

On Nine Mile creek the geological formation is mainly slate for the first few miles. The Granite mine is in the quartzite belt, between two granite dykes, the only one of its kind in the country. Well-defined veins attain a depth of about 1,000 feet ; tunnel mines and fissure veins, the same trend and dip as in Canyon creek, and the prevailing ore is the same. The mining district in the vicinity of Mullan is nearly identical, geologically. with that of Canyon creek. All sedi- mentary rock in the Wardner district is plain quartz- ite (sandstone changed by heat and pressure). The foot-wall is stratified quartzite; the hanging wall a blocky and more sandy quartzite. The limits of the zone are indicated, mainly, by "petering out," and de- crease of dynamic action which formed the original zone in which the ore was deposited. The float-wall, or master fissure, trends north, fifty degrees, west, and dips from thirty-five to forty-five degrees south- west. There are continuous ore bodies, with the ex- ception of intervals, for half a mile along the length of the vein, in which there are two series of ore shoots, hanging and foot-ore bodies. Toward the extreme west of the Wardner belt the master fissure strikes into, and becomes merged with, slate contact. The width of the ore body varies from six or eight to sev- enty feet.

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An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho, Part 251

Author: Publication date: 1903 Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1524

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1524