Boise Basin

IDAHO STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
REFERENCE SERIES
SITE REPORT - BOISE BASIN
Number 198 Revised 1992
Historic-site reports contain information designed to assist

in two preservation functions. One is preservation planning at
the local level. The other is the work of federal agencies in
carrying out their responsibilities to comply with historic-
preservation requirements prescribed by federal statutes and
regulations. These reports summarize local archaeological,
historical, and geographical contexts; existing surveys of
historic sites; architectural, engineering, industrial; and other
cultural resources; and available maps and literature concerning
each area. Natural geographical, rather than governmental,
boundaries have been used to identify seventy-two areas that vary
greatly in size. Site reports reflect a broad cultural and
geographical disparity characteristic of diverse regional
components found in Idaho, but the areas are designed to
incorporate cultural elements of immediate local significance
that need to be taken into account for preservation planning.
1. Geographical context: Idaho's major placer gold production

came from this area, but forest products have replaced mining in
importance. Various components of More's Creek flow out of Boise
Basin, which has a central dividing ridge encircled by higher
slopes. Elevations range from from where Grimes' Creek
joins More's Creek to at Pilot Peak. This entire area is
timbered, and recreation has joined forestry as economically
important after mining declined.
2. Prehistory and significant archaeological sites: People

have inhabited southern Idaho for fourteen thousand years or
more. Until about eight thousand years ago they were noted
primarily as big game hunters. Since then, they specialized more
in camas, bitterroot, and other natural crops and seeds, as well
as in smaller game. But they continued to hunt large game that
remained after earlier elephants, camels, giant sloth, and other
ice age creatures left as climatic conditions changed.
3. Prehistory and significant archaeological sites:
4. Historical summary: A major 1862-1864 gold rush brought

thousands of fortune seekers to Boise Basin, and Idaho City, with
1
198
a population of 6,000, exceeded Portland in size for a year or

two. As placer production gradually declined, Chinese miners
became more prominent. After initial problems were surmounted,
lode mining gained increased significance, as did dredging after
1900. Twentieth century development is associated more with
forest products and United States Forest Service operations.
Major episodes in Boise Basin development include:
1. gold rush years, 1862-1864
2. continued placer production and early attempts to

develop lode mining, 1865-
3. technological development for larger scale lode and

placer operations
4. twentieth-century logging and dredging
Mineral discoveries in Boise Basin, August 2, 1862, led to a

