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Political Operative, U. S. Senator, and Public Servant Fred Dubois [otd 05/29]

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Senator Dubois. Library of Congress.
Idaho Senator and political operative Fred Thomas Dubois was born May 29, 1851 in Illinois. Dubois graduated from Yale in 1872, then worked in a Chicago dry-goods store for about three years.

More inclined toward politics and public service, DuBois wrangled an appointment to a low-level Illinois administrative post. He resigned a year later, shortly before the death of his father, a prominent Illinois politician.

He kept himself busy until 1880, when his brother was appointed resident physician at the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. Fred and his brother were very close, so he decided to move west also. After their arrival, Fred rode on a cattle drive and then worked various jobs around Fort Hall.

Possessed of remarkable political instincts and skills, DuBois began by using family connections to obtain an appointment as U.S. Marshal for Idaho Territory. The job took him all over the Territory. He then parleyed all those contacts into election as Idaho’s Delegate to Congress in 1887. For the first but not the last time, his campaign promises exploited an undercurrent of anti-Mormon sentiment in the Territory.

DuBois played a key behind-the-scenes role in arranging for the selection of the state’s first U. S. Senate slate [blog, Apr 1]. In the end, DuBois became one of Idaho’s first two Senators, as a Republican. By all accounts, he put his extraordinary political skills to good use there.

Silver mining was then a mainstay of the Idaho economy, so DuBois quite naturally became part of the 1896 Silver Republican Party. Their Presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, won overwhelmingly in Idaho, but lost nationwide. Meanwhile, a Democratic-Populist party “fusion” ticket won the Idaho legislature, which elected a Populist to replace Dubois in the U. S. Senate.

As the Silver Republicans withered away nationally, DuBois resuscitated his career with a clever end-run. His skillful manipulation of factions in Idaho’s Democratic Party won him control of that group, which he then led into a fusion with the state’s remaining Silver Republicans. This peculiar amalgam gained control of the Idaho legislature, which then elected Dubois to replace Senator Shoup in the 1900 election.

Filipino rice field, ca 1905. Library of Congress.
For various reasons, DuBois switched to the Democratic Party for his term in the Senate. He particularly opposed the continued American presence in the Philippines. DuBois and other “anti-imperialists” pushed independence for the islands. On the other hand, DuBois supported Republican President Teddy Roosevelt’s proposal to expand national forest reserves, and a program to encourage irrigation projects for arid western lands.

Meanwhile, Idaho’s Republicans had re-unified to gain an overwhelming majority in the state legislature. Thus, DuBois didn’t even bother to run for reelection. (Even with his skills, he probably felt he’d burned too many bridges.) He remained active in Idaho politics until about 1918, but never again ran for public office himself.

DuBois spent the rest of his career in various appointive Federal positions, and sometimes as a lobbyist. He died in February 1930.
                                                                                 
References: [B&W]
Richard J. Beck, Famous Idahoans, Williams Printing, (© Richard J. Beck, 1989).
Leo W. Graff, Jr., “Fred T. Dubois – Biographical sketch,” Fred T. Dubois Collection, MC 004, Idaho State University  Special Collections, Pocatello.
"Fred Thomas Dubois,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, online.
"Fred Thomas Dubois: May 29, 1851 - February 14, 1930," Reference Series No. 541, Idaho State Historical Society.

U. S. Assay Office Added to National Register of Historic Places [otd 05/30]

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On May 30, 1961, the old U. S. Assay Office in Boise took its deserved place on the National Register of Historic Places.

After the discoveries of 1862, gold – dust, nuggets, and quartz ore – poured out of the mountainous Boise Basin region (east of Boise City). Large amounts of silver from Owyhee County, and elsewhere, soon followed. Gold dust immediately became a preferred medium of exchange, as it always did in gold country. The metal has intrinsic value, of course, and can be doled out in widely varying amounts.
Gold scales. Oregon Historical Society.

However, the dust also suffers from some serious shortcomings. First, transactions require a set of scales and standard weights to measure the dust. Pioneer Charlie Walgamott noted that Chinese miners in south-central Idaho “invariably” carried their own devices, which were very precise and accurate. (A merchant caught with doctored scales would be in big trouble.)

Such transactions were complicated by the fact that not all gold dust was the same. The nominal value was $16 per ounce. However, dust from one placer area might be worth $12 per ounce while that from another might go $19. The circulation of bogus dust caused further doubt in such dealings.

Private assayers provided a stopgap service by melting dust into gold bars of various sizes. Stamped with the weight, value, and assayer identification, these too could be used as a medium of exchange. However, such “currency” did not travel well … generally only as far as the assayers good name.

Thus, by 1864, miners and businessmen alike were agitating for the establishment of a branch mint within Idaho Territory. Failing that, they wanted at least an official assay office. It simply cost too much to ship the precious metals to the Mint in San Francisco. The 1866 Territorial legislature made a formal request for an assay office, but partisan politics and pressing business at the end of the Civil War delayed action until 1869.

In February of that year, Congress authorized creation of an assay office in Boise City. President Grant then appointed former Idaho Chief Justice John R. McBride [blog, Feb 28] to oversee construction and act as the office’s first superintendent.
U. S. Assay Office, ca. 1898. Illustrated History image.

Construction began in 1870 and the Office received its first official deposits in March 1872.

The Assay Office operated as part of the Treasury Department for over sixty years. It processed several billion dollars (in today’s values) worth of gold and silver during that period. The Office closed in 1933 and the U.S. Forest Service began using the building for office space.

Although the interior was extensively remodeled, the exterior of what became a National Landmark was largely unchanged from the original. The National Register states, under Significance, that the Office was “One of the earliest monumental structures in the Northwest … and has always symbolized the importance of Idaho's mines.”

In 1972, the Idaho State Historical Society became the owner of record. Today, the building houses the Idaho Historic Preservation Office and the Archaeological Survey of Idaho.
                                                                                 
Reference: [Hawley], [Illust-State]
"Assay Office, Boise," National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (1961).
“The Old Assay Office in Boise,” Reference Series No. 359, Idaho State Historical Society (December 1974).
Charles Shirley Walgamott, Six Decades Back, The Caxton Printers, Ltd, Caldwell, Idaho (1936).

Businessman, Attorney, and Idaho Legislator Lorenzo Thomas [otd 05/31]

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Lorenzo Thomas. Family archives.
Idaho legislator, attorney, and businessman Lorenzo R. Thomas was born May 31, 1870 in Staffordshire, England. The family moved to the United States three years later and settled in Salt Lake City.  Then, in 1882, they moved to Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls), Idaho. As a teenager, Lorenzo went on a mission for the LDS church in England.

Upon his return, he began work in a store in Eagle Rock (the town name changed not too long after that). Thomas showed immediate talent for the retail trade and became manager of the Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) store in Rexburg at the age of twenty-two.

In 1895, Thomas was elected to the state House of Representatives, serving during the term of Governor William McConnell [blog, Sept 18]. That session of the legislature dealt with a wide range of issues vital to the young state. Early on, they worked out a reapportionment of the state Senatorial and Representative Districts, and restructured several counties in central Idaho.

The legislature also created several offices within the Executive branch. These included a Horticultural Inspector to oversee fruit grading and suppression of insect pests, and a Sheep Inspector to examine herds for possible infectious diseases. They also devised three amendments to the state Constitution. One amendment called for granting women the right to vote, a key milestone in women’s suffrage [blog, Nov 3].

Lorenzo so impressed leaders in Boise that he was appointed Deputy State Treasurer at the end of his term. Then, in rapid succession he became United States Commissioner and then Register of the Federal Land Office in Blackfoot.

