Elmore County
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The fifteenth legislative assembly of Idaho convened December 10, 1888. The session, which held until the 7th of February 1889, had under consideration as subjects of more than usual interest the division of Alturas county and the creation of the county of Elmore out of its western territory, the exclusion from the house of two members from the Mormon districts of Bingham and Bear Lake on account of illegal voting and the question of statehood. In the case of Elmore County, after much display of legislative tactics, including the bolting of the speaker of the house, who abruptly left his chair during the reading of the journal on the last day of the session, the bill was passed and approved by the governor. Logan county was organized at the same time, and the county of Custer also created at this term.
Contributed 2025 Mar 23 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1890 History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana: 1845-1889 by Hubert H. Bancroft, page 578
Within the confines of Elmore county are 2,665 square miles and a population
now estimated at nearly five thousand. On the south the Snake river separates it
from Canyon county; on the east are the counties of Gooding and Blaine; its
northern line follows the irregular boundary of Boise county, while on the west
is Ada. The northern section is triangular in form and is mountainous. The
central portion is a plateau. South of the plateau and in the eastern part of
the county, the country is rough and hilly, having north and south ridges. The
balance of Elmore county consists, for the most part, of fine, level tracts,
which, when they are supplied with water, will constitute one of the most
extensive irrigated regions in the West. In the north, the county is drained by
the South,
Middle and North forks of the Boise river, while south of the
plateau are numerous small streams which flow into the Snake.
Geologically, there are three distinct formations. The northern half of the
county belongs to the granitic area, which characterizes the great mineralized
region of central Idaho. The remaining area is divided almost equally by a
diagonal line extending from the southeast corner to the west county line near
its junction with the Boise county. On the east of this dividing line are the
lavas, while west of it are the sedimentary deposits of the old lake bed of
tertiary times.
This part of Idaho has been designated as Elmore county
only since 1889. Prior to that it belonged to Alturas county, created by the
first territorial legislature, which named Esmeralda as the county seat.
The discovery of gold in the Boise basin in the fall of 1862 led, during the
next year, to further explorations in southern Idaho. Placers were located on
Bear creek, one of the headwaters of the South Boise, which yielded $16 to $60 a
day to the man. Continued prospecting disclosed quartz veins, and by September
there were more than thirty quartz locations, all of which were promising. The
Ida Elmore was the first discovered of these quartz mines and the most famous.
The Vishnu and Idaho were among the best of the early properties.
Rocky
Bar, so named because of a great mass of boulders, was known in 1863. but was
not laid off as a town until 1864. when it succeeded Esmeralda as county seat.
Of the many little towns that sprang up during the mining excitement. Rocky Bar
alone survived.
The discovery of the Atlanta district, fifteen miles
north of Rocky Bar. is usually credited to 1864. In Hailey's History of Idaho,
however, an account of the finding of Atlanta is given by Mr. Jud Boyakin, an
editor of the early times, in which he says the discoverers were a party from
Warren. These men left Warren in July, 1863, and in the course of their
journeying located Stanley basin, which was named for one of their party. At
this place the company divided, one division returning to Warren and the other
continuing the search which resulted in the discovery of Atlanta. A very
interesting bit of Indian lore is given in this narrative, which is here
reproduced:
"The party of ten, consisting of Captain Stanley, Barny
Parke, Ed Deeming, Jack Frowel, Ben Douglas, Dan Lake, Mat Gardner, Frank
Coffin, Lee Montgomery and one whose name has been lost, left Stanley the same
day the returning party did. As their provisions were nearly gone, they hoped
soon to find a pass through the mountains that would lead them to Boise county,
or Bannock, as Idaho City was called at that time. They had gone about fifteen
miles over the old Indian trail east of Stanley, when suddenly and unexpectedly
they came onto a band of about sixty Indians camped on a large creek. In a
twinkling of an eye the Indians disappeared in the tamarack timber beyond them.
