South Fork Companion

On March 24, 1919, battleship BB-42 – the USS Idaho– was commissioned into the Navy under the command of Captain Carl T. Vogelgesang.

BB-42 was actually the fourth Idaho to sail for the U.S. Navy: predecessors included a wooden sloop-of-war, a motor launch, and an earlier battleship, BB-24.

USS Idaho, BB-24, ca 1909. Library of Congress.

Launched in late 1905, BB-24 followed a design that was a compromise between fighting prowess and cost. As a result, a new generation of battleships soon made that USS Idaho obsolete. She was decommissioned and turned over to Greece in 1914.

Battleship BB-42 had been christened not quite two years before commissioning, in June 1917, by the granddaughter of Idaho Governor Moses Alexander [blog, Nov 13], who was also in attendance.

This USS Idaho had the latest design for the time, with a battery of twelve 14-inch guns. She played a significant role in American naval activity. After shakedown and training in the Atlantic, she transferred to Pacific waters. Her early duty was off the coast from California to Alaska, with occasional voyages as far south as Chile.

In 1925, the Idaho performed exercises near Hawaii, and then sailed to Australia and New Zealand before returning to the West Coast.

USS Idaho exiting Pearl Harbor,
DT-2 torpedo plane overhead, Sept 1925.
Naval Historical Center photo.

From then until 1931, the Idaho was based at San Pedro, California, engaging in fleet readiness maneuvers off the coast and in the Caribbean.

The Idaho spent 1931-1934 on the East Coast undergoing an extensive modernization refit. After a stint in Pacific waters, she returned to the Atlantic. She was stationed in Iceland on December 7, 1941. Two days after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Idaho left Iceland to join the Pacific Fleet.

The USS Idaho participated in many of the great World War II Pacific operations, receiving seven battle stars, including: the Marshall Islands, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.

In April 1945, the Idaho steamed toward a special date with history, but was denied. In a desperate, suicidal throw of the dice, the Japanese Imperial command sent their superbattleship Yamato to try to break up or delay the attack on Okinawa. The American commander, Admiral Spruance, countered first with his battleship bombardment group, including the Idaho. However, they were “demoted” to a contingency force, and a carrier air strike sank the Yamato instead.

USS Idaho bombarding Okinawa, April 1945.
Naval Historical Center photo.

A sailor on the Idaho wrote, “There was a show of disappointment among the crew that we didn't get our chance at them, but on the other hand, had we met with this force, for sure, some of our ships would have taken a shellacking from the Yamato's 18-inch guns long before we would have come in range.”

She suffered battle damage from a kamikaze off Okinawa, but returned to action after quick repairs in Guam. On September 2, 1945, the Idaho was anchored in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender ceremony. After over a quarter century of service, the battleship was decommissioned in 1946 and then sold for scrap in November 1947.

References: Dylan J. McDonald (Ed.), The Moses Alexander Collection, Idaho State Historical Society, Boise (2002).

James A. Mooney (Ed.), Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Dept. of the Navy (June 1991).

William Schumann, The Big Spud: USS Idaho in World War II, The Merriam Press, Bennington, Vermont (© William Schumann, 2008).

Gutzon Borglum, ca. 1925.
Library of Congress.

Gutzon Borglum, who created the Mount Rushmore monument, was born March 25, 1867 in St. Charles, Idaho, near Bear Lake. "The best archival research" indicates that the family moved to Los Angeles in 1884 and Gutzon stayed there when the rest moved on.*

Borglum began his artistic career as a painter, studying first in California. There he met divorcée Lisa Putnam – a well-connected painter – who became his mentor, manager, and eventually his wife (she was eighteen years older than her protégé).

A year after they were married in 1889, the couple moved to Paris. There, Gutzon studied at several prestigious art schools and studios, and branched out into sculpture. Borglum earned praise, and commissions, for both his painting and sculpture, but he soon began to concentrate on the latter. He completed several important commissions in Europe before returning to the U.S. in 1901.

With a base in New York City, Borglum established a major reputation as a sculptor, aided by his outstanding talent and his persistent cultivation of the media – then the big metropolitan newspapers and national magazines. He attained celebrity status when he began producing out-sized works of art, such as the 40-inch-high bust of President Lincoln displayed in the U. S. Capitol building.

This and other huge works led to a commission for what … eventually … became the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial, on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. The project backers initially envisioned “simply” a giant carving of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on the granite face of Stone Mountain.

Borglum fell in love with the notion of carving a whole mountain. He proposed a project to honor a host of Confederate heroes: Lee, Jefferson Davis, and something like seventy officers from all the Confederate states. Of course, his concept proved far too costly and leaders cut it back substantially. Some preparative work began in 1916-1917, but not much happened until about 1923.

The following year, publicity about the proposed project attracted the attention of the South Dakota State Historian. The Historian approached Borglum with a rather modest notion of carving The Needles – a forest of granite spires – into giant statues of western heroes. Borglum had a more grandiose idea: Not obscure Westerners most people had never heard of, but true national figures ... and on a colossal scale.

Planning for a national-scale monument began almost immediately. Thus, when major disagreements arose between Borglum and the Stone Mountain backers in 1925, he abandoned that project altogether. (Almost a half century passed before Atlantans dedicated their memorial.)

Mount Rushmore National Monument.
National Park Service.

Rock-work began on Mount Rushmore in 1927. They completed Washington’s head three years later. With the stock market crash and Great Depression, the second head – Jefferson’s – was not unveiled until 1937. Lincoln’s followed a year later, and Roosevelt’s two years after that. The final carving was not completed until October 1941. Borglum himself did not live to see the completion: he died in March of that year.

* It's somewhat unclear when this move actually happened because, like many celebrities, Borglum "tinkered" with his biography over the years.

References: [Brit]

Richard J. Beck, Famous Idahoans, Williams Printing, (© Richard J. Beck, 1989).

"Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941)," The American Experience, Public Broadcasting System (1999-2000).

The Lewiston Teller for March 5, 1885 published a glowing report from a correspondent in the new town of Murray, Idaho. The observer first noted that people in the entire mining district exuded confidence. At a settlement 3-4 miles west of Murrayville (Murray's original name), the reporter "counted eleven buildings under construction."

Placer mining, Murray area, 1884. Note miners in foreground.
University of Idaho Archives.

Miners were running large placer rigs on streams throughout the area. While the strikes were not spectacular, they provided solid returns and fueled hopes for more.

The Teller correspondent wrote, "Murray is fast building up and assuming the air of a mining metropolis, and property here has a value outside of what is justified by present appearances."

Around 1880, Andrew J. Pritchard and two other prospectors had worked their way up the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. They found color on what came to be called Prichard Creek, deep in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains, 5-6 miles from the Montana border. (It’s not clear when the “t” was dropped, but current maps show the stream with that spelling.)

Pritchard tried to restrict the news to a few favored partners while he continued to look for better prospects. He made a major find in 1882 [blog, Apr 25], but – as usual – the news leaked out. By 1883 thousands of miners had rushed into the region, especially along Prichard Creek. All the early claims had been staked and filed, so late-comers pushed further up every likely looking stream.

Murray got its start in early 1884 and grew rapidly. At the same time, the population of Pierce City, the original county seat for Shoshone County, had dwindled to perhaps a few dozen souls. A notion to split the county was quickly squelched, but just before Christmas the Territorial government decided to locate a new county seat. The Act called for an election the following summer.

According to one pioneer, perhaps 2,500 people spent that winter in Murray and the nearby mining camps. Other reports suggest that 4 to 5 thousand were scattered throughout the Coeur d'Alenes.

