CHAPTER VI.

NATURAL WEALTH.
1865-1885.

MINING PROSPERITY AND REVERSES EARLY AND LATER DEVELOPMENTS

THE SEVERAL GOLD AND SILVER MINING DISTRICTS THE SNAKE RIVER
REGION PRODUCTION BASE METALS IRON VEINS SALT SULPHUR
SODA MICA STONE AGRICULTURE SOIL GRASSES AND GRAZING
FORESTS GLIM ATE HEALTH Bo UNDLESS POSSIBILITIES.

FROM 1865, when quartz-mining was very promis

ing in Idaho, to 1876, a fair degree of prosperity was
enjoyed by the owners of mines. Prospecting was,
however, much retarded by the Indian troubles from
1865 to 1868, an account of which has been given in
my History of Oregon. Expensive milling machinery
had been hastily introduced in the first excitement
of quartz discoveries, which lessened the profits with
out much increasing the results of reducing the ores
in arastras. But the straw which broke the camel s
back was the defaulting O of the secretaries of three of
the richest mining companies in the Owyhee region,
and the suspension of the Bank of California, which
occurred about the same time. These combined mis
fortunes operated against investment from abroad, and
checked the increase of home enterprise; and as min
ing property is taken hold of with great caution except
in the excitement of discovery, the fame of the Idaho

quartz lodes became overshadowed by later discov

eries in other territories. There occurred no mining
rush, no brain-turning find of incredible treasure, after
the close of what might be termed the second period
(527)
528 NATURAL WEALTH.

in the history of mining in Idaho, when placers were

exhausted of their first marvellous wealth, 1 and veins

Some of the first discovered veins, already mentioned in a previous chap

1

retained their productiveness.

ter, The Gold Hill mine was sold in 1869, since
which time to 1884 it produced $2,850,000. It was not until 1878 that the
Banner district, north of Quartzburg, in Bois6 county, began to be really de
veloped. The mines of War Eagle Mountain, in Owyhee county, continued
productive. Oro Fino, the first discovery, yielded $2,756,128 in six years,
without any considerable cost to its owners. The Elmore, later called the
Bannack, in one month in 1868 yielded $500,000, the ore being crushed in
a twenty-stamp mill. This mine, irregularly worked, a few months at a time,
produced from 1868 to 1886 $2,000,000. The entire production of the Poor-
man previous to its suspension was $4,000,000. This mine yielded a large
quantity of extraordinary rich chlorides. Some masses of horn-silver looked
like solid lead tinted with crimson, and was sixty per cent pure silver. Its
second and third class ores yielded $230 to the ton in the early period of its
development, and the first grade as high as $4,000.A block of this ore weigh
ing 500 pounds was sent to the world s exposition at Paris in 1866, which ob
tained an award of a gold medal, and was regarded with much interest. But
the Poorman, after various changes of management, owing to litigation, suf
fered a final blow to its prosperity in 1876, when the secretary of the company
absconded with the funds, and it suspended work, along with every other in
corporated mine in Owyhee except the Golden Chariot, which ran for some
time longer. A period of depression, followed by the Indian disturbances of
1877 and 1878, involved many mining operators in apparently hopeless dis
aster. But in 1880 capital began once more to seek investment in the long-
neglected quartz mines of Owyhee. It may be interesting hereafter to be
able to refer to the names of mines discovered in Owyhee previous to 1865.
They were the Whiskey Gulch, Oro Fino, Morning Star, Ida Elmore (Ban
nack), Golden Chariot, War Eagle, Minnesota, Silver Bullion, Hidden Treas
ure, General Grant, Noonday, Centurion, Golden Eagle, Allison, Blazing Star,
Montana, Home Ticket, Floreta, Silver Legion, Eureka, Calaveras, Caledonia,
Empire, Dashaway, Red Jacket. Poorman was discovered a little later than
these. Between 1865 and 1880 many other mines were added to the list. Ma
hogany, Stormy Hill, South Chariot, Illinois Central, North Extension Illi
nois Central, Belle Peck, North Extension Poorman, South Poorman, Lucky
Poorman, Big Fish, Boycott, Glenbrook, Clearbrook, Idlewild, North Empire,
South Empire, San Juan, Dubuque, Silver Cloud, Louisiana, Ruby, Jackson,
Silver City, Ruth, Sinker, By Chance, Potosi, Rattling Jack, St James,
South Extension Morning Star, Northern Light, Trook & Jennings, Whiskey,
Brannan, Home Resort, Savage, Piute, Miami, Lone Tree, Home Stake, Lit
tle Fish, Silver Cord, Golden Cord, Standard,
Ruby and Horn Silver Lode,
Philox, Webfoot, Wilson, Idaho, Gentle Emma, Stoddard, Ohio, Henrietta,
Tremont, Crown Point, Redemption, Boonville, Empire State, Florida Hill,
Seventy-Nine, Paymaster, Black Jack, Leviathan, Sierra Nevada, Owyhee,
Treasury, Yreka, Crown Point, Avenue, Rose, Hudson, Phoenix No. 1, Phce-
nix No. 2, Phcenix No. 3, and Carson Chief, were all more or less prospected,
and about half them being worked to some extent.
The mining districts of Owyhee were five in number. Carson district
began on the summit of War Eagle Mountain, and ran west 8 miles, and
north and south 15 miles. French district began on the summit of the same
mountain, and ran easterly toward Snake River, and north and south about
12 miles. Steele district adjoined French, and was about 8 miles from Sil
ver City. Flint district was 9 miles south of Silver City. Mammoth district
was 12 miles south-west of the same place, and Wagontown district 7 miles
north-west. South Mountain was 30 miles south of Silver City. The min
eral characteristics of the several districts were
gold and silver in the War
Eagle and Florida mountains; geologically, War Eagle was granite and Flor-
 IDAHO MINES. 529

