History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 47

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880

USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 47
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 47
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 47

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

CHAPTER II. EARLY SETTLEMENT. 1862-1866.

MINERAL DISCOVERIES-COUNTIES AND TOWNS-IMMIGRATION-ROUTES TO THE MINES-INDIAN WARS-FORTS-QUARTZ-MINING-COMPANIES AND CLAIMS - MORE TOWN - BUILDING-STAGE-ROADS-SLIDING CLUBS- TRAFFIC AND TRAVEL-OREGON VERSUS CALIFORNIA-MAIL CONTRACTS -PROSPECTING AND MINING-NEW DISTRICTS-OUTPUT OF PRECIOUS METALS.

THE early history of Idaho has already been given in the former volumes of this series; the modern his- tory of Idaho properly begins with the discovery of the Boisé mines, in August 1862,1 previous to which the movement for a new territory met with little favor. In the spring of 1863 there were four county organizations and ten mining towns, containing, with some outside population, about 20,000 inhabitants, all of whom, except a handful, had come from various parts of the Pacific coast and the western states within the two years following Pierce's discovery of the Clearwater mines.2

1 The names of the discoverers were George Grimes of Oregon City, John Reynolds, Joseph Branstetter, D. H. Fogus, Jacob Westeufelten, Moses Splane, Wilson, Miller, two Portuguese called Antoine and Phillipi, and one unknown. Elliott's Hist. Idaho, 70.

2 There was large immigration in 1862, owing to the civil war and to the fame of the Salmon River mines. Some stopped on the eastern flank of the Rocky range in what is now Montana, and others went to castern Oregon, but none succeeded in reaching Salmon River that year except those who took the Missouri River route. Four steamers from St Louis ascended to Fort Benton, whence 350 immigrants travelled by the Mullan road to the mines on Salmon River. Portland Oregonian, Aug. 28 and 29, 1862. These whe attempted to get through the mountains between Fort Hall and Salmon River failed, often disastronsly. Ehey's Journal, MS., viii. 198. These turned back and went to Powder River. Wm Purvine, in Or. Statesman, Nov. 3, 1862. ( 406 )

407

MINING TOWNS.

The leader of the Boisé expedition having been killed by Indians while prospecting farther on the stream where gold was found, it received the name of Grimes Creek in commemoration. The party re- treated to Walla Walla, where a company was raised, fifty-four strong, to return and hold the mining ground.3 They arrived at Grimes Creek October 7th, and founded Pioneer City. Others quickly followed, and in November Centreville was founded, a few miles south on the same stream.4 Placerville, on the head of Granite Creek, contained 300 houses. Buena Vista on Elk Creek and Bannack City5 on Moore Creek also sprang up in December, and before the first of January between 2,000 and 3,000 persons were on the ground ready for the opening of spring. Up to that time the weather had been mild, allowing wagons to cross the Blue Mountains, usually impas- sable in winter. Companies of fifty and over, well armed to protect themselves against the Shoshones, at this time engaged in active hostilities, as narrated in my History of Oregon, made the highway populous during several weeks. Supplies for these people poured rapidly into the mines. In the first ten days of November $20,000 worth of goods went out of the little frontier trading post of Walla Walla for the Boisé country, in anticipation of the customary rush when new diggings were discovered. Utah also con- tributed a pack-train loaded with provisions, which the miners found cheaper than those from the Wil- lamette Valley, with the steamboat charges and the middlemen's profits.6 Besides, the merchants of Lew- iston were so desirous of establishing commerce with

$ Among the reenforcements were J. M. Moore, John Rogers, John Chris- tie, G. J. Gilbert, James Roach, David Thompson, Green and Benjamin White, R. C. Combs, F. Giberson, A. D. Sanders, Wm Artz, J. B. Pierce, and J. F. Guisenberry. Elliott's Hist. Idaho, 71; Idaho World, Oct. 31, 1864. 4 Among this party were Jefferson Standifer, Harvey Morgan, Wm A. Daly, Wm Tichenor, J. B. Reynolds, and Daniel Moffat, who had been sheriff of Calaveras co., Cal.

