ELMORE COUNTY

The History of Idaho, The Gem of the Mountain, by James H. Hawley, Volume I, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1920:

"Elmore was the last county to be established while Idaho was still a territory, the act of the Legislature creating it having been approved on February 7, 1889. It was taken from the southwestern part of Alturas County and was named 'Elmore,' after the famous Ida Elmore quartz mine at Rocky Bar, one of the greatest producers of gold in the later '60s. Rocky Bar, situated near the headwaters of the South Fork of the Boise River and formerly the county seat of Alturas County, was named in the act as the county seat of Elmore, but some of the citizens were in favor of having the judicial center of the county at some town on the railroad and after a spirited contest the county seat was removed from Rocky Bar to Mountain Home.

"The permanent settlement of the county dates from the building of the Oregon Short Line Railroad, when people began to turn their attention to farming and developing the resources of the country. Among those then resident or who located about this time in Elmore County were: Franklin P. Ake, George A. Butler, J. H. Brady, J. H. Casey, R. P. Chatten, O. B. Corder, W. C. Howie, Z. N. Hungerford, J. A. Purtill, A. W. Lockman, E. M. Wolfe, E. C. Helfrich, R. W. Smith. W. H. Shuman and J. H. Van Schaick. Franklin P. Ake built the telegraph line from Mountain Home to Rocky Bar and was the promoter of the first irrigation project in the southern part of the county. E. C. Helfrich was one of the pioneer merchants of Mountain Home and was still in business there in 1918, and William C. Howie opened a law office in Mountain Home about the time it was made the county seat.

"The first election was held in the county on October 1, 1890, at which Nelson Davis, Samuel B. Blackwell and William H. Manion were chosen county commissioners; W. C. Wickersham, clerk; George F. Mahoney, assessor; D. B. Hill, sheriff; Clarence T. Waller, treasurer; E. C. Towne, surveyor; W. F. Smith, coroner; Augustine M. Sinnott, probate judge and ex–ofiicio superintendent of public schools. In 1916 the present courthouse was completed at a cost of $35,214.

"Elmore County is bounded on the north and northwest by Boise County; on the east by Camas and Gooding counties; on the south by the Snake River, which separates it from Owyhee County; and on the west by Ada County. It has an area of 4,785 square miles and is one of the leading agricultural and stock raising counties of Southern Idaho. In 1917 it reported 14,222 cattle and 122,980 sheep, being at that time the second county in the state in the number of sheep and thirteenth in the number of cattle. The assessed valuation of property for 1918 was $8,140,073.

"The only railroad in the county is the Oregon Short Line, which. follows the Snake River along the southern border to Doran, where it leaves the river and runs in a northwesterly direction. The stations on this line are Chalk, Cleft, Doran, Glenn's Ferry, Hammett, King Hill, Medbury, Mountain Home, Sebree, Slade and Sunnyside. In the interior the principal villages are Atlanta, Greendale, Lenox, Mayfield, Pine, Prairie and Rocky Bar. In 1910 the population of the county was 4,785.




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