Murray, Idaho, ca 1888.
The Sprag Pole Inn and Museum, Murray.

The Teller correspondent of March 5th went on, "Real estate changes hands daily and business prospects are bright. Two shingle mills are the latest improvements and parties are daily in search of business locations. There are twelve stores where goods of all kinds can be procured, three drug stores, several restaurants and a hotel."

The reports seems to have been accurate. At the election on June 1, 1885, Murray easily won the county seat, garnering 1,075 votes to 457 for Delta. The Illustrated History said, “Add to these two votes cast for Beaver (the former name of Delta), two for Eagle and one for Littlefieid, and we have a total vote in the county of 1,537.”

However, even then the seeds of change had been planted: To the south, prospectors had discovered rich lead-silver veins, and these turned out to represent the true wealth of the Coeur d'Alenes.

While Murray bloomed and then began a slow decline, Wallace and the other silver towns prospered. Thus, in 1898, another election moved the county seat from Murray to Wallace, where it still is.

References: [French], [Illust-North]

"Counties and County Seats," Reference Series No. 10, Idaho State Historical Society (July 1991).

John R. Carpenter.
J. H. Hawley photo.

Pioneer John R. Carpenter was born March 26, 1846 near Albany, New York. In 1859, John helped his father drive a covered wagon to California while his mother traveled by ship around Cape Horn. After mining and ranching in California and then Oregon for awhile, the family moved to Idaho in the spring of 1863.

John and his father hauled logs and carried freight for several years. On one early trip to procure supplies in Oregon, highwaymen attacked and robbed them. During the altercation, John received a wound in the hand and wrist. He never regained the use of two fingers on that hand.

Life in Idaho City during that period was wild and dangerous. Carpenter later said he had seen as many as four dead bodies on the streets at one time, and sometimes you could hardly move through all the crush of wagons and teams. Demand for goods was so great that nothing of value could be left unattended for fear of thieves.

John worked full-time for his father in farming and ranching for about two years. He then began hauling freight by pack train and wagon, and drove the Idaho City to Boise City stage for awhile. John apparently worked part time at his father’s ranch until 1876, when his father sold out and retired back to the East. Later, John hauled freight from Kelton, Utah to Boise City, and drove stage routes all over southern Idaho

During the Bannock War of 1878, Carpenter served as express messenger and scout for Federal and local troops. Because of his knowledge of the terrain, leaders sometimes sent him out to find and repair breaks in government telegraph lines. On one repair trip, he barely avoided being attacked and killed by Indians.

On another occasion, he carried a message from Boise City to an Army column on the Camas Prairie, far east of Mountain Home. The commander was reportedly “dumbfounded” that he had avoided the numerous hostile Indian bands that then infested the countryside.

After the tribes had been suppressed, John went back to hauling freight and driving stage. For several years, he drove stagecoaches in the Wood River area for stage line tycoon John Hailey. Despite his impaired hand, “Carpenter was known as one of the best stage drivers in the United States.”

In 1895, he homesteaded in the area that became Eagle, about 8-9 miles northwest of Boise City. Eagle Island had been settled over thirty years earlier [blog, Dec 21], but the area had grown very little. Within a few years after John settled there, another major landowner promoted a bridge to the island and the Eagle community began to expand.

Odd Fellows Hall. Eagle Historical Museum.

Carpenter joined forces with the developer, selling fifteen acres as a town site. In 1902, he also donated land for an Odd Fellows Hall. Carpenter continued to encourage development of the town for many years. The biography in Hawley’s History, published in 1920, said, “There is no phase of the state’s development and upbuilding with which he is not familiar.”

John lived in Eagle until his death in March, 1936.

References: [Hawley]

Laurie Baker, “The City of Eagle: Yesterday and Today,” City of Eagle, Official Website (May, 2007).

John Hailey, History of Idaho, Syms-York Company, Boise, Idaho (1910).

Long-time stagecoach driver Charles C. Haynes was born March 27, 1837 in Liverpool, Ohio, about thirty miles south of Youngstown. Before his twenty-first birthday, he had accumulated years of experience driving stagecoaches in Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa.

Took a top driver to handle a 6-horse hitch. Library of Congress.

Railroads were supplanting stage lines there by 1857, so he moved west. The following year he began driving stagecoaches in Missouri and Kansas. Thus, for two years, Charlie staged in and out of Topeka. During the Civil War, he drove along the lines between Atchison, Kansas and various Rocky Mountain destinations. After that, Haynes moved even further west. He staged for a few months across eastern Idaho between Salt Lake and the Montana gold camps before heading for the West Coast.

Haynes spent nearly two years driving stage in California for the Wells-Fargo Express Company. He then returned to the Montana route out of Salt Lake. The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 relegated Western stage lines to local and regional routes, usually carrying passengers, mail, and light freight to and from major railway stations.

From about 1872 until 1880, Haynes staged in central California, western Nevada, and southern Idaho. The latter operation mostly involved various routes in and out of Boise City. He often found himself moving on because railroad service had overtaken the stagecoach.

Hayes briefly ran his own stage lines, first into the Tuscarora, Nevada mining region and then in the Wood River area of Idaho. In about 1880, he retired to a ranch on Goose Creek in Cassia County. (The 1880 Census shows him there with wife Nancy and two stepsons.) In the mid-1880s, he served as Deputy U.S. Marshall, a position he held again in 1891-1893. He also served as a constable in Shoshone and as Lincoln County sheriff.

C. C. Hayes, ca. 1895.
Photo from Root-Connelly reference.

He still owned the Cassia County ranch in 1890, along with other property in Shoshone. However, the Shoshone hotel he purchased in 1889 burned down in November 1890. After that, Haynes spent his time overseeing his various other properties and transporting tourists to see Shoshone Falls

No less a personage than renowned orator and Presidential hopeful William Jennings Bryan affirmed that old "Uncle Charley" could still "finger the ribbons" with the best at the age of sixty. Bryan's 1897 letter to the Shoshone Journal said, in part, "Our driver, Capt. C. C. Haynes, was so experienced, and his horses so fast, that the twenty-five-mile coach ride across the lava-covered plain was made in less than four hours, and was neither tiresome nor unpleasant."

In the Haynes biography recorded in 1914, H. T. French wrote, "it has been his privilege to witness events that have made history, and he has played no small part in shaping the destiny of the great Northwest."

In early February, Uncle Charley went to visit old-time friends in Boise. He passed away there about two week after suffering a severe stroke. In reporting his death, the Idaho Statesman (February 21, 1914) said, “He is well known to the old residents of southern Idaho.”

References: [French]

Frank A. Root, William Elsey Connelley, The Overland Stage to California, Nabu Press (1901, facsimile 2010).

Idaho Governor D. W. Ballard issued a proclamation on March 28, 1868 to halt a shooting war near Silver City. The statement said, in part, "the lawless proceedings of the parties referred to must cease and peace and order be restored, and to that end the whole power of the territory will be used."

Mine and mill buildings on War Eagle Mountain, 1866.
Historical ... Directory of Owyhee County.

The conflict, now known as the "Owyhee War," occurred between two competing mining companies: the Ida Elmore and the Golden Chariot. Both had claims on War Eagle Mountain, 1-2 miles southeast of Silver City.

The lode that developed into the Ida Elmore had been discovered in the summer of 1863. Within a few years, mining investor J. Marion More and a partner gained control of the mine. More had arrived early in the northern mining regions, and then got in on the ground floor in the Boise Basin. By the mid-1860s, he was one of the wealthiest capitalists in the Territory, and well known in Western mining circles.