6 This place had its name changed to Idaho City on the discovery that the miners on the east side of the Rocky Mts had named a town Bannack.

6 Ebey's Journal, MS., viii. 127, 134; Or. Statesman, Dec. 22, 1862.

40S

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Salt Lake that a party was despatched to old Fort Boisé, September 20th, to ascertain if it were practica- ble to navigate Snake River from Lewiston to that point or beyond. This party, after waiting until the

116

115

LEDGES

S É

Trail

Boise R.

Pryette River

Tipheet

City

Ranches

Junction

Placerville

Cent

vit

FerryF .98

Old Fort Boise

LEANDTHE CITY

Owyhes River

DA COUON TY

Boundary Line between Oregon and Idaho

Snake

River

Ferry

erru

Reynol

Boise and

Sinker Crock

Mildle River

OWYHEE

Boonville

HRUBY CITY

OUNTY

Silver City

Catharine or

115

BOISÉ BASIN.

river was near its lowest stage, descended from Fort Boisé to Lewiston on a raft, which was constructed by them for the purpose.7 It was soon made apparent,

7These adventurers were Charles Clifford, Washington Murray, and Joseph Denver. A. P. Ankeny, formerly of Portland, originated the expedition. Those who performed it gave it as their opinion that the river could be nav- igated by steamboats. That same autumn the Spray, a small steamer built by A. P. Ankeny, H. W. Corbett, and D. S. Baker, in opposition to the O. S. N. Co., ascended the river 15 miles above Lewiston, but could get no farther. The Tenino also made the attempt, going ten miles and finding no obstacles to navigation in that distance. Lewiston, which as long as the miners were on the Clearwater and Salmon rivers had enjoyed a profitable trade, drawing its goods from Portland by the same steamers which brought the miners thus far on their journey, and retailing them immediately at a large profit, now saw itself in danger of being eclipsed by Walla Walla, which was the source of supply for the Boise basin. Its business men contemplated placing a line of boats on Snake River to be run as far as navigable. The

Ferry

Crock

Trail to

Rocky Bor

BOISE CITY

Boise River

« Ruby City Road

Squatn

Humboldt Roud

409

BOISE BASIN.

however, that Lewiston was hopelessly cut off from Salt Lake, and even from the Boisé basin, by those formidable barriers alluded to in the previous chapter, of craggy mountains and impassable river cañons and falls. The population of Boisé was equally interested in means of travel and transportation, and had even greater cause for disappointment when they found that wagons and pack-trains only could be relied upon to convey the commodities in request in every com- munity 300 miles from Umatilla landing8 on the Columbia to their midst, Umatilla, and not Walla Walla, having become the debonching point for sup- plies.

Meantime the miners busied themselves making preparations for the opening of spring by locating claims and improving them as far as possible,9 doing a

first important landing was to be at the mouth of Salmon River, forty miles ahove Lewiston. The design was then to make a road direct to the mines, whereas the travel had hitherto been by the trails through the Nez Perce country. The distance from the month of Salmon River by water to Fort Boisé was 95 miles, from there to the Fishing Falls of Snake River 90 miles, and from these falls to Salt Lake City 250 miles, making a total distance from Lewiston of 475 iniles, nearly half of which it was hoped could be travelled in boats. Such a line would have been of great service to the mili- tary department, about to establish a post on the Boisé River, and to the im- migration, saving a long stretch of rough road. But the Salmon River Mountains proved impassable, and the Snake River unnavigable, although in the autumn of 1863 a second party of five men, with Molthrop at their head, descended that stream in a boat built at Buena Vista bar, and a company was formed in Portland with the design of constructing a portage through a canon of the river which was thought impracticable for steamers.

