Idaho: Year One, An Idaho Sesquicentennial History

My third book on Idaho history is Idaho: Year One – The Territory's First Year. It is, as usual, available at Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.

On March 4, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation that created the Territory of Idaho, a geographical monstrosity roughly the size of Texas and Illinois combined. Newspapers across the East acknowledged the event with a short paragraph, buried among equally-brief items about other Congressional actions.

A week later, the New York Herald had assembled enough material to publish a map (of sorts) and a longer descriptive article about the new political district. More a celebration of Western expansion, the item contained almost as much mis-information as information. Still, one fact stood out: Idaho had Gold! and perhaps a lot of it.

But the Civil War raged and the Territorial birth had to share headlines: Victory in Tennessee? “Piratical Operations” of Rebel privateers at sea. Vicksburg. And More. At first, no one in the West knew even the exact borders. Was Lewiston in or out? A governor and other officials were quickly appointed, but took months to arrive. Who were these men, and what policies would they impose?

But, more importantly: Where, exactly, could one find gold? How do we get there? What do we take with us? Guidebooks say to be alert and have our guns ready: Are the Indians really that dangerous? Why won’t the Army do something about them?

Using contemporary published articles and letters from the gold camps, Idaho: Year One, captures the day-by-day excitement and uncertainty as hopeful prospectors poured into the area. Was the latest reported gold strike real, or was it a “humbug” meant to lure in suckers? You could never be sure.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Prologue

1. March 1863: We’re a Territory. Now what?

2. April 1863: Waiting for the Season

3. May 1863: Mining Booms, and Spreads

4. June 1863: “Gold … Plentiful as Dirt"

5. July 1863: Summer Lull Setting In

6. August 1863: Optimism Despite a Mining Lull

7. September 1863: Harbingers of Settlement

8. October 1863: Winter is Coming

9. November 1863: Weather Slows Mining

10. December 1863: Baby Steps For Law and Order

11. January 1864: Politics at Center Stage

12. February 1864: Busy Politicians and Hopeful Miners

Afterword: Territory Partitioned

Image Sources

Bibliography

Index

Periodically, I posted samples here of the daily "news" that make up the book. These posts will be labeled with the Territorial Sesquicentennial logo created by the Idaho State Historical Society.

Several examples were published as "sesquicentennial" posts on the South  Fork Companion, such as: "Miners Lack Water But Prospectors Still Hopeful, Politicians Meet." In most cases, the comparable item in the book includes more background material, and sometimes additional news.

Idaho Mining History: Boise River Gold Country

Boise River Gold Country is available for purchase online at Amazon.com and other online booksellers, such as Barnes & Noble. (If you prefer not to order online, local "bricks and mortar" bookstores will order it for you, but those stores will generally not stock ready-to-buy copies.)

The book tells the story, in words and pictures, of the settlement of the mountainous regions drained by the Forks of the Boise River. It all began in 1862, so 2012 was the 150th anniversary of the first towns in the area. That looming milestone prompted Idaho City merchant Skip Myers to ask me to write a new history of the region. (The few existing books on the topic were all out of print.) Boise River Gold Country is the result.

On every page, from the Introduction (“Setting the Scene”) through all the chapters, the book contains at least one image – generally historic photographs. Overall, I used over two hundred photos to supplement and illustrate the textual material.

Boise Basin Gold. Found ca 2009

Prospectors first discovered Idaho gold in late 1860, on the tributaries of the Clearwater River in North Idaho. Hordes of miners poured into the region. However, two years later, a party led by Moses Splawn and George Grimes found gold in the Boise Basin, a mountainous area northeast of today’s Boise. These fields proved far more extensive than the earlier finds.

Thus, it was Boise River gold that “gave legs” to the creation of Idaho Territory. The first Territorial census, in September 1863, counted nearly five times as many people in the Basin as in the northern camps and towns. A year later, that imbalance had increased to nearly seven to one. Large-scale gold mining continued in Boise River gold country for almost a century. Also, at the dawn of the Twentieth Century, logging began to increase in importance. Large-scale timber harvesting surpassed mining in value after about 1955, peaking around 1980.