Prospectors also found several other likely veins in War Eagle Mountain, one of the most promising being the Golden Chariot. By the end of 1867, owners had shipped or stockpiled over 350 tons of valuable ore.

Registration records for the claims showed that they overlapped on a two-dimensional map. However, no one paid much attention to this commonly-occurring feature; the respective veins were at quite different depths within the ridge. Developers assumed – in perhaps a bit of wishful thinking – that the two lodes did not connect deep below ground.

That turned out to be an incorrect assumption. When their tunnels met, the confrontation escalated into an underground shooting war. The first deaths occurred on March 25 and 26, when one man on each side was killed. Soon, the exchanges became extremely heavy, and included blasts with “giant powder” and fire bombs. A later investigator observed that one 15-inch supporting beam had been "nearly cut in two" by bullet impacts.

The same day as the proclamation, the Owyhee Avalanche, in Silver City, published (March 28, 1868) an overview of the dispute. The article concluded, “As there are, at least, fifty men armed to the teeth, on each side, we are prepared, at any time, to hear of a bloody battle.”

Aside from such reports, the governor had been forced to act by wide-spread rumors claiming many battle deaths and secret burials. (Later, investigators were unable to substantiate any of the wild claims.)

J. Marion More, ca. 1864.
Idaho City Historical Foundation.

The proclamation, delivered by a Deputy U.S. Marshal, led to an uneasy truce. But bad feelings remained, and opposing viewpoints exchanged hot words.

As usual in such affairs, what happened next is highly muddled. A Chariot supporter shot J. Marion More, supposedly because More was about to brain him with a rough walking stick. An Elmore partisan then shot the Chariot man in the arm.

J. Marion died soon after the shooting. The Chariot man survived an amputation but died from gangrene several agonizing weeks later. Expressions of regret over More's death poured in, for he had friends all over Idaho. His body was returned to Idaho City for burial with full Masonic honors.

References [B&W], [Illust-State]

Dale M. Gray, “War on the Mountain," Idaho Yesterdays, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Winter 1986).

Attorney George C. Huebner was born March 29, 1879 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. (Older records show the name as Huebener.) After graduating from high school there, George apparently worked at a store his father owned in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the same time, he attended the University of Minnesota Law School.

He received his degree in 1903 and moved to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, the following spring. He was quickly admitted to the state bar and practiced in North Idaho for about a year. In 1905, Governor Frank Gooding appointed him Chief Clerk of the Idaho State Penitentiary, so he moved to Boise.

Harry Orchard.
University of Missouri Archives.

In his position as Chief Clerk, Huebner recorded the official transcript of Harry Orchard’s confession to the assassination of ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg [blog, Dec 30]. Later, George also recorded the confession of Steve Adams, an alleged accomplice. Although his testimony concerned other crimes, Adams also implicated the Western Federation of Miners in the assassination. In his words, “they wanted to ‘get’ Steunenberg.”

Huebner filled the penitentiary position until April 1909, when Governor James H. Brady selected him to be Secretary of the Idaho Commission for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. Earlier that year, the Governor had urged the legislature to correct the oversight of the previous session, which had failed to provide funds for an Idaho exhibit at the Seattle event.

The Expo was scheduled to begin in June, so Brady recommended quick action to create "an exhibit that will be a credit to our state." The legislature complied and preparations hurried forward, including the selection of Huebner. Right away, Brady led the Commission on a trip to Seattle to select a suitable location on the Expo grounds for the Idaho exhibit.

Exposition leaders soon discovered that commemorative “days” – dedicated to various groups, products, and so on – seemed to greatly enhance attendance. Thus, “Military Day,” “Spokane Day,” and “Swedish Day” were all well attended. Idaho had its chance to shine with (obviously) Idaho Day, along with Lewiston Day, Boise Day, and a day for three silver-mining towns. (The potato was not yet, in 1909, a major product, so there was no “Spud Day.”)

The Idaho Building.
University of Washington, Special Collections.

Overall, despite the short notice, the Commission made an excellent showing, with an entire building dedicated to the products and prospects of the state. The Expo ended in mid-October. Huebner’s tenure as Secretary ended with his compilation of a final report. Commenting on the report, the Idaho Statesman (December 1, 1909) said, “The impossible has been accomplished.” The exhibit actually made a profit, so “… a balance of $739.80 which will be turned back to the treasury.”

When James Brady was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1913, Huebner served as his private secretary for most of 1914. He then returned to private law practice in Boise.

In 1917, George moved his practice to Emmett. He retained a number of business interests in Boise, however, and was often listed as a visitor there. In 1934, Huebner ran unsuccessfully for judge of the district that includes Gem County. (Emmett is the county seat.) Two years later, he was a candidate for the state Senate, again unsuccessfully.

George became City Attorney for Emmett in 1938. He did not retire from that position until 1963, when he was 84 years old. He passed away in November 1972.

References: [French], [Hawley]

“Adams Told of Trade in Murder,” The New York Times (February 24, 1907).

"Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (1909): Special Days," Essay 8461, HistoryLink.org (January 17, 2008).

"Biographical Note," George Huebner Collection, MS 773, Idaho State Historical Society.

Dr. Springer. J. H. Hawley photo.

Eminent Boise physician Warren David Springer was born March 30, 1864, near Toronto, Canada. He received a college degree and then went on to medical school at Trinity College in Toronto. After graduating with his medical degree, he took additional courses at the College of Physicians of Ontario.

Springer ran a practice near Toronto for a time and then moved to Ogden, Utah. After a relatively brief stay there, he opened a Boise office in 1892. Noted for his skill as a surgeon, Springer developed a thriving practice in Boise. According to Hawley's History, "He was, moreover, a close and discriminating student of the science of medicine and kept in touch with the latest researches and discoveries."

That interest worked both ways. Several Boise doctors, including Springer and his partner, are collectively credited with the first written, clinical description of "rocky mountain spotted fever." [Blogs, Aug 21 and Oct 16.] The reports detailed the typical symptoms: crushing headaches, “grievous” joint and muscle pain, and the characteristic red spots.

The physicians described the course of the disease, which can last up to two weeks after the appearance of the first definitive symptoms. In severe cases, convalescence may take weeks or months. They reported fairly low fatality rates among Idaho sufferers, perhaps due to mis-diagnosis. The symptoms resemble the more common typhus and not all patients develop the distinctive spots.

Overall, spotted fever killed as many as 25-30% of those infected before antibiotic treatments became available. (Fatalities still run 3-5%, being highest for older patients.)

Besides his private practice, Dr. Springer served as one of the physicians for the Idaho Soldiers’ Home [blog, May 23] in Boise. In 1898, Springer volunteered for service during the Spanish-American War. As regimental surgeon, Major Springer served in the Philippines with the First Idaho Regiment. Like the regiment, he returned to Idaho in September 1899.

St. Luke's horse-drawn ambulance. City of Boise.

Some time in 1900-1902, the Right Reverend James B. Funsten, Episcopal Bishop of Idaho, began to promote a new medical facility in Boise. Dr. Springer, “a close personal friend,” helped found St. Luke’s Hospital, which opened in 1902 as a modest cottage with six beds. Springer became the hospital’s Chief Surgeon, a position he held at the time of his death.

Dr. Springer served as Secretary of the Idaho board of Health for a time, and belonged to several national, state, and local medical societies. In 1903, he helped found the Boise Medical Association, an affiliate of the American Medical Association, and became its first Vice President. Springer was also elected to a term as Ada County Coroner. And, when the Boise City Council created the position of City Physician, they selected Warren to fill that slot (Idaho Statesman, September 11, 1900).

In 1907, Warren’s younger brother, John Scott Springer, joined his practice. John, also born in Canada, had practiced for a year in Emmett, Idaho, before spending eight months in an internship in Chicago.