8 Wardwell and Lurchin erected a wharf at Umatilla, 30 miles below Wal- lula, the landing for Walla Walla, and by opening a new route to the Grand Rond across the Umatilla Indian reservation, diverted travel in this direction. " Sherlock Bristol, who went to Boisé in Dec., says: 'I prospected the country, and finally settled down for the balance of the winter and spring on Moore Creek. There we built twenty log houses-mine, Wm Richie's, and I. Henry's being among the twenty. We made snow-shoes and traversed the valleys and gulches prospecting. As the snow was deep and it was some dis- tance to the creek, some one proposed we should dig a well, centrally located, to accommodate all our settlement. One day when I was absent prospecting the well-digger struck bed-rock down about 18 feet, but found no water; but in the dirt he detected particles of gold. A bucketful panned ont $2.75. When I returned at night I could not have bought the claim on which my house was built for $10,000. It proved to be worth $300,000. The whole bench was rich in like manner. My next-door neighbors-the three White brothers-for nearly a year cleaned up $1,500 daily, their expenses not ex- ceeding $300. Bushels of gold were taken out from the gravel beds where Idaho City now stands.' I have taken this account from a manuscript on

410

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

little digging at the same time, enough to learn that the Boisé basin was an extraordinary gold-field as far as it went. Eighteen dollars a day was ordinary wages. Eighty dollars to the pan were taken out on Grimes Creek. Water and timber were also abun- dant10 on the stream, which was twelve miles long. On Granite Creek, the head waters of Placer and Grimes creeks, from $10 to $50, and often $200 and $300, a day were panned out. In the dry gulches $10 to $50 were obtained to the man. Ditches to bring water to them were quickly constructed. The first need being lumber, a saw-mill was erected on Grimes Creek during the winter by B. L. Warriner, which was ready to run as soon as the melting snows of spring should furnish the water-power. Early in the spring the second mill was erected near Centre- ville by Daily and Robbins, the third begun at Idaho City in May by James I. Carrico, who sold it before com- pletion to E. J. Butler, who moved it to the opposite side of Moore Creek, and had it in successful opera- tion in June. The first steam saw-mill was running in July, being built in Idaho City by two men, each known as Major Taylor. It cut from 10,000 to 15,- 000 feet in ten hours.11 Thus rapidly did an energetic and isolated community become organized.

The killing of Grimes and other Indian depreda- tions12 led to the organization of a volunteer company

Idaho Nomenclature by Sherlock Bristol, who says that Idaho City first went by the name of Moore Creek, after J. Marion Moore, who in 1868 was shot and killed in a dispute about a mine near the South pass. Owyhee Avalanche, in Olympia Wash. Standard, April 18, ISGS.

10 William Purvine, in Portland Oregonian, Nov. 13, 1862; Lewiston Golden Age, Nov. 6 and 13, 1862.

11 Elliott's Ilist. Idaho, 202-3.

12 Several prospecting parties had been attacked and a number of men killed by the Shoshones. The Adams immigrant train in 1862 lost 8 persons killed and 10 wounded, besides $20,000 in money, and all their cattle and property. The attack was made below Salmon falls. S. F. Bulletin, Sept. 27, 18G2; Silver Age, Sept. 24, 1862. On the road to Salmon River from Fort IIall the same autumn, William A. Smith, from Independence, Ill., Bennett, and an unknown man, woman, and child, were slain. In March 1862 Isaac Men- dell and Jones Brayton, prospectors, were killed near Olds' ferry, ou Snake River, below Fort Doisé, and others attacked on the Malheur, where a tribe of the Shoshone nation had its headquarters.

411

INDIAN TROUBLES.

of the Placerville miners in March 1863, whose cap- tain was Jefferson Standifer, a man prominent among adventurers for his energy and daring.13 They pur- sued the Indians to Salmon Falls, where they had fortifications, killing fifteen and wounding as many more. Returning from this expedition about the last of the month, Standifer raised another company of 200, which made a reconnoissance over the mountains to the Payette, and across the Snake River, up the Malheur, where they came upon Indians, whose depre- dations were the most serious obstacle to the pros- perity of the Boisé basin. Fortifications had been erected by them on an elevated position, which was also defended by rifle-pits. Laying siege to the place, the company spent a day in trying to get near enough to make their rifles effective, but without success until the second day, when by artifice the Indians were induced to surrender, and were thereupon nearly all killed in revenge for their murdered comrades by the ruthless white man. 14

To punish the hostile Indians in Idaho, Fort Boisé was established July 1, 1863, by P. Lugenbeel, with two companies of Washington infantry in the regular service. It was situated on the Boisé River about forty miles above the old fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, near the site of the modern Boise City.

