History

Bear Lake County

Bear Lake County is the smallest in Idaho, yet one of the richest, and one of the very few counties comparatively free from public indebtedness. The natural wealth of the little domain is about as happily diversified as its residents could wish. It has mountains on either side rich in minerals, timber and building stone, which have recently been developed to a greater extent than during all the years of its settlement. The county was settled by Mormons in the year 1863, and for a number of years afterward their residence continued under circumstances of the most forbidding and discouraging … Read more

Various Subjects

Presbyterianism In Idaho The history of Presbyterianism in Idaho embraces three separate histories: that of the work among the Nez Perces, that of the work among the whites in the Panhandle, and that of the work in the southern section of the state. The work among the Nez Perces had its beginning in 1836, when Rev. Henry H. Spalding, the friend and companion of Marcus Whitman, established a mission station at Lapwai on the Clearwater, twelve miles above the present city of Lewiston. When the Whitman’s were massacred in 1847 Mr. Spalding and his wife were also marked as victims, … Read more

Discovery Of Gold in Idaho

It is reported that gold was discovered by a French Canadian in Pend d’Oreille river, in 1852. Two years later General Lander found gold while exploring the route for a military road from the Columbia to Fort Bridger. The earliest discoveries of which we have any authentic record, however, were probably made by members of the party with that veteran pioneer and path-finder, Captain John Mullan, the originator of the now famous Mullan road from Fort Benton to Walla Walla, a distance of six hundred and twenty-four miles. In a letter dated Washington, D. C, June 4, 1884, to Mr. … Read more

The Tip-Top Mine

The Tip-Top Mine is a gold property. It is situated twelve miles west of Hailey, Blaine county, in the center of what is known as the gold belt. The mine is thoroughly developed by an inclined shaft three hundred feet in depth, passing through three levels, from which project several wings. The ore is obtained to the extent of five hundred feet, with an average width of the tunnel from five to six feet. The ore consists of gold in iron and copper pyrites. The value of the gold is one ounce to the ton. A twenty-stamp mill is in process … Read more

Pierce City Gold Camp

Pierce City Gold Camp is now attracting considerable attention from capitalists. Ohio parties have purchased an interest in the Golden Gate Mining Company’s property, and are now carrying on work there. The Milling & Mining Company also have a five-stamp mill on their property three miles from Pierce City, have begun the milling of ore, and good results have been obtained. Some sixty thousand dollars in gold has been extracted by a three-stamp mill owned by the Dunn Brothers on adjoining property. The character of the ore in this camp is mostly free milling gold quartz. The Chapman group of gold-quartz … Read more

The Silver King Mining Company

The Silver King Mining Company was organized under the laws of New Jersey, by Philadelphia parties, with Henry Tevis as president. They have two groups of mines. The Davitt, a silver-lead property, is located on Deer creek, a tributary of Wood River. The ore occurs in a granite formation. A large and continuous seam has produced a great deal of silver and lead. It was operated with a shaft; but a snow-slide ruined the hoist and operations were abandoned. The company also owns the Silver King, a group of four claims located four miles above Sawtooth on the Salmon river, in … Read more

The Alturas Senator Mining Company

The mines of Alturas Senator Mining Company are situated at Galena, Blaine County, Idaho, comprising ten claims, the most promising of which are the Senate and Gladwater. At one time these mines were yielding well, but, because of the decline in silver, operations were discontinued and the smelter dismantled. Some development is contemplated in this year, 1899. The company is composed of wealthy men in New York. Lewis Edwards, the president, and Dr. Barron, the president of the Carpenter Steel Works of New York, are the principal factors. The Ashland Group Mining Company have four silver-lead claims at Muldoon and two … Read more

The Ontario Group Of Mines

The Ontario Group Of Mines, which are now owned by Michael Carey, state senator, are located on Warm Spring creek, twelve miles west of Ketchum, in Blaine county, Idaho. They yield galena ore silver and lead and the veins extend east and west, dipping toward the south, and average from three to three and a half feet in width. The ore has an average yield of forty per cent, lead, eighty ounces of silver and three dollars in gold to the ton. These mines are worked by tunnels, which thus afford drainage and permit the ore to be run out … Read more

The Poorman Mine

On War Eagle Mountain, a mile and a half southeast of Silver City, are a group of about twenty mines, in one of the richest belts in that section of the state, a belt which has afforded material to render Silver City famous throughout the civilized world. The Poorman mine has a production record of three million dollars, and other properties of the group as Bell Pick, Oso, Illinois Central, Jackson and Silver Cord have all been good producers. The Poorman mine was discovered in 1865, and between July 9 and October 1, 1866, there was shipped from it the … Read more

The Red Cloud Group Of Mines

The Red Cloud Group Of Mines is situated on Deer creek, a tributary of Wood river, about twelve miles in a northwesterly direction from the town of Hailey, in Mineral Hill mining district, Blaine county, and is owned by Lyttleton Price, of Hailey, and Pittsburg parties. These mines were discovered by Orin Porter, E. H. Porter and James L. Mason, in 1880. The present owners purchased them in 1889, organized what was known as the Red Cloud Mining Company, and worked these properties for several years, paying in dividends ten thousand dollars per month, approximating in the total two hundred thousand … Read more