Unfortunately, the brothers had little time together. In October, 1909, Warren died a day or so after suffering a major heart attack. The death of the relatively young, well-liked doctor prompted an outpouring of shock and grief. The Statesman noted (October 23, 1909) that “The casket … was literally buried in flowers.” Physician friends came from all over southwest Idaho and “The nurses of the city attended in a body.”

References: [Brit], [French], [Hawley]

“Boise (Idaho) Medical Association,” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 41, No. 11, American Medical Association, Chicago (Sept 12, 1903).

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.

Vardis Fisher.
Bonneville County Historical Society.

Vardis Alvero Fisher, best known for his Western-themed novels, was born March 31, 1895 in Annis, Idaho. (Annis is about 4 miles north of Rigby.) He grew up in that area before going off to school at the University of Utah. After receiving his Bachelor's and Master’s degrees there, he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1925.

From 1925 to 1931, Fisher worked as an English professor at the University of Utah and then New York University (NYU). While at NYU, he met Thomas Wolfe, who was an Instructor there. (Wolfe's literary fame, for Look Homeward Angel, would come later.) They remained friends until Wolfe's untimely death in 1938. Fisher taught some at Montana State University before becoming Director of the Idaho Writer's Project. He stayed with the Work Projects Administration effort from 1935 to 1939. After that, he devoted his full time to writing.

Fisher’s first published novel, Toilers of the Hills, appeared in 1928, about the time he took his position at NYU. His second, Dark Bridwell, followed in 1931. Set in pioneer Idaho, a milieu Vardis knew well from personal experience, these books present their settings with a level a verisimilitude that stamped all of Fisher’s work. Yet the power of these novels lies in his examination of how the hard, primitive environment shaped the character of the people who tried to make a life there.

Considering the magnitude of his typical themes, Fisher was an extraordinarily productive writer. He published thirty-seven or thirty-eight (bibliographies disagree) novels, most of them of considerable heft – many run over 400 pages. Besides those, Vardis published a half-dozen non-fiction volumes, some short stories and poems, numerous essays, and – for about thirty years – regular newspaper columns. As is often the case with highly prolific writers, critics consider his novels "uneven"– a judgement I would have to agree with. (Few writers hit a home run every time.)

Warner Bros. publicity image.

At his best, he received favorable comparison with such literary giants as William Faulkner, Thomas Hardy, and Thomas Wolfe. Personally, I think such views fail to give Vardis due credit. Fisher’s best material is every bit as powerful and insightful as the best of the “giants” – and far more readable. (I’m not a big fan of episodic, "stream of consciousness," or "inner turmoil" novels that have little or no plot.)

His popular legacy lies in the now-common western history and fiction style that features "naturalistic" or "nitty-gritty" detail buttressed by historical fidelity. At its best, the style neither glosses over the pain and violence of frontier life, nor exaggerates it for shock value. Thus, Fisher’s western-themed books are still both very readable, and instructive.

Ironically, Vardis may have succeeded too well. Some current reader/reviwers, not understanding the context, fault his themes as having been “done to death,” and seem to expect even more blood and feces. But the situations have been done to death because Fisher popularized them. In fact, Fisher's novel Mountain Man (1965) provided much of the script material for the hit movie Jeremiah Johnson. As for the “realism,” I’m not sure the recent “extreme-nature” approach is that much of an improvement over Fisher’s treatment.

For the last thirty years of his life, Fisher lived in a home he built himself near Hagerman, Idaho. He died in July 1968. Unfortunately, few of Fisher’s works are available today, except as now-costly volumes from the original print runs. And that’s a shame.

References: Richard J. Beck, Famous Idahoans, Williams Printing, (© Richard J. Beck, 1989).

Tim Woodward, Tiger on the Road: The Life of Vardis Fisher, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho(1989).

Guila Ford, Elizabeth Jacox, "Vardis Fisher, 1895-1968," Reference Series No. 1138, Idaho State Historical Society (January 1996).

Senator George L. Shoup.
National Archives.

On April 1, 1889, President Grover Cleveland appointed Lemhi cattleman George Laird Shoup governor of Idaho Territory – the last to hold that position. He was also, therefore, first to hold the position of state Governor. Shoup then became one of the state's first two U. S. Senators. Records suggest that some convoluted political machinations lurked behind this progression.

Shoup was born in Kittanning, about forty miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in June 1836. The family moved to a ranch in western Illinois in 1852. Seven years later, George followed the rush to Pike’s Peak gold. At the start of the Civil War, Shoup joined an independent scout company, watching Indians in what later became Colorado and New Mexico.

When Colorado Territory was organized in 1861, Shoup became an officer in the Colorado Volunteer Cavalry. He was stationed at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the spring of 1862. He apparently did not see any direct action against the Confederate force that marched north from Santa Fe during that period. In late 1864, Shoup rose to the rank of Colonel in the Colorado Cavalry.

After the War, Shoup’s unit disbanded and he moved to Virginia City, Montana and opened a store. In 1867, George followed eager prospectors into Idaho and helped found Salmon City. He served as commissioner when Lemhi County was established two years later, and then served several terms in the legislature. By 1875, Shoup was one of the largest landowners and cattlemen in the region.

Shoup’s political career flourished and by 1889 he was one of the best-known and most influential figures in Idaho. Almost universally well-liked, any elective office he wanted, he could have. He wanted a U. S. Senate seat, which would open up when (if) Idaho achieved statehood.

However, factional disputes complicated matters. North Idaho leaders demanded one of the two Senate seats, but couldn't assemble a coalition strong enough to achieve that aim. (At that time, Senators were elected by the state legislature, not by popular vote.)

Governor Willey.
J. H. Hawley photo.

The factions finally compromised by promising the governor's chair to the North. Shoup agreed to become governor first, with the assurance of legislative support for his Senate bid. The scheme coupled his appointment with essentially unopposed election of a North Idahoan, Norman B. Willey, for Lieutenant Governor.

Idaho then became a state, with Shoup as Governor and Willey as Lieutenant Governor. When Shoup resigned to take his Senate seat, Willey moved up to the governor's position. A North Idahoan also filled the brief gap until the election of a full-term Senator to take a seat in March 1891. At the end of his four-year partial term, Shoup was reelected to the Senate for a full term starting in 1895.

For a man from a new, and very small state, George did remarkably well on the national stage. That included service on several important Senate committees. Then, in 1900, he was appointed to the five-member Executive Committee of the Republican National Committee (Idaho Register, Idaho Falls, June 29, 1900).

However, his loyalty to the Party cost him in Idaho. A coalition of Democrats and Silver Republicans, led by Fred Dubois [blog, May 29], won a majority in the Idaho legislature that fall. They denied Shoup’s next re-election bid, so he retired from public life in 1901. George passed away three years later.

References: [Hawley]

“Biographical Sketch: George Laird Shoup,” George Laird Shoup Papers, Manuscript Group 8, University of Idaho, Moscow (1994).

George Elmo Shoup, "History of Lemhi County," Salmon Register-Herald (Series, May 8- October 23, 1940).

"Norman B. Willey, March 25, 1838-October 20, 1921," Reference Series No. 400, Idaho State Historical Society.

On April 2, 1894, riders on the range near American Falls, Idaho discovered the body of sheepman Hugh Fleming. The unarmed herder had been shot four times. Suspicion instantly fell on local cattlemen, who had threatened Hugh and his brother John on numerous occasions.

Western sheep herding. Library of Congress.

