ESTABLISHED 1884
COUNTY SEAT Grangeville
Idaho County was named for the steamer 'Idaho,' launched June 9, 1860, and used by miners during the north Idaho gold rush. The county originally was created in Washington Territory in 1881, occupying nearly thre-fourths of what was to be Idaho Territory. It was formally established in 1864 by the Idaho Territorial Legislature with new boundaries. it remains the largest county In the state. Miners moved into the county from the Orofino and Pierce City diggings and Elk City became the first settlement in 1861. Strikes were made also at Florence and Warren's Diggings. Mount Idaho was established in 1862 and a famous hotel was built there. The state's first Republican convention was held at Mount Idaho. In due course settlers and farmers moved into the Big Camas Prairie, and livestock raising and wheat raising became predominant. In 1898 the Buffalo Hump mines were discovered and a second gold rush took place. Agriculture and lumbering are the chief industries of the county. -- "The Idaho Almanac," 1977 Edition, State of Idaho." map ~ Idaho Co. ISU Digital Atlas ~ Neighboring Counties
Cities and Towns: Cottonwood, Grangeville, Kooskia, Riggins
Early Day Mining Towns: Elk City, Florence, Golden, Orogrande, Warren
Langley's 1876 Directory, alpha index
Idaho County in Hawley's "The History of Idaho," 1920
News
1908, Grangeville Bachelors featured for Leap Year, Grangeville Globe, 1908, published a list of Leap Year eligibles: "Outside papers have recently been making quite a splurge over their marriageable men for the benefit of the matrimonially inclined members of the fair sex, and this has caused Grangeville spinsters and lassies to cast longing glances elsewhere for "affinities." This week The Globe comes to the rescue of the city's bashful bachelors by submitting a list of names of eligibles to the clamoring, waiting and wholly prepared members of the fair sex. We couldn't tell all of their good qualities. Gee whiz! that'd take a big book. But we must remind our maiden friends that it is unnecessary to look else where. Patronize home industry! The goods are here awaiting your beck and call. . ."
July 1931
"MILLION DOLLAR GOLD CAMP SOLD FOR $900
(July 1 IDS, July 2 WS & FP) The town of Warren, once famous as a million dollar gold mining camp, was sold Tuesday, June 30, in Warren for $900.
The sale was conducted under the hammer of Theodore C. Peterson of the general land office at Blackfoot and the purchasers were the 35 residents who have chosen to make the town their permanent home.
The land was detached from the Idaho National forest within which it is located, several years ago, the land reverting to the Interior Department. The purchase was necessary for the residents to establish their claims which they had first made as "squatters".
Scores of dilapidated old buildings line the streets, buildings which once housed all night celebrations, saloons, and equipment stores for the miners who supplied the town its colorful background. Myriads of legends linger of its colorful days.
Most of its structures arc now vacant, strung with cobwebs and swaybacked from burdens of many winters' snow.
Lots sold for the minimum price offered, ranging from $15 to $42, and there was no competitive bidding, each householder taking only that on which he lived.
(PC) There were a number of people who came from Boise and other outside places, Just at the beginning of the auction, Bill Cooper stood before the gathering with his hand on his gun on his hip and said to the crowd that he knew he was considered a "bad" man and he had done some bad things, and today, if any outsider dares to bid against a Warren resident, he was liable to do bad things again.
A picturesque history is back of this forest bound little "Ghost" city. Another gold boom may someday come to revive it, but for the present, it remains a city of dreams."
Source: Cheryl Helmer -- Warren Times/A collection of news about Warren, Idaho.
Warren, 1923
(the hotel is the 3rd bldg. on the right in this photo) "Ruby McDowell shares her recipe for huckleberry syrup for breakfast pancakes that she serves at the Warren Hotel. After frying bacon, pour one cup fresh berries into the grease and get hot, stir in one cup of sugar and bring to a boil." - Cheryl Helmer -- "Warren Times/A collection of news about Warren, Idaho." Henington Publishing Company, Wolfe City, TX., 1988.