Thomas was active in the LDS church, serving many years as a Bishop in Blackfoot. He also belonged to the Blackfoot Commercial Club, served as Director for several regional corporations, and rose to a captaincy in the Idaho National Guard. For a time, he acted as President of the Southeastern Idaho Fair Association.
Blackfoot, Idaho, ca 1898. Illustrated History photo.
Thomas also operated a mercantile business and owned considerable farm land in the area. Not content with all that, Lorenzo studied law, passed the bar exam, and began a successful legal practice

After ten years in the Land Office, Thomas retired to his law practice, interrupted by a term as a Probate Judge in Bingham County. He served as Blackfoot city attorney, and then was elected in 1915 to the first of his four terms in the Idaho Senate. He served two and two, with one term out of office between. During his final Senate term in 1921-1924, Thomas was selected as President Pro Tem.

Besides his political and legal activities, Lorenzo bolstered his farm holdings by supporting key irrigation ventures. Thus, the Idaho Statesman reported (February 15, 1919) that “Senator L. R. Thomas” and two others were trying to “interest the active support of the Pocatello Commercial Club” in an irrigation project in Bannock County.

Although he held no state public office after his final Senate term, he remained active in the Republican Party. As a sign of his commitment to service, Rotary International acknowledged Lorenzo as one of its three oldest District Governors … in 1939, when he was almost seventy years old. He passed away in July 1944.
                                                                                 
References: [Blue], [French], [Hawley], [Illust-State]
"Jottings from Convention Folk,"The Rotarian, Rotary International (August 1939).

Indian Agent Discourses on “The Snake Indians” [otd 01/06]

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On June 1, 1863, J. W. Perit Huntington, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon, addressed a report to his Washington, D. C. boss, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The essay summarized what he had learned about the Indian tribes commonly known as the “Snakes.”
J. W. Perit Huntington.
Image courtesy of
the Oregon State Library.

He wrote, “The word Snake appears to be a general term applied to several bands or tribes of Indians quite distinct in language and characteristic, and inhabiting different tracts of country, but so connected by relationship (having intermarried with each other for long periods), and by long continued friendly intercourse, that they are usually regarded by whites and neighboring Indian tribes as one people.”

The Journals of the Corps of Discovery for 1804 contain the first mention of the “Snake Indians.” Captains Lewis and Clark learned of the “tribe” as a source of horses while they wintered at Fort Mandan, about forty miles north of today’s Bismarck, North Dakota.  The following year, near the Salmon River in Idaho, they traded for horses with the Lemhi Shoshone, one of the tribes collectively known as the Snake.

The next recorded encounter happened in 1811, when a fur company party led by Wilson Price Hunt met some Snakes in Wyoming. Later, two Snakes guided them over Teton Pass into Idaho [blog, October 5].

During the fur trade era that followed, mountain men and the Snakes mixed amicably, some whites acquiring Indian wives. The early flow of pioneers on the Oregon and California Trails through Idaho offered more opportunities for Snake bands to trade profitably. Thus, despite minor incidents, relations between the Snakes and white remained friendly.

However, the discovery of gold in California released a flood of gold-seekers and pioneers on the trails. That further degraded hunting and grazing in those areas, and clashes became more frequent and more violent. Then prospectors found gold in Idaho. Now, the tribes had to deal with miners and merchants who built cabins and stayed.

By the time Huntington prepared his report in 1863, conflict had escalated severely. The Superintendent tried to name the tribes he thought fit under the “Snake” designation. Modern scholarship does not agree totally with his list, which included the Modocs and the Klamaths.

Still, he did correctly identify the groups we now call the Shoshone, Bannock, and Northern Paiute Indians. He estimated their collective population as perhaps “5,000 to 6,000 souls” and said, “They have had but little intercourse with the whites, and that little of a hostile character.”

The worst of that violence, he felt, was between the miners and the tribes: “Many murders and thefts have been committed by the latter, which of course have been retaliated by the whites. In fact an actual state of war has existed there for the last twelve months.”
Shoshone Encampment.
William H. Jackson photo, Library of Congress.

He had conferred with the regional Army commander, and “The general concurred with me in regarding a war with the Indians inevitable, and regretted his inability to send troops to that region sooner than midsummer.”

Huntington strongly recommended that “the Indian Department” meet with the Snakes, hand out presents, and negotiate “the purchase of their lands.” He went on, “In my opinion the public interests urgently demand that an effort be made to accomplish this object.”

Unfortunately, the administration had no attention to spare for his recommendation. Over five years would pass before protracted military action brought a measure of peace with the western Snake bands.
                                                                                 
References: [B&W]
Wilson Price Hunt, Hoyt C. Franchère (ed. and translator), Overland diary of Wilson Price Hunt, translated from the original French Nouvelles Annales des Voyages (Paris, 1821), Ashland Oregon Book Society (1973).
Daniel S. Lamont (Director), The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. (1897).
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Gary E. Moulton (ed.), The Definitive Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (2002).
“The Snake War: 1864-1868,” Reference Series No. 236, Idaho State Historical Society (1966).

Boise Replaces Volunteer Fire Department with Professional Firefighters [otd 06/02]

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On June 2, 1902, Boise’s volunteer fire crew disbanded and fire protection became the responsibility of the new professional Boise Fire Department.
Early Boise Fire Station. Boise Fire Dept.

Boise City “survived” without an organized fire brigade for quite a long time, considering the threat. As in every other early town, pioneers built almost all their structures out of wooden logs and rough-sawn lumber. It was not like they did not see the risk. They knew that Idaho City had almost been wiped out twice, once in 1865 and again in 1867 [blog, May 17]. Serious fires had also hit several large businesses in Boise City.

In March 1867, hopeful organizers called a meeting at the courthouse, “for the purpose of organizing a hook and ladder company.” According to James H. Hawley’s History, “The meeting was well attended and a volunteer company was formed, but its records appear to have been lost.”

Many towns had a succession of volunteer companies, earlier ones falling apart when a key leader moved away or lost interest. That’s basically what seems to have happened in Boise City. Even when citizens threw together an abortive volunteer brigade, they had no equipment. People simply grabbed whatever ladders and buckets they could.

A fire in December 1875, in the heart of downtown Boise, finally catalyzed the creation of a permanent volunteer fire brigade. Witnesses felt sure the fire could have been quickly controlled, but the large crowd that gathered had no equipment. More importantly, the Idaho Statesman (December 27, 1875) asserted, “There was no one to lead or direct what to do.”

A month later, a group gathered to organize a fire company, and met again three weeks after that for the election of officers (Idaho Statesman, February 17, 1876). The company had enrolled 56 members by mid-May.

Less than a month after that, they had their first “hook and ladder” wagon. In this context, by the way, the “hook” refers to a metal pike and side-hook device mounted on the end of a long pole. Firemen use it to snag burning materials (walls, ceilings, timbers, etc.) and pull them out of the way.

Three years later the company got its first steam pumper, equipped with a thousand feet of hose. When the engine arrived, Boise City was still building its first emergency water cisterns. They soon had a basic system  in place, and added piped water to some areas in 1881. Fireman parked the pumper at the nearest cistern, hydrant, or ditch and hoped the hose would reach the fire.

Most of us have seen the stirring vintage photos of an old-time fire wagon that thundered down the street behind straining horses. For a long time, that picture was not accurate for Boise City. To save time, the volunteers themselves hauled their wagons, including the steam pumper. Not until 1895 did the department procure horse teams.

Boise fire wagon. Boise State University Library.
The volunteers initially converted a blacksmith shop on Main Street as their fire station. They eventually moved into a portion of the then city hall. In 1889, that facility was designated the Central Fire Station.

After the transition to a paid unit, the city began to upgrade their equipment, and eventually added two more fire stations. My blog of January 28, about Fire Chief William A. Foster, outlines how the Department expanded in the early decades of the Twentieth Century.
                                                                                 
References: [Hawley]
“The Department's History,” Boise Fire Department, CityofBoise.org (1999-2010).
Arthur Hart, Fighting Fire on the Frontier, Boise Fire Department Association (1976).

Army Doctor M. W. Wood and Spotted Fever Research [otd 06/03]

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Marshall Wood. U. S. Army archives.
Lieutenant Colonel Marshall William Wood, Army Medical Corps, was born June 3, 1846, in Watertown, New York, about sixty miles north of Syracuse. He enlisted as an Army Private in late 1864 and was twice wounded in Civil War action.