The dispute centered largely on the use of the public lands in Idaho, as it did in other Western states. Sheep came early to Idaho, arriving in 1860 with the first Mormon colonies along the southeastern border. These small flocks generally produced meat and wool only for local consumption, as did the cattle operations that followed the gold discoveries of 1861-1863.

However, with vast amounts of open range, cattlemen soon looked further afield. By the early- to mid-1870s, Idaho stockmen were trailing many thousands of cattle to railway terminals in Nevada and Wyoming. Sheep bands had also expanded, although not nearly so much as cattle herds. Even so, sheep holdings had become large enough to gain the attention, and ire, of resident cattlemen.

Thus, in 1875, the state passed the first regional “Two Mile Limit” laws, prohibiting the grazing of sheep on range "traditionally" used for cattle [blog, Dec 13.] By 1887, the law had expanded from an initial three counties to the entire state.

Challenges all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the law, as long as the restriction followed a "first-come, first served" rule for cattle or sheep or, oddly enough, horses. Equitable in theory, the law favored cattle in practice. Until the railroad arrived, large-scale sheep raising was impractical. Long-distance wagon shipment of wool cost too much, and sheep cannot "walk to market" as easily as cattle.

Then the railroad arrived, and sheep flocks grew (as did cattle herds), and crowded the range. Stockmen even pushed into forested lands. Idaho had no widespread range wars, but isolated shootings of sheepmen, and of cowboys, did happen. Back-and-forth slaughters of cattle and sheep were much more common.

Sheep in the forest. U. S. Forest Service.

The Fleming brothers had brought sheep to the American Falls range before 1884, and by then they had five thousand head. Despite death threats and harassment of their stock, they had hung on … and now, ten years later, one brother was dead. With plenty of known suspects, the Idaho Statesman confidently reported (April 3, 1894), “It is only a question of a short time when they will be placed under arrest.”

Law officers promised quick results, and soon had four cattlemen in jail. However, in those days before scientific criminology, officials had no way – other than some muddled tracks and, apparently, vague rumors – to connect the suspects to the crime. A week later, the newspaper reported that the men had been released for lack of evidence.

Although the Governor offered a $500 reward for information on the murder (Idaho Statesman, April 21, 1894), nothing further was learned until an unrelated court appearance took a bizarre twist. During a trial for cattle rustling, the defendant claimed (Statesman, January 31, 1895) that he had witnessed the murder. He testified that three of the four men arrested and released earlier had indeed done the shooting. However, later investigation proved that the claimant was in McCammon, fifty miles away, on the actual day of the murder.

No one was ever convicted for the murder of Hugh Fleming.

References: [B&W]

Byron DeLos Lusk, Golden Cattle Kingdoms of Idaho, Masters thesis, Utah State University, Logan (1978).

"Omaechevarria vs. State of Idaho, 246 U.S. 343 (1918), Omaechevarria vs. State of Idaho No. 102"U. S. Supreme Court case (March 18, 1918).

Joe Marshall. Beal & Wells photo.

Joseph P. Marshall, who did more than any other one person to improve and popularize the Idaho® potato, was born April 3, 1874 in Versailles, Ohio, about thirty miles northwest of Dayton. He moved west to Montana in 1892 and went to work at a stock ranch north of Billings. Over a period of years, he taught himself civil engineering as it related to canal building and irrigations systems.

While shuttling between projects in Montana, North Dakota, and Texas, he also examined irrigation possibilities around what was soon to become Twin Falls, Idaho. He claimed land nearby in 1903 and moved his family there three years later. By then, canals were feeding water to acreage in the area, the railroad had arrived, and Twin Falls was booming.

Joe began raising potatoes on his Idaho farm in about 1908, expanding his holdings over the years. For awhile he also traveled extensively to handle development projects in Utah and Mexico. However, as he became increasingly involved with his Idaho operation, Marshall spent more and more time studying how to effectively grow high-quality potatoes.

Idaho potato production hit a crisis point in 1921-1922. The quality of the tubers had deteriorated and was further degraded by disease infestations. Land from failed operations depressed the books of regional banks, and many more farmers with mortgages found themselves in dire financial straits. By then, Joe had gained a considerable reputation for his knowledge and attention to detail in raising, handling, and marketing potatoes.

Marshall began acting as an agent for the banks and out-of-state owners, trying to upgrade potato industry practices all over the state. His methods involved upgraded seed potatoes, improved field practices, and more care in post-harvest tuber handling. Soon, the reliably high quality of his potatoes, and those of farmers who followed his lead, began to command premium prices.

Marshall checking Idaho® potatoes in the field.
For high-resolution versions, contact the Idaho Potato Commission.

Naturally, top prices encouraged greater and greater production, which required a heightened effort to maintain the best quality. The University of Idaho (UI) helped with on-going research into all aspects of potato production. Also, the state created what would eventually become the Idaho® Potato Commission. (Idaho spuds became distinctive enough to merit a Registered Trademark.)

Potato history credits Chicago restauranteur Dario Louis Toffenetti with popularizing the huge “Idaho baker” as an inexpensive-but-filling menu item.

As the story goes, Marshall had made a trial shipment to Chicago that contained only the largest tubers. But the load failed to sell. (Joe probably had to charge more to cover the cost of the extra sorting.) Dario dropped by the warehouse, saw the “huge and beautiful” potatoes, and had a vision. He bought the entire lot and began promoting “baked Idaho potatoes” at his restaurants. Toffenetti’s enthusiastic marketing further added to the premium identity of the Idaho® potato.

For over a quarter century Joe was "the face" of Idaho® potatoes, and, in 1940, the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association award him the title of "Potato King." Two years after he died in January 1964, the UI potato facility in Aberdeen was named the "Joe Marshall Potato Research Center" in his honor.

References: [B&W]

James W. Davis, Aristocrat in Burlap: A History of the Potato in Idaho, Idaho Potato Commission, Boise (1992).

On April 4, 1887, the steamer Spokane pulled away from the dock at Kingston, Idaho. (That's about seven miles west of Kellogg.) The little boat chugged along the winding course of the Coeur d'Alene River. The Spokane had been built in 1882 for trade on the Snake River below Lewiston. Several transfers later, she was operating as an excursion steamer on Lake Pend Oreille. In 1887, a new owner moved the boat south to Lake Coeur d'Alene and modified it to handle freight as well as passengers.

Small steamer. Library of Congress.

She joined three other steamboats operating on the Lake. The U. S. Army built the first steamer in 1879 to haul feed for the animals at Fort Sherman [blog, Apr 16]. Coeur d'Alene City, which quickly appeared near the Fort, grew explosively after prospectors discovered gold and silver in the Coeur d'Alene River watershed. To exploit the traffic into the mines, entrepreneurs built two steamers during the winter of 1883-1884.

The owners reaped fine profits transporting passengers and goods up the river. The Old Mission at Cataldo proved to be the most reliable “head of navigation.” However, favorable water levels sometimes allowed boats to reach Kingston, about eight miles further upstream.

Unfortunately, the Spokane’s operator in April 1887, Capt. Nelson Martin, was not familiar with the river’s twists and turns. The boat reached a spot where the current split around a small island. The Captain waited too long to pick a branch to use, and the hull thumped into a mass of driftwood. A probable over-reaction sent the little craft careening crosswise of the strong current … and it capsized.

Five of the approximately twenty passengers drowned in the accident. Two were prominent figures of the time: the former City Clerk of Spokane, and a mining investor from Maine. Authorities jailed Captain Martin and his engineer, but the two were soon released. New owners raised the boat and operated it for many years as the Irene.