of gold and silver quartz were eagerly sought after.

For several years no one thought of mining on Snake
ida porphyritic. In the Flint district were found refractory ores and tin;
geologically, itwas granitic and porphyritic, as was also Wagontown, which
produced silver and milling ores. South Mountain produced argentiferous
galena, its rocks being limestone, porphyry, and granite, with some meta
morphosed slates. Lithologically, the two extremes of the Owyhee region,
War Eagle and South Mountain, were separated by a mass of basalt and lava.
The gold reins ran almost due north and south; the silver veins, north-west
and south-east. At the centennial exposition, 1876, medals were awarded
to the gold ores from Golden Chariot and South Chariot, and silver ores from
Home Resort and Leviathan; for silver-gold ores from Oro Fino; for lead
bullion from South Mountain; and silver-lead ores from the Silver Chord

SOUTH-WESTERN IDAHO.

In 1881 the depth to which Owyhee mines had been worked varied from
to 1,500 feet.
l.">0
I am indebted to a series of articles by Gilbert Butler
which appeared in the Silver City Avalanche, in 1881, for much knowledge
of the condition and
history of the Idaho mines down to that period.
The Owyhee Treasury on Florida Mountain furnished ore, one hundred feet
down, that yielded seventy-five cents to the pound. A stringer in the
mine yielded nearly 46 to a pound of ore, worked in a common mortar.
From 120 pounds was taken $2,344.80; but the ordinary milling ore was rated
at $30 per ton. Several mines in the vicinity promised nearly equal riches.
The bullion output for Owyhee county in 1881 was nearly $300,000. Silver
State, June 24, 1881. Sold to the Varkoff Mining, Smelting, and Milling
Company were the mines Catalow, Graham, Tuscarora, Venice, New York,
Gazelle, Belcher, Mono, Black Warrior, New Dollar, and Red Fox, aggre
gating 14,200 linear feet. Silver City Avalanche, May 7, 1881.
For many years it was known to prospectors that the Wood River country
contained large ledges of galena ores. The first lode was discovered by W. P.
Callahan, while on his way to Montana, in 1864. Nothing was done until 1872,
when Callahan returned and relocated it, naming it after himself. It was on
UIST. WASH. 34
530 NATURAL WEALTH.