After his discharge in the summer of 1865, Wood found a position as a medical assistant at a retired solders home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There, he began his medical studies in a physician’s office.

In 1870, he re-enlisted in the Army, this time as a “Hospital Steward” in the medical department. His duty assignment took him to Chicago, where he could take classes at Rush Medical School. In 1875, he became an Assistant Surgeon in the Army Medical Corps, with the rank of 1st Lieutenant.

Over the next twenty years or so, Dr. Wood served at stations all over the United States. At one point, he spent eight straight years at Western posts and came under fire at least two times in the Indian wars. In 1889, Wood also published a book that seems oddly at variance with his career. The book was a Dictionary of Volapük. Volapük was (is) an artificial language similar to Esparanto. It enjoyed considerable popularity from about 1880 to 1900.

By the time Wood moved to Boise Barracks, he had been promoted to the rank of Major. Major Wood took over as Post Surgeon in late 1894. In 1896, one of his monthly reports referred to a malady, “spotted fever,” that seemed to be common in the Boise Valley.

The Surgeon General asked for more information. Wood consulted with several Boise City physicians, including George Collister [blog, Oct 16], Warren Springer [blog, Mar 30], and several others. Wood’s report to the Surgeon General, Spotted Fever as Reported from Idaho, is generally recognized as the first systematic description of disease symptoms, treatment methods, likely causes, and so on. (Wood carefully credited the doctors who contributed to his report.)
Post Surgeon’s quarters, Fort Boise. U. S. Army archives.

Major Wood served in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. At the attack on Santiago, he commanded the only divisional hospital that made it to the front. A Medical Corps history noted the danger of their position and that enemy rifle fire had “killed a contract surgeon during the battle of San Juan Hill.” Wood received three commendations for Distinguished Service during this campaign.

Wood retired for the first time in 1904. He said he moved back to Boise because "it has the most favorable climate of any city I know." Wood volunteered for active duty and served during the 1916 Mexican border incident [blog, June 18], and then for World War I.

After his final retirement in 1919, Lieutenant Colonel Wood returned to Boise. There, he interested himself in the affairs of various patriotic organizations. Thus, a couple years later, he was elected (Idaho Statesman, September 30, 1921) national Surgeon General of the Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.), the society of Union Civil War veterans.

Dr. Wood passed away in August 1933.
                                                                                 
References: [French]
Mary C. Gillett, The Army Medical Department: 1865-1917, U. S. Army Center of Military History, Washington D. C. (1995).
James F. Hammarsten, “The contributions of Idaho physicians to knowledge of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever,” Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, Vol. 94 (1983) p. 27–43.
James H. Wickersham, Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Idaho, Boise (1934).

Pettigrew Amendment Clarifies Forest Reserves Management [otd 06/04]

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Senator Pettigrew. Library of Congress.
On June 4, 1897, President William McKinley signed a "Sundry Civil Appropriations" bill, which included an amendment crucial to the development of our national forests.

The "Pettigrew Amendment"– for South Dakota Senator Richard F. Pettigrew – addressed issues that had rendered previous forest legislation "ineffectual and annoying."

Initially, the Federal government saw the public lands as simply a source of revenue. The General Land Office sold them off to private interests for whatever money they would bring [blog, Feb 1]. Then the Homestead Act of 1862 sparked a crucial change in the handling of the public lands.

Before, even the supposed bargain prices charged by the Land Office barred most people from ownership. An ordinary workman might make only $50-60 a month. Thus, the $200 cost of a quarter section amounted to about four months income. Although living expenses were proportionally smaller, a family might need years to set aside enough savings to buy land.

Under the Homestead Act, fees came to only $18, and that was not even due all at once. The settler had only to “prove” the plot – build some sort of home, and work the land for five years.

Newcomers settled thousands of homesteads within just a few years, and around a million within a half century. So, in that sense, the Act was successful. However, opportunists inflicted much abuse under the law. (A whole story in itself.) Some of that abuse hit forested public lands, which were already under assault. Timber pirates routinely found ways to clear cut forests, take their money, and run.

The Homestead Act allowed them to give a semblance of legality to their depredations. They paid the fees for a whole host of “settlers,” who then filed for homesteads. Besides “improving” their properties, the settlers could work for the timber company for as long as the trees lasted.

With these and their other tactics, big timber companies had razed vast expanses of forest in the East and Midwest. To combat them, in 1891 Congress authorized the President to set aside "forest reserves" encompassing tracts in the public domain [blog, Feb 1]. However, lack of any regulatory guidance or budget made the law "ineffectual" at managing the reserves.
Boise National Forest. U.S. Forest Service photo.

Worse yet, placing those lands legally off-limits for "beneficial use" annoyed locals who depended upon them for their livelihood. As a result, they often connived with lumber companies to circumvent the reserve provisions.

The 1897 law clarified the conditions under which a reserve could be established. Thus, the legislation declared that it was "not the purpose or intent of these provisions" to tie up acreage that was more valuable as farmland or for its mineral resources. Moreover, one specific goal was "to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States."

Thus, the amendment initiated the development of effective methods for managing the nation's forests. A major revision –  The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 – tried to reinforce the multiple-use concept for the national forests. It required that “the public lands be managed in a manner which recognizes the Nation’s need for domestic sources of minerals, food, timber, and fiber from the public lands … ”

However, more recent Federal interpretations have largely ignored that provision. The Forest Service is responsible for over 16 million acres of timber land in Idaho – roughly five time that held by private interests. Until 1995, the two sectors each produced over 650 million board feet of lumber annually.

Since then, however, production on national forest land has fallen drastically: The Forest Service now allows less than 15% the production sustained for over sixty years by private interests. In fact, state timber lands – a bit more than a million acres (7% versus the National Forests) – have out-produced the Federal forests since about 1999.
                                                                                
References: [French], [Hawley]
Philip S. Cook, Jay O’Laughlin, Idaho’s Forest Products Business Sector, Report No. 26, Policy Analysis Group, University of Idaho, Moscow (August 2006).
Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, Oxford University Press, New York (1965).
Harold K. Steen, The U. S. Forest Service: A History, University of Washington Press (1976).
United States Department of the Interior (eds.), The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976: As Amended, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Washington, D.C. (2001).

Eleven Dead, Millions in Damages Due to Teton Dam Failure [otd 06/05]

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On the morning of Saturday, June 5, 1976, observers noticed a major leak in the north abutment of the Teton Dam. This came after two days of increasing seepage. Within about three hours, a whirlpool in the reservoir behind the structure signaled that a substantial flow was undermining the dam.
Spillway of intact dam. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Located on the Teton River 13-14 miles northeast of Rexburg, Idaho, the structure was the culmination of over forty years of speculation, and then planning. In 1932, during the heyday of Western dam building, the U.S. Geological Survey studied the Teton River for potential water storage sites. Not much came of that investigation.

The Bureau of Reclamation took another look in 1947, again with no subsequent action. Interest revived in 1961, and a report the following year recommended that a dam be built.

After almost a decade of site studies, construction began in February 1972. By June 1976, the reservoir had been filling for about eight months.

Even some supporters had raised doubts about the siting for the Teton Dam. Unfortunately, their qualms, and protests from outright opponents, had been brushed off or dismissed as unfounded. The claimed benefits from irrigation and flood control supposedly made the project worth the cost. The risks were considered minimal.

Although supervisors sent bulldozers out to plug the growing gaps, subsequent analysis suggests that nothing could have stopped the collapse at that point. The tunnels designed to empty the reservoir were not yet in service, and were probably too small anyway.

By noon, a wall of water was roaring down the canyon. At least two towns were virtually wiped out and Rexburg suffered major damage. Idaho Falls only avoided catastrophe by frantic efforts in sandbagging and digging relief trenches to reduce pressure on a major bridge.

Failure in progress. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Your blogster well remembers this disaster. I was returning from a conference in Phoenix. The first news I heard came from two men sitting behind me on the plane. They were Federal emergency response people headed for Idaho Falls. The two had no idea of the full scope of the crisis, but they knew it was bad.

