Alturas County

A special election was held on the 12th day of September, 1881, for the purpose of determining the permanent location of the county seat of Alturas county, Idaho Territory. The minutes of the Board of County Commissioners under the date of September 25, 1881, are as follows: “The returns from the various precincts (excepting Canon Creek and Indian Creek) having been received, the said meeting was held publicly, the returns or poll books were received by the Clerk of this Board, were presented to the Board, were found duly sealed and were then publicly opened, and the Board proceeded to […]

For several years Hailey had three daily papers which also were published weekly, and it continued to have two daily papers until 1919. It now has one weekly paper, The Hailey Times. Until this year, many of us believed that Hailey had the first daily paper in the Territory of Idaho. But L. A. York of Boise, who published the Avalanche at Silver City from 1890 till 1903, under date of June 2, 1930, writes, in part, as follows: “The Owyhee Avalanche, of Silver City, was published as a daily in 1875-6, by W. J. Hill. He had the first

1880 was the year of the Wood River boom. Thousands of miners came and found ready employment in mines that were reputed to be making their owners “rich beyond the dreams of avarice.” So ubiquitous seemed prospectors that every mountain and hill was covered with them in their search for precious metals. While the country was virgin they struck many prospects, which afterward developed into good pay ing mines. Of the prospector, it truthfully can be said, in the words of Pope, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast,” and furthermore, that hope never dies while he lives. He hopes

John L. Baxter of Fairfield, Idaho, whose reminiscences of early days have lately been published in the Camas County Courier, has this to say of the early citizens of Hailey: “I want to say that the citizens of Hailey went very strong for anything that they wanted. They could raise money for anything that would help Hailey, and I believe there are a good many residents in Hailey who are just as loyal now as were those of that time. Just to show what kind of citizens there were in Hailey, I want to state one incident that occurred at

The records of the first Board of County Commissioners of Alturas county, now in the fireproof vault of the Blaine County Court House, and which are as legible today as the day they were written, namely, April 4, A. D. 1864, show that the Board consisted of Samuel Stover, chairman, Robert A. Sidebottom and John Roach. Their Clerk, who was also Auditor and Recorder, was Charles Woodbury Walker. The Sheriff was John G. Howell. All these officers were appointed by William B. Daniels, Acting Governor of the Territory of Idaho. The Board, after approving the bonds of said officers, took

In 1860 gold was discovered on Oro Fino Creek by a party of prospectors led by Captain E. D. Pierce of California. In 1861 the Salmon River mines were discovered, while a search for a rich central gold deposit was made by prospectors, revealing the Florence diggings. In 1862 the Salmon River Basin gold mines lying south of the Salmon River, were discovered, and called Warren’s diggings, for their discoverer. In the same year the Boise Basin mines were discovered by a party led by George Grimes of Oregon City, Oregon, who was killed by Indians in August of that