Table of Contents

Setting the Scene

Chapter One: Before the Golden Age

Chapter Two: Gold Rush Creates Idaho

Chapter Three: Cooperative Mining Replaces the Sourdough

Chapter Four: Placer Mining Fades, Lode Mining Grows

Chapter Five: Dredging and Hardrock Mining

Chapter Six: Big Timber Takes an Interest

Chapter Seven: Mining Revisited

Chapter Eight: Recreation and Tourism

Chapter Nine: World War, and Afterwards

Chapter Ten: Identity TBD

Image Sources

Bibliography

Before the Spud: Indians, Buckaroos, and Sheepherders in Pioneer Idaho

Say "Idaho" to most people, even Idahoans, and they think "potato." Fair enough, considering decades of relentless marketing. What many do not think of are "cowboys" and "cattle." Yet Idaho was, and is, as much a cowboy state as its more-recognized cattle-state neighbors in the Intermountain West.

My book – Before the Spud: Indians, Buckaroos, and Sheepherders in Pioneer Idaho – seeks to correct that mis-perception. The book is available online from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Any B&N store can order you a copy, although they will not generally carry independently published books on their shelves. (Sigh.)

Before the Spud tells the story of how the Idaho stock raising industry developed. It begins with the "first stockmen of Idaho" – Shoshone and Nez Percés horse raisers – and carries forward to about 1910, followed by a brief survey of the state of affairs today.

Among the pioneer stories is that of French émigré Alexander Toponce. In the 1870's, he ran "as high as 10,000 head of cattle" on leased land at Fort Hall Indian Reservation. Toponce played many roles: freighter, stage line operator, mining investor, sheep raiser, and mayor of Corinne, Utah.
In 1888, George L. Shoup, in one routine transaction, sold a thousand cattle from his Salmon River ranches. Two years later, he became Idaho's first state governor and then one of its first two senators.
In 1897, a jury convicted hired cowboy-gunman "Diamondfield Jack" Davis of murdering two sheepmen south of Twin Falls. Although two other "respectable" cattlemen soon confessed to the killings, Davis twice came within hours of hanging and was not pardoned until 1902.

Table of Contents

Preface: Ground Rules

Chapter One: The First Stockmen of Idaho

Chapter Two: Fur Trade Era – Canadians Dominant

Chapter Three: Competition Heats Up

Chapter Four: Wagons Across Idaho

Chapter Five: Mining Makes a Territory

Chapter Six: Idaho Meat for Hungry Miners

Chapter Seven: Stock Raising Grows

Chapter Eight: Filling in the Gaps

Chapter Nine: The Last Stands

Chapter Ten: Cattle Drives Across and From Idaho

Chapter Eleven: Rails Across Idaho

Chapter Twelve: Livestock Boom

Chapter Thirteen: Nature Delivers a Lesson

Chapter Fourteen: Range Conflict Heats Up

Chapter Fifteen: A New Century

Afterword

Geography Makes Idaho Territory Ungovernable, Should be Split

On February 24, 1864, newspapers all over the East carried “bullets” of information on what happened that day in Congress. The item from the New York Tribune was typical: “Mr. Grimes (Un., Iowa), presented a petition from the citizens of Idaho praying for a division of that territory, one portion being inaccessible to the other, which was referred to the Committee on Territories.”

It’s not clear why James W. Grimes, the Union (Republican) Senator from Iowa, presented the “petition” from Idaho. Born in New Hampshire, Grimes graduated from Hampton Academy in that state, and then studied at Dartmouth College. He moved to Iowa in 1836, when he was just twenty years old. Two years later, he served the first of two terms in the House of Representatives for Iowa Territory. During this period, he studied law and was admitted to the bar.

After Iowa became a state in 1846, Grimes served in its House of Representative, and then as governor (1854-1858). Elected to the U. S. Senate in 1859, he served there for ten years.

Senator Grimes. Library of Congress.