Authorities let our plane land, but then sent it south to the Pocatello airport. At that point, all the hotels along the river had been evacuated and the bridges were closed. Since the airport is on the west side and we lived on the other, I ended up staying with friends. We escaped damage at our place. However, a young lady who worked for me lived in a mobile home in the flood’s path. Floating timbers from a pole mill battered everything in the trailer park beyond recognition.

In the end, the flood caused the deaths of eleven people and an estimated 13 thousand cattle. Financial losses included the $100 million building cost as well as over $300 million paid out for damage claims. It is difficult to quantify the value of farmland scoured bare of topsoil, habitat obliterated, and other damage, but some estimates run as high as $2 billion.

An investigating committee concluded that no one factor caused the disaster. They wrote, “The fundamental cause of failure may be regarded as a combination of geological factors and design decisions that, taken together, permitted the failure to develop.”
                                                                                 
References: Stacey Solava, Norbert Delatte, "Lessons from the Failure of the Teton Dam,"Forensic Engineering: Proceedings of the Third Congress, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia (October 19-21, 2003).
Committee on the Safety of Existing Dams, Safety of Existing Dams: Evaluation and Improvement, National Academies Press, Washington, D.C. (1983).
Dylan J. McDonald, The Teton Dam Disaster, Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, SC (2006).

Weiser Stockman and Irrigation Developer Thomas Galloway [otd 06/06]

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Tom Galloway. Illustrated History.
Weiser pioneer Thomas C. Galloway was born June 6, 1837 in Iowa County, Wisconsin. He was a teenager when the family emigrated along the Oregon Trail to Yamhill County, Oregon in 1852. Tom pursued a variety of jobs, including some time as a teacher, before leading pack trains to the British Canadian gold camps.

In 1863, Galloway packed supplies into the Boise Basin, then stayed to work in the gold fields. The following year, he and Woodson Jeffreys settled along the Weiser River [blog, February 11]. Tom built a log hut at the future site of Weiser City, and then replaced it three years later with a frame structure. Galloway ran these first buildings in the area as a simply hotel for several years. About 1868, he began a major expansion of his horse and cattle holdings.

His horse herd grew to be one of the largest in the area. Galloway’s Weiser City properties increased in value even more with the arrival of the Oregon Short Line Railroad in early 1884.  Tom served two terms on the Territorial Council (equivalent to the state Senate) in 1882 and 1884. He moved the family to Boise City at that time, partly so their children could take advantage of its better educational institutions. Tom maintained interests in Weiser and they moved back when the children had graduated from high school.
Weiser, ca. 1888. Weiser Museum.
During this period, Galloway was considered such an expert on stock raising that the leading agricultural journal of the day published his views on “Points of a Good Jack.” He recommended various male ass breeds for siring mules for different uses. If one needed a heavy draft animal, “then the Maltese ass or the Poitiers ass is required.”

In addition to his ranch, real estate, and business holdings, Galloway led the way in bringing irrigation to the higher plains along the Weiser River. A cooperative started the project, but apparently had neither the resources nor relevant skills to complete the job. Thomas attracted additional investors to finish the work. However, according to Judge Frank Harris, they eventually sold their rights to a local water district "at somewhat of a loss" because of the hassles involved in running the enterprise.

By the turn of the century, Tom owned over fourteen hundred acres of land around Weiser, some of it within the city limits. In late 1901, Galloway represented Idaho as a Delegate-at-Large at the Annual Convention of the National Live Stock Association. A few months later, he was elected President of the Washington County Stock Raisers Association.

In 1903, he served a term in the state House of Representatives. He also served as a justice of the peace in Weiser City, on the city council, and later on the school board. While the Galloways lived in Boise, they had a son, Thomas C. Jr., who became an eminent medical researcher [blog, March 17.]
Galloway House.
The elder Thomas passed away in June 1916. The Weiser mansion he had built in 1899-1900 is now on the National Register of Historic Places. He reportedly sold eight hundred horses to finance the place. (Today, it is a bed & breakfast furnished in period decor.)
                                                                                 
References: [Illust-State]
Thomas C. Galloway, “Points of a Good Jack,” The American Agriculturist for the Farm, Garden and Household, Vol. 48, Orange Rudd Company, New York (1889).
"T. C. Galloway dies,"Oregonian (June 11, 1916).
Frank Harris, 'History of Washington County and Adams County,"Weiser Signal (1940s).
Charles F. Martin (ed.), Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Convention of the National Live Stock Association, December 3-6, 1901, P. F. Pettibone & Co., Publishers, Chicago (1902).

Farm Equipment Dealer and Agricultural Developer Sylvester Hill [otd 06/07]

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Agricultural pioneer Sylvester Hill was born June 7, 1855 in Dekalb County, Illinois. Bolstered by a business school education, he first worked as a traveling salesman for the Deering Harvester Company. The Deering company was one of several farm equipment firms competing for business in the Midwestern grain fields.
Reaper-binder, ca. 1881. National Archives.

Sylvester spent seven years on the road selling. He then became Assistant Manager and then Manager for the Deering interests in Minnesota. Around 1888, he left to help organize another implement company. Unfortunately, their majority investor died suddenly and the company folded. Hill then became a District Manager for the Plano Manufacturing Company, another of the strong competitors in the grain cutting and binding business.

After five years with Plano, Hill moved on to work for the Milwaukee Harvester Company. At this stage of his career, Sylvester had held management positions in three of the four strongest companies in the farm equipment field. The only one he had not worked for was the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. Cyrus McCormick, Jr., son of the inventor of the patented McCormick reaper, led the company. It was arguably the strongest competitor in the now-crowded business.

In the fall of 1901, Sylvester quit Milwaukee Harvester and moved to Idaho. He never said “for the record” why he quit the business to which he had devoted over half his life. Less than a year later, Cyrus McCormick engineered a consolidation of McCormick, Deering, Milwaukee, Plano, and one other small firm into the International Harvester Company. It is difficult to avoid the notion that there’s more to this story than we know. Perhaps Hill “saw the handwriting on the wall” and left before consolidation forced him out.
Sylvester Hill.
J. H. Hawley photo.

Hill purchased “raw” land near Roswell, 2-3 miles south of Parma across the Boise River. Over the next five years, he converted his sagebrush-covered tract into productive farm acreage. Perhaps his expertise with the latest agricultural equipment aided with those improvements. The Idaho Statesman reported (September 2, 1906) that “One of the best crops of clover seed ever produced in this section has just been threshed by Sylvester Hill … ”

He sold that first spread for almost five times what he paid for it and then homesteaded another, larger plot. Hill held that land for over a decade before again selling at a premium.

Sylvester next had a contract with the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation to build a long stretch of the Golden Gate irrigation ditch. (The Golden Gate Canal branches off from another canal about six miles west of Caldwell and winds about eighteen miles west to end less than two miles from the Snake River.) He spent nine years as Secretary and Treasurer for an irrigation district in the area before retiring in 1917.

At that time, Hill sold his farm property and moved to a home on the east side of Parma. However, Sylvester apparently found sitting at home uncomfortable and sold that place about eighteen months later. He moved his family into Boise and began selling insurance. By 1921, Sylvester and his wife, along with an unmarried daughter, had started wintering in California.

Finally, in August 1925, Hill sold their Boise home. He then retired for good and moved to Glendale, California. Hill passed away there in 1937.
                                                                                 
References: [Brit], [Hawley]

Silver City Volunteers Battle Bannock Indians at South Mountain [otd 06/08]

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On June 8, 1878, a loose column of Silver City volunteers moved generally southward along South Mountain Creek. Angry Bannocks led by Chief Buffalo Horn were trying to join possible allies in Oregon. Common sense said they might head west over this broad, rugged saddle between the Silver City Range and South Mountain.
High plateau between Silver City Range and South Mountain.
IdahoSummits.com, Dan Robbins.