Here was a poser that called for a council of war. Dropping back on the trail
behind the point that had brought them in view of the Indians, the veteran
Stanley was appealed to for advice, but alas! he who had been through the fire
of a scene of desperate Indian battles, and bore on his weather-beaten frame the
scars as unmistakable evidence of his courage, was no longer a leader. The old
man's nerve was gone. He begged and implored the party to turn back on the trail
and overtake the Haines company.
"In a short time after the Indians
vanished in the timber, seven of them rode out in sight with superb grace and
dignity and one of them dismounted, divested himself of his blanket and
accoutrements, laid his rifle on the ground at his feet, and, raising his open
hand, made signs that he would like for one of the white men to meet him unarmed
on the open ground between the two parties. Frank Coffin, being an accomplished
Chinook linguist, was selected to meet the gallant brave. Observing the same
formality that his red brother had, he proceeded to the ground designated by the
Indian for the talk. When they met the Indian extended his hand, and with many
assurances in poorly spoken Chinook but very expressive sign-language convinced
Coffin that his people did not want to fight. The representative of the white
men, in elegant Chinook and with much impressive gesture, assured the red men
that neither were his men on the war path, but were gold hunters on the way to
Boise county. The red ambassador was a splendid specimen of the North American
savage, young, graceful and supple as a leopard. On his way to Montana in 1867,
Coffin met this Indian again on Wood river near where the town of Bellevue now
stands. The brave in his recognition referred to Coffin's moustache, which had
been added since their meeting in 1863, and reminded his white friend that he
was no longer a papoose chief.
"Proceeding a few miles along the trail
from where they met the Indians, they left it and bore directly for what
appeared to be a low pass over the range, but after floundering around for two
days in the timber and brush, they were confronted with towering cliffs and
loftv perpendicular mountain walls that barricaded their path. They had reached
an elevation that enabled them to see that they would have to return to the
trail they had left and travel further east before they could get over the
range. Retracing their steps, they struck the trail not far from where they had
left it three days before.
"Near where they came to the trail again, on
a freshly blazed tree, the adventurers read a history of their sensational
meeting with the Indians in a beautiful pictograph. It was about live feet long
and eighteen inches wide, and on its surface the artist had done his work so
well in red and black pigment that every one of the ten men read it at once. On
the upper end of the blaze he had painted the figures of nine men and horses,
representing the number the white men had, and their only dog. On the lower end
of the pictograph six mounted Indians and one riderless horse appeared, not far
from which the artist had painted a rifle and the accoutrements of which the
Indian had divested himself. In the middle of the picture the two ambassadors
were represented with clasped hands. Between them and the figure representing
the white company, the artist had painted a miner's pick, near which was an
arrow pointing in the direction the white men had gone. There was no mistaking
the object of the pictograph; it was to advise their people passing that way
that there may be or had been a party of gold hunters in the country."
In 1864 the great Atlanta ledge was located. The name of the ledge and later of
the camp and district was suggested by the battle of Atlanta, which that summer
had been a feature of the Civil war. This ledge, an immense fissure fifty feet
in width, extended across Atlanta hill and for three miles its course was marked
by bold outcroppings. The Atlanta ledge produced $5,000,000 worth of shipping
ore.
The wealth taken from the Atlanta district and from Rocky Bar
amounts to many million of dollars. These districts have had their recurrent
periods of depression and activity, but are still important factors in Idaho's
mining industry, Elmore county having recently ranked third in the gold
production of the state. From nature's standpoint. Atlanta is one of the most
favored mining camps in the West. It lies in a beautiful mountain basin on the
banks of the middle Boise river and is surrounded by high, tree-covered
mountains.
Inaccessibility has here, as in so many localities in the
state, been a handicap. For years the only egress was over the high divide,
between the waters of the middle and south forks of the Boise, to Mountain Home,
eighty-five miles away. This necessitated a very expensive and tedious wagon
haul, with but a short season during which the high ground was free from snow.
The construction of the state wagon road up the Boise river has remedied this to
a degree. While not shortening the distance, the road has an easy grade with no
high summit in its course.