River, that stream not presenting the usual features

of a placer mining district, although flour-gold was

the main Wood River, 11 miles above the crossing of the Bois6 and Salmon
City road. A little work was done 011 the vein annually, the ore being shipped
to Salt Lake for smelting, at a great expense, where it sold in 1880 for $200 a
ton. The second camp was 5 miles north of the road, and named after the
discoverer, Frank Jacobs. Silver City Avalanche, March 13, 1880. The bel
ligerent attitude of the Indians of southern Idaho, who knew that settlement
followed mining, prevented the occupation of that region until after the sub
jugation of the Bannacks in 1878. During the summer of 1879-80 in an area
of 60 miles square as many as 2,000 claims were taken up, the ore from
which, shipped to Salt Lake, yielded on reduction from $100 to $500 per
ton in silver. Several towns immediately sprang up. Bellevue hud 250
houses at the end of the first seven months, and the Elkhorn mine had shipped
$16,000 worth of ore, besides having left 150 tons. Rock from the Bullion
mine assayed $11,000 per ton, and although not all showed equally rich, the
yield of from $100 to $500 was common, making the belt in which the Bullion
mine was situated, and which gave it its name, one of the richest as well as
one of the most extensive in the world, being eighteen miles long, extending
from Bellevue to Ketchum, and a part only of the silver-bearing region, which
comprised between 4,000 and 5,000 square miles. The gross product of the
Bullion mine in 1883 was $250,000.
The Bullion belt and district was the richest yet discovered. The geologi
cal formation was quartzite, slate, and porphyry. The ores were galena and
carbonates, with antimony and copper, :, yielding sixty to eighty pe per cent of
lead. On the east side of the river the best mineral was found in limestone,
or limestone and granite. The ores were cube, leaf, and fine-grained galena
and carbonates, yielding lead in about the same proportion as the Bullion
belt, and silver at the rate of $100 to $300 per ton. South-west from the
Bullion belt was the Ornament Hill and Willow Creek district. The ledges in
this district were immense in size, and in a granite belt, containing, besides
lead and silver, antimony and gold. Again, on the Wood River Mountains,
on the east side, was another belt of mines in calcareous shale, limestone, and
quartzite, yielding from $50 to $100 per ton. The Ornament Hill mines, very
rich in silver and bearing traces of gold, were the only free-milling ores in
the whole silver region. The Mayflower mine, discovered in 1880, was sold to
a Chicago company and consolidated with two others. It had shipped in
1883 three thousand tons of ore; the first thousand tons yielding $152,000,
the second $144,000, and the third $276,000. This mine adjoined the Bullion.
On the same lode were the Jay Gould, Saturn Group of four mines, Ophir-
Durango group, and Highland Chief. This was the middle one of three lodes
running north-west and south-east. On the western lode were the Mountain
View, Red Elephant, 0. K., and Point Lookout. On the eastern lode were
the Coloradan, Fraction, Chicago, Bay State, Iris, Eureka, Idahoaii, Parnell,
and Pass. There were in 1883 four smelters at work on Wood River between
Bellevue and Galena, two of forty tons capacity per day and two of sixty tons,
producing together an average of fifty tons of bullion daily. The names of
other mines favorably known in the early days of Wood River were the Star,
Minnie Moore, Gladiator, Concordia, Idaho Democrat, Solid Muldoon, Over
land, Homestake, Guy, and Mountain Belle, in the lower Wood River or
Mineral Hill district.
North of Mineral Hill district, which contained the above-mentioned
mines, was the Warm Springs district, containing many locations considered
of great value; north-west of this, the Saw Tooth district; and west of it, the
Little Smoky district each rivalling the other in promising ledges. There
were the Imperial, Oriental, Greenhorn, Perry, and Maud May; the Kelly
group, comprising the West Fork, West Fork 2, Yellow Jacket, Black Hawk,
and Big Beaver; the Moffit and Irvin group, comprising 18 locations, among
 WOOD RIVER DISTRICT. 531

known to exist in considerable quantities. But about

1871 the experiment was made, which resulted in find-
\vhich were the Ontario, Niagara, North Star, Sunday, and Black Horse.
The Mountain Lily, owned by Lewis, produced copper-silver glance assaying
900 ounces to the ton. Wood River Miner, Aug. 12, 1881. The Elkhorn mine,
4 miles from Ketchum, also belonged to Lewis, and produced very valu
able ores. On the east fork of Wood River were the North Star, Ameri
can Eagle, Silver Fortune, Champion, Boss, Paymaster, Summit, Silver King.
The Elkhorn was discovered by John Rasmussin, the North Star by William
Jaikovski. In the same district were the Star Mountain group, consisting of
the Ohio, Lulu, Hawkeye, Commodore, Bellevue, Star Mountain, Garfield,
Amazon, Empire, and Hancock. On Deer Creek were the Narrow Gauge, N.
G. No. 2, Banner, Kit Carson, Saturday Night, and Monumental. The Little
Smoky mines were at the head of Warm Springs Creek, and assayed from 100
to 3,000 ounces smelting ore to the ton. Among them were the Climax and
Carrie Leonard.

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tfL-^S^ffi^^V ^T^LE

WOOD RIVER MINERAL DISTRICTS.

