{"id":1126,"date":"2022-10-21T11:48:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T17:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/?page_id=1126"},"modified":"2022-11-08T10:39:16","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T16:39:16","slug":"basin-of-gold","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/?page_id=1126","title":{"rendered":"Basin of Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"1126\" class=\"elementor elementor-1126\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-5ff2de9 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"5ff2de9\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-1918fbc\" data-id=\"1918fbc\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e50be55 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"e50be55\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.8.0 - 30-10-2022 *\/\n.elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=\".svg\"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"287\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/BasinOfGoldImage-287x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/BasinOfGoldImage-287x300.jpg 287w, https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/BasinOfGoldImage-24x24.jpg 24w, https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/BasinOfGoldImage-34x36.jpg 34w, https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/BasinOfGoldImage-46x48.jpg 46w, https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/BasinOfGoldImage.jpg 382w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-03e373c elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"03e373c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.8.0 - 30-10-2022 *\/\n.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}<\/style><h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-large\">Excerpt from Boise Basin of Gold<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0a83ab4 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"0a83ab4\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.8.0 - 30-10-2022 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#818a91;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#818a91;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>Boise Basin, in southwestern Idaho, is an area roughly 20 miles square, drained by dozens of small streams that run into Grimes and More creeks, They, in turn, run into Boise River. The entire basin is made up of hills and ridges that range in elevation from 3000 to 5000 feet, covered with pine and fir forests. Higher mountain ridges around the edges give the area its basin character.<\/p><p>This book attempts to capture the flavor of life in the bustling mining camps that grew up in a few short months after gold was discovered on Grimes creek in August 1862. It is an account of people and events that reveal what it was like to live in Boise Basin in the years between 1862 and 1890 when Idaho became a state. In a work of this size, it has not been possible, of course, to write anything like a complete history of the Basin, or to include more than a selection of the many stories that could be told about life in that group of small towns as they passed from booming gold rush camps into small but stable mining communities.<\/p><p>We have relied heavily upon eye-witness descriptions of people and events, and have allowed those who lived in Boise Basin at the time to tell what happened in their own words, often biased or emotional, these accounts nevertheless have the merit of revealing attitudes and prejudices. People&#8217;s perceptions of the truth usually influence their actions more than what is true, The words of those who lived in the Basin in the 19th Century have other qualities that make them worth quoting &#8211; they are often picturesque, witty, charming, and humorous, they have a spontaneity and immediacy rarely found in the later writing of scholars.<\/p><p>Welcome, then, to Idaho&#8217;s Basin of Gold, I hope it is as much fun to read as it was to write.<\/p><p>Following the discovery of gold in North Idaho in 1860 a steady stream of prospectors and miners poured into what was then the eastern part of Washington Territory. They fanned out across the rugged granite terrain of the Clearwater, Salmon River, Owyhee and other mountains, looking for prospects rich enough to justify staking claims and beginning full-scale mining. Prospectors looked for free gold in stream beds or gravel bars &#8211; particles that could be washed out by placering &#8211; or surface indications of gold-bearing quartz veins that could be worked by driving tunnels or shafts into the mountainside. The discovery of Boise Basin&#8217;s riches came on August 2, 1862, when a party of prospectors from Florence and Auburn, Oregon, found gold on Boston Bar near later Centerville. Although commonly called the Grimes party, the initial discovery group was really composed of three prospecting parties that had joined forces to explore the Basin in the summer of 1862. Moses Splawn, who had mined at Florence and Elk City, was the leader of one band, H. Fogus led another, and George Grimes a third. They got together in the Owyhee country, crossed a flooding Snake River <span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">with some difficulty and struck out for Boise Basin. Fearing attack <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">by the numerous Shoshoni Indians who lived in Boise Valley, they <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">proceeded cautiously up the river to Boise canyon, then followed a <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">northern ridge that led them into the Basin. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Moses Splawn&#8217;s interest in the area had been aroused by a Bannock <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Indian, who uncharacteristically took the white man&#8217;s mania for <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">gold seriously enough to suggest that if the yellow metal was that <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">important they could find it in abundance in Boise Basin.