History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 59

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 59
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 59
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 59

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).

North-west of Yaukce Fork district was the mining region of the middle fork of the Salmon, in which were a number of large ledges, on which locations were made in ISS1. One minc, the Galena, assayed 190 ounces in silver to the ton; and the Northern Pacific, discovered by E. Miller and Harry Smith, as- sayed even richer. The Greyhound, 13 miles north-west of Cape Horn, on a high mountain, was ou a 6-foot vein containing antimonial silver and chloride.

533

CARIBOO AND OTHER DISTRICTS.

mouth of Catherine Creek, and other localities. In 1871 and 1872 several mining camps or towns sprang

Parallel to it, 60 feet north, was the White Dog, and 60 feet north of that the Lake View, 4 and 6 feet in width, and containing ore similar to the Grey- honnd. The Patrick Henry vein was 10 feet wide at the surface. The Colonel Bernard, Rufus, and Blue Grouse were of this group.

The Blne Wing silver district, 25 miles east of the Yankee Fork district; Texas Creek silver district, 75 miles north-west of the town of Camas in the northern part of Queida county; Carihoo gold district in the eastern part of the same county; Squaw Creek silver district, 40 miles north-west of Boisé; Weiser gold, silver, and copper district on Weiser River; Lava Creek silver district, 70 miles west of Blackfoot in Oneida county, and Cariboo gold dis- trict, 75 miles north-cast of Blackfoot-all contained mines of a high grade of ores.

The Cariboo district, when first discovered in 1870 by F. S. Babcock and S. McCoy, was mined as a placer district, and yielded for ten years $250,000 annually. The auriferous gravels were accumulated in what was known as Bilk gulch, which lies immediately under the summit of Cariboo Mountain, and consisted of abraded volcanic and sedimentary materials largely mixed with the red earth derived from the softer shales. The plaeers were distrib- uted along Bilk and Iowa gulches, to the confluence with McCoy Creck, a distance of three miles, and ou several small creeks and gulehes in the neigh- borhood. Quartz was discovered in this district in 1874 by Daniel Griffiths and J. Thompson, who located the Oneida, a mine very rich in spots, and of good average yield; $35,000 was refused for the mine in ISSO. In 1877 John Rob- inson discovered a porphyry belt on the north slope of the mountain, in which he located the Robinson mine at the head of Bilk gulch. The Austin, on the same belt, was developed along with the Robinson. These mines had a very large ontcrop, extending more than 1,000 feet withont a break, and having a width of 25 feet. Within 20 feet of this ledge was another parallel vein of great richness, and the intermediate porphyry gold-bearing.

On the southern slope of the monntain is another belt of porphyry, on which were the Northern Light, Virginia, Orphan Boy, Paymaster, and other mines. In the district were about eighty locations, carrying free gold from $10 to $1,200 per ton. Timber was plentiful in the district, and the ledges pro- nonnced by experts to be true fissure veins. Other mnincs iu Carihoo district were the Peterson, Nabob, Mountain Chief, Nealson, Oneida South, Northern Light Extension, N. S. Davenport, and Silver Star, more or less developed. Altitude over nine thousand feet. These discoveries conclusively proved Idaho a mining country. From the eastern to the western boundary, taking a wide swath throngh the central portion of the territory, the billowy swells and rugged heights were found full of minerals. Add to this central territory the country on the Clearwater, the lately discovered Cœur d'Alene district, and the Owyhee region, there is but little left which is not metalliferous. It has long been known that gold existed in the Cœur d'Alene region. A redis- covery was made in 1883, when the usual rush took place. The first eager gold-seekers pushed into the mines, dragging their outfits ou toboggans (a kind of hand-sled, sometimes drawn by dogs), over several feet of snow. Eagle City started np with plenty of business; a saw-mill was erected at au enor- mous expense by Hood & Co., and a newspaper was started, called the Nugget, by C. F. MeGlashan and W. E. Edwards. Considerable coarse gold was found and some valuable nuggets, but so far there seems nothing to justify any excitement. S. F. Call, March 31, ISS4.