13 Six feet in height, with broad square shoulders, fine features, black hair, eyes, and moustache, and brave as a lion, is the description of Standifer in McConnell's Inferno, MS., ii. 2. Standifer was well known in Montana and Wyoming. He died at Fort Steele Sept. 30, 1874. Helena Independent, Nov. 20, 1874.

14 Movable defences were carried in front of the assaulting party, made by setting up poles and weaving in willow rods, filling the interstices with grass and mud. This device proved not to be bullet-proof; and bundles of willow sticks which could be rolled in front of the men were next used and served very well. When the Indians saw the white foe steadily advancing, they sent a woman of their camp to treat, and Standifer was permitted to enter the fort, the Indians agreeing to surrender the property in their possession stolen from miners and others. But upon gaining access, the white men shot down men, women, and children, only three boys escaping. One child of 4 years was adopted by John Kelly, a violinist of Idaho City, who taught him to play the violin, and to perform feats of tumbling. He was taken to Lon- don, where he drew great houses, and afterward to Australia. McConnell's In. ferno, MS., ii. 2-4. See also Marysville Appeal, April 11, 1863.

412

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Lugenbeel was relieved later in the season by Ri- nearson of the 1st Oregon cavalry.15

The summer of 1863 was one of great activity. Early in the season came flattering news of the Beaver- head country lying on the head waters of Jefferson fork of the Missouri River, where claims were held as high as $10,000 and $15,000. On Stinking Water Creek, fifteen miles in length, the diggings were re- ported to be marvellously rich. Good reports came also from all that region lying between the Rocky and Bitter Root ranges, and the camps on the Mis- souri to the east of it. About 1,000 miners had wintered in these diggings and two towns, Bannack City on the Beaverhead and Virginia City on another affluent of Jefferson fork, had sprung into existence contemporaneously with the towns in the Boisé basin. In the spring of 1863 a bateau load of miners from the upper Missouri left Fort Benton for their homes, taking with them 150 pounds of gold- dust.

The principal drawback on the Missouri was the hostility of the Blackfoot Indians, who, notwithstand- ing their treaty, robbed and murdered wherever they could find white men. Whole parties were killed, and whole pack-trains seized.

The immigration of 1863 was not so large as that of the preceding year, and was divided into three columns, one of which was destined for southern Idaho and the mining region of eastern Oregon; another was bound for California; and the third, fur- nished by the government with a separate escort under Fisk, consisting of twenty-three wagons and fifty-two men, turned off at Fort Hall for the Salmon River country, failing to reach which they tarried in the Beaverhead mines. Four steamers left St Louis

15 Fort Boisé was built of brown sandstone, and was a fine post. The reservation was one mile wide and two miles long. HI. Ex. Doc., 20, 11, 39th cong. 2d sess .; Surgeon-Gen'l Circular, 8, 457-60; Bristol's Idaho Nomencla- ture, MS., 4.

413

DIFFICULTIES OF IMMIGRATION.

in the spring for the upper Missouri, the Shreveport and Robert Campbell belonging to La Barge & Co., and the Rogers and Alone, owned by P. Choteau & Co. They left St Louis May 9th, and the river being low, were too late to reach Fort Benton. The Shreveport landed her passengers and freight below the mouth of Judith River, 200 miles from that post; the Rogers reached Milk River, 500 miles below the fort; the Alone could not get beyond an old fort of the Ameri- can Fur Company, twenty-five miles down stream; and the Campbell, drawing only three feet of water, was stopped at Fort Union, 800 miles from her desti- nation, where her passengers and freight were landed, the latter being stored in the fort.