Elmore has the distinction, which it shares
with Boise county, of being the site of one of the greatest enterprises for the
conservation of water that has ever been attempted. For many miles the Boise
river and its north fork form the boundary line between Elmore and Boise
counties. Across this river, just below the junction of its north and south
forks, is now being built Arrowrock dam, the highest structure of the kind in
the world. The valleys of the Boise and its two branches will, for several
miles, thus be converted into retaining vessels of the great volume of water
held back by this mass of masonry and concrete. This water, as needed, will be
released and will bring into fruit fulness many thousands of acres that have
previously been arid.
Elmore began its existence apart from the mother
county by authority of a legislative act passed February 7, 1880. At the time of
the organization of Elmore, Alturas was further deprived of territory through
the creation of Logan county, a portion of which is now known as Lincoln. The
names of Alturas and Logan, in the designation of counties, no longer appear on
the maps of Idaho. Mountain Home was made the county seat of Elmore county and
is the most important business point within its limits.
On the hill
slopes, valleys and plateaus are many square miles of grazing lands that are the
equal of those which have been more particularly described in connection with
other counties. While many cattle and horses feed on these pastures, Elmore
county has specialized in sheep. On these ranges are at least ninety thousand
head of sheep and Mountain Home has become an important wool shipping point.
As in so many other counties of this new state of Idaho, there are vast
stretches of public land, both surveyed and unsurveyed. Over a half million
acres of fine timber are within the Boise and Sawtooth forests.
There
are probably thirty thousand acres of land that may at this time receive water
and two-thirds of this area is now in a state of production. Elmore's great
farming section of the future lies in the south half of the county, where there
are hundreds of thousands of acres of level lands awaiting the vivifying touch
of water. And in lime capital and man's ingenuity will firing irrigation ditches
to this territory. Over one hundred thousand acres in the county have been
designated as open to entry under the Enlarged Homestead act, which permits the
taking from the government of three hundred and twenty acres that are to be
tilled according to dry farming methods.
One of the recent projects in
this county is the Mountain Home Co-operative Irrigation Company, which plans to
water twenty thousand acres. A part of the valley known as Little Camas prairie
has been converted into one of the reservoirs of this company and impounds
twenty-eight thousand acre feet of water. The second reservoir, known as Long
Tom, lies twelve miles below the other and will retain ten thousand acre feet.
Mountain Home is the commercial center of the irrigated section and the
supply point for a large territory. It is given special mention among the towns
and cities of Idaho.
Glenn's Ferry is the next town in importance in the
county. It is twenty-eight miles east of 'Mountain Home, both being on the main
line of the Oregon Short Line Railroad, which traverses the county from its
southeast corner to a point midway in its western boundary. Glenn's Ferry is
well lighted and, unlike most towns, presents an attractive appearance from the
railway. It is the end of a freight division, its business being largely
identified with the railroad, as there has as yet been but little development in
agriculture in the country near it.
Contributed 2025 Mar 23 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1914 History of Idaho by Hiram T. French, pages 192-195
On March 6, 1893, Governor McConnell approved an act providing for the
establishment of a State Reform School at the Town of Mountain Home, in Elmore
County, "the purpose of which shall be the care and reformation of incorrigible
youth, and the detention of juvenile offenders against the law," on condition
that the owners of the College Park addition to Mountain Home, or the people of
the town, prior to the first day of May, 1893, would donate ten acres of ground
to a board of six trustees as a site for the institution. The act also
appropriated the sum of $10,000 out of the sales of land donated by Congress by
the act of July 3, 1890, for the support of penal and charitable institutions.
[page 323]
The same Legislature established two normal schools — one at
Lewiston and the other at Albion, the county seat of Cassia County. The people
of Mountain Home were desirous of obtaining the Southern State Normal School,
which was given to Albion, and they refused to accept the provisions of the act
locating the reform school at their town by donating the site, etc.