The placer mines of Idaho, as first discovered, were once supposed to be worked ont to a degree to warrant only Chinese laborers on the ground. But the newer methods of bed-rock flumes and hydraulic apparatus have com- pelled the placers of Boise basin to yield a new harvest, which, if not equal to the first, is richily remunerative. Ben. Willson, the 'placer king,' had 50

534

NATURAL WEALTH.

up along the river.2 Thousands of ounces of gold- dust of the very finest quality were taken from the gravel in their neighborhood in these two years. The placers, however, were quickly exhausted on the lower bars, the implements in use failing to save any but the coarsest particles. The higher bars were unpros- pected and the camps abandoned. But about 1879 there was a revival of interest in the Snake River placers, and an improvement in appliances for mining them and saving the gold, which enabled operators to work the high bars which for hundreds of miles are gold-bearing. In many places they lift themselves directly from the water's edge, ten, twenty, a hundred, or two hundred feet, and then recede in a slope more or less elevated. At other points they form a suc- cession of terraces, level at the top, varying from a few hundred feet to a mile or more in width.3

miles of ditches on Grimes Creek, costing $150,000. Elliott's Hist. Idaho, 175. The Salmon River placers, in Lemhi county, which gavo rise to Salmon City in 1866, paid from five to seventeen dollars a day to the hand. Working them by the old methods they were practically exhausted in five years, but by the new method the same yield was obtained as at first. Shoup's Idaho Ter., MS., 4. Ward and Napius discovered these mines. Loon Creek was dis- covered by Nathan Smith, a Cal. pioneer. In 1862 he came to Idaho, and was one of the discoverers of the Florence diggings. In 1869 he prospected Loon Creek, which he named from a bird of that species found on the stream. A thousand men were mining there at one time, and the town of Oro Grande was built up ss a centre of trade. When the white men had taken off the richest deposits, the Chinese purchased the ground, and were working it, when in the winter of 1878-9 the Sheep Eater Indians made a descent upon them and swept away the whole camp, carrying off the property of the slanghtered Mongolians to their hiding-places in the mountains, from which Capt. Bernard had so much trouble to dislodge them the following summer. Bonanza City Yankee Fork Herald, Oct. 18, 1884.

2 Mudbarville, Spring Town, Waterburg, and Dry Town were their eu- phonions appellations.

3 The deposits were of various depths, the upper bed being from 25 to 50 feet deep, and lying on a hard-pan of pseudo-morphous rock from a few inches to three feet in thickness, beneath which is another deposit generally richer than the first. Or, in some places, the hard-pan is represented by a soft cement, found at a depth of from three to nine feet. The cost of opening a claim, and putting it in good order for working is about $5,000; and the re- ceipts from it from $10 to $30 a day. Careful estimates, based on actual yields and measurements of ground, give the amount of gold obtained from sn acre of ground as being from $5,000 to $10,000, at the rate of from $20 to $100 a day, with the gold-saving inachines, which are furnished with an amalgamator.

The greatest hinderance to be overcome was the hoisting of water for min- ing purposes from the bed of the river, where there are no streams entering. The most feasible solution of this difficulty would be the construction of a

535

BULLION PRODUCT.

Coming to the actual production of the mines of Idaho, I find that, according to the annual report of the director of the mint of the United States, Idaho in 1879, when it was beginning to recover from the misfortunes of the previous decade, produced $1,150,- 000 in gold and $650,000 in silver, while the estimate in the tenth census is $1,944,203. In 1882 the pro- duct in gold and silver was $3,500,000, divided aniong ten counties, of which Custer, or the Wood River mines, produced more than one third.4 But the report of the mint director is no more than a guide to the actual amount of gold produced, the larger part of which is shipped out of the territory by banking firms or in private hands, and goes to the mint at last with- out any sign of its nativity. The total gold product of Idaho down to 1880 as deposited at the mints and assay offices has been set down at $24,157,447, and of silver $727,282.60. But some $60,000,000 should be added to that amount, making the yield of precious metals for Idaho $90,000,000 previous to 1881, when the revival of mining took place. Strahorn estimates the output of 1881 in gold, silver, and lead at $4,915,100.5

canal taking water out of the river above, and carrying it to all the mines below. This device, besides making mining a permanent business on Snake River, would redeem extensive tracts of land which only need water for irri- gation to change them from sage-brush wildernesses to gardens of delicious fruits and vegetables, or fields of golden grain. The principal claims were on the upper Snake River, at Cariboe, and above in Wyoming, and alse at Black Cauen, where the Idaho Snake River Gold Mining Company had some rich ground, $100 a day to the man having been taken out with a rocker, a copper plate, and a bottle of cyanide of potassium. The average yield was $25 a day over 80 acres of auriferous gravel. The Lawrence and Holmes Company had a claim near Blackfoot paying from $19 to $50 a day to the man. Lane & Co., near the mouth of Raft River, obtained $25 a day to the man; and Argyle & Co., near Fall Creek, owned placers that paid $100 a day to the man. Other rich placers were mined in the vicinity of Salmon Falls. The best seasens fer working, in reference to the stage of water in the river and the state of the weather, was from the Ist of March to the middle of May, and from the Ist of September to the Ist of November.

