Show STORY OF EARLY MINING IN IDAUO History That Has Never Been Fully Told Brilliant Record of Bygone By-gone Years May Be Told Only in LegendGold Hunters Not Historians Story of Fort Wall Walla Florence Boise Basin Wood River and Coeur dAIenes Pooatello Ida Aug 7Word comes 1 that the mysteries of Thunder mountain moun-tain are not yet to be revealed The dllllcultles of road building have discouraged dis-couraged the enterprise of transporting the I 100slamp mill ordered from the AllisClialmers company It is now believed be-lieved that t the mill will bo taken In on the snow next winter without building a wagon load Mining men have not lost faith I In the new district I on account of the temporary setbacks It has never been claimed I that Thunder mountain I was anything but I a low grade proposition which will take time and much hard work to develop STORY NEVISU TOLD This generation has but an Imperfect conception of the mining history of Idaho Strange as It may oein the startling and remarkable events of early yearn have never been set down In truthful I narrative This poverty ot pro lucIa I literatim I I t may be accounted for by the fact that miner are not historians Tho Impulse that leadsmen leads-men to dig gold rom the earth has nothing about It to suggem the preservation preser-vation of historical literature It is I theretou a nolable zis well as a deplorable de-plorable fact that 1 t Idahos I brilliant I I record rec-ord In I mining affairs has never been preserved lo posterity A few men are still living who took part In the stir ring events of nearly half a century ago When they I have passed away the link that I binds the present with the past will have brcn broken and Idahos I history will only exist In legend The excitement attending the Thunder mountain I gold discoveries has brought to the surface glimpses of the early history his-tory of Idaho when half the world 1 went mad over the treasures revealed In the lonely canyons of the mountains moun-tains FIRST GOLD DISCOVERY Gold was lliHl discovered In Idaho in 1SCO At t Fort Walla Walla was a Captain Cap-tain In the regular I army named E D Pierce lie bad tallied with I L Ne Perce Indian who told t a romantic story of n blight and shining metal In the mountains In I the summer of 1SHO Cap Pierce vllh two companions visited the t Nez Pore Indians I and traveled I along the CIcarwalcr I river They got lost and would no doubt have perished had not a friendly iiquau led them out of a wilderness of small cedars Capt Pierce went buck to Fort umhla Walla but Immediately I m returned accompanied by W T Biibiictt Thomas Walters Jonathan I Smith I and two brothum named John and Jamus Dodge Thus reinfoiccd Capt t Pierce I continued his search Toward the I headwaters of a small stream thai flowed Into the Clear walm r river liansstt started to pan the soil and obtained II h cents In gold The whrJe party panned for several duyt > md got SO In all i They then returned to Fort Walla Walla Although It was late In the season SergL J C Smith fitted out a amaH party and went lo the plare where the gold had been obtained They onmnoil Tor the I whiter llvrrl i on Government rations and took out SOO In gold dust Early in the spring 01 1SOI Smith made his way out on snow shoes carrying the SOl HUSH FliOM POHTLAND It was sent to Portland where It caused a bhre of excitement In those primitive days a man who wanted to prove that t he had found l gold I showed the metal as an evidence of good faith In modern mining gold Is seldom exhibited ex-hibited the first Intimation being usually usual-ly a whcelbarrou load of minIng stock to be I sold for development purposes This comparison is drawn to show the evolution In mining operations The news of the discovery traveled fast and a wild rush set III from Portland Port-land Stout moms arrived dally from San Francisco and l Victoria bringing thousand thou-sand of adventurers Inside of sixty days the country was overrun with miners mi-ners The Oro Fino mines wen opened then those at Pierre City and Elk CIty FLOCKED SOUTIIWA11D Later the crowd stampeded toward 1 the south and discovered lie famous mines of I Florence Toward fall I I Jiimejj Warrens located Warrens diggings The discovery at Floience caused tremendous t I tre-mendous excitement The camp developed devel-oped Into one of the toughest places In the I entire West thirty t men being killed the first year Flour sold for I a pound bacon 125 I butler < 1 su alI al-I Jr gum hoots fiO n pair and everything every-thing else In I proportion In I a newspaper newspa-per I published ni Walla Walla at the time occurs the following plcre of news A NEWSPAPER I ACCOUNT 5J P Ledyard arrived last evening from the Snlmon river mines and from him 1 It vat learned 1 lhat some GOO miner J would winter there that some 200 had gone to the youth side of the I river where two streams head that empty into the Salmon some thirty miles southeast of ihe I prcrent camp Con rso gold Is found and as high as ll0 a day to t the man has been tiken out The ilg 1 1 mining clnlm of the old locality belongs to Mr Wolser