Many factors combined to cause the Bannock War. Most stemmed from the failure of white officials to deliver on the promises that induced the Shoshone and Bannock tribes to moved onto the Fort Hall Indian Reservation [blog, June 14]. One provision reserved the southern Camas Prairie for the tribes. The camas beds there were a vital food source. They became almost a matter of life and death when the Indian Agency failed to provide adequate rations. (This happened on a regular basis.)

White stockmen ignored the Camas Prairie clause of the treaty and officials did nothing to enforce it. Tension peaked when settlers drove hogs onto the Prairie. The hogs loved camas bulbs and devastated the beds. Even then, the tribes did not retaliate immediately. But finally, facing starvation, Bannock warriors fired on three stockmen, wounding two. Over the next week or so, the Indians burned many outlying homesteads and killed several settlers.

On June 4th, citizens in Silver City met and organized a troop of volunteers to fight the Bannocks. The roll call looked like a “who’s who” of Owyhee pioneers, including some who had been there from the beginning. For years they had dealt with Indian attacks on isolated settler cabins, stagecoaches, and freight wagons. They had no confidence that the Army would do any better this time than they had before. The volunteers marched out on the 7th and camped at a ranch about fifteen miles south and a bit west of Silver City.

Sources disagree somewhat as to who knew what on the 8th. It seems that the whites only suspected the Bannocks were in the area, while Buffalo Horn may have known all about the white column. Accounts of their meeting vary: Some say the two groups exchanged challenges and insults, and then the Indians attacked. Others claim the initial assault was a total surprise.

The truth probably lies somewhere in between, with some whites yelling at the Indians, while others didn’t even know the tribesmen were close by. In any case, the Indians' sudden attack threw the volunteers into confusion and, outnumbered at least two to one, they retreated to avoid being surrounded.

Guns blazed on both sides. Indians fell, but four or five volunteers were unhorsed, either because their mounts stumbled or were hit. Shots killed two whites, including Oliver Purdy, one of the discoverers of the Jordan Creek placers. The outcome was very much in doubt when the Indians suddenly broke off the attack and milled about. Before they could regroup, the volunteers galloped off.
Bannock tribesman at the reservation. National Park Service.

Who mortally wounded Buffalo Horn is uncertain, but it surely turned the tide of battle. With their experienced leader gone, many Bannock scattered and made their way back to the reservation. The rest hurried into Oregon and joined the uprising there, where most of the rest of the War was fought.
                                                                                 
References: [B&W]
George Francis Brimlow, The Bannock War of 1878, Caxton Printers, Ltd., Caidwell, Idaho (1938).
Mike Hanley, with Ellis Lucia, Owyhee Trails: The West's Forgotten Corner, Caxton Printers, Caidwell, Idaho (1973).
A Historical, Descriptive and Commercial Directory of Owyhee County, Idaho, Owyhee Avalanche Press (January 1898).

Treaty of 1863 Reduces Nez Perce Reservation, Sows Seeds of Trouble [otd 06/09]

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On June 9, 1863, U. S. government negotiators concluded a treaty with the Nez Percés Indians. That treaty substantially reduced the "official" reservation, and promoted tensions that would bear ill fruit many years later.
Nez Percés Chief Lawyer, ca. 1861.
University of Washington Special Collections.

By 1845-1850, white settlement between the future border of Idaho and the Cascade Mountains had significantly intruded on native tribes there. This resulted in series of clashes, the “Cayuse War,” that ran on until 1855. At that point, the government “negotiated” treaties that forced several tribes onto small reservations. In fact, the restrictions in those treaties led to yet another Indian war three years later.

Officials also negotiated a first treaty with the Nez Percés in 1855. However, unlike the other tribes, the Nez Percés received a reservation that included most of their traditional homeland. Space precludes a full discussion of all the white misconceptions concerning the tribe and this treaty. Basically, white officials felt they were benevolently “granting” the Indians an expansive domain. Conversely, the Nez Percés saw the treaty as recognition of their sovereignty over lands they had held since before whites settled in the New World.

Also, the Indian Agent disliked dealing with fifty-plus band chiefs. Thus, he arbitrarily designated a Head Chief who would ostensibly speak for all. His chosen one was a man known to whites as "Chief Lawyer.” Indian leaders, who composed a council of equals, put up with this foolishness, but not to the extent of letting the so-called Head Chief do anything important. Thus, fifty-eight band chiefs signed the 1855 reservation treaty.

Events proceeded without severe problems even though white settlers almost immediately began to push onto Nez Percés treaty lands. The numbers were small at first. As time passed, however, more and more stock raisers began to compete for Nez Percés range.

Given time, this friction might have been resolved. But then prospectors discovered gold on the reservation lands in Idaho. Local chiefs feared permanent settlers, but transient miners seemed to pose no particular threat. The Indians agreed to the construction of a warehouse where steamboats could offload shipments for transfer to pack trains. Nothing more, however, was to be built there.
Lewiston, 1862. Nez Perce County Historical Society.

Whites violated that agreement almost immediately. The full tent city of Lewiston sprang into being on Nez Percés land and grew explosively.

Government officials had a far greater agenda than just solving the Lewiston situation when negotiations for the 1863 treaty began. Land-greedy settlers wanted the territory alloted by the 1855 treaty. With glowing promises, officials "persuaded" Chief Lawyer to accept, for the whole tribe, a small allotment stretching from near Lapwai to around Kamiah.

Naturally, tribes living on the “ceded” lands refused to sign the new treaty. The Nez Percés were thus split into "treaty" and "non-treaty" factions. By some chicanery, officials scraped up over 50 signatures for the treaty, even though the agreement covered only about a third of the bands.

Amazingly, this untenable situation held, despite rising tensions, for fourteen years. (As usual, few of the glowing promises were ever honored.)
                                                                                 
Refrences: [B&W]
Jerome A. Greene, Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poos Crisis, Montana Historical Society Press: Helena (2000).
Francis Haines, The Nez Percés: Tribesmen of the Columbia Plateau, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman (1955).

More Paved Highways, Better Bridges Demanded by “Good Roads” Groups [otd 06/10]

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On Tuesday, June 10, 1913, the Fourth Annual Convention of the Intermountain Good Roads Association opened in Boise. Convention sessions ran through Thursday evening, with such topics as "Good Enough Roads for the Traffic." Thursday morning, former Idaho Governor James H. Hawley spoke on "Good Roads and Their Relation to Mining."
Mud is the enemy. National Archives

On Friday, the convention offered a tour to the Arrowrock Dam site. The dam was then about two years from completion. At this fourth convention, member states were identified as Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado.

Roads in Colonial America were notoriously bad. As long as most people lived near the Atlantic coast, goods and people could travel by small ships built for that trade. Roads stretching inland were little more than widened trails scraped on the surface. That slowly improved, mostly through the efforts of toll road builders.

Thus, except for special cases, almost the only decent road surfaces were the streets in towns that could afford them. Rural areas largely made do with dirt tracks that turned to bottomless quagmires when it rained. Farmers knew they would benefit from better roads. However, the status quo was “good enough” most of the year and they shied away from the cost for something they used only once in a while.

Oddly enough, pressure for change arose from what was essentially a recreational fad, the bicycle. Without going into the morass of who invented what, when, bicycles were “all the rage” in the United States by the 1870s. Clubs proliferated, and they wanted to do more than just pedal around town. Thus, bicycle enthusiasts started the Good Roads Movement in 1880.

Good Roads associations quickly grew all over the country. The advocacy changed as cars became more common, and automobile companies took up the cause. By 1913, better roads and bridges for motor vehicles were the main focus.

The first Intermountain Association convention had urged "the American Automobile Association to consider a transcontinental route from New York to San Francisco or Los Angeles or the north coast cities." Such a planned road would hopefully replace the hit-or-miss (often "miss" in the West) patchwork of locally-maintained routes.

The Boise convention passed a resolution that expressed the delegates'"appreciation" of national efforts to construct such a route: "a great national free thoroughfare for the accommodation of all sorts of transportation."