" That every county but four should be queted as gold-producing shews a very general diffusion of precious metals. The propertien was as follows: Alturas $945,000; Boisé $310,000; Cassia $25,000; Custer $1,250,000; Idaho $240,000; Lemhi $210,000; Nez Percé $5,000; Oneida $35,000; Owyhee $430,000; Shoshene $50,000.

5 See Strahorn's Idaho Ter., 61. The Virginia and Helena Post of Jan. 15, 1867, makes the output of the Idaho mines in 1866 $11,000,000. When

536

NATURAL WEALTH.

Turning from the precious metals to the baser metals and minerals, we find that, besides lead, Idaho has abundance of iron, copper, coal, salt, sulphur, mica, marble, and sandstone. Bear Lake district contains copper ore assaying from 60 to 80 per cent, and also native copper of great purity. Galena ores 78 per cent lead with a little silver are found in the same dis- trict. Bituminous coal exists in abundance in Bear Lake county, where one vein 70 feet in thickness is separated from other adjacent veins by their strata of clay, aggregating a mass 200 feet in depth of coal.

Near Rocky Bar, in Alturas county, is a vein of iron ore seven feet in thickness, and fifty-six per cent pure metal. Near Challis, in Custer county, is a large body of micaceous iron, yielding 50 to 60 per cent metal. At a number of points on Wood River rich iron ores are found in inexhaustible quantities. In Owyhee county, a few miles east of South Mountain, is the Narragansett iron mine, an immense body so ncarly pure as to permit of casting into shoes and dies for stamp-mills. A mammoth vein of heinatite in the neighborhood carries thirty dollars a ton in gold. Deposits of iron ore are found not far from Lewiston, which yield seventy-five per cent pure metal; and similar deposits exist near the western boundary of Idaho, in Oregon, in Powder River Valley.

The Oneida Salt Works, in Oneida county, manu- facture a superior article of salt from the waters of the salt springs, simply by boiling in galvanized iron pans.6 The demand has increased the production from 15,000 pounds in 1866 to 600,000 in subsequent years, and to 1,500,000 in 1880. A mountain of sulphur, eighty-five per cent pure, is found at Soda Springs, on Bear River. It has been mined to some extent. The same local- ity furnishes soda in immense quantities. Mines of

Ross Browne made his report to the government on the gold yield of the Pacific states and territories he omitted Idaho, which had produced from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000 annually for 4 years. Silver City Avalanche, Feb. 9, 1867.

" This salt analyzed yields, chloride of sodium, 97.79; sulphato of soda, 1.54; chloride of calcium, .67; sulphate magnesia, a trace. Strahorn's Idaho Ter., 63.

537

AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.

mica exist in Washington county, near Weiser River, from which thousands of tons are being extracted for the market. Other deposits of mica have been discov- ered in northern Idaho, as also white and variegated marbles, and beautiful granites and sandstones of the most desirable colors for building purposes, as also a quarry suitable for grindstones. There is little that a commonwealth needs, in the way of minerals, which is not to be found in Idaho.

But no matter what the wealth of a mineral coun- try may be, it is never looked upon with the same favor by the permanent settler or home-seeker as the agricultural region, because there is always a look- ing-forward to the time when the mines will be worked out, while to the cultivation of the earth there is no end. Were Idaho as dependent upon its mines as in the days of its earlier occupation it was thought to be, it would be proper to treat it altogether as a mineral-producing territory, which with the better understanding now had it would not be proper to do.

The conditions necessary to agriculture are those pertaining to soil and climate. Of the former there are four kinds, and of the latter a still greater variety. Taking the valley lands, large and small, they ag- gregate, with those reclaimable by irrigation, be- tween 14,000,000 and 16,000,000 acres. The soil of the valleys is eminently productive, containing all the elements, vegetable and mineral, required by grains, fruits, and vegetables. It is of a good depth, and lies upon a bed of gravel, with an inclination suf- ficient for drainage. Springs of water are abundant, both warm and cold. Wood grows in the gulches of the mountains which enclose the valleys. The climate is mild, with little snow in ordinary seasons. This phenomenon in so elevated a region is accounted for by the theory of a river of warm air from the heated table-lands of Arizona, the Colorado Valley, and the dry valleys of Chihuahua and Sonora passing through

538

NATURAL WEALTH.

the funnel of the upper Del Norte. There are other influences more nearly local, like the Yellowstone geysers and the Pacific warm stream. Deep snows fall in the more elevated regions, and brief periods of severe cold are experienced, but the longest Idaho winter is short compared with those of the Atlantic states. For Boisé Valley the average temperature for eight years, from 1874 to 1881, was between 51° and 53°, while the mean temperature for 1880 and 1881 in Lapwai Valley, much farther north, was 56.08°. Peach-trees frequently blossom in February at Lew- iston. The extremes in the Boisé Valley for seven years have been 12° below zero in January, and 108° above in July; but the average temperature in Janu- ary has been 26.01°, and for July 75.86°, this being the hottest month in the year. Spring and autumn are delightful. The average rainfall for seven years has been twelve inches; the lowest less than three, and the greatest over seventeen inches.