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">On August 9, 1862, a week after D. H. Fogus found gold on Boston <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Bar, George Grimes was shot from ambush and killed. As Merle <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Wells points out, &#8220;Although a strong tradition persists in Boise <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Basin that the Indians had nothing to do with the shooting, those <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">who returned to Walla Walla credited the incident to a disaffected <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Bannock or Shoshoni. In any event, Grimes was hastily buried in a <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">prospect hole and his men hurried back to the Boise River. <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">(Grimes Creek and Grimes Pass were later named in honor of the <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">unfortunate prospector and a monument erected at the spot where <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">he was buried.) Pioneer City (first called Hog&#8217;em) and Idaho City (first called <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Bannock City or West Bannock) were started in October 1862, after <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">enlarged and well-supplied parties returned from Walla Walla. <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Reports that some placer claims were yielding as much as $200 per <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">day per man reached Lewiston, Walla Walla, and Portland, leading <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">to a mad rush to Boise Basin, even though the country was remote, <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">trails virtually undeveloped, and roads for wheeled vehicles non-<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">existent. A more serious difficulty was the fact that winter was <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">coming on. Water for placering would not be available when <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">streams froze and deep snows would make life miserable, if not <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">dangerous. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Despite all that, they came &#8211; by the thousands. A contemporary, <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">writing in Boise&#8217;s Capital Chronicle a few years later, explained it: <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">&#8220;They were, for the most part, veteran prospectors for gold. Many <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">years of adventurous experiences all over the gold fields of <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">California, Fraser River, Cariboo, Washington Territory and Eastern <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Oregon, had acquainted them with the general features and climatic <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">changes of the entire gold producing region from British Columbia <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">to Southern California. They were at home wherever they went <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">self-reliant and energetic to a remarkable degree. Hardships and <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">privations had no terror; and peril, with a spice of adventure, had a <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">positive charm for them. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Not all who joined the rush to Boise Basin late in 1862 quite fit this <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">romantic description. As in every gold rush, there were men <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">inadequately prepared, either physically or mentally, to endure the <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">hardships. Some came without the supplies or the money they <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">would need to last through a mountain winter. Many who hoped to <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">find work to earn their keep were disappointed. The even larger <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">population attracted to Idaho in the spring of 1863 included sober <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">and industrious men who knew what they were doing, scoundrels <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">and adventurers who came to prey on others, and large numbers of <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">men without the skills or the capital to stick it out. Small wonder, <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">then, that the Basin&#8217;s spectacular inrush of people in 1863 and 1864 <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">was followed by a period of stabilization when most of the <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">disappointed fortune hunters drifted away to other excitements or <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">went back to their former homes. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">On March 4, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">establishing Idaho Territory out of what had been the eastern part <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">of Washington Territory. By that fall Boise Basin was the center of <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">population in the new territory and Idaho City (then called Bannock <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">City) had passed Portland to become the largest town in the Pacific <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Northwest, with 6,275 inhabitants. Placerville had 3,254, <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Centerville, 2,638, Pioneer City, 2,743, and Granite Creek about <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">1,500. Never since have these communities come close to the <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">numbers they had in 1863. By 1870, when the first decennial census <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">of Idaho was taken, Idaho City&#8217;s population had declined to only <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">889, Pioneer City&#8217;s to 477, Centerville&#8217;s to 474, Placerville&#8217;s to 318, <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">and Granite Creek&#8217;s to 299. Buena Vista Bar, included in the 1863 <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">estimate with Idaho City, was counted at 880 in 1870, but the <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">combined total for the two (1,769) was less than a third of 1863&#8217;s<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">population.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Excerpt from Boise Basin of Gold Boise Basin, in southwestern Idaho, is an area roughly 20 miles square, drained by dozens of small streams that run into Grimes and More &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/?page_id=1126\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Basin of Gold<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1126"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1289,"href":"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1126\/revisions\/1289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idahocityhistoricalfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}