At least two possible connections between Grimes and Idaho Territory exist. First, James Tufts, Speaker of the Idaho Territorial Council, was from New Hampshire, like Grimes, and became a lawyer in Iowa. Before moving on to Nebraska, he would have overlapped with the term of Governor Grimes.

Second, Granville Stuart, a pioneer destined to be known as “Mr. Montana,” had lived in Iowa from 1838 to around 1852, and his family still lived there.

In any case, the Journal of the Senate provided further details on what Grimes submitted. The memorial requested “a division of the Territory of Idaho, by formation of a new Territory embracing the headwaters of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, with the Rocky Mountains as the dividing line.”

Meanwhile, lobbyists from the east side of Idaho Territory had already been at work. One of them was Idaho Chief Justice Sidney Edgerton, who had been hired to push the idea of a split with his influential contacts in Congress. Edgerton, of course, knew Lincoln personally. Also, being from Ohio himself, he was a friend of Ohio Congressman James M. Ashley, who happened to be chairman of the House Committee on Territories.

These future Montanans had plans that differed a bit from those of the Idaho legislature.

References: Michael P. Malone, Richard B. Roeder, and William L. Lang, Montana: A History of Two Centuries, Revised Edition, University of Washington Press, Seattle (1991).

Idaho’s Magnificent Shoshone Falls Announced to the World

On January 25, 1864, the San Francisco Evening Bulletin published an article that began, “A detachment of troops recently scouting in the valley of the Snake or Lewis fork of the Columbia, discovered a waterfall which, it is said, is entitled to the distinction of being the greatest in the world. The entire volume of Snake river pours over a sheer precipice 198 feet high, 98 feet higher than Niagara.”

Given that description, the troops had observed Shoshone Falls, located about four miles northeast of today’s town of Twin Falls. The numbers given are somewhat skewed: The falls are around 212 feet high, and that’s only about 45 feet higher than Niagara Falls. (The combination of falls at Niagara is much wider, however.)

The first white men thought to have visited the falls, in 1818-1822, were French-Canadian trappers working for the Hudson’s Bay Company. Because of that, mountain men from the U. S. sometimes referred to them as the “Canadian Falls.”

Writer/artist George Gibbs provided the first documented description of the falls, and drew a sketch. Gibbs was with the Regiment of Mounted Rifles, which marched over the Oregon Trail in 1849 as a show of force against the Indians. Gibbs and the Army lieutenant who saw the falls with him decided to call them “Shoshone Falls,” which stuck.

Yet even with that earlier report, the falls had “always been enveloped in mystery.” Travelers might get near enough to hear “ the roaring of these falls,” but they seldom had the time or inclination to investigate further. As the Bulletin noted, “Very few, if any, of the tens of thousands of adventurers that have crossed the plains ever looked upon the great falls.”

In fact, even John C. Fremont, “the Pathfinder,” does not mention seeing the falls when he marched through in September 1843. His column cut across the flats south of the canyon and camped on Rock Creek, well away from the canyon.

Shonshone Falls, ca 1868. Library of Congress.

“It was said,” the Bulletin went on, “that there were a series of falls and rapids, making a descent of 700 feet in 7 miles, and the sound gave color to the report.”

Actually, the Snake drops over a thousand feet in the 24-25 miles of course between “The Cedars” (today’s Milner Dam) and below Shoshone Falls. The bulk of that – about 400 feet – occurs in the last three miles, where the Snake goes over the Twin Falls and then Shoshone.

The article said, “Some day they will be visited by the tourist and pleasure seeker, and looked upon as frequently and familiarly as Niagara is to-day.”

References: [Brit]
John C. Frémont, Report Of The Exploring Expedition To The Rocky Mountains ... The Senate Of The United States, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. (1845).
“The Great Waterfall Of The Snake River,” Evening Bulletin, San Francisco, California (January 25, 1864).
Raymond W. Settle (ed.), The March of the Mounted Riflemen, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1989).

