Establishment of Forts and Towns
In 1834 Nathaniel J. Wyeth
established a settlement at Fort Hall, the first permanent white
settlement in Idaho. The first location was on the south side of
the Portneuf River not far from the Snake, but was soon changed
to the east bank of the Snake, just above the mouth of the
Portneuf. This was the location of the famous old Fort Hall of
early Idaho history. Many years later the location was again
changed to the one ten miles east of Blackfoot, which was in
turn abandoned only four or five years ago for the present site
at Rossfork. Located at the crossing of the Oregon Trail and the
later route from Utah to Montana, and being also the point of
divergence from the Oregon Trail of the early route to
California, Fort Hall assumed great importance, becoming one of
the most prominent posts in all the inter-mountain region. For
more than a generation it was a haven of rest and a port of
safety for the weary traveler, emigrant and hunter, jaded and
worn with the hardships of desert or mountain travel, or perhaps
suffering from hunger, or despoiled and threatened by savage
foes. On this trip Wyeth's party twice met that of the
picturesque Bonneville, the "Bald Chief," as he was called by
the Indians once in Bannock County near where Soda Springs now
is, and later in the Grand Ronde valley, in eastern Oregon.
In 1836 Rev. H. H. Spaulding, a
Presbyterian missionary, established, under the auspices of the
Presbyterian Board of Missions, a mission post and school at
Lapwai in the beautiful valley of a tributary of the Clearwater,
about twelve miles east of where Lewis-ton now stands. This was
the first mission in the State, and here was set up and used the
first printing press in Idaho. In the same year the Hudson Bay
Company established Fort Boise on the west bank of the Snake,
just above the mouth of the Boise River. Fort Boise was located
on neutral ground, and was for ten years an important post,
being the annual meeting place of the Indians for 500 miles in
every direction for the purpose of trading and indulging in the
horse-racing and athletic contests of which they were
passionately fond. This fort was abandoned in 1847.
For eighteen years following the
expedition of Fremont through the State in 1843 thousands of
emigrants, gold-seekers and adventurers passed through the State
over the Oregon and California trails, but few of them settled
in it. In fact, the country now embraced within the State was
practically without population until 1860, when placer gold was
discovered on the Clearwater by a party of prospectors
consisting of Hiram Pierce and five companions. That the State
was slow in settling is not to be wondered at when the
conditions then existing are considered. The impression of Idaho
that was obtained by the traveler at this period over the old
Oregon emigrant road must have been a good deal like that forced
upon the passenger on an Oregon Short Line train between
Pocatello and the western limits of the State in the first
fifteen years of the operation of that road. Both saw for the
most part, as a foreground, a dreary waste of sand and
sagebrush, with here and there jagged outcrops of basaltic rock
and an occasional curiously split lava island, while the
background consisted of the distant rim of enclosing mountains,
sometimes so far away as to be scarcely discernible above the
horizon. It was not an alluring prospect, not such as to invite
the emigrant to plant himself there to rear a home. It is true,
that was not the real Idaho, but the fact that the main roads
and later the principal railroads across the State traversed the
treeless and almost waterless sage plain of the Snake delayed
the agricultural development of the State a generation. The man,
for instance, in Fremont's time or for twenty-five years after,
for that matter who would have suggested that the great Snake
River would one day be diverted from the bottom of its 600-foot
canyon and spread upon the plain, and that the vast desolate
wastes of sand would be covered with fields of waving grass and
grain, with smiling gardens and bending orchards, and dotted
with thriving cities, would doubtless have been considered a fit
subject for an insane asylum.
What may be called the modern history
of Idaho begins with the gold discovery on the Clearwater
heretofore mentioned. The following account covering the gold
rush and the organization of the Territory is from an Idaho
official publication by the State Bureau of Immigration, Labor
and Statistics:
"From this time (1860) until 1868,
when Idaho was carved into its present form by the Federal
Government, historic events came so thick and fast that the
minds of the historians have become somewhat confused, and
scarcely two of them can be found who agree. The principal
features, however, are matters of record that cannot be
destroyed, and they provide some very interesting reading. The
great rush of miners, prospectors, traders, gamblers, and
fortune-seekers of all classes and from all countries that
followed the discovery of gold in 1860 has but few comparisons
in the world's history of mineral discoveries. The overflow from
the gold diggings of California, which were discovered ten years
previous, and where a horde of people had congregated from all
parts of the world, all flocked to the Idaho diggings. Many had
been unfortunate in their California venture; some had become
homesick and left as a sort of relief; others followed the
throng simply through the spirit of adventure, while others were
out strictly for gain; and it is not to be wondered at, when one
considers the exciting conditions under which this crowded mass
was drawn together, the manner in which they lived, the nervous
strain that was constantly over them, that more or less tragedy
crept into the events, and many accounts of tragic bravery and
hardships have been recorded. The country was in the hands of
this population when, on March 3, 1863, the Federal Government
organized a Territory comprising all that is now embraced in the
States of Idaho and Montana, and including most of Wyoming, and
named it Idaho. It had an area of more than 300,000 square
miles, and was born into the world surrounded by most exciting
conditions, and embracing a country that was filling the minds
of the world with wonder and amazement. Important events quickly
followed the organization of the Territory. The mining industry
had become permanently fixed in this region and was yielding
millions in gold. Settlements sprang up at favorable points in
the valleys along the streams. Trading points were established,
great stocks of merchandise of all kinds were shipped into the
country, and the foundations of what are now prosperous cities
and towns were laid. New gold fields were being discovered on
all sides and the population was shifting from one point to
another, following the richest diggings. The great gravel bars,
with their rich deposits, that were being worked in the Boise
basin were yielding up millions in gold, and were attracting the
greatest population of any point in the State. The vote in Idaho
City at the presidential election in the fall of 1864 exceeded
16,000. A great, eager, wandering crowd of miners, prospectors
and adventurers had come into the country from every section of
the Union."
Lewiston was designated the capital
until the Territorial legislature should determine otherwise,
and the first legislature, consisting of but twenty members, met
there in November, 1863. As the Boise basin section of the
Territory was already the most populous, the fight for the
removal of the capital to Boise was begun at the first session
of the legislature. It failed at that time, but was renewed on
the convening of the legislature a year later, passed and signed
by the governor. Lewiston resorted to litigation, some of which
developed some humorous features, to prevent the removal, but it
was finally accomplished. The feeling between the northern and
southern sections of the State, growing out of this contest, and
others over matters that arose later, was acute for many years,
but happily it has now practically disappeared.
Index
Source: Sketches of the Inter-Mountain
States, Utah, Idaho and Nevada, Published by The Salt Lake
Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1909
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