In the Upper Wood River or Galena district, in a formation of slate and

lime with some porphyry, was another
group of mines averaging from $175
to $200 to the ton of
smelting ore. Among the locations in the Galena dis
trict were the Shamrock,
Signal, Western Home, Adelaide, White Cloud,
Gladiator, Accident, Little Chief, Big Chief, Eunice, Wood River, J. Marion
Sims, Baltimore, Dinero, Grand View, Lawrence, Senate, Red Cloud, Inde
pendence, Wellington, Leviathan, Highland Chief, Monarch, Our Girl, Clara,
Garfield, and Serpent, the latter three being consolidated. These mines lay
at an altitude of from 8,500 to 10,000 feet above sea-level. In the Saw Tooth
district, which was divided from Wood and Salmon rivers by a
high ridge
called the Saw Tooth Mountains, in a
granite formation, was a group of
ledges bearing milling ores of a high grade, but sufficiently refractory to re-
532 NATURAL WEALTH.

ing good pay on the gravel bars in the vicinity of the

Great Falls, the mouth of Raft River, Henry s Ferry,

quire roasting, the yield of bullion being from 250 to 500 ounces to the ton.
The most noted of the early Saw Tooth mines were the Pilgrim, Vienna,
Columbia, Smiley s, Beaver, Beaver Extension, Lucky Boy, Scotia, Atlanta,
Nellie, Sunbeam, and Naples. This district was discovered in July 1879, by
L. Smiley, a Montana pioneer and former superintendent of Utah mines,
with a party of half a dozen men from Challis. An assay of the ore led to
the return of Smiley in 1879, with E. M. Wilson, J. F. Kinsley, J. B. Rlchy,
O Leary, and others. Smiley located the Emma, Wilson the Vienna, Kinsley
the Alturas, and many others were prospected during the season. Silver City
Avalanche, March 20, 1880.

Lying north of Salmon River, and directly north of the Galena distict of
Wood River, was the Yankee Fork district, discovered in 1870, but little
worked before 1875, when the Charles Dickens gold-quartz lode was located
by W. A. Norton, which paid $2,000 a ton. This renowned discovery was
followed by the location of the Charles Wayne ledge by Curtis Estes, on
Mount Estes, and a few months later by the location of tlic General Custer
and Unknown on Mount Custer, by E. G. Dodge, J. R. Baxter, W. McKeen,
and James Dodge. The Custer mine was in every respect a wonderful one.
It was an immense ledge projected above the surface, requiring only
quarrying instead of mining, and was as rich as it was large, and con
veniently situated. It involved no outlay of capital; its face was good
for a vast amount, which was easily extracted. The walls of this treas-
ury had been nibbled away for several hundred feet by the tooth of
time, exposing the solid mass of wealth to whoever would come and
take it. A tunnel was run into this ore body and a tramway constructed,
which served to convey the ore to the mill, 1,300 feet down the mountain.
All the works were so nearly automatic in arrangement as to require at the
mine and mill only fifty-two men to perform every part of the labor. The
average value of the ore per ton was 135. From Feb. to Nov. 1881, the
owners sent to market $800, 000 worth of bullion, half of which was profit.
Other well-known mines of this district, which is high and well wooded, were
the Montana, Bay Horse, Rani s Horn, Skylark, Silver Wing, Utah Boy,
Bull-of-the- Woods, Cuba, Juliet, River View, Post Boy, Hood, andBeardsley.
The Montana produced from 700 to 1,000 ounces of bullion to the ton. Wood
River Miner, July 20, 1881. The total value of 136,098 pounds of Montana
ore, in 23 different lots, was $73,170.46. Yankee Fork Herald, Sept. 15, 1881.
They shipped and sold 40 tons of ore which netted them $53,000. They are
down 145 feet, and have a 165-foot level in $500 ore, 12 feet thick. Shoiip *
Idaho Ter., MS., 9. The Montana mine was discovered by James Hooper, A.
W. Faulkner, Duncan Cameron, Amos Franklin, and D. B. Varney. Bonanza
City Yankee Fork Herald, July 24, 1879. The Ram s Horn was the longest
vein known in the history of modern mining. There were 24 claims 1,500
feet long located on it. It assayed 800 ounces in silver per ton. Other mines
on Mount Estes were the Tonto, Pioneer, Cynosure, Snow Bird, Hidden
Treasure, General Miles, Colorado, Indiana, Manhattan, Golden Gate, North
Star, Ophir, Polar Star, Last Chance, Lake, Snowshoe, King Idaho, Gold-
stone, and Bobtail. A rival to the Custer was the Montana, a gold mine 011
Mount Estes, near which Bonanza City was laid out in 1877. The vein was
six and a half feet wide, and the rock fairly welded together with gold.
North-west of Yankee Fork district was the mining region of the middle
fork of the Salmon, in which were a number of large ledges, on which locations
were made in 1881. One mine, the Galena, assayed 190 ounces in silver to the
ton; and the Northern Pacific, discovered by E. Miller and Harry Smith, as
sayed even richer. The Greyhound, 13 miles north-west of Cape Horn, on a
high mountain, was on a 6-foot vein containing antimonial silver and chloride.
 CARIBOO AND OTHER DISTRICTS. 533