Howdy! Montana State University Archives.
Delegates also advocated educational improvements. They recommended the creation of collegiate coursework "wherein shall be given special consideration and attention to the subject of public highways."

Another resolution said, "we demand the opening of the Yellowstone and all other natural parks to motor-propelled vehicles, thus enabling the people of our country to 'See America First'." That resolution paid off two years later, when the first cars were admitted to Yellowstone Park.

At the conference, delegates elected prominent Boise physician Dr. Lucien P. McCalla to be the Association’s next President. Within a day of so of the convention’s closing, Dr. McCalla received a telegram welcoming the Intermountain Association as an affiliate of the National Highways Association. Such recognition was expected to significantly enhance the prestige and resources of  the regional body.
                                                                                
References: [Brit], [French]
“Fourth Annual Convention of the Inter-Mountain Good Roads Association,” Better Roads Magazine, Vol. III, No. 7, Better Roads Publishing Company, Jamestown, Ohio (July 1913).
William Clark Hilles, The Good Roads Movement in the United States: 1880-1916, M. A. thesis, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina (1958).
“Join National Organization on Highways,” Idaho Statesman, Boise (June 14, 1913).
Mary Pickett, “Powered Vehicles had Bumpy Start in Yellowstone, Glacier Parks,” Montana Standard, Butte (October 4, 2008).
“Resolutions of the Good Roads,” The Evening Standard, Ogden, Utah (Sept 26, 1910).

Prolific and World Famous Bridge Designer David Steinman [otd 06/11]

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D. B. Steinman.
Boston College collections.
David Barnard Steinman, considered one of the greatest bridge designers of all time, was born June 11, 1886 in New York City. He grew up almost literally in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, which turned his thoughts in that direction. The first in his family to attend college, he received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1911.

Even before the doctorate was finished, the University of Idaho hired Steinman as a civil engineering instructor. A technical publisher later issued his doctoral dissertation as a book that became a must-have text among professionals of the day.

Steinman proved to be an enthusiastic and popular teacher. He handled, at his request, a heavy teaching load of engineering courses. But not content with that, Steinman also organized and taught the first classes in architecture offered by the University. Remarkably, he attained full professor status before he moved on after just four years.

He actually executed his first bridge design while in Idaho. Limited to logs for material and the Boy Scout troop he led as Scoutmaster for a construction crew, Steinman developed innovative ways to complete the design anyway. Beyond that and his teaching, he found time to lead an extensive program of campus improvements.

However, although he enjoyed teaching, a relatively new, little-known university offered too little scope for someone of Steiman's genius and drive. In 1914, he took a job in New York City with one of the leading bridge designers of the era. After a brief period with another well-known designer, Steinman started his own engineering firm in 1920. Soon, he and another designer formed a partnership that would work together for a quarter century.

Entire books have been written about the many bridges (over 400) Steinman and his partner designed and built, the innovations he devised, and the string of awards he won. Some of the projects they tackled were considered almost impossible, and many required new designs and approaches.

One example was the Waldo-Hancock Bridge across the Penobscot River in Maine, completed in 1931. The historian for the Historic American Engineering Record program wrote that, “Technologically, the Waldo–Hancock Bridge represented a number of firsts.”

It was one of the first two in the United States to use pre-stressed cabling, which reduced the installation and adjustment time. Also, for the first time, parts were pre-marked as to where they were to be installed – another significant cost savings. The bridge was also the first to include a tower truss type that would later be used in the Golden Gate Bridge.

Like engineers worldwide, Steinman was shocked by the wind-caused collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940. He went on to make major contributions to our knowledge of bridge aerodynamics.
Mackinac Bridge.
Wikipedia Commons, submitted by “Jeffness” in April 2007.

Steinman considered the Mackinac Bridge his "crowning achievement." The span, which connects the bulk of Michigan to its upper peninsula, held the record as the longest suspension bridge in the world for forty years. It's still the longest in the Western Hemisphere.

While Idaho could hold him for only four years, the University can point with pride to a remarkable number of his students who went on to make important engineering contributions. One of his students became Chief Engineer for the Hoover Dam project. Another worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority and consulted with Israeli officials on water projects for the Jordan River.

Steinman was working on a design to bridge the Strait of Messina, to connect Sicily to the Italian "boot," when he died in August 1960.
                                                                                 
References: [Brit]
Richard J. Beck, Famous Idahoans, Williams Printing, (© Richard J. Beck, 1989).
Katherine Larson Farnham, Waldo-Hancock Bridge, HAER No. ME-65. Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service, Washington, D. C. (November 1999).
Rafe Gibbs, Beacon for Mountain and Plain: Story of the University of Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (© The Regents of the University of Idaho, 1962).
Richard G. Weingardt, Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers (August 1, 2005).

Irrigation Developer, Idaho Governor, and U. S. Senator James Brady [otd 06/12]

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Senator and Governor James H. Brady.
Library of Congress.
U. S. Senator and Idaho Governor James Henry Brady was born June 12, 1862 in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. According to the biography in J. H. Hawley's History, Brady graduated from Leavenworth Normal School and then taught for three years while studying law. From this statement, one can infer that young James was a intellectual prodigy. Leavenworth Normal School closed after the 1876 year.

Very young professionals, including lawyers, often fudged their age back then so as not to put off potential clients. It appears that's what James did. When the 1880 U. S. Census recorder for Dickinson County, Kansas came round, James listed his age as 24, adding six years. He later began "correcting" that, giving his age as 36 for an 1895 Kansas state census.

After two years as a newspaper editor, Brady started a very successful real estate business, with offices in Chicago, St. Louis, and Houston. Extensions of that enterprise brought him to Idaho in 1895. From a base in Pocatello, Brady led irrigation and water power developments all over eastern Idaho.

One of those projects was an American Falls hydropower plant, which began operation in 1902. The initial structure included a diversion weir to direct flow into the power plant. (A dam impounding the entire river was not built until twenty-five years later.)

In 1907, The Oregonian, in Portland, reported (October 23, 1907) that “The Idaho Consolidated Power Company, with a capital of $2,000,000, has absorbed the American Falls Power, Light & Water Company, the Pocatello Electric Light & Power Company and the Blackfoot Power & Water Company.”

James had holdings in all of these companies and the paper noted that “Brady retains the presidency of the new company.” Power County, created in 1913, got its name from the presence of the American Falls hydropower plant. The town of American Falls easily won the county seat.

Brady also played a major role in the National Irrigation Congress, serving as its Vice President and on its Executive Committee. His activities for other national business development organizations gave him considerable name recognition outside the state of Idaho.

In 1909, Brady began a two-year term as Idaho Governor. During his tenure, Idaho instituted a school for the deaf, dumb, and blind, and made provision for orphaned or neglected children. The legislature also authorized local option liquor laws and implemented a direct primary system.

Brady failed in his re-election bid. However, Idaho's U. S. Senator Weldon Heyburn died in office and, in 1913, Brady was selected to fill the remainder of his term. At the completion of that term, Brady was elected for a full term that was to run into 1921.

War bond sales, WW-I. Library of Congress.
His national reputation earned him a number of important committee assignments. His seat on the Military Affairs Committee particularly interested Brady. Despite deteriorating health, he threw himself into legislative programs intended to support World War I soldiers and sailors, and their families.

The Senator had a heart attack and died in January 1918. Hawley, a political opponent but personal admirer of Brady, wrote, "his dying regret was that he could not live to do his part in the solution of the problems which he saw would confront this country after the victory, which he knew would come to the arms of the Allies."
                                                                                 
References: [Hawley]
“Brady, James Henry, (1862 - 1918),” Biographical Directory of the United States Senate, online.
“Idaho Governor James Henry Brady,” National Governors Association, online.
Albert R. Taylor, “History of Normal-School Work in Kansas,” Transactions, Vol. VI, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka (1900).

Burke, Idaho, Ready for Almost a Century of Silver Production [otd 06/13]

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On June 13, 1885, a group of prospectors met and “declared” the town of Burke. They picked a spot about six miles up Canyon Creek from Placer Center (soon to be Wallace), itself only a few months old. The gorge is so narrow at Burke that during the winter the bottom gets only two or three hours of direct sun.
Burke, ca 1888. University of Idaho Library.