Roman Catholic Priests Offer the First Christmas Services in the Boise Basin

On December 25, 1863, the only public Christmas services held in the Boise Basin were those offered by the Roman Catholics. Recall that, back in September, Catholic Fathers Toussaint Mesplie and A. Z. Poulin had been busy building churches in four different Basin towns. On Christmas, Father Mesplie celebrated Mass at the little church in Placerville, hurried to Pioneerville for another, and then continued to Centerville to hold a third.

Meanwhile, Father Poulin performed a series of Christmas services at the larger church, St. Joseph’s, in Idaho City. The Illustrated History of the State of Idaho later said, “As the Catholic churches were at that time the only ones in the Boise basin we need not be surprised to read in the newspaper accounts of that first Christmas in Idaho, that they were filled to overflowing.”

With buildings erected almost entirely from pine boards, these early mining towns were extremely susceptible to fire. Less than two years after that first Christmas, a major fire burned most of the structures in town. Strenuous efforts by the locals barely saved St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic church.

St. Joseph's Altar. Library of Congress

But the church was not spared two years later, when another blaze swept through town, urged on by strong winds. Most of the church fixtures also went up in smoke, but they were able to save some.

Still, within a couple months, the Idaho World (formerly the Boise News) reported, “Prominent among the frame edifices in Idaho City is the new Catholic chapel, upon the site of the church destroyed by the May fire, on East Hill. It is not quite completed, but it already presents the finest appearance of any building in the city, and is a credit to the place, to its architects and builders altogether.”

Some months later, celebrants could again enjoy Christmas services at a new St. Joseph’s, with at least a few vestments and altar pieces to provide a link to that first church. St. Joseph’s is still in use today.

References: [French], [Illust-State]

Idaho Territorial Legislature Meets for the First Time

On Monday, December 7, 1863, the legislature for Idaho Territory began its first session, meeting in Lewiston. As noted earlier, the Republicans (Union Party) held a majority in both the Council and the House of Representatives.

Members chose Joseph Miller, representing the Second District, as President of the Council, after nine ballots. Histories of the time provide little information about Mr. Miller, other than that he was from Boise County.

The House chose James Tufts as their Speaker, although he had been elected from the sparsely-settled eastern side of the Territory. However, as a practical matter, Tufts might well have had the most relevant experience for the job.

Born in New Hampshire in 1829, James went to college in Vermont, then became a lawyer in Iowa. Between 1859 and 1862, he was a Probate Judge, and also served terms in the legislatures of Nebraska Territory and then Dakota Territory. Tufts also had experience as a U. S. Commissioner in Dakota Territory.

Later, when Congress split Montana off from Idaho, Tufts was appointed the Secretary of that Territory. For a time, he was Acting Governor there. He moved back to Nebraska around 1870 and lived there until his death in 1884.

This first legislature had a lot to do, and there were only eighteen men to handle the work: seven in the Council, eleven in the House. Among their first actions was to recruit some help. The Council created an administrative staff that included a Secretary and Assistant Secretary, a Sergeant-at-Arms, and a Doorkeeper. The House’s staff included a Chief Clerk and Assistant Clerk, a Sergeant-at-Arms, and a Doorkeeper.

First Legislative Hall. J. H. Hawley photo.

The Organic Act stipulated that the first session of the legislature could continue for 60 days. (After that, “no session in any one year shall exceed the term of forty days.”) The Act placed constitutional restrictions on what laws could be enacted, but contained relatively few specific stipulations. One provision did say, “whereas slavery is prohibited in said territory by an act of Congress of June nineteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, nothing herein contained shall be construed to authorize or permit its existence therein.”

The legislative agenda would eventually include enactment of a criminal code, practices for civil proceedings (lawsuits), probate actions (processing wills and estates), and other basic legal structure. Already, they faced a backlog of requests to incorporate several towns, and numerous applications for franchises for toll operations (roads, bridges, and ferries). Also, since much of Idaho’s vast expanse was unorganized, the legislature would spend considerable time creating a host of new counties.
They would be busy.

References: [Hawley], [Illust-State]
Michael P. Malone, Richard B. Roeder, and William L. Lang, Montana: A History of Two Centuries, Revised Edition, University of Washington Press, Seattle (1991).