mouth of Catherine Creek, and other localities. In

1871 and 1872 several mining camps or towns sprang

Parallel to it, 60 feet north, was the White Dog, and 60 feet north of that the
Lake View, 4 aud 6 feet in width, and containing ore similar to the Grey
hound. The Patrick Henry vein was 10 feet wide at the surface. The Colonel
Bernard, Rufus, and Blue Grouse were of this group.
The Blue Wing silver district, 25 miles east of the Yankee Fork district;
Texas Creek silver district, 75 miles north-west of the town of Camas in the
northern part of Oueida county; Cariboo gold district in the eastern part of
the same county; Squaw Creek silver district, 40 miles north-west of Boise;
Weiser gold, silver, and copper district on Weiser River; Lava Creek silver
district, 70 miles west of Blackfoot in Oneida county, and Cariboo gold dis
trict, 75 miles north-east of Blackfoot all contained mines of a high grade of
ores.
The Cariboo district, when first discovered in 1870 by F. S. Babcock and
S. McCoy, was mined as a placer district, and yielded for ten years $250,000
annually. The auriferous gravels were accumulated in what was known as
Bilk gulch, which lies immediately under the summit of Cariboo Mountain,
and consisted of abraded volcanic and sedimentary materials largely mixed
with the red earth derived from the softer shales. The placers were distrib
uted along Bilk and Iowa gulches, to the confluence with McCoy Creek, a
distance of three miles, aud on several small creeks and gulches in the neigh
borhood. Quartz was discovered in this district in 1874 by Daniel Griffiths
and J. Thompson, who located the Oneida, a mine very rich in spots, and of good
average yield; 35,000 was refused for the mine in 1880. In 1877 John Rob
inson discovered a porphyry belt on the north slope of the mountain, in which
he located the Robinson mine at the head of Bilk gulch. The Austin, on the
same belt, was developed along with the Robinson. These mines had a very
large outcrop, extending more than 1,000 feet without a break, and having a
width of 25 feet. Within 20 feet of this ledge was another parallel vein of
great richness, and the intermediate porphyry gold-bearing.
On the southern slope of the mountain is another belt of porphyry, on
which were the Northern Light, Virginia, Orphan Boy, Paymaster, aud other
mines. In the district were about eighty locations, carrying free gold from
$10 to 1,200 per ton. Timber was plentiful in the district, and the ledges pro
nounced by experts to be true fissure veins. Other mines in Cariboo district
were the Peterson, Nabob, Mountain Chief, Nealson, Oneida South, Northern
Light Extension, N. S. Davenport, and Silver Star, more or less developed.
Altitude over nine thousand feet. These discoveries conclusively proved
Idaho a mining country. From the eastern to the western boundary, taking
a wide swath through the central portion of the territory, the billowy swells
and rugged heights were found full of minerals. Add to this central territory
the country on the Clearwater, the lately discovered Coeur d Aleue district,
and the Owyhee region, there is but little left which is not metalliferous. It
has long been known that gold existed in the Coeur d Alene region. A
redis
covery was made in 1883, when the usual rush took place. The first eager
gold-seekers pushed into the mines, dragging their outfits on toboggans (a
kind of hand-sled, sometimes drawn by dogs), over several feet of snow.
Eagle
City started up with plenty of business; a saw-mill was erected at an enor
mous expense by Hood & Co. and a newspaper was started, called the Nuggtt,
,