The previous year, searchers had uncovered two fabulous silver lodes, the “Tiger” and the “Poorman.” Other prospects soon followed. However, only the Tiger saw much development during that year. Lacking funds, the discoverers bonded their claims to John M. Burke, a Virginian who had been a banker in Utah for awhile. He, in turn, passed the rights along to Stephen S. Glidden, a wholesale grocer in Thompson Falls, Montana.

Glidden sold his business the following spring, and he, Burke, and some others improved the roads and trails into the mountains. Further development proved the worth of the Tiger, and hinted at the high value of other claims. They needed a supply point, and a place to put an ore processor, and chose Burke as the best site available.

Growth was very slow at first. In fact, not until May 1887 did they get around to really organizing a town, with street names, specific lot sizes, property recording requirements, and so on. The hamlet then contained only about twenty actual buildings.

However, in December of that year tracks from Burke linked to a new narrow gauge railway at Wallace. In January, 1888, the Wallace Press listed around 35 business buildings in Burke, including “… seventeen saloons, four general stores, one beer hall … and not a hotel in town.” (There were two boarding houses, however.)

The arrival of the railroad sparked a construction boom. By the end of the 1888 building season, Burke reportedly contained around three hundred buildings, including ore concentrators for the Tiger and Poorman mines.

Those properties easily lived up to their early promise. Output from the mines reached their mill capacities within a few years and continued even after a disastrous fire that destroyed the Tiger and Poorman mills, and supporting structures, in March 1896. At that point, miners had pushed their tunnels down over a thousand feet. With no pumps running, those deep shafts began to fill with water.

Undeterred, management immediately contracted for new, bigger and better equipment for the mines. Despite other huge discoveries in the Coeur d’Alene mining districts, in 1898 the Tiger and Poorman still produced around 14% of all the silver-lead ore in the region.

The 1890 census recorded 482 inhabitants in Burke itself, and that number had increased to over a thousand in 1900. After that, as throughout the Coeur d’Alenes, Burke’s prosperity rose and fell with the prices of silver and lead. The population peaked at over fourteen-hundred in 1910-1912, and then slowly but steadily declined, dropping below a thousand in 1940.
Burke, 1946. Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University.
For over half a century, Burke boasted a structure that was unique in the world. Built in 1896, the Tiger Hotel mostly served mine officials and workers, although visitors might rent a room if it was available. With the canyon being so narrow, the hotel's substructure was raised so Canyon Creek could flow underneath.

Unusual ... but the true oddity was the pair of railroad tracks running right through the lobby. (We're told that only heavy sleepers got the rooms directly over the tracks.) The hotel survived two World Wars, but was finally torn down in 1954.

The last mine near Burke shut down in 1982 (The Oregonian, Portland, June 13, 1982). The hamlet’s remnant is now often referred to as a “ghost town,” with 300, or 75 (depending upon whom you believe) inhabitants.
                                                                                 
Refrences: [Illust-North], [Illust-State]
Judith Nielsen, “Tiger Hotel Company,” Manuscript Group 80, University of Idaho Archives, Moscow (February 1993).

President Andrew Johnson Defines Fort Hall Indian Reservation [otd 06/14]

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President Johnson, 1870-1880.
Library of Congress.
On June 14, 1867, President Andrew Johnson approved an executive order devised by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The order defined a reservation bounded generally by the Portneuf, Snake, and Blackfoot rivers, and by regional divides to the south and east.

There was a slight "catch" involved, however. The Shoshone and Bannock bands for whom the reservation was created had not yet said they would stay there. Various accords signed in 1863, including the “Box Elder Treaty” [blog, July 30], had been peace agreements, not reservation assignments.

Those treaties were largely meant to allow safe passage for white travelers through regions where the Shoshones commonly roamed. In return, government agents would give the bands provisions and other goods. The agreements outlined where the terms generally applied, but did not constraint the bands to remain within those (vague) boundaries.

This loose approach soon became untenable, largely due to white settlement. Many hunter-gatherer societies live “on the edge” of hunger. That was certainly true in the arid country occupied by the Sho-Bans (a modern term). White settlers naturally occupied the most productive lands first. Thus, they depleted natural food sources out of all proportion to their small initial numbers.

By 1865-1867, many bands had become dependent upon the government allotments just to avoid starvation. Officials decided the only workable answer was to move the tribes onto reservations. There, they could be taught to become self-sufficient farmers. Just over a year after Johnson’s executive order, the tribes acquiesced to the "Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868," in which they agreed to occupy the reservation.

In return, the government made many promises. A reservation physician would provide medical service. Also, craftsmen (carpenter, blacksmith, etc.) would be available to teach these skills to the Indians. Tribesmen who made "good faith" efforts to cultivate the land would receive, for up to four years, an allotment of seed and necessary farm implements.
Fort Hall Reservation Indians, ca. 1875. Library of Congress.

A number of buildings would be erected at government expense, and each Indian would receive an annual allotment of warm clothing, or the materials to make those garments. Other clauses promised an allowance that might be used for food, presumably to carry them through the period until they could raise their own.

As a concession to get the Indians to agree, the Bridger Treaty reserved the southern Camas Prairie for their use. Sadly, the Sho-Ban suffered through years of broken promises: inadequate food and clothing, no seed or training, and so on. All that, plus white violation of the Camas Prairie provision, would set off the Bannock War of 1878 [blog, June 8].

Moreover, by the end of the century, “re-negoiations” drastically reduced the size of the reservation, from an original 1.8 million acres to around 540 thousand. Finally, in 1936 and 1937, the tribes created a governing constitution and bylaws, and organized themselves into a Federally-chartered corporation.

It has taken far too long, but at least today the Sho-Ban control their own destiny. They experience the same economic ups and downs as their non-Indian neighbors, but by and large they can provide reasonable services and opportunities for their people.
                                                                                 
References: [Hawley]
Charles Joseph Kappler (ed.), Indian affairs: Laws and Treaties, Volume I, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. (1903).
Brigham D. Madsen, The Northern Shoshoni, The Caxton Printers, CaIdwell, Idaho (1980).
“Treaties and Cessions,” Shoshone-Bannock Tribes web site.

Oregon Treaty of 1846 Largely Settles U. S.-Canadian Border [otd 06/15]

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President Polk. Library of Congress.
On June 15, 1846, the United States and Great Britain reached an agreement that settled almost all the remaining disputes about the border between the U. S. and Canada. This treaty, arranged under President James K. Polk, meant that the future states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and some of Montana were indeed part of the United States.

The U. S.-Canadian boundary had been established as far west as the Continental Divide by the "joint occupancy" treaty of 1818 [blog, October 20]. That had left the area west of the Divide between latitude 42º N and 54º 40' N "in limbo." People commonly referred to that region as the “Oregon Country,” and some in the U. S. wanted all of it. (Note that "we" usually say "Americans" in cases like this ... but citizens of Canada are also "Americans," so I've tried to be very specific.)

Russian claims to the area complicated matters until they reached accommodations with the other two countries in 1824-1825. The Russians finally abandoned Fort Ross in northern California (Spanish-claimed territory) in 1841.

In the U. S., the issue boiled over during the 1844 presidential elections. The Democratic Party platform took an aggressive expansionist stance. Platform provisions demanded the annexation of Texas and laid claim to the entire Oregon Country. Their candidate, James K. Polk, eagerly ran on that platform. The Whigs equivocated and their candidate, Henry Clay, could not seem to make up his mind.

Southern expansionists supported the Texas annexation, partly because that would add another slave state to the Union. Northerners wanted the Oregon Country because it was seen as our “due” and would add several non-slave states. Claims and counter-claims muddled the Oregon issue in the minds of voters, whereas the Texas situation was clear-cut.
Disputed Pacific Northwest region.
Slightly modified Oregon Country map from Wikipedia Commons,
original creator not specifically identified.
Polk won the election by a close margin in the popular vote: less than 40 thousand out of over 2.6 million cast. Outgoing President John Tyler, a Whig, moved quickly to "steal his thunder." With Tyler’s urging, Congress passed a joint resolution to annex Texas. Texans then voted for a matching Ordinance of Annexation. Thus, statehood for Texas became a non-issue for the new administration.