Photos
1893, Grangeville and Cottonwood, Idaho, gem of the mountains/by Herbert C. Gregg; official souvenir ... pub. for and by authority of Idaho World's Fair Commissioner; illustrated under direction of T. McWhorter ...1893 (at https.archive.org/)
1897, William Borden, carried mail from Warrens to Thunder Mountain; Bill Patterson, storekeeper and postmaster, also pictured
1905 enroute to Buffalo Hump.Merle W. Wells writes in "Gold Camps & Silver Cities (Nineteenth Century Mining in Central and Southern Idaho): Locating two lode claims on Buffalo Hump on August 8, 1898, miners from Colorado set off a wild gold rush in the fall and winter to that forbidding ridge after almost four decades of prospecting had disclosed nothing of great interest. Thunder Mountain discoveries had already been reported, but Buffalo Hump diverted attention from rival prospects for two or three seasons. Finally Thunder Mountain was the object of a rush comparable to the one at Buffalo Hump. Neither district actually produced very much gold. Still, they made up for the lack of mineral wealth by entertaining fortune seekers and investors on a lavish scale. They contributed far more than their share to developing Idaho's economy, even though they failed to advance mining to any really appreciable degree.
1905, enroute to Buffalo Hump
1905, Florence to Buffalo Hump
1905, Florence to Buffalo Hump, Rawhide Trail
Dixie, Winter Pack String, date unknown
1922, 4th of July, "The Triangle Construction Company Fourth of July celebration on the Lewis and Clark Highway (now U.S. 12) near Orofino, 1922." - Idaho Highway Historical Marker Guide"
"Captain Mullan and his crew celebrated the 4th of July 1861 on top of this mountain as they took a break from clearing passage for the road they were building over it. The Mullan Road was the first wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains to the Inland of the Pacific Northwest. It was built by U.S. Army Captain John Mullan between the spring of 1859 and summer 1862. It led from Fort Benton, Montana, to Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory, and it roughly follows the path of modern-day Interstate-90 through the Rockies. Mullan Road was designated a historic site by the National Register of Historical Places in 1975, and the American Society of Civil Engineers designated it a historic civil engineering landmark in 1977." — Waymarking
1924, Riggins
1938, Willard R. Gribble with pet bear";"Willard R. Gribble with pet bear, 1938, Warren." "It was great entertainment at the Labor Day celebration at Burgdorf to see Willard Gribble put his pet bear through the tricks it has learned". Sept 1938, Warren Times (Willard d. Sept. 27, 1944, in France, WWII. He was the grandson of Christy MacAskill Morcom.)
Foskett Pass, Salmon River, "About eight miles north of Lucille (on now Highway 95) is the Foskett Memorial, on the east side of the river, at the edge of the highway. Doctor Wilson A. Foskett was born in Warsaw, New York, in January of 1870. He graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago and began a practice in 1897 at White Bird. There he met Loura Taylor, whom he married in 1903, and they had three children.
"If ever any man was his brother's brother, it was Doc Foskett. For twenty-seven years he traveled over the Camas Prairie and along Salmon River answering calls on foot, in horse and buggy, and finally in a car. The nearest hospital was in Lewiston, so he pulled teeth, set bones, delivered babies, and performed operations under conditions contemporary doctors would find intolerable."
Whitebird Switchback Spiral, North and South Highway;The road was "straightened" in the mid-1970's
Dixie, arastra hedstone, (back) "ARASTRA HEADSTONES NEAR DIXIE. ghost mining town, reached from Grangeville, Idaho. The large foreground headstone is crudely inscribed 'Un-known' — the remains of a young man found dead with a bullet hole in the head, in 1911. Four Arastra Ore mills were used near Dixie after the 1880's. Each mill used four granite stones, 400-500t: each, powered by spring run-off over large waterwheels. Hardwood gears were used to drag the stones in slow circles, breaking down the ore."
Links
Idaho County, IDGENWEB; Please Note: Penny's genweb site is the prime, "boots-on-the-ground" source for Idaho County. This site is a basically an archive of images and snippets I've shared on my AHGP facebook page.
"Until the Next Big Strike, Warren, feature story at "Lewiston Tribune"
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