Evan E. Filby's Blog: South Fork and More, page 82

Owyhee Mining Investor and Developer John Scales [otd 05/06]

John Scales. Commercial Directory.Owyhee silver mine developer John Scales was born on the 6th of May, 1840 in County Clare, Ireland. The family moved to the U.S. and settled in Maine when John was a teenager. He first found factory work there before attending business school in New York. In 1868, he traveled to California via the Isthmus.

Scales decided Idaho offered better prospects and immediately moved to Silver City. Like most newcomers, he started out as a laborer and worked his way up...

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...

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...

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, Coeur d'Alene District. Hecla Mining Company.
The Sunshine Mine traces its “lineage” back to the Yankee Lode, claimed by the Bla...

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...

Angry Union Men Blow Up Wardner Mill, Kill One Non-Union Worker [otd 04/29]

On April 29, 1899, a train packed with perhaps a thousand angry union members rumbled along the tracks leading from Burke and Wallace into the Kellogg-Wardner area. They were headed for the concentrator mill of the Bunker Hill & Sullivan (BH&S) Mining Company in Wardner, Idaho.
Wardner mine before bombing, ca 1899.
Washington State Archives.
Near Wallace, they had loaded up with "giant powder" (an early form of dynamite). The act of violence they planned arose from years of labor-manage...

Governor Issues Proclamation to Protect Chinese from Attack [otd 04/27]

Gov. Stevenson. City of Boise photo.On April 27, 1886, Idaho Territorial Governor Edward A. Stevenson issued a proclamation that said, in part, "The life and property of our citizens, and those of the Chinese as well, who are engaged in our midst in peaceful occupations, are entitled to and must receive the equal protection of the laws of our Territory."

Chinese miners had been active participants in the gold fields from the earliest days. Every region followed much the same pattern: Whites wr...

Major Lead-Silver Discoveries Spark Rush to Wood River Area [otd 04/26]

On April 26, 1879, Warren P. Callahan filed on a lead-silver claim at the base of the ridge a mile or so west of the present town of Bellevue, Idaho. This filing was a major milestone for what would quickly build into a rush into the Wood River mining districts.
Wood River Valley, looking south. Illustrated History, 1899.
The Boise Basin gold discoveries of 1862 [blog, Oct 7] drew thousands of hopeful miners to southern Idaho. Soon, all the best claims had been staked, so prospectors began...