of Oregon Ore-gon from which ll li SO 1 wns taken In one day with rockers On the following day aGO was taken out with the name machines ma-chines I Oilier cia iota were paying from two to live pounds a day Flour has fallen to SO cents a pound and beef at 21 cents Is to be had in abundance Most of the mines are supplied until I Juno isl Mr Ledyard met between Mate creels and Walla Walla en route fur the mines Jl i paukn and LnO head of hoef cattle The snmc newspaper under dale of December 13 1X151 gives 1 the t following Jiermnil nf 1 the nrw illtrirlmrs I vvb 00 REPORTS OF RICHNESS The tide of emigration to Snlmon river flows steadily onward During the week past not let JI than 2LT pack animals hcnvlly laden with provisions have left Walla Walla for the mines If the mInes are onehalf as rich as they are eald to be we may safely cal 1 culale that many of these trains will return as heavily laden with gold as they arc now with provisions The late news from Salmon river seems to have h < lvcn the gold fever to everybody In this I immediate I I neighborhood A num her of persons from Florence have arrived ar-rived III this I place dm Ing ihe 1 i week md all I I bring the most extravagant t reports re-ports as to Limo rlrhncHH of the t mines A report In relation to a rich Ktrtke l made by Mr 1 BrSdgcn of Oregon city jicems to come well authenticated I The first day he worked on his claim I near IlihooKe gulch he took t sYT ounces thc second day 17 I ounces the third day 1M1 ounce and 1 the u fourth day loa ounces In two hours One gentleman Informs us that I diggings have been found on the bys of Salmon river which yield from L cents to SJiiO i f to the pnn and lhat I on claims In the Salmon I river I I dig irlugy have been found wheiv ounces wont describe l UKITI and here they tjiy the gulchen are full of gold The dhieoVMor 0 r HabK e gulch I n rlce Iii this ell iy yostcrdav bringing wIth him sixty pounds of gold dust Jacob WelPer IK on his way in with a mule loaded down with gold dust 10 TCOISK CAS1N The Jacob Welser spoken of Is time man after whom the Fawn of Wolser Is named I The amount I of vold exported ex-ported from Florence the lust season was 1710000 1 During April lEI W IIOOO persons loft Portland for the t mines and by h the end of May i nOOO persons had pasRcd over the trail The amount of cold accounted I for m during 1852 I from the tilt tilet was 7000000 and much more went out of the country coun-try iso that no account could he kept of It The crowd of mincis kept pushing I south and came to the mouth of the 13olse river I They went up the stream to the present site of the town of Ilolpe a mid then traveled exactly 1 north camping In I what I has since been known as the Boise basin One nf I tin party named Grime was hi I led by i an Indian I and his rave can mill be seen on the I banks or a lOok 1 1 that bears his name The creek noon afterward 1 < 1 became famous fa-mous for the I rlrhnejsn of Us I larer mines That was In tile fall of tS51 The death t of Grime ilhicnuragcd his companions and tluf went I to t Walla Walla for the winter CITY SPRANG UP The spring of ISfi found J5olse basin swarming I with prospectors 1 Before the first day 1 of the year ISO there were J500 men In tho district I The towns of Centervllle Ploneervlllc Placervllle Granite Creek and Idaho City sprang Into existence Idaho City formerly called 1 Oannock because the 1 metropolis of the basin I country at one lime I had a population popu-lation of 10000 Its 1 present population Is I probably about SOt In I May ISfii I the lon wns destioycil by the only one building being left standing I It I was rebuilt and two years later t i was burned again The second disaster was more serious = than the L first and the place was never lebulll The whole Boise bnsln was lined with gold Its dimensions I arc thirty I miles I in I length with an average width of fifteen miles More than I 18000000 was taken out of the basin and one placer mine tills season produced 10000 It is owned by Biogjin Lcary who operate with hydraulic machinery WOOD RIVER AND COEUR DALENES The mining history of Idaho is too long a story to tell in detail After the rush of the early GOs the excitement subsided until In iStlfl l the mining Industry In-dustry of the State was at a I low ebb In 187f new mines were discovered In Ciister county and rltlxens of Salt Lake became Interested In several of them notably the Charles Dickens mine This mine produced U000 I In two months The Wood River excitement came on a few years later followed by the Coeur dAlene Ntamrede In ISSI This was a gold stampede that ic stilted disastrously The Coeur dAlene country however It I might have failed In I the I production of gold has since given to the world onefourth of all the lead used in the commerce of na llons HOPE FOR RAILROAD It is the fond hope of those who live in the Isolated sections of central Idaho Hint a railroad will some day be built from Butte to San Francisco opening the minenil resources of a vast country that needs only the advantages of transportation to develop Its rare richness rich-ness |