by C. F. McGlashan and W. E. Edwards. Considerable coarse gold was

found and some valuable nuggets, but so far there seems nothing to
justify
any excitement. S. F. Call, March 31, 1884.
The placer mines of Idaho, as first discovered, were once supposed to be
worked out to a degree to warrant only Chinese laborers on the ground. But
the newer methods of bed-rock flumes and hydraulic
apparatus have com
pelled the placers of Bois6 basin to yield a new harvest, which, if not equal
to the first, is richly remunerative. Ben. Willson, the placer king, had 50
534 NATURAL WEALTH.
2
up along the Thousands of ounces of gold-
river.
dust of the very finest quality were taken from the
gravel in their neighborhood in these two years. The
placers, however, were quickly exhausted on the lower
bars, the implements in use failing to save any but
the coarsest particles. The higher bars were unpros-
pected and the camps abandoned. But about 1879
there was a revival of interest in the Snake River
placers, and an improvement in appliances for mining
them and saving the gold, which enabled operators to
work the high bars which for hundreds of miles are
gold-bearing. In many places they lift themselves
directly from the water s edge, ten, twenty, a hundred,
or two hundred feet, and then recede in a slope more
or less elevated. At other points they form a suc
cession of terraces, level at the top, varying from a
few hundred feet to a mile or more in width. 3
miles of ditches on Grimes Creek, costing $150,000. Elliott s Hist. Idaho, 175.
The Salmon River placers, in Lemhi county, which gave rise to Salmon City
in 1866, paid from five to seventeen dollars a day to the hand. Working them
by the old methods they were practically exhausted in live years, but by
the new method the same yield was obtained as at first. Shoup s Idaho Ter.,
MS., 4. Ward and Napius discovered these mines. Loon Creek was dis
covered by Nathan Smith, a Cal. pioneer. In 1862 he came to Idaho, and
was one of the discoverers of the Florence diggings. In 1869 he prospected
Loon Creek, which he named from a bird of that species found on the stream.
A thousand men were mining there at one time, and the town of Oro Grande
was built up as a centre of trade. When the white men had taken off the
richest deposits, the Chinese purchased the ground, and were working it,
when in the winter of 1878-9 the Sheep Eater Indians made a descent upon
them and swept away the whole camp, carrying off the property of the
slaughtered Mongolians to their hiding-places in the mountains, from which
Capt. Bernard had so much trouble to dislodge them the following summer.
Bonanza City Yankee Fork Herald, Oct. 18, 1884.
Mudbarville, Spring Town, Waterburg, and Dry Town were
2
their eu
phonious appellations.
3
The deposits were of various depths, the upper bed being from 25 to 50
feet deep, and lying on a hard-pan of pseudo-morphous rock from a few inches
to three feet in thickness, beneath which is another deposit generally richer
than the first. Or, in some places, the hard-pan is represented by a soft
cement, found at a depth of from three to nine The cost of opening a
fee"t.

claim, and putting it in good order for working is about $5,000; and the re
ceipts from it from $10 to $50 a day. Careful estimates, based on actual
yields and measurements of ground, give the amount of gold obtained from
an acre of ground as being from $5,000 to $10,000, at the rate of from $20 to
$100 a day, with the gold-saving machines, which are furnished with an
amalgamator.
The greatest hinderance to be overcome was the hoisting of water for min
ing purposes from the bed of the river, where there are no streams entering.
The most feasible solution of this difficulty would be the construction of a
 BULLION PRODUCT. 535

Coming to the actual production of the mines of

Idaho, I find that, according to the annual report of
the director of the mint of the United States, Idaho
in 1879, when it was beginning to recover from the
misfortunes of the previous decade, produced $1,150,-
000 in gold and 650,000 in silver, while the estimate
in the tenth census is $1,944,203. In 1882 the pro
duct in gold and silver was $3,500,000, divided among
ten counties, of which Custer, or the Wood River
mines, produced more than one third.* But the report
of the mint director is no more than a guide to the
actual amount of gold produced, the larger part of
which is shipped out of the territory by banking firms
or in private hands, and goes to the mint at last with
out any sign of its nativity. The total gold product
of Idaho down to 1880 as deposited at the mints and
assay offices has been set down at $24,157,447, and
of silver $727,282.60. But some $60,000,000 should
be added to that amount, making the yield of precious
metals for Idaho $90,000,000 previous to 1881, when
the revival of mining took place. Strahorn estimates
the output of 1881 in gold, silver, and lead at
5
$4,915, 100.
canal taking water out of the river above, and carrying it to all the mines
below. This device, besides making mining a permanent business on Snake
River, would redeem extensive tracts of land which only need water for irri
gation to change them from sage-brush wildernesses to gardens of delicious
fruits and vegetables, or fields of golden grain. The principal claims were
on the upper Snake River, at Cariboo, and above in Wyoming, and also at
Black Cation, where the Idaho Snake River Gold Mining Company had some
rich ground, $100 a day to the man having been taken out with a rocker, a
copper plate, and a bottle of cyanide of potassium. The average yield was
$ 2.3 a day over 80 acres of auriferous gravel. The Lawrence and Holmes
Company had a claim near Blackfoot paying from $19 to $50 a day to the
man. Lane & Co. near the mouth of Raft River, obtained 25 a day to the
,