gold rush that fall and to the creation of Boise County by the
Washington legislature that winter. From a wilderness inhabited
only by Indians in the summer of 1862, the Boise region became
the largest population center of the Pacific Northwest in less
than six or eight months after settlement commenced on October 7,
1862. Four major Boise Basin mining camps, Idaho City (called
Bannock City or West Bannock during its first year), Placerville,
Centerville, and Pioneerville (known generally as Hogem in the
early days) flourished during the gold rush; by the end of 1862
they constituted the four major mining communities in all of
Washington Territory. (From 1859 through 1863, all of what later
became southern Idaho formed part of Washington Territory.) When
the Boise mines were discovered in 1862, they were in Idaho
County--which included about all of Washington Territory south of
the present Oregon-Washington boundary, and which stretched
eastward to the Continental Divide in present central Wyoming.
Because Florence, the county seat, was remote from the new mining
basin, the Washington legislature established Boise County,
January 29, 1863. It included all the southern part of what had
been Idaho County and reached from Oregon to the Continental
Divide. With an area of more than 62,000 square miles (over
50,000 in what is now Idaho and 12,000 in Wyoming), this was
Washington's largest county; at that time, only six states in the
entire nation were as large as Boise County.
When Congress created Idaho, March 4, 1863, Boise County
exceeded the others both in area and in population. From late in
1862 until the summer of 1864, restless miners along the Pacific
Coast regarded the Boise region as the leading place to seek a
fortune. Although Placerville enjoyed the advantage of a
location convenient to the point at which the gold rush entered
the Basin, better water conditions soon made Idaho City the major
2
198
camp. With more than 6,000 population in 1863 and 1864, Idaho
City surpassed Portland in size for a time. The gold rush, in
fact, quickly made Idaho City the largest community in the
Pacific Northwest.
Unlike some fabulous placer booms which went through a
spectacular brief cycle from gold rush to ghost town, mining in
Boise Basin lasted over a long period of years. Large placer
areas could not be worked long enough each season to be exhausted
quickly. And quartz mines, discovered as early as 1862, went
through a long period of development that supported the region's
economy for decades. Idaho City and the other Basin camps gained
an air of permanence right from the beginning. Before the
community was a year old, Idaho City had a newspaper (The Boise
News, which in 1864 became the Idaho World), three express
offices, three livery stables, a mattress factory, a
photographer's gallery, four sawmills, seven blacksmith's shops,
eight bakeries, nine restaurants, two bowling alleys, three pool
halls, three drugstores, four breweries, and twenty-five to
thirty-five saloons. A harness shop and various jewelry,
tinshops, and other businesses attested to the town's importance.
Building lots ranged in price from $500 to $2,000 each, and even
a series of four disastrous fires did not destroy the community.
Rebuilt more often than the early residents would have
preferred, Idaho City continued to be the center of a major gold-
producing region for many years.
Shortly after 1870 the easily-worked basin stream gravels
had yielded most of their gold, and miners shifted their
attention to washing down higher bench placers with hydraulic
giants. To get water to the elevation needed to cut down the
hillsides, extensive systems of flumes and ditches were required.
Some of these ran to eight to ten miles in length. Augmented by
several important lodes--primarily the Gold Hill near Quartzburg-
-these operations sustained the basin's gold production until
dredging commenced in 1898. From 1919 until 1926, mining was
limited largely to lode properties, but later dredging proved
productive, except during the war-time shutdown (1942-1946),
until 1952. By that time, over 3,000,000 ounces (about one-sixth
from quartz mines) of gold (now worth more than a billion
dollars) had come from Boise Basin.
Twentieth century diversification broadened out the economic
base of Boise County. Early sawmills had made some use of local
timber. Then in about 1900, timber lands were taken up and soon
consolidated into important holdings such as those of the Barber
Lumber Company. For many years these lands were useful primarily
for grazing leases, but for two decades after the Intermountain
Railway was completed in 1915 from Boise to Centerville, timber
was hauled out of Boise Basin. After a severe decline in the
Depression, lumber production rose again with construction of
logging roads. Thus at the end of a century of settlement,
timber rather than mining undergirded the region's economy.
3
198
5. Historical documentation and literature:
6. Historic sites inventory:
7. Industrial archaeological and engineering sites summary:

Surface evidence of placer mining in this area offers
opportunities for study of industrial procedures utilized in
historic production. Hydraulic pits, patterns of dredging
operations, or tailings that distinguish hill claims from stream
claims--or that identify Chinese services--provide information of
historic importance. Prospector's pits disclose gravels that
were searched unsuccessfully for gold. Ditches, flumes, stream
diversions, and similar evidence of water sources also are
important.
Lode mining operations left a variety of indications, many
of them relatively permanent in nature. Disturbance of surface
outcrops includes trenches and exploratory shafts. In other
places, tunnels and raises or stopes that reached surface outlets
reveal important aspects of mining activity. If accessible,
underground workings have still greater importance for industrial
archaeology and engineering analysis. Abandoned tools and
equipment, along with items like timbering in tunnels and stopes,
add to this record.
8. Architectural resources:
9. United States Geological Survey Maps:

Arrowrock Reservoir NE 1969
Dunnigan Creek 1969
Garden Valley (15') 1959
Idaho City 1957
Pine Flat 1972
Pioneerville 1957
Placerville 1957
Rabbit Creek Summit 1972
Robie Creek 1972
Shafer Butte 1957
Sunset Mtn. 1972
Warm Springs Point 1957
10. Cultural resource management recommendations:
(This information has not been edited.)
Publications--450 N. 4th Street, Boise, ID 83702--208-334-3428

Boise Basin

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Boise Basin

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Boise Basin

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

IDAHO STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Number 198 Revised 1992

Historic-site reports contain information designed to assist

1. Geographical context: Idaho's major placer gold production

2. Prehistory and significant archaeological sites: People

3. Prehistory and significant archaeological sites:

4. Historical summary: A major 1862-1864 gold rush brought

a population of 6,000, exceeded Portland in size for a year or

1. gold rush years, 1862-1864

2. continued placer production and early attempts to

3. technological development for larger scale lode and

4. twentieth-century logging and dredging

Mineral discoveries in Boise Basin, August 2, 1862, led to a

5. Historical documentation and literature:

6. Historic sites inventory:

7. Industrial archaeological and engineering sites summary:

9. United States Geological Survey Maps:

10. Cultural resource management recommendations:

(This information has not been edited.)

Publications--450 N. 4th Street, Boise, ID 83702--208-334-3428

You might also like