This state of affairs involved much loss and suffer- ing, which was prefaced by the bad conduct of the Sioux, who on one occasion attacked a party of five men whom they invited ashore, killing three and mor- tally wounding a fourth. The travellers, left at the mercy of the wilderness and the Indians, made their way as best they could to their destinations, some on horse and some afoot. Many miners, expecting to return to their eastern homes by the boats, had gone to Fort Benton from different parts of the country to await their arrival, who now had to turn back to Salt Lake and take passage on stages. To Fort Benton in July had gone 150 wagons to meet the expected boats and convey the freight to the various distrib- uting points. Thirty cents a pound was the lowest rate from Milk River.

Notwithstanding the falling-off in immigration from the east in 1863, the Boisé mines drew between 25,- 000 and 30,000 to southern Idaho.16 Improvements were rapid and prices high. To supply the population

16 Portland Oregonian, July 23 and Aug. 6, 1863; Butler's Life and Times, MS., 2-3. The official census in August was 32,342, of whom 1,783 were women and children. 'I sold shovels at $12 apiece as fast as I could count them out.' A wagon-load of cats and chickens arrived in August, which sold readily, at $10 a piece for the cats and $5 for the chickens. But the market was so overstocked with woollen socks in the winter of 1863-4 that they were used to clean guns, or left to rot in the cellars of the merchants.

414

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

in the Boisé basin required great activity, and to pro- vide for the coming winter exhausted the resources of freighters. Ten or more pack-trains arrived daily in July and August, with half that number of wagons,17 laden with merchandise. No other means of passen- ger-travel than by horses was obtained this season, but the brains were at work which brought about a different state of affairs in the following spring, al- though the danger from Indians and banditti greatly discouraged stage-owners and expressmen. The Ind- ians stole the horses of the stage companies, and high- waymen, both white and red, robbed the express messengers.18

From the abundance of quartz in southern Idaho, and occasional fragments found containing frce gold, it was early anticipated that the real future wealth of the territory would depend upon quartz-mining, and miners were constantly engaged in exploring for gold- bearing lodes while they worked the bars and banks of the streams. Their search was rewarded by find- ing promising ledges on Granite Creek, near the first discovery of placer mines, and on Bear Creek, one of the head waters of the south Boisé, where placer claims were also found yielding from $16 to $60 a day to the man. There was a frenzy of excitement fol- lowing the finding of these quartz lodes, which set men to running everywhere in search of others. In September no less than thirty-three claims of gold

17 A train might be 15 or 50 or 100 animals, carrying from 250 to 400 lbs eaeb. A wagon-load was 2,500 or 5,000 pounds. It teek 13 days to go from Uma- tilla to Boisé. Therefore, 13 times ten trains and 13 times 5 wagons were continually upon the road, with an average freight of 584,675 pounds arriv- ing every 13 days. Ox-teams were taken off the road as the summer ad- vanced, on account of the dust, which, being deep and strongly alkaline, was supposed to have occasioned the loss of many work-cattle. Horses and mules, whose noses were higher from the ground, were less affected.

18 J. M. Sheppard, sinee connected with the Bedrock Democrat of Baker City, Or., carried the first express to Boisé for Tracey & Co. of Portland. Rockfellow & Co. established the next express, between Boise and Walla Walla. After Rockfellow discovered his famous mine on Powder River he sold out to Wells, Farge, & Co., who had suspended their lines to Idaho the previous year on account of robberics and losses, but who resumed in October, and ran a tri-monthly line te Boisé.

415

QUARTZ-MINING.

and silver quartz mines had been made on the south Boisé, all of which promised well.19 A company was formed to work the Ida Elmore, and a town called Fredericksburg was laid out at this ledge. Other towns, real and imaginary, arose and soon passed out of existence; but Rocky Bar has survived all changes, and Boisé City, founded at the junction of Moore Creek with Boisé River, was destined to become the capital of the territory.

