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Gold Discovered and Claimed in the South Boise Region
On May 9, 1863, Captain George F. Settle discovered a gold-streaked quartz lode in what came to be called the South Boise mining region. He and a swarm of other prospectors had been tracing placer gold...
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Message Transmitted: Transcontinental Railroad Completed [otd 05/10]
On May 10, 1869, telegraph operators clattered a message all around the United States, East and West: “D-O-N-E”. That signaled the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The story of the vast...
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Idaho Territorial Governor Calls for Constitutional Convention [otd 05/11]
On May 11, 1889, George L. Shoup, Governor of Idaho Territory, issued a proclamation calling for a convention to draw up a constitution for the proposed state of Idaho. His proclamation contained...
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Mine Owner and Long-Time State Senator J. Howard Sims [otd 05/12]
Howard Sims, ca. 1955.Beal & Wells photo.Long-time mine owner and State Senator James Howard Sims was born May 12, 1904 in Salmon, Idaho. His father James came to Idaho from Texas in the 1880s,...
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Negotiations Planned with the Nez Perce But Have Not Yet Begun
On May 12, 1863, a reporter for The Oregonian sent off a letter to the newspaper from Lapwai, Idaho Territory. (Lapwai is located about ten miles east of Lewiston, on Lapwai Creek.) His main goal was...
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Movie and Television Costume Designer Eddie Stevenson [otd 05/13]
Susan Hayward costume,David and Bathsheba, 1951.Edward Stevenson Collection, ISU.Long-time Hollywood costume designer Edward Manson Stevenson was born May 13, 1906 in Pocatello, Idaho. Stevenson spent...
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Boise Basin Mining Has Heated Up, Prospects Look Great
On May 13, 1863, the Golden Age in Lewiston reported the experiences of one “W. Miller,” who had “ just returned from the Boise mines, having been only seven days from Placerville.”The item does not...
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Boise Founder, Idaho Legislator, and Rancher Henry Riggs [otd 05/14]
Henry Chiles Riggs, one of the founders of Boise City, was born May 14, 1826 in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, about thirty miles due east of Lexington. At the age of twenty, he joined the First Missouri...
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High Gold Yields at Placerville. War News: Grant Takes Jackson, Mississippi.
The May 14, 1863 issue of The Oregonian in Portland said, “At the lowest possible estimate the diggings of Placer District are now yielding $50,000 per day, and the balance of the districts in the...
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Miner, Rancher, Bank Founder, and Legislator Joseph Ireland [otd 05/15]
J. N. Ireland. H. T. French photo.Joseph N. Ireland, co-founder and namesake of the J. N. Ireland Bank, was born May 15, 1839 in Calvert County, Maryland. That's on Chesapeake Bay about twenty miles...
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Improved Weather Allows Mining to Begin Around Florence
On May 15, 1863, the owner of a claim near Florence wrote to a friend in Lewiston and said, “We are having excellent weather now, and, the snow is rapidly disappearing. We expect to commence sluicing...
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Snake River Steamboat Shoshone Makes Trial Run [otd 05/16]
On May 16, 1866, the stern-wheel steamboat Shoshone made its first trial run on the Snake River. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company had built the vessel in a rough temporary shipyard near the...
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Divisions Among the Nez Percés Will Complicate Treaty Negotiations
The correspondent for The Oregonian penned another letter from Lapai on May 16, 1863. This was a follow-up to his report of four days earlier. He wrote, “Since my last there has been two or three talks...
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Second Major Fire Devastates Idaho City [otd 05/17]
The Illustrated History (published 1899) observed, “The second great fire of Idaho City, on the 17th of May, 1867, did not spare St. Joseph's as the first had done.”The statement referred to the St....
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Prospectors Discover Gold in the Owyhee Mountains [otd 05/18]
O.H. Purdy. Commercial Directory.On May 18, 1863, a band of twenty-nine men broke camp and marched south and west from Reynolds Creek over a regional divide.Early that month, the group had set out from...
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Jordan Creek Discoveries: 150 Years Ago Today
It so happens that today’s sesquicentennial blog is identical to my regular “On This Day” item: For May 18, 1863. This Sesquicentennial “On This Day” feature has turned out to be very interesting … and...
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Skinner Toll Road Connects Silver City to California Supply Route [0td 05/19]
On May 19, 1866, with great fanfare in the Owyhee mining camps, the Skinner Toll Road opened for business. The new road vastly improved stagecoach and freight wagon traffic into Silver City and the...
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Choirmaster, Musical Leader, and Operatic Composer Eugene Farner [otd 05/20]
Eugene Adrian Farner, who initiated Boise’s annual “Music Week,” was born May 20, 1888 in New York City. A child prodigy, he played his first public violin solo at the age of eight. He later became the...
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Richard Z. Johnson: Developer, Legislator, and Territorial Attorney General...
R. Z. Johnson. Illustrated History.Richard Z. Johnson, who served in the Idaho Territorial Council and as Attorney General, was born May 21, 1837 in Akron, Ohio. Johnson had ancestors on both sides who...
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Glowing Report Meant to Rebut Negative Opinion of the Boise Mines
On May 21, 1863, The Oregonian published extracts from a private letter from the Placerville area in the Boise Basin. The miner wrote, “What I have to say, in regard to these mines, I hope you will...
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