With Texas relegated to "old news," rhetoric on the Oregon Question heated up. The inflammatory slogan, "Fifty-four Forty or Fight," espoused the position that the U. S. should demand the maximum concession on the Canadian border dispute.

However, as Texas statehood moved toward reality, it became clear that war with Mexico would almost certainly result. At the time, chaos gripped Mexican leadership, with the ministerial “lineup” changing almost monthly. The only constant, it seemed, was popular anger over the loss of Texas. Officials who made concessions to the U. S. would be driven from office. So, barring some major change in Polk’s position, Mexican leaders almost had to go to war … even though many knew Mexico would probably lose.

At the same time, American representatives in London warned that annoyed British officials were now considering preparations for war. Polk and his colleagues realized they were in no position to fight two foreign wars, especially when one of the opponents was the greatest power on Earth.

Thus, “cooler heads prevailed” and the new treaty ended the dispute with Great Britain just over a month after Congress declared war on Mexico.
                                                                                 
References: [Brit]
Walter T. K. Nugent, Habits of Empire: A History of American Expansion, Alfred A. Knopf, New York (2008).
Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, Oxford University Press (1965).

Northern Gold Activities Mixed, Many Headed for Boise Basin [otd 06/16]

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A correspondent who signed himself as “Mudsill” wrote a letter from Lewiston on June 16, 1863, that was published in The Oregonian a week later. He said, “I arrived at this place yesterday evening. The town is dull, awful dull. Everybody has gone to Boise, and everybody else getting ready to go.”
Luna House Hotel, Lewiston. [Illust-North]

This refrain had, of course, been operable for a good many weeks. All the northern gold towns had lost people, sometimes nine out of ten from their peaks. Mudsill went on, “This is not the route for miners to travel now. I am informed that Mr. Sanborn is out at work on the trail with a force of ten or fifteen men; but saddle horses are scarce and high, and the opportunities for getting goods taken out are not good.”

That remark referred to Homer D. Sanborn, a native of New Hampshire, who had emigrated west in 1857, when he was in his early twenties. He settled first in Oregon, and then followed the rush into Idaho. By 1862, Sanborn had established himself as a Lewiston merchant.

A week or so earlier, folks in Lewiston had raised $2,000 to finance construction of a good road south to the mining camps of the Boise Basin (Placerville, and so on). Sanborn had agreed to supervise the work.  An earlier report said his team “will remove all rocks and obstructions found, will build such bridges as may [be] necessary on small streams or over deep gulches, and place ferries or rafts on such places as are necessary.”

Yet the project provided only a temporary ray of hope. Once the roads in southern Idaho improved, Lewiston lost any role for the mines there. Sanborn himself eventually gave up on Lewiston and returned to Portland.

Mudsill’s letter to the Oregonian continued, “I have been diligent in obtaining information concerning the mines near this place. … Elk City is dull, little doing. Cause, want of water. Florence is dull – causes too numerous to mention. Oro Fino is more prosperous – laborers in demand at five dollars per day, without board, and supplies cheap.”

Changing topics, he said, “Umatilla Landing is a lively place, but persons intending to sojourn or locate there, must not be too expectant.” As evidence, he mentioned “Taylor’s Restaurant,” one of the most heavily publicized establishments in town. But the eatery was actually located “in a loose board shed, some ten or twelve feet in width, and cobbled up against the side of one of the few more permanent structures of the town.”
Umatilla Landing, ca 1864.
Umatilla Museum and Historical Foundation.

Some businesses still felt the effects from everyone stocking up when freight costs on the river steamboats were low. The writer said, “I saw packers and teamsters soliciting freight for Boise at sixteen cents per pound. Some of them stated that they had been waiting for three weeks without procuring a load.”

Mudsill noted in passing that he had encountered “a real live vigilance committee” – which sounded more like a civilian posse – on his journey. He averred that it was “the first that has ever come under my immediate personal observation in this country.”

He was not “favorably impressed.” They had recovered some stolen horses from two “somewhat notorious” thieves, but had let the crooks get away. Moreover, as Mudsill's party left, the posse had decided to indulge in “Capt. Alcohol, embodied in a keg of whiskey.” And, from “the hearty welcome he received from the company,” the usual outcome could be expected.
                                                                                
References: [Illust-State]
Joseph Gaston, Portland, Oregon: It’s History and Builders, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago (1911).
“Letter from Lewiston,” The Oregonian, Portland (June 23, 1863).

Nez Percés Drub U. S. Army at Battle of White Bird Canyon [otd 06/17]

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On June 17, 1877, a column consisting of U. S. Cavalry and a few civilian volunteers engaged Nez Percés warriors in the Battle of White Bird Canyon. This was the opening clash of the Nez Percés War, which ultimately forced a large part of the tribe off their ancestral homeland.
Chief Joseph, ca. 1895.
Illustrated History of North Idaho
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The reservation treaty of 1863 divided the Nez Percés into "treaty" and "non-treaty" factions [blog, June 9]. By the mid-1870's, many land-hungry whites had settled on areas held by non-treaty bands. They demanded that authorities force the Indians to move onto the small reservation in Idaho.

Chief Joseph of the Wallowa bands eloquently argued that the original 1855 treaty was still in force for those bands that had refused to sign the later document. That being the case, the authorities were obligated to remove the intruders. An Army staffer who studied the legal situation agreed, declaring that the newer provisions were "null and void" for the non-treaty bands.

Few whites wanted to hear that, so they declared that a majority had signed the 1863 and it was therefore binding on all. As noted in the earlier blog, that claim was at best specious, if not completely dishonest. Nez Percés leadership was not a democracy. Although family ties and a common language linked the bands, each was autonomous and their chiefs formed a council of equals.

The situation exploded when the Army ignored all that and moved ahead with plans to forcibly relocate the bands. By the time the troops and volunteers led by Captain David Perry began descending into White Bird Canyon, warriors had killed 8 to 10 civilians and burned many outlying buildings.
Captain David Perry.
Nez Perce National Historical Park

John McDermott's book Forlorn Hope, posted at a National Park Service web site, provides a detailed description of the action. After the first contact, Perry tried to arrange a battle line. Meanwhile, the small band of volunteers charged on horseback around the left. Effective counter-fire repelled their attack, so they gathered on a knoll to anchor the left flank.

At a crucial turn, a shot killed one of Perry’s buglers and the other lost his bugle. Then a ferocious Nez Percés counter-attack sent the volunteers fleeing from the field. With no bugler, Perry could not wheel his troops to meet the sudden assault from his exposed flank. His line collapsed into a confused retreat. Perhaps only some desperate stands by small, isolated groups saved the cavalry from total annihilation.

Once north of White Bird Hill, the cavalrymen made a fighting retreat across the prairie. Nez Percés warriors finally broke off the action when a column of armed civilians rode out to help the retreating force. The survivors reached Grangeville between 9:00 and 10:00 in the morning.

The Indians scored a decisive victory, despite being heavily outnumbered (60-70 warriors versus over 100 whites) and fighting with inferior weapons. The Army suffered thirty-four dead (to none for the Indians), and were driven headlong from the battlefield.

In the end, of course, the outnumbered and outgunned Indians were forced to flee Idaho. The tribe's ultimately unsuccessful attempt to escape into Canada is now legendary.
                                                                                 
References: [Illust-North]
“Battle of White Bird,” Reference Series No. 440, Idaho State Historical Society (June 1967).
Jerome A. Greene, Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poos Crisis, Montana Historical Society Press: Helena (2000).
John Dishon McDermott, Forlorn Hope: The Nez Perce Victory at White Bird Canyon, Caxton Press, Caldwell, Idaho (2003).
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