The quartz discoveries on Granite Creek rivalled those in the south Boisé district. The first discov- ery, the Pioneer, had its name changed to Gold Hill after consolidation with the Landon. It was finally owned by an association called the Great Consolidated Boisé River Gold and Silver Mining Company, which controlled other mines as well. The poorest rock in the Pioneer assayed over $62 to the ton, and the bet- ter classes of rock from $6,000 to $20,000. These assays caused the organization in San Francisco of the Boise River Mining and Exploring Company, which contracted for a ten-stamp mill, to be sent to Boisé as soon as completed.20

19 The Ida Elmore, near the head of Bear Creek, the first and most famous of the south Boise quartz mines in 1863, was discovered in June. It yielded in an arastra $270 in gold to the ton of rock, but ultimately fell into the hands of speculators. The Barker and East Barker followed in point of time, ten miles below on the creek. Then followed the Ophir, Idaho, Inde- pendence, Southern Confederacy, Esmeralda, General Lane, Western Star, Golden Star, Mendocino, Abe Lincoln, Emmett, and Hibernia. The Idaho assayed, thirty fect below the surface, $1,744 in gold, and $94.86 in silver. Ophir, $1,844 gold and $34.72 silver. Golden Eagle, $2,240 gold, $27 silver, from the eroppings. Boise News, Oct. 6, 1863. Rocky Bar was discovered in 1863, but not laid out as a town until April 1864. The pioneers were J. C. Derrick, John Green, F. Settle, Charles W. Walker, M. Graham, W. W. Habersham, H. Comstock (of the Comstock lode, Nev.), A. Perigo, H. O. Rogers, George Ebel, Jeseph Caldwell, M. A. Hatcher, L. Hartwig, W. W. Piper, Charles Rogers, S. B. Dilley, D. Fields, Bennett, Foster, Dover, Bar- ney, and Goodrich. Boise Capital Chronicle, Aug. 4, 1869; Boisć News, Oct. 20,1863.

20 California Express, Nov. 7, 1863; Boisé News, Oct. 27, 1863. The men wbo located the Pioneer mine were Minear and Lynch, according to the Statement, MS., of Henry H. Knapp, who went to Idaho City in the summer of 1863, and who has furnished me a sketch of all the first mining localities, and the carly history of the territory. He was one of the publishers of the first paper in the Boise hasin, the Boise News, first issued in September 1863. The Portland Oregonian of Sept. 11, 1863, gives the names of the first prospectors of quartz in this region as Hart & Co., Moore & Co., and G. C. Robbins.

416

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Among the richest of the lodes discovered in 1863 was the Gambrinus, which was incorporated by a Portland company. This mine, like others prospect- ing enormously high, lasted but a short time. It was so rich that pieces of the rock which had rolled down into the creek and become waterworn could be seen to glisten with gold fifty feet distant.21 A town called Quartzburg sprung up on Granite Creek, two miles west of Placerville, as soon as mills were brought into the district, and on the head waters of the Payette, Lake City, soon extinct and forgotten.

But the greatest discovery of the season came from a search for the famous 'lost diggings' of the immi- gration of 1845. In the spring of 1863 a party of twenty-nine set out from Placerville on an expedition to find these much-talked-of never-located mines. 22

21 A company was organized to work the Gambrinus, and a mill placed on it in the fall of 1864 by R. C. Coombs & Co. After a year the unprincipled managers engaged in some very expensive and unnecessary labors with a view to freezing out the small owners, and were themselves righteously rnined in consequence. Butler's Life and Times, MS., 8-10. The Pioneer or Gold Hill ledge proved permanent. A mill was put up on it by J. H. Clawson in 1864, and made good returns. After changing hands several times, and pay- ing all who ever owned it, tho mine was sold in 1867 to David Coghanonr and Thos Mootry for $15,000. Coghanour's Boise Basin, MS., 1-3. This manu- seript has been a valuable contribution to the early history of Idaho, being clear and particular in its statements, and intelligent in its conclusions. David Coghanour was a native of Pa. He went to the Nez Perce mines in the spring of 1862, then to Anburn, Or., in the autumn of the same year. When the Boise excitement was at its height he went to Boisé, and carned money making lumber with a whip-saw at 25e per foot. He then purchased some good mining ground on Bummer Hill, above Centreville, from which he took out a large amount.

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History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 47

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: San Francisco : History Co. Number of Pages: 880

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880