ABOUT Placerville idaho pioneers

19th Century Placerville

 

Gold was discovered in the Boise Basin in August, 1862, "when a party of prospectors from Florence and Auburn, Oregon, found gold on Boston Bar near Centerville.  Although commonly called the Grimes party, the initial discovery group was really composed of three prospecting parties that had joined forces to explore the Basin in the summer of 1862.”  ["Basin of Gold - Life in Boise Basin, 1862-1890", Arthur A. Hart, ID City Historical Foundation, 1986. Page 6.] The three parties were led by Moses Splawn, D. H. Fogus, and George Grimes.

 

The route the early miners would have taken from Florence to the Boise Basin is described by Alonzo Brown in his autobiography.  "I made one trip among the very first trains from Lewiston to Placerville, in Southern Idaho.  Went up to Salmon River, above Slate Creek, where we ferried across Salmon River, and went up to Little Salmon River Valley and through it to Payette River, then on to Placerville.  There was not much trail and some of the streams were hard to find.  [Autobiography of Alonzo Brown, University of Idaho Library, Special Collections Dept, 1922, page 25]

 

When the Territory of Idaho was formed in 1863, Governor Wallace ordered a count of the people.  Figures compiled in the month of September, 1863 give the following information about the population of the Basin: Boise City – 725 (516 m, 135 f, 74 ch), Placerville – 3254 (3150 m, 60 f, 44 ch). [Idaho State Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol 2, #1, March 1859, page 6].  According to Arthur A. Hart, the population of Granite Creek at that time was 1500.

 

The men who did well and were able to make a living from their claims or as support services to the miners and their families stayed in the area, but most left the area almost as quickly as they arrived.  Placerville's population declined dramatically from 3254 (1863), 318 (1870), 200 (1880) and 173 (1890) ["Basin of Gold - Life in Boise Basin, 1862-1890", Arthur A. Hart, ID City Historical Foundation, 1986. Page 8]

 

The Boise Basin consisted of sixteen little towns with miners living also in the gulches surrounding these towns.  Only two of these towns remain today: Placerville and Idaho City, which is now in the process of growing once more as a historical tourist attraction and a place to settle and get away from the "hustle and bustle" of Boise.

 

John Ellis, the Noone brothers, and Michael Leary settled in Granite Creek, which was located one mile west of Placerville.  An early description of Granite Creek comes from Winifred Noone Ellis who described it at the time of her arrival in 1869. "Granite Creek was a camp of considerable importance and size in those days.  Mrs. Ellis estimates that the population of the camp and nearby gulches must have been close to 1000 persons.  There were two general stores -- one owned by John Leary, and one by Con Hailey.  The stage always left the individual sacks of mail at the Hailey store for distribution as there was not post office there.  There was a hotel owned by a man named Tom Thebo.  Philip Ranft ran a brewery and another man had a dairy where he milked 15 cows and kept Morris Quinn as his delivery man to distribute milk each day to his regular customers at the price of $2.00 per gallon." [The Idaho Statesman, Apr 12, 1933, II page 4]