man; and Argyle & Co., near Fall Creek, owned placers that paid $100 a
day to the man. Other rich placers were mined in the vicinity of Salmon
Falls. The best seasons for working, in reference to the stage of water in
the river and the state of the weather, was from the 1st of March to the
middle of May, and from the 1st of September to the 1st of November.
*That every county but four should be quoted as gold-producing shows a
very general diffusion of precious metals. The proportion was as follows:
Alturas 8945,000; Boise" $310,000; Cassia $25,000; Custer $1,250,000; Idaho
$240,000; Lumhi $210,000; Nez Perc< $5,000; Oneida $35,000; Owyhee
$430,000; Shoshone $50,000.
5
See Strahoni s Idaho Ter., 61. The Virginia mid Helena Post of Jan. 15,
1867, makes the output of the Idaho mines in 1866 $11,000,000. When
536 NATURAL WEALTH.

Turning from the precious metals to the baser

metals and minerals, we find that, besides lead, Idaho
has abundance of iron, copper, coal, salt, sulphur, mica,
marble, and sandstone. Bear Lake district contains
copper ore assaying from 60 to 80 per cent, and also
native copper of great purity. Galena ores 78 per
cent lead with a little silver are found in the same dis
trict. Bituminous coal exists in abundance in Bear
Lake county, where one vein 70 feet in thickness is

separated from other adjacent veins by their strata of

clay, aggregating a mass 200 feet in depth of coal.
Near Rocky Bar, in Alturas county, is a vein of
iron ore seven feet in thickness, and fifty-six per cent
pure metal. Near Challis, in Ouster county, is a large
body of micaceous iron, yielding 50 to 60 per cent
metal. At a number of points on Wood River rich
iron ores are found in inexhaustible quantities. In
Owyhee county, a few miles east of South Mountain,
is the
Narragansett iron mine, an immense body so
nearly pure as to permit of casting into shoes and dies
for stamp-mills. A
mammoth vein of hematite in the
neighborhood thirty dollars a ton in gold.
carries
Deposits of iron ore are found not far from Lewiston,
which yield seventy -five per cent pure metal; and
similar deposits exist near the western boundary of
Idaho, in Oregon, in Powder River Valley.
The Oneida Salt Works, in Oneida county, manu
facture a superior article of salt from the waters of the
6
salt springs, simply by boiling in galvanized iron pans.
The demand has increased the production from 15,000
pounds in 1866 to 600,000 in subsequent years, and to
1,500, 000 in 1880. A
mountain of sulphur, eighty-five
per cent pure, is found at Soda Springs, on Bear River.
It has been mined to some extent. The same local
ity furnishes soda in immense quantities. Mines of
Ross Browne made his report to the government on the gold yield of the Pacific
states and territories he omitted Idaho, which had produced from $10,000,000
to $20,000,000 annually for 4 years. Silver City Avalanche, Feb. 9, 18G7.
6
This salt analyzed yields, chloride of sodium, 97.79; sulphate of soda,
1.54; chloride of calcium, .07; sulphate magnesia, a trace. Strahorn s
Idaho Tvr. 63.
,
 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 537

mica exist in Washington county, near Weiser River,

from which thousands of tons are being extracted for
the market. Other deposits of mica have been discov
ered in northern Idaho, as also white and variegated
marbles, and beautiful granites and sandstones of the
most desirable colors for building purposes, as also a
quarry suitable for grindstones. There is little that a
commonwealth needs, in the way of minerals, which is
not to be found in Idaho.

But no matter what the wealth of a mineral coun

try may be, it is never looked upon with the same
favor by the permanent settler or home-seeker as the
agricultural region, because there is always a look-
ing-forward to the time when the mines will be worked
out, while to the cultivation of the earth there is no
end. Were Idaho as dependent upon its mines as
in the days of its earlier occupation it was thought
to be, it would be proper to treat it altogether as a
mineral-producing territory, which with the better
understanding now had it would not be proper to do.
The conditions necessary to agriculture are those
pertaining to soil and climate. Of the former there
are four kinds, and of the latter a still greater variety.
Taking the valley lands, large and small, they ag
gregate, with those reclaimable by irrigation, be
tween 14,000,000 and 16,000,000 acres. The soil
of the valleys is
eminently productive, containing all
the elements, vegetable and mineral, required by
grains, fruits, and vegetables. It is of a good depth,
and liesupon bed of gravel, with an inclination suf
a
ficient for
drainage. Springs of water are abundant,
both warm and cold. Wood grows in the gulches of
the mountains which enclose the valleys. The climate
is mild, with little snow in seasons. This
ordinary
phenomenon in so elevated a region is accounted for
by the theory of a river of warm air from the heated
table-lands of Arizona, the Colorado
Valley, and the
dry valleys of Chihuahua and Sonora passing through
538 NATURAL WEALTH.