Coeur d’Alene steamers enjoyed this first “heyday” – with almost limitless business, and profits – only until the railroads laid new tracks deep into the mining districts. After 1891-1893, lake and river traffic supported only one or two big vessels, and a bevy of smaller (40-60 feet) boats.

Steamer Flyer on Lake Coeur d’Alene, ca 1910. Hult reference.

However, starting in 1899-1900, logging company money poured into the area to exploit the huge stands of Idaho timber. By 1910, Coeur d'Alene City had over ten thousand residents. Best estimates suggest that around fifty steamers operated on the Lake and its tributaries. Ten or so could accommodate hundreds of passengers: Recreational excursions became a huge source of traffic.

This second boom lasted longer than the first, but it too began to wane by around 1920. Railroad spurs grabbed more freight, and people began to prefer automobile travel. By the mid-1920s, only a handful of the big boats still operated, and the last disappeared in 1938.

Today, hundreds of personal watercraft ply the lake, and area resorts operated a few excursion boats. Still, a diesel-power people corral cannot quite capture the glamor and excitement of a classic steamer.

References: [Illust-North]

Ruby El Hult, Steamboats in the Timber, The Caxton Printers Ltd., Caldwell, Idaho (© Ruby El Hult, 1952).

Captain Dixie Kiefer.
U. S. Navy photo.

U. S. Navy Commodore Dixie Kiefer, winner of the Navy Cross and other medals, was born April 5, 1896 in Blackfoot, Idaho. The family moved around while Dixie was young: The 1900 Census shows the family in Spokane. In 1910, his widowed mother Christena was listed as head of the household, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

It was from there that Dixie received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. He graduated from the Academy in 1918. Kiefer first served aboard the patrol ship USS Corona, which operated out of Brest, France, and acted as a convoy escort.

After the war, Dixie learned to fly and, in 1924, performed the first nighttime catapult launch of an aircraft. He took off from the battleship USS California with only the ship's searchlights for illumination. Kiefer continued his association with naval aviation between the two World Wars.

In February 1942, Dixie became Executive Officer of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. The following May, the Yorktown fought in the Battle of the Coral Sea, considered a tactical defeat for the Americans, but a strategic win. American aircraft mauled two Japanese fleet carriers so badly that they were unavailable for the pivotal Battle of Midway. Coral Sea also left the Yorktown badly damaged. However, extraordinary exertions by the crew and shipyard workers at Pearl Harbor quickly returned the ship to duty.

Thus, Dixie served as Yorktown’s Executive Officer at Midway in June 1942. The ship went down fighting for the victorious American forces, and Kiefer received the Navy Cross (second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor) "for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service." Forced to jump into the sea, Kiefer smashed an ankle and foot, one of ten major battle wounds he suffered in his career.

During his recuperation, the Navy produced a documentary film about the battles of an unidentified (under wartime security) fleet carrier called The Fighting Lady. Producers used mostly actual field footage, along with a few scripted scenes. Kiefer played “Captain Dixie,” in some of those scenes. The carrier was, in fact, a brand new Yorktown, commissioned in January 1943, after being renamed to commemorate the ship lost at Midway.

Ticonderoga shortly after Kamikaze strike. U.S. Navy photo.

Promoted, Captain Kiefer was assigned to command the new fleet carrier USS Ticonderoga. During attacks on Formosa in January 1945, multiple Kamikaze hits badly damaged the vessel.

Kiefer himself suffered a smashed arm and 65 pieces of shrapnel in his body. The Ticonderoga returned to combat after repairs, but Kiefer was not in command because he had not yet fully recovered.

Promoted to Commodore, that spring he took command of the Quonset Point Naval Air Station (10-15 miles south of Providence, Rhode Island). As usual, Dixie quickly earned the respect and affection of the officers and enlisted men under his command.

Commodore Kiefer's arm was still in a cast when the airplane he was riding in crashed in heavy fog near Beacon, New York, in November 1945. Special memorial services were held for Kiefer and the others killed in the crash, then Kiefer's body was moved to Arlington National Cemetery for burial.

Besides the Navy Cross, Kiefer received the Silver Star, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Purple Heart.

References: Arlington National Cemetery Records.

Walter Lord, Incredible Victory, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York (1967).

James A. Mooney (Ed.), Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Dept. of the Navy (June 1991).

Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy, Navy Department, Government Printing Office, (January 1, 1917).

Clark G. Reynolds, On the Warpath in the Pacific: Admiral Jocko Clark and the Fast Carriers, U.S. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland (October 30, 2005).

Amasa Campbell. Illustrated History.

Mining investor and executive Amasa B. Campbell was born April 6, 1845 in Salem, Ohio, about twenty miles southwest of Youngstown. In 1862, he took a clerk’s job at a firm engaged in grain and wool commission trading. After five years there, he worked two or three years in the west for the Union Pacific Railway.

During this period, Amasa developed an interest in Western mining prospects. For over a decade after 1871, he followed the industry in Utah, Colorado and Idaho. Biographers most often associated his name with activities in Utah, although no specific properties were identified.

It appears that his efforts provided him a solid hands-on knowledge of the business, but generated no substantial income. Accounts strongly suggest that Amasa decided – correctly – that the real money flowed to those on the investment and development side of the mining business.

He therefore returned east in 1882, and took up financial activities in Youngstown. Over the course of about five years, Campbell studied and learned the ins-and-outs of the investment business while cultivating a circle of potential investors. During this period he and another Youngstown businessman, John A. Finch, led the formation of a syndicate of capitalists who were ready to purchase and operate likely mining properties.

With that foundation, Campbell and Finch relocated to North Idaho in 1887 and began investing in the Coeur d'Alene mining district. They started with the Gem mine, located about four miles northeast of Wallace. The partners also developed the Standard Mine, further up the canyon and, in 1891, organized the Hecla Mining Company, which is still in operation today.

Gem, Idaho mine, 1899. University of Idaho Special Collections.

After marrying a Youngstown lady in 1890, Amasa established a home in Wallace. From there, he could oversee his investments in the region and search for other promising ventures. Thus, in 1893, the partners invested successfully in Slocan District mines in southeastern British Columbia.

Amasa’s wife Grace delivered their only child, a daughter, in May 1892. Not long after that, striking union miners fired on replacement workers at the Frisco Mine [blog, July 11], about a half mile from the Gem. Perhaps influenced by growing union discontent, Amasa moved his family to Spokane in 1898. Finch apparently moved there about the same time.

Amasa remained heavily involved in his Idaho properties and was such a fixture there that the governor offered him a position on the University of Idaho Board of Regents. Campbell declined, fearing he could not give that job the attention it deserved.

Campbell owned mines in British Columbia, timber tracts in western Washington, and shares of many businesses in Spokane. And his Idaho interests were not confined to the Coeur d’Alene lead-silver districts. The Idaho Statesman quoted (January 22, 1902) the Grangeville Free Press, which said the Finch & Campbell gold mine located about forty miles southeast of Grangeville “is remarkable for the ore tonnage that has been exposed.”

When a railroad began an extension toward Salmon, in Lemhi County, it attracted much attention from mining interest. The Statesman noted (July 15, 1909) that “Among these are Finch & Campbell, the well-known Coeur d’Alene operators.”

The Spokane mansion he had built in 1898 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is now a museum open to the public. Campbell died in February 1912.

References: [Illust-State]

Hugh W. Johnston, "Amasa B. Campbell Papers, 1905-1922," Archives Manuscript 38, Eastern Washington State Historical Society, Spokane (1987).

Nelson Wayne Durham, History of the City of Spokane and Spokane County Washington, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago (1912).

Judge Jeffreys. Illustrated History.