Taking Boisé for a standard of valley climate, it should be remembered that altitude to a considerable, and latitude to a less, extent influence temperature in Idaho. Boisé is 2,800 feet above sea-level; Lapwai, nearly three degrees farther north, and 800 feet lower, has an average temperature in July of 90° and in January of 20°, being both hotter and colder than Boisé. Other valleys vary in climate, in accord- ance with altitude and position with reference to the prevailing south-west wind. Another factor in the climate of Idaho is the dryness and rarity of the atmosphere, which lessens the intensity of heat and cold about twenty degrees, out-door labor being sel- dom suspended on account of either. The same gen- eral remarks apply to every portion of the country; the cold and snowfall are in proportion to altitude.

The soil of the mountains and wooded regions is deep, rich, black, and contains much vegetable mould. Its altitude would determine its fitness for cultiva- tion. The valleys having an elevation of fron 600 to

539

SOIL AND CLIMATE.

5,000 feet, it would depend upon the situation of the mountain lands whether they could be successfully farmed. The soil of the grass and sage plains in Snake River Valley is the best that nature has pro- vided for the growth of cereals, would man but con- trive the appliances for bringing water upon it. In the northern portion of Idaho, wheat and other grains may be grown without artificial irrigation, but not in the southern portion, which must be redeemed from drought. There is a limited amount of alkali soil, which produces only grease-wood, on which cattle subsist in the absence of or in connection with the native grasses.

Of grazing lands, it is estimated that there are not less than 25,000,000 acres in Idaho, a large propor- tion of which furnish food continuously throughout the year; hence it is essentially a cattle-raising country. The native grasses are the bunch, rye, timothy, red- top, and blue-stem varieties, which together with the white sage sustain and fatten immense herds of cattle and sheep.

The area of forest lands is computed at 7,000,000 acres, lying for the most part in the mountainous re- gions, which division of territory amounts to 18,400,- 000 acres. Out of this amount comes also most of the lake surface of Idaho, computed to be 600,000 acres. The waste lands are less than have been supposed.7

For salubrity of elimate Idaho stands unequalled, the percentage of deaths in the army, by disease, being lower than in any of the United States. Thus nature provides compensations for her stern- ness of aspect by real benignity. Those who best know the resources of the territory predicted for it a brilliant and honorable future. This is the more

" No great accuracy can be attained. Gilbert Butler divides the area of Idaho as follows: Rich agricultural lands 5,000,000 acres; that may be re- claimed by irrigation 10,000,000; grazing lands 20,000,000; timber lands 10,- 000,000; mineral lands 10,000,000; lakes and volcanic overflow 3,328, 160. Silver City Idaho Avalanche, June 29, 1881.

540

NATURAL WEALTH.

remarkable when the hardships and liability to acci- dent of a new country are considered; the death rate being one third that of Colorado, one fifth that of California, and half that of Oregon.

The settlement of Idaho having been begun for the sake of its mineral productions, little attention was at first given to agriculture. Further than this, there was the prejudice against the soil and climate, result- ing from false conclusions and ignorance of facts. Thirdly, there was the constant danger of loss by Indian depredations to discourage the stock-raiser, and the want of transportation to deter the farmer from grain and fruit raising beyond the demands of the home market.

CHAPTER VII.

MATERIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

1864-1886.

ADA COUNTY-CREATION OF THE CAPITAL OF IDAHO-ORIGIN AND DEVELOP- MENT OF TOWNS-FARMING SETTLEMENTS-ORCHARDS-STOCK-RAISING -PIONEERS-ALTURAS COUNTY-MINERAL AND AGRICULTURAL LANDS AND SETTLEMENT-BEAR LAKE COUNTY-BOISÉ, CASSIA, CUSTER, IDAHO, KOOTENAI, LEMHI, NEZ PERCE, ONEIDA, OWYHEE, SHOSHONE, AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES-PUBLIC LANDS IN IDAHO-SOCIAL CONDITION -EDUCATION-RELIGION-BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES-PUBLIC IMPROVE- MENTS-RAILROADS AND TELEGRAPHS.

