Evan E. Filby's Blog: South Fork and More, page 127

Placerville and Idaho City Mines Thriving. New Finds on the South Boise

On May 5, 1863, The Dalles Journal interviewed a miner named Reuben Reed who had left Placerville about a week earlier. The resulting article, later reprinted in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin, said, “Several hundred miners are there, formerly from Northern California and Southern Oregon, all of whom, without a single exception are doing well, and say they have never been in any mining country in their lives that pays as well and promises so well as the Boise country.”

In fact, miners pour...

Prospector Files Original Claims for Today’s Hecla Mining Group [otd 05/05]

According to the Illustrated History of the State of Idaho, “The original claims comprising the Hecla group were the Hecla and Katie May lode claims, located by James Toner on May 5, 1885.” The original claim of twenty acres was near Burke, about six miles northeast of Wallace.
Hecla Mine, Burke, Idaho, 1909. University of Idaho.
However, as happened for many claimants, Toner lacked the resources to fully develop the property. The initial prospect dwindled, and Toner eventually sold the rights...

Government Appoints Postmasters and Creates Post Offices in Idaho Territory

On May 4, 1863, the Evening Bulletin in San Francisco published the following brief item: “Post Office Matters. … The following appointments have been received: Charles Welsh, Florence City, Idaho Territory; John Flanagan, Elk City, I. T.; Joseph Patty, Orofino, I. T. … New offices have been established at the following places: Durkeeville, Idaho Territory – Clark H. Durkee, Postmaster; Mount Idaho, I. T. – Loyal P. Brown, Postmaster.”

In the spring of 1863, Florence City (or just Florence), E...

Versatile Southeast Idaho Architect Frank Paradice [otd 05/04]

Long-time Pocatello architect Frank C. Paradice, Jr., was born May 4, 1879 in Ontario, Canada. Not long after, the family moved to Denver, Colorado. Frank Jr. graduated from high school in Denver and then studied architecture in Chicago at the Armour Institute of Technology. (The Armour was one of two institutes that later merged to form today’s Illinois Institute of Technology.)
Fargo Building, Pocatello, ca 1920.
Bannock County Historical Society.
Frank returned to Denver for hands-on architec...

Civil War News: General Sedgwick Captures Fredericksburg, Virginia

One of several telegraphic dispatches sent from the front on May 3, 1863, said, “Two miles below Fredericksburg, Sunday morning… Fredericksburg is occupied by the troops of Cocoran’s and Olds’ brigade and the troops of Newton’s division. … A pontoon bridge has been thrown across the river at Fredericksburg, and men are passing to and fro.”

That morning, Union forces under General John Sedgwick had moved into the town on the south bank of the Rappahannock River. They had then driven Confederate...

North Idaho Rancher and Businessman Chester Coburn [otd 05/03]

C. P. Coburn. [Illust-State].Pioneer businessman and rancher Chester P. Coburn was born May 3, 1832 in central Vermont. He spent three years working in New York before, in 1852, he caught a boat for the route across Nicaragua to California. He apparently barely made expenses in the gold fields, so he began spending more and more time running a store. That led him into stock raising.

In late 1861, reports circulated about exciting gold discoveries in the Florence Basin of Idaho. Coburn sold his...

Ninety-One Miners Killed in Sunshine Mine Disaster [otd 05/02]

On the morning of May 2, 1972, workers deep inside Idaho’s Sunshine Mine, 4 to 5 miles southeast of Kellogg, noticed smoke drifting in some of the tunnels. Not much concerned initially, the miners soon encountered thick, choking clouds that burned their eyes and throats. This was the start of a tragedy that profoundly changed the American mining industry.
Silver bars, Kellogg. Idaho State Historical Society.
The Sunshine Mine traces its “lineage” back to the Yankee Lode, claimed by the Blake Br...

New York Newspaper Trumpets the Vast Lands Available in Idaho, and the West Generally

On May 1, 1863, the Evening Post in New York City published an article titled “The Great West.” It said: “Our territorial domains in the far West may truly be characterized as great. This a few facts clearly exhibit. In the ten territories of Dakotah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Nebraska, there are 1,256,305 square miles and 804,035,200 acres, of which 757,481,503 yet remain to be disposed of. Idaho alone will make six states as large as New York...

Investor, Political Operative ... and Alleged Smuggler ... Alonzo Cruzen [otd 05/01]

A. R. Cruzen. Family archives.Boise capitalist Alonzo R. Cruzen was born May 1, 1858 in Oskaloosa, Iowa, about fifty miles southeast of Des Moines.  In 1886, he opened a small town bank in southwest Nebraska and invested in real estate around the state. Starting in 1890, he also “commuted” to Idaho to handle real estate investments in and around Boise.

Cruzen took an active role in Nebraska politics, serving on the Central Committee of the Republican party. In 1889, he became the youngest...

Railroad Touts Plans for Larger Passenger and Freight Terminals in Idaho Falls [otd 04/30]

On April 30, 1909, the Oregon Short Line announced that they would soon begin a substantial upgrade to the railroad facilities in Idaho Falls. This notice followed several years of steadily rising activity at the town.
Train at older Idaho Falls depot, ca. 1905.
Bonneville County Historical Society.
The railroad history of Idaho Falls (then called Eagle Rock) began in 1879, when Utah & Northern Railway tracks arrived in town [blog, Apr 11]. For a time, Eagle Rock was “end of track,” with the...