Thomas M. Jeffreys, Probate Judge and Washington County Superintendent of Public Instruction, was born April 7, 1852 in Yamhill County, Oregon. The family had moved there from Missouri in 1845. Three years later, after the U. S. and Great Britain resolved the status of the “Oregon Country” [blog, June 15], Congress created Oregon Territory.

Attracted by opportunities in Idaho, his father Woodson took up land along the Weiser River in 1864. Woodson soon persuaded his brother Solomon to follow him, and they partnered in a cattle company [blog, Feb 11]. However, because the area had no schools, Woodson left his family in Oregon for awhile. Thomas, for one, had apparently proven to be an apt student.

That is perhaps why pioneers built the first school in the Weiser area soon after Thomas and the rest of the family arrived. Thomas worked as a farm and ranch hand for awhile, and then the parents sent him off to the University of Kentucky. He graduated from their "law and commercial departments" in 1876, when he was twenty-four.

Back in the Weiser area, Thomas taught school for a number of years. His abilities impressed the community and, when the legislature created Washington County in 1879, Thomas was elected as the first Superintendent of Public Schools. Moreover, when the chosen country Treasurer failed to provide the necessary bond, the remaining commissioners appointed Thomas to also fill that position.

For some reason, Jeffreys found it difficult to settle into a steady job. Besides teaching, he worked as a cowboy, farm hand, drug store clerk, and bookkeeper. In 1884 and 1885, he acted as Weiser City Agent for a sewing machine company.

Then, under Democratic President Grover Cleveland, in 1885, he secured an appointment as Weiser City postmaster. That job lasted only a year, however. In 1889, he acquired some land and began his own farm-ranch operation, apparently near Salubria, up the Weiser River.

Thomas had also developed an interest in public service. In 1881, voters elected him as Washington County Representative in the Territorial legislature. He also served the County for several more terms as Superintendent of Public Instruction. By dint of hard work (more on that in a moment), Thomas became an excellent speaker. Organizers selected him to give a speech for the 1890 Fourth of July celebration. The Idaho Statesman described the resulting oration as “masterly.”

Early Weiser City. Weiser Musuem.

In 1896, voters elected him as Probate Judge. In fact, his political ambitions kept him in public office for years. Judge Frank Harris [blog, Jun 28] had occasion to join Thomas on the election trail … and discovered that Jeffreys “lacked confidence in himself.” He never spoke extemporaneously, Harris wrote. Instead, Thomas carried carefully-prepared remarks which he would “read with great force and eloquence, to the utmost displeasure of his fellow campaigners who had to endure it every evening during the campaign.”

But voters must have liked the speech; they kept re-electing him as Probate Judge. In August, 1911, the Judge was busy handing out fines for violations of Idaho’s food sanitation laws. He died, however, less than three months later. (His wife had passed away in April.)

References: [Brit], [French], [Hawley], [Illust-State]

Frank Harris, "History of Washington County and Adams County,"Weiser Signal (Newspaper series, 1940s).

Dr. John J. Plumer, a pioneer physician in De Lamar and then Hailey, Idaho, was born April 8, 1860 in Edina, a rural corner of Missouri about 150 miles northwest of St. Louis. John received his pre-college education in a small town in Iowa, about fifty miles north of Edina. He then attended Starling Medical College in Columbus, Ohio. (After multiple mergers, the institution became today’s College of Medicine of The Ohio State University.) John received an M.D. degree in 1882.

For a couple years, Dr. Plumer practiced medicine near where he grew up in Iowa. He then moved to Dodge City, Kansas. John arrived in the famous “Queen of the Cowtowns” at a time when its wild history was almost over. In fact, the cattle drives ended in 1886, leaving behind a sleepy little farm town. After a few years there, the doctor moved on to Baker City, Oregon.

Delamar Mine, ca. 1895. Owyhee Directory.

Around 1890, Dr. Plumer became physician and surgeon for the De Lamar Mining Company. He practiced in De Lamar, Idaho, about five miles west of Silver City. The first mines had been located in this area in the mid- to late-1880s. In 1891, the De Lamar Mining Company, incorporated in London, England, consolidated about forty properties under their control. For many years, the company operated some of the most productive mines in the region.

The company allowed Plumer to carry on a private practice, and he soon served "many patrons" in the area. He was also proprietor of the only drug store in De Lamar. In 1897, John married a young lady whose family lived in Boise County (they were married in Idaho City.) Three years later, the couple moved to Hailey, where Dr. Plumer developed a flourishing practice.

Main Street, Hailey, ca 1905.
Hailey Historic Preservation Commission.

He soon attained the means to invest in "several fine ranches in Blaine County," and "a beautiful home." He also had other financial investments, and became an officer – President, than just a Director – of the Idaho State Bank of Hailey (Idaho Statesman, Boise, July 10, 1905).

Unfortunately, the bank failed in August 1910. Plumer and several other officers were subsequently arrested on charges stemming from irregularities in the bank’s affairs. The doctor posted bond and later testimony showed that he had had nothing to do with the irregularities, so his charges were dropped. Two other officers did spend time in the penitentiary.

The H. T. French biography noted that, as a young man, John had been "an expert in trap shooting ... winning numerous prizes." After moving to Idaho, he began to win prizes in Pacific Northwest shooting contests. Having become owner of considerable ranch property in Idaho, each year he planned "a vacation to engage in bird hunting."

People in Hailey knew Plumer as a genial man with a fine bedside manner: a classic old-fashioned country/small town doctor. Famously, he used to say, “It isn’t the potatoes that are bad for you – it’s what you put on them. And it isn’t the whiskey that’ll kill you – its what you mix with it.”

Plumer passed away in October 1934. Today, his home is on a walking tour sponsored by the Hailey Historic Preservation Commission.

References: [French], [Illust-State]

"Deaths," Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 103, No. 19 (November 10, 1934).

“Dr. J. J. Plumer Home,” Historic Old Hailey, Blaine County Historical Museum, Hailey, Idaho (2007).

A Historical, Descriptive and Commercial Directory of Owyhee County, Idaho, Owyhee Avalanche Press (January 1898).

Peter Skene Ogden.
Oregon Historical Society.

On April 9, 1826, Peter Skene Ogden, for whom the Ogden River is named, wrote in his journal, "About 10 a.m. we were surprised by the arrival of a party of Americans and some of our deserters of last year, 28 in all."

Ogden led the Snake Brigade, a band of trappers and support personnel working for the British-Canadian Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) [blog, Jan 1]. The column had left Fort Nez Perces (later Walla Walla, Washington) in November 1825 to trap first in eastern Oregon. They entered Idaho in mid-February and trapped the Boise River, then the lower Wood River area.

On March 12, Ogden wrote, “We are now encamped within 100 yards [of] where the Pacific Fur Company traders lost a man by the upsetting of one of their canoes.”

That incident [blog, Oct 28] occurred in 1811, and Ogden's reference to it places the party about fifteen miles west of today’s Burley, on the north side of the Snake River Canyon. They soon crossed the river, scouted the Raft River and continued on to American Falls. The Brigade reached the lower part of the Portneuf River at the beginning of April. Ogden knew this country well: “a finer country for beaver never seen.”

On Ogden’s first venture into the area, in 1825, the Brigade had trapped many watersheds in southeast Idaho, including the Blackfoot and Bear rivers, along with the Portneuf. However, they had also encountered trapper parties working for American firms based in St. Louis, Missouri. The men Ogden referred to as “deserters” had succumbed to the temptation of the vastly better fur prices offered by the Americans.

Previously unfettered by competition, HBC prices amounted to economic servitude: minimal allowances for furs received, inflated prices for anything their “employees” wanted or needed. Trappers and camp keepers did well to break even. The Company didn’t mind carrying their debts on the books because profits more than covered any losses if the debtor was killed, died, or fled the country.