the funnel of the upper Del Norte. There are other

influences more nearly local, like the Yellowstone
geysers and the Pacific warm stream. Deep snows
fall in the more elevated regions, and brief
periods of
severe cold are experienced, but the longest Idaho
winter is short compared with those of the Atlantic
states. For Boise Valley the average temperature for

eight years, from 1874 to 1881, was between 51 and

53, while the mean temperature for 1880 and 1881 in
Lapwai Valley, much farther north, was 56.08.
Peach-trees frequently blossom in February at Lew-
iston. The extremes in the Boise Valley for seven
years have been 12 below zero in January, and 108
above in July; but the average temperature in Janu
ary has been 26.01, and for July 75.86, this being
the hottest month in the year. Spring and autumn
are delightful. The average rainfall for seven years
has been twelve inches; the lowest less than three,
and the greatest over seventeen inches.
Taking Boise for a standard of valley climate, it
should be remembered that altitude to a considerable,
and latitude to a less, extent influence temperature
in Idaho. Boise is 2,800 feet above sea-level;
Lapwai, nearly three degrees farther north, and -&QQ-
feet lower, has an average temperature in July of 90
and in January of 20, being both hotter and colder
than Boise. Other valleys vary in climate, in accord
ance with altitude and position with reference to the
prevailing south-west wind. Another factor in the
climate of Idaho is the dryness and rarity of the
atmosphere, which lessens the intensity of heat and
cold about twenty degrees, out-door labor being sel
dom suspended on account of either. The same gen
eral remarks apply to every portion of the country;
the cold and snowfall are in proportion to altitude.
The soil of the mountains and wooded regions is
deep, rich, black, and contains much vegetable mould.
Its altitude would determine its fitness for cultiva
tion. The valleys having an elevation of from 600 to
 SOIL AND CLIMATE. 539

5,000 feet, it would depend upon the situation of the

mountain lands whether they could be successfully
farmed. The soil of the grass and sage plains in
Snake River Valley is the best that nature has pro
vided for the growth of cereals, would man but con
trive the appliances for bringing water upon it. In
the northern portion of Idaho, wheat and other grains
may be grown without artificial irrigation, but not in
the southern portion, which must be redeemed from
drought. There is a limited amount of alkali soil,
which produces only grease-wood, on which cattle
subsist in the absence of or in connection with the
native grasses.
Of grazing lands, it is estimated that there are not
less than 25,000,000 acres in Idaho, a large propor
tion of which furnish food continuously throughout .^
the year hence it is essentially a cattle-raising country.
;

The native grasses are the bunch, rye, timothy, red-

top, and blue-stem varieties, which together with the
white sage sustain and fatten immense herds of cattle
and sheep.
The area of forest lands
computed at 7,000,000
is

acres, lying for the most part mountainous re

in the
gions, which division of territory amounts to 18,400,-
000 acres. Out of this amount comes also most of
the lake surface of Idaho, computed to be 600,000
acres. The waste lands are less than have been
7
supposed.
For salubrity of climate Idaho stands unequalled,
the percentage of deaths in the army, by disease,
being lower than in any of the United States.
Thus nature provides compensations for her stern
ness of aspect
by real benignity. Those who best
know the resources of the territory predicted for it a
brilliant and honorable future. This is the more
7
No great accuracy can be attained. Gilbert Butler divides the area of
Idaho as follows: Rich agricultural lands 5,000,000 acres; that
may be re
claimed by irrigation 10,000,000;
grazing lands 20,000,000; timber lands 10,-
000,000; mineral lands 10,000,000; lakes and volcanic overflow 3,328,160.
Silver City Idaho Avalanche, June 21), 1SS1.
540 NATURAL WEALTH.

remarkable when the hardships and liability to acci

dent of a new country are considered the death rate
;

being one third that of Colorado, one fifth that of

California, and half that of Oregon.
The settlement of Idaho having been begun for the
sake of its mineral productions, little was at
attention
first Further than this, there
given to agriculture.
was the prejudice against the soil and climate, result
ing from false conclusions and ignorance of facts.
Thirdly, there was the constant danger of loss by
Indian depredations to discourage the stock-raiser,
and the want of transportation to deter the farmer
from grain and fruit raising beyond the demands of
the home market.