Consequently, the school was not established. The Legislature of 1899, by an act
approved by Governor Steunenberg on the 15th of February, reenacted the law of
1893, but again the people of Mountain Home refused to donate the site, because
they believed that such an institution would be of no practical benefit to the
town. [page 324]
On February 15, 1899, Governor Steunenberg approved an
act providing for the establishment of the State Reform School at Mountain Home,
Elmore County, in accordance with the act of 1893, and appropriating $10,000 out
of the proceeds of land sales for the benefit of the institution. [page 243]
Thus matters stood until February 16, 1903, when Governor Morrison approved
an act establishing the "Idaho Industrial Reform School" in Fremont County, "for
the care, protection, training and education of neglected children, and
providing for the commitment, control and discharge of juvenile offenders."
[page 324]
Contributed 2025 Mar 23 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1920 History of Idaho: The Gem of the Mountains by James H. Hawley, pages 243, 323-324.
Elmore was the last county to be established while Idaho was still a
territory, the act of the Legislature creating it having been approved on
February 7, 1889. It was taken from the southwestern part of Alturas County and
was named "Elmore," after the famous Ida Elmore quartz mine at Rocky Bar, one of
the greatest producers of gold in the later '60s. Rocky Bar, situated near the
headwaters of the South Fork of the Boise River and formerly the county seat of
Alturas County, was named in the act as the county seat of Elmore, but some of
the citizens were in favor of having the judicial center of the county at some
town on the railroad and after a spirited contest the county seat was removed
from Rocky Bar to Mountain Home.
The permanent settlement of the county
dates from the building of the Oregon Short Line Railroad, when people began to
turn their attention to farming and developing the resources of the country.
Among those then resident or who located about this time in Elmore County were:
Franklin P. Ake, George A. Butler, J. H. Brady, J. H. Casey, R. P. Chatten, O.
B. Corder, W. C. Howie, Z. N. Hungerford, J. A. Purtill, A. W. Lockman, E. M.
Wolfe, E. C. Helfrich, R. W. Smith, W. H. Shuman and J. H. Van Schaick. Franklin
P. Ake built the telegraph line from Mountain Home to Rocky Bar and was the
promoter of the first irrigation project in the southern part of the county. E.
C. Helfrich was one of the pioneer merchants of Mountain Home and was still in
business there in 1918, and William C. Howie opened a law office in Mountain
Home about the time it was made the county seat.
The first election was
held in the county on October 1, 1890, at which Nelson Davis, Samuel B.
Blackwell and William H. Manion were chosen county commissioners; W. C.
Wickersham, clerk; George F. Mahoney, assessor; D. B. Hill, sheriff; Clarence T.
Waller, treasurer; E. C. Towne, surveyor; W. F. Smith, coroner; Augustine M.
Sinnott, probate judge and ex-officio superintendent of public schools. In 1916
the present courthouse was completed at a cost of $35,214.
Elmore County
is bounded on the north and northwest by Boise County; on the east by Camas and
Gooding counties; on the south by the Snake River, which separates it from
Owyhee County; and on the west by Ada County. It has an area of 4,785 square
miles and is one of the leading agricultural and stock raising counties of
Southern Idaho. In 1917 it reported 14,222 cattle and 122,980 sheep, being at
that time the second county in the state in the number of sheep and thirteenth
in the number of cattle. The assessed valuation of property for 1918 was
$8,140,073.
The only railroad in the county is the Oregon Short Line,
which follows the Snake River along the southern border to Doran, where it
leaves the river and runs in a northwesterly direction. The stations on this
line are Chalk, Cleft, Doran, Glenn's Ferry, Hammett, King Hill, Medbury,
Mountain Home, Sebree, Slade and Sunnyside. In the interior the principal
villages are Atlanta, Greendale, Lenox, Mayfield, Pine, Prairie and Rocky Bar.
In 1910 the population of the county was 4,785.
Contributed 2025 Mar 23 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1920 History of Idaho: The Gem of the Mountains by James H. Hawley, pages 636-639.
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03/23/2025