I WILL now take up the progress and condition of Idaho. Ada county was created out of Boisé in December 1864, with Boisé City as the county seat. The location of Fort Boise on the 5th of July, 1863, was the immediate cause of the location of the town, which followed on the 7th. But before either of these were founded, on the 3d of February of the same year, Thomas and Frank Davis and Sherlock Bristol took up a land claim and built a cabin on a part of the town site as subsequently located, where they had a vegetable garden. The town was laid off by C. Jacobs and H. C. Riggs, and incorporated by a company of seventeen men, including several officers of the fort,1 who had it surveyed and a plan litho- graphed, as I have mentioned in another place, for the use of the legislature, to induce that body to

1 Hughes, quartermaster, was one. Sherlock Bristol, who was president of the company and owned one ninth of the lots, furnished me a manuscript on the nomenclature of Idaho and scraps of early history. He was born in Cheshire, Conn., June 5, 1815. He removed in time to Fond du Lac co., Wis., and from there to Idaho in 1862. Bristol's Idaho, MS., 5.

( 541 )

542

MATERIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

make it the capital of the territory, as it did.2 It prospered notwithstanding some contention as to own- ership, which was settled by the government issuing a patent to the mayor, in 1870, of the town site, to be held in trust by him until the territorial legislature should prescribe the mode of the execution of the trust, and the disposal of the proceeds.3 It had 300 inhabitants when it became the metropolis of Idaho, and a population in 1885 of 2,000.4

2 Walla Walla Statesman, Sept. 5, 1863; Boisé News, Nov. 28, 1863; Or. Argus, Oct. 5, 1863; Idaho Statesman, Oct. 10, 1868.

$ Idaho Statesman, Dec. 12, 1870. The act concerning the town site, passed by the legislature, made the mayor trustee to execute deeds to claim- ants on sufficient proof of the validity of their pretensions. For the purpose of defraying the expenses of procuring the title, the sum of from $1, $5, and $10 per lot, according to the situation, was required to be paid iuto the treas- ury of Boise City and disbursed for that purpose, the residne, if auy, to be ex- pended under the direction of the common council. Idaho Laws, 1870-1, 29-31.

'Cyrus Jacobs, who purchased the first parcel of gold-dust taken from the Boisé basin, took a stock of goods to Boisé City in the suminer of IS63, and sold them from a tent as fast as they arrived, by the help of H. C. Riggs and James Mullaney, clerks. Riggs and James Agnew erected the building known as Riggs' Corner in July, and about the same time J. M. Hay and John A. James erected a meat market. A well was dug by Thompson & McClellan. The first justice of the peace was D. S. Holton, his office being in a log cabin on the site of the present Overland Hotel. H. J. Adams was the first blacksmith, the shop being where Levy's shop now stands. The first school, started in the winter of 1863-4, was taught by F. B. Smith. First hotel was kept by Burns & Nordyke. The first newspaper, published by J. S. Reynolds & Co., has been noticed. The first contractors and builders were Joseph Brown and Charles May, brick-makers and masons. First dry- goods establishment was by B. M. Du Rell and C. W. Moore. Idaho Statesman, April 1, 1876. Du Rell and Moore opened a national bank in 1869. Silver City Avalanche, May 11, 1869. The first saw-mill was erected by A. H. Robie, in 1864, who removed his mill from Idaho City. The first church erected was by the catholics, in 1870, at a cost of $8,000. It was destroyed by a fire in 1871, which burned $57,000 worth of property. Not a mining, but a com- mercial centre, with the capital and a military post to give it standing, Boisé City is regarded as the most important as well as the most beautiful town in the territory. The Boise River emerges from the mountains about seven miles above the town, where the valley proper begins. The city stands on the river bank, with the fort on a higher plateau a mile removed. The streets are wide and well shaded, the residences neat and tasteful, standing in flowery enclosures kept green by streams of living water flowing down the streets. The squares devoted to public buildings are well kept, and the edifices of brown stone. Up and down the river are many charming drives, and altogether the place is an attractive one. Its central location with refer- ence to other commercial towns in the surrounding states and territories is likely to continue it in its present eminence as the chief town of Idalio.

Some other facts concerning the capital of Idaho may be of interest, as fol- lows: Its altitude is 2,800 feet; latitude 43° 37'; distance from Chicago, 1,400 miles west and a little over 100 miles north; from San Francisco, 380 miles east and about the same distance north; from Portland, about 170 miles cast and 140 south; from Salt Lake City, 200 miles north and 150 west. It had in

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 59

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