CUSTER COUNTY
The History of Idaho, The Gem of the Mountain, by James H. Hawley, Volume I, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1920:
"Custer County was formed under an act of the Territorial Legislature of date January 8. 1881, which provided that all that portion of 'the counties of Lemhi and Alturas, and whatsoever others embraced within the following boundaries, towit: (Then follows a long description of the boundary lines) shall be erected into a new county, to be known as Custer County.'
"The county was named in honor of Gen. George A. Custer, the dashing cavalry officer who was killed with his command, at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, on June 25, 1876. It is bounded on the north by Lemhi County; on the east by Lemhi and Butte; on the south by Butte, Blaine and Camas; and on the west by Boise and Idaho counties. Rugged both in surface and outline, Custer County contains some of the most picturesque scenery of Idaho. Along the southern border run the Sawtooth Mountains; farther east are the Lost River Mountains; the northwestern part is touched by the Salmon River Mountains; the central part is an elevated plateau, where some of the finest grazing in the state is to be found. This plateau is drained by Salmon River and its branches and the southeastern part is drained by the Big and Little Lost rivers. Near the eastern boundary the Pahsimeroi River flows in a northwesterly direction, emptying into the Salmon near the little Village of Ellis. Parts of four national forests are in Custer County.
"Probably the first white men to penetrate to the region now comprising Custer County were those forming a prospecting party which came to the headwaters of the Salmon River in July, 1863. In this party was Frank R. Coffin, now president of the Boise City National Bank. In a basin near the foot of the Sawtooth Mountains they found 'pay dirt' and named the place 'Stanley Basin,' after John Stanley, the oldest man in the party. The difficulty of getting in supplies and the danger from roving bands of Indians caused them to abandon the basin and return to Idaho City.
"About three years later another party of prospectors from Montana, under the leadership of a man named Richardson, ventured up the Salmon River until they reached the branch now known as Yankee Fork, but remained in the country only a short time on account of being so far from any point where supplies could be obtained.
"In 1869 prospectors from Lemhi County located rich placer mines on Loon Creek, north of the Stanley Basin, and within a short time several hundred miners, were engaged in washing out the yellow metal. A town was laid off, which in 1870 had a population estimated at fifteen hundred, but three years later it was entirely deserted. During the time the Loon Creek mines were worked over half a million dollars' worth of gold was taken out. Quartz mining was introduced about 1875; Bonanza City was platted in 1877 and the next year A. P. Challis and others laid off the Town of Challis. Up the Salmon River about ten miles from Challis the Bay Horse Mining District came into prominence and in 1880 a twenty—five ton smelter was built there, which treated the ores from the adjacent mines. There is still some mining carried on in the county, though farming and stock raising have become the leading occupations. In 1917 Custer reported 25.466 cattle, 5,094 horses and 85.060 sheep, only three counties in the state returning a larger number of cattle and six a larger number of sheep. The assessed valuation of property for 1918 was $3,493.659.
"The act creating the county named James M. Shoup, of Challis; J. S. Robinson, of Custer City; and Enos Watson, of Bonanza City, as special county commissioners to hold an election on the third Monday in June, 1881, for the election of county officers and the location of a permanent county seat. Challis was chosen as the county seat, which distinction it has retained until the present time. Mackay, in the Big Lost River Valley in the southeastern part of the county, is the principal town, by virtue of its being the terminus of a branch of the Oregon Short Line Railroad which connects with the main line at Blackfoot: Other stations on the branch are Huston and Leslie. In the interior the villages of Clayton, Dickey, Goldburg, Bonanza and Stanley are trading centers I for farming districts. The population in 1910 was 3,001, the smallest of any county in the state at that time."
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