Soon though, the Company would be forced to increase what they paid to attract the men back. (They could afford to do so and still make a profit because their bases were much closer to beaver country, and supplied in part by cheaper ship transport.) Considering all that, Ogden was not pleased to encounter more American intruders at his Portneuf River campsite.

Jim Bridger. National Park Service.

The Americans represented the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, the HBC's only serious competitor at that time. Thomas Fitzpatrick and James "Jim" Bridger led the Americans. Their two bands had joined forces after a swarm of Blackfeet raiders attacked them. Although the whites had "won" the encounter, losing three horses for six Indians killed, they could not easily hunt for beaver with so many hostiles around.

After some trading, the parties separated, each hoping to find beaver country they could have to themselves. The Canadians doubled back over their Idaho route as they returned to Oregon. Considering the competition and some unseasonably-bad weather, Ogden concluded that matters could have been worse: “Had we not been obliged to kill our horses for food, the success of our expedition would have yielded handsome profits.”

Intense competition between the Americans and the HBC continued for another decade.

References: [B&W]

J. Cecil Alter, Jim Bridger, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman (1962).

"Jim Bridger in Idaho," Reference Series No. 245, Idaho State Historical Society (1972).

Peter Skene Ogden, T. C. Elliott (ed.), "Peter Skene Ogden's Journal – Snake Expeditions,"Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society (1910).

The April 10, 1886 issue of the Owyhee Avalanche in Silver City, Idaho reported on the Annual Meeting of the Idaho Territorial Stock Growers' Association. The meeting took place in Shoshone. The Association had been organized about three months previously at that same location.

Idaho Hotel, Silver City. Owyhee Directory.

The first documented Idaho stockmen's association began in 1878, when cattlemen held a convention in Silver City to discuss their business. (The Owyhee Cattlemen's Association – still in operation today – dates its founding from this period.) Five years later, the Avalanche reported (July 7, 1883) another Silver City meeting and said that area stockmen were "now busily engaged in drawing up bylaws, rules, etc."

Other areas also saw the need for such concerted efforts. In 1885, the Avalanche reprinted (March 28, 1885) an item from the Shoshone Journal, which said, in part, "The first annual meeting of the Idaho Cattle Growers' Association will be held at Shoshone, on Wednesday, April 1, 1885, and members of all associations of stock growers in Idaho are cordially invited to be present."

The announcement identified George L. Shoup, Lemhi cattleman and later U.S. Senator from Idaho [blog, Apr 1], as the Association's President. However, participants at the 1885 Annual Meeting apparently concluded that growers needed a more broadly-based organization.

Early the following year, the Avalanche reported (January 23, 1886) that stockmen had formed a new organization: "The association was organized under the name of 'Idaho Territorial Stock Growers' Association,' about sixty five of the heaviest stock raisers having been admitted to membership."

The new Association largely adopted the by-laws of the previous organization, which were "copied (with a few exceptions) word for word." Members selected Thomas Sparks, American Falls cattleman, as president. George Shoup was a member of the Executive Committee. The article concluded, "The purposes for which the territorial association was formed are good, and will strike the mind of all stock men as just the thing long desired."

Having completed their organizational business, the Association then held the Annual Meeting that the newspaper reported on April 10th. The Avalanche noted that, "it was well attended by stock men from Wyoming, Nevada, and Utah, and also from the various stock owners in the counties of this territory."

Among other business, the Association passed several resolutions. One urged Congress to redress "the want of quarantine laws against importing diseased cattle into this territory."

Western cattle roundup, 1887-1892. Library of Congress.

Another deplored overgrazing and stated: "Resolved, That the members of this association will not work at the round-ups with men who recklessly place cattle or other stock upon ranges already fully occupied, and when the rights of range tenure have been previously fully recognized."

Unfortunately, competition for land – including that from "tramp" stockmen, who used the range and moved on without paying taxes – thwarted their good intentions. Two years later, the Avalanche observed (May 26, 1888) that the poor state of grazing in Owyhee County was because “the ranges have all been, and are now overstocked.” In fact, they went on, the too-large herds “have worn it [the range] out, in fact, killed it.

Mother Nature, in the form of deadly winter weather, soon taught a lesson from which some never recovered.

References: Mike Hanley, with Ellis Lucia, Owyhee Trails, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (1973).

Adelaide Hawes, Valley of Tall Grass, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (1950).

In 1879, the Engineering and Mining Journal contained the following brief item: "Ogden, Utah, April 11 – The Utah & Northern Railway has been completed to Eagle Rock Bridge, Snake River, Idaho, 210 miles north of this point. Regular trains will begin running there April 15th."

Western steam train. Library of Congress.

A decade earlier, the eastern and western legs of the transcontinental railroad had worked their way toward each other. Even then, settlers in Montana began agitating for their own rail service. Years would pass, however, before the region had a direct line to the east.

Still, a couple years after the Golden Spike Ceremony in 1869 [blog, May 10], developers laid plans to extend a branch line north to Montana. To complete such a spur, they incorporated the Utah Northern Railroad Company. Construction began at Brigham City, Utah, in August 1871. Tight finances meant that track-laying progressed slowly. Thus, Utah Northern rails did not cross the Idaho border until May, 1874.

Unfortunately, by then, the affects of the Panic of 1873 had pushed the poorly-capitalized company to the brink of extinction. They managed only brief spurts of construction over the next four years – laying 10-12 miles of track north from Franklin.

Meanwhile, a change took place at a key location along the railroad’s expected route. At that time, Taylor’s Bridge at Eagle Rock (today’s Idaho Falls) was the only span across the Snake River. Surveys showed that the same location provided the best place for a railroad bridge. “Matt” Taylor and two partners had built the existing toll bridge, suitable for wagon traffic, in 1865 [blog, Dec 10 ].

The railroad would, of course, supplant heavy freight wagon traffic through the area. Taylor decided to get out of the toll business while he could still get a good price. In 1872, he sold his share to the Anderson Brothers – Robert (one of the original bridge partners) and John (generally known as “Jack” or “J.C.”).

The financial woes experienced by the Utah Northern made Taylor’s action somewhat premature. Not until late 1877 did a solution to those problems appear. Promoter Jay Gould, major partner in the Union Pacific Railroad, then took an interest in the project. He and several other UP partners bought control of the venture, and provided a major infusion of new financing. The reorganized company – now called the Utah & Northern Railway – resumed track laying in March 1878.

Eagle Rock Bridges, ca. 1880. Utah State Historical Society.

The rails made it through the Southeast Idaho mountains and out onto the Snake River plain in late 1878. They crossed the Blackfoot River around Christmas and, as noted above, reached Eagle Rock in April 1879. Construction of a railroad bridge began immediately; the first train crossed the span on July 1

The railroad had an immediate impact on settlement in the area. Less than three weeks after that first train crossed, new arrivals settled on land about thirty-three miles north of Eagle Rock. In fact, the Owyhee Avalanche, in Silver City, Idaho, reported (May 10, 1879), “A correspondent of the Salt Lake Tribune says that Blackfoot is deserted and a stampede has taken place in the direction of Eagle Rock … ”

References: [B&W], [French]

Barzilla W. Clark, Bonneville County in the Making, Self-published, Idaho Falls, Idaho (1941).

Mary Jane Fritzen, Eagle Rock, City of Destiny, Bonneville County Historical Society, Idaho Falls, Idaho (1991).

"Railway Extension in Idaho,"Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. XXVII, Scientific Publishing Company, New York (April 19, 1879).

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