Welcome to Clearwater County
"ESTABLISHED 1911
COUNTY SEAT Orofino
Clearwater County was named for the river, whose North Fork flows through it. In 1805, the first known white men to come to the area, Lewis and Clark, followed an old Indian trail between the North and Middle forks of the Clearwater and met the Nez Perce Indians near the present site of Weippe. Gold first was discovered in what is now Clearwater County by E. D. Pierce in September of 1860, and soon thereafter Pierce City, the oldest mining town in Idaho, came into existence. After the gold was worked out, settlers drifted into the county to farm and raise livestock. One of the largest stands of white pine in the nation exist in the county, and in 1900, Weyerhauser interests established the Clearwater Timber Company, later to become The Potlatch Corporation. Lumber is the major industry of the county. Dworshak Dam on the North Fork, rising 717 feet from bedrock, is the highest straight-axis concrete gravity dam in the U.S." - - "The Idaho Almanac, 1977 Edition," published by the State of Idaho.
Langley's 1876 Directory, alpha index - includes Pierce City
Hawley's 1920 history of Clearwater County
Hawley: Discovery of Gold, Pierce City, New Discoveries, Florence
Historic Post Offices
Links
Clearwater Co., IDGenWeb
Clearwater Co. USGenweb Archives
1917
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Copyright © 2013 - Sharon McConnel. All Rights Reserved.