The Philadelphia & Idaho Mining & Smelting Company

The Philadelphia & Idaho Mining & Smelting Company was organized in 1882 by Colonel Green and Philadelphia parties, who built two stock plants and a large smelter plant at Muldoon, Blaine county, this state, and operated them for several years, in Muldoon. The ores in the vicinity of Ketchum, Idaho, were of a higher grade, and were attracting more attention than those they were then mining, and certain Philadelphia gentlemen had become interested in them, and they induced the Philadelphia Mining & Smelting Company to come to Ketchum. A small test was made with a little tester, and in the course … Read more

The Hecla Group

The Hecla mine is located at Burke, Shoshone County (Lalande mining district). The original claims comprising the Hecla group were the Hecla and Katie May lode claims, located by James Toner on May 5, 1885. The property was purchased by the Hecla Mining Company, a corporation of Idaho, the principal stockholders being A. B. Campbell, John A. Finch, Patrick Clark, Simon Haley and a party of Milwaukee gentlemen. Up to January 1 , 1898, the Hecla shipped thirteen thousand dollars’ worth of lead-silver ore while the development work was progressing. This ore was taken out partly by the company and … Read more

The Standard Group Of Mineral Claims

The Standard group of claims consists of the following patented lode claims: Standard, Banner, Snow Line, Sancho, Sandwich, Youngstown, Sullivan Fraction, Banner Fraction, Parallel, Little Chap, Mammoth Fraction, a portion of the Mammoth, and Tariff, also the Columbia, Crown Point and Tom Reed, all located in the Coeur d’Alene silver-lead mineral belt, Lalande mining district, Shoshone county, Idaho, one mile from Burke, also the Union Mill-site located at Wallace, Idaho, together with water rights and flumes from which is developed about three hundred horse-power. The Standard claim was located May 7, 1885, by Timothy McCarthy, Timothy Hynes. Frank Hanson and … Read more

The Lead Belt Of The Coeur d’Alenes

Lead was first discovered in the Coeur d’Alene mining district, in northern Idaho, on Canyon creek in the fall of 1884, the discovery at that time being the Tiger mine, situated at the town of Burke. During same year a few other locations were made on Canyon creek, a few at Mullan, and in the fall of 1885 the Bunker Hill & Sullivan mines were discovered at Wardner. At the time these discoveries were made the country was inaccessible, with no railroads, wagon roads or trails, and the only way of getting in was by foot; ten to fifteen miles’ … Read more

The Coeur d’Alene Mining District

This article, as well as that following, concerning the lead belt of the district, is contributed by F. R. Culbertson, under date of July 9. 1898: The Coeur d’Alene mineral belt of northern Idaho, in area about twenty miles square, first came into prominence as a gold-placer camp in the summer and fall of 1883. Placer gold was first discovered on Pritchard creek, near Eagle City, now a deserted camp in Shoshone County. Fabulous reports of the richness and extent of this gold soon spread and attracted the attention of the outside world. In the spring of 1884 there was … Read more

The Mining Fields Of Idaho

The following excellent monograph by W. C. Austin was issued in pamphlet form early in the present year (1899) by authority of C. J. Bassett, state commissioner of immigration, labor and statistics, and as a valuable contribution to the history of the great mining industry of Idaho is held to be worthy of reproduction in this work: There is no other country on God’s green earth that has encompassed within her borders such vast and varied mineral wealth as Idaho. The position that Idaho occupies in the western mineral world is like a wagon wheel, of which Idaho is the … Read more

Labor Troubles In The Coeur d’Alene District

Bartlett Sinclair

The following account of the recent labor troubles in the Coeur d’Alene mining district is contributed by H. H. Smith, of the Cincinnati Post, who, as a reporter of the Scripps-McRae League, was present on the scene and made careful investigation of the matter: The blowing up of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mill at Wardner on April 29, 1899. entailing a financial loss of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and the murder of two men was the culminating act of violence in the ten-years war between labor and capital that has waged in the Coeur d’Alenes. In the … Read more

Tarenyawagon or Hiawatha

I will now resume the history of the sixth and last family, the Tuscarora On-gwe-hon-wa, that were left at the Neuse river, or Gan-ta-no. Here they increased in numbers, valor and skill, and in all knowledge of the arts necessary in forest life. The country was wide and covered with dense wilderness, large rivers and lakes, which gave shelter to many fierce animals and monsters which beset their pathways and kept them in dread. Now the Evil Spirit also plagued them with monstrous visitations. They were often induced to change their locations; sometimes from fear of enemies and sometimes from … Read more

Act of October 15, 1748

Concerning the land allotted to the Tuscarora in Birtie they have leased it several times; and I have selected a few of the laws of North Carolina that are now in force, concerning the Tuscarora in that state, namely: Gabriel Johnson, Esq., Governor. At a general assembly held at New Bern, the fifteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty-eight. An Act for ascertaining the bounds of a certain tract of land formerly laid out by treaty to the use of the Tuscarora Indians, so long as they, or any of them, … Read more

Atotarho

Atotarho, who by tradition was an Onondaga, is the great embodiment of the Iroquois courage, wisdom and heroism, and he is invested with allegoric traits which exalt him to a kind of superhuman character. Unequalled in war and arts his fame spread abroad, and exalted the Onondaga nation in the highest scale. He was placed at the head of the confederacy, and his name was used after his death as an exemplar of glory and honor. While like that of Caesar, it became perpetuated as the official title of the presiding Sachem of the confederacy. He was a man of … Read more