The history of Bannock County, Idaho

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; BOOKSTORE

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The History

OF

Bannock County
daho

The History

OF

Bannock County
Idaho

BY

ARTHUR C. SAUNDERS

Pocatello, Idaho. U. S. A.

THE TRIBUNE COMPANY. LIMITED

1915

i * >

V

&6o^

COPYRIGHT 1915, BY
THE TRIBUNE COMPANY. LTD.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pace

Introduction 9

CHAPTER I

Preliminary History 11

' CHAPTER II

Some Natural History 23

CHAPTER III

The Indians 35

CHAPTER IV

The Cowboy 46

CHAPTER V

Fort Hall 55

CHAPTER VI

The Nez Perce Indian War 66

CHAPTER VII
The Bannock Indian "War and the

Sheep-Eaters 76

CHAPTER VIII

The Stas-e Coach 8S

CHAPTER IX

The Railroad 101

CHAPTER X
General Conditions and Develop-
ment Ill

CHAPTER XI

Pocatello 122

CHAPTER XII
Conclusion 136

INTRODUCTION

Although Bannock county is not yet
twenty-five years old, it has seemed
desirable to collect her history, before
the adventures and legends of early
days have been lost in the more pro-
saic and pressing interests of today.

Probably no state in the union is
less known than Idaho. "Wyoming
has her "Buffalo Bill," Colorado her
Pike's Peak, Nevada her far, but ill-
famed Reno; Utah her famous salt
lake; all known throughout the Eng-
lish speaking world. But Idaho, rich
in natural resources, fertile and pros-
perous, has furnished no wild-west
tragedy like that of Custer in Wyo-
ming, to attract the attention of writ-
ers. She possesses no natural won-
der to rival the Niagara Falls or Grand
Canyon; she has produced no Kit
Carson or Daniel Boone to fire the
adventurous blood of ten-year-olds.

Few people in the eastern states
can accurately locate Idaho. They
know dimly that it is in the great
northwest, but whether it is hill or
plain, mine or ranch, they have for-
gotten along with much of the other
lore of early school days.

The history of Idaho, however, has
already been published by men whose
long residence in the state and ex-

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History of Bannock County

perienee in its public affairs emi-
nently fitted them for the task. It
is our more bumble and less preten-
tious pleasure to record the annals
of our own county — Bannock — than
•which no other in Idaho is more beau-
tiful in scenery, more romantic in
history or more promising for the
future.

It is a pleasure to make grateful
acknowledgment here of the valuable
and ready help so courteously given
in the compilation of this history by
the heads of t,he various United States
departments at Washington, the offi-
cials of the Oregon Short Line, the
city and county officers and the many
private persons whose personal knowl-
edge or study of the early days of
Bannock county made their assistance
indispensable. The list is too long to
reproduce, but in most instances the
authority has been cited in the text,
although in several cases names have
been omitted at personal request.

Of course, what we call Bannock
county today has existed since the
time of Adam. And so — not to begin
in the middle of the story— the first
chapter is devoted to a rapid sketch
of the territory comprising Bannock
county, before the county was created

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THE HISTORY OF
BANNOCK COUNTY

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY HISTORY

The territory now comprising Ban-
nock county first entered the pages
of history when, in 1662, the French
Sieur de la Salle planted his coun-
try's flag in what he called "Louisi-
ana," after his sovereign, Louis XIV,
of France. In order to prevent Eng-
land from gaining it, and hoping at
the same time to win an ally, Louis
XV ceded Louisiana to Spain in 1762.
Napoleon traded it back from Carlos
IV of Spain, but later sold it. This
was the territory purchased for the
United States by Thomas Jefferson in
1803 and for which the country paid
$15,000,000. It included the greater
part if not all, of the present state
of Idaho, and certainly all of Bannock
county.

The northwestern section of this
purchase became known as the North-
west Territory and included all land
west of the summit of the Rocky
Mountain range, between the forty-
ninth and forty-second parallels of
latitude. This was later called the

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History of Bannock County

Oregon territory, and contained not
only the present state of Oregon, but
also Washington, Idaho, and parts of
Montana and Wyoming.

In 1789, Captains Robert Gray and
John Kendricks skirted the coast of
this territory and traded for furs
with the Indians, and three years
later Captain Gray discovered the
Columbia river, up which he sailed
several miles. The Lewis and Clark
expedition, which left St, Louis in
May, 1804, headed by Captains Meri-
wether Lewis and William Clark, gave
such encouraging accounts of the re-
sources of the Northwest Territory
that many of the more adventurous
people in the states were induced to
undertake settling it.

For a time Spain, Russia and Great
Britain, as well as the United States,
claimed the northwest, there beinp;
some dispute between the latter two
countries as to the boundary line be-
tween Canada and the northern limits
of the Louisiana purchase.

Great Britain and the states, by
treaty of October 20, 1818, agreed
that the subjects of both countries
should settle the territory jointly for
a period of ton years. Before the
ten years had passed, both Spain and
Russia had ceded their claims to the
United States— the former in 1810,
the latter in 1824. At the expiration
of the ten vears, the treaty between
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History of Bannock County

Great Britain and the United States
was renewed indefinitely, to be an-
nulled by either party after one
year's notice.

In his History of Idaho, Mr. Hiram
T. French gives the following brief
sketch of Jim Bridger, after whom
Bridger street in Pocatello was
named :

"Among the men who trapped on
the headwaters of the Missouri and
its tributaries for the fur companies,
probably none was better known than
Jim Bridger. He made his headquar-
ters at a place now in southwestern
Wyoming, which became known as
Fort Bridger, and was later one of
the landmarks along the old 'Oregon
Trail. '

"Jim Bridger is authoritatively
credited with being the first white
man to see Salt Lake. In 1824 he
was trapping along Bear river in
what is now Idaho territory. He fol-
lowed the stream to the canyon lead-
ing out of Cache valley. Climbing
the high hills, he saw off to the south
a large body of water. His interest
aroused, he went on until he reached
the shore, tasted the water and found
it salty. Later an exploring party
went around the lake and determined
that it had no outlet.

"After having spent many years
among the Indians, Bridger lost his
life at their hands."

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History of Bannock County

The fate of Jim Bridger was not
an uncommon one in the early days.
A number of white men deserted their
own kind to become the adopted mem-
bers of Indian tribes. They took to
themselves Indian wives, and dressed,
spoke and lived as Indians. But their
fate was nearly always the same.
Sooner or later they were usually
killed by the people of their adoption.

Two American expeditions visited
this country in 1832, one headed by
Captain Bonneville. U. S, A., and the
other by Captain Wyeth.

Already some of the names in this
narrative must have struck the read-
er's ears as locally familiar — Clark,
Lewis, Bonneville and Wyeth. All
the cross streets in Pqcatello, except
Center, which divides the city into
north and south, are named after
early explorers, Indian fighters, hunt-
ers or men who otherwise distin-
guished themselves in daring during
the early days. Hence, Wfreth street,
Bonneville street, etc. The streets
parallel with the railway on the east
side of the city are numbered, while
those on the west are named for the
various presidents, as Arthur, C!lar-
field and Hayes.

In this way Pocatello has linked to
herself the names and therefoie the
history and adventures of the daring
and hardy pioneers of the <rreat north-
west. The history of her street names

History of Bannock County

would be one of romance and adven-
ture, of daring and hardship, suffer-
ing and triumph, such as it would be
hard to equal. For this heritage of
nomenclature, the city is indebted to
Daniel Church, former mayor of
Pocatello, to the Tribune, and others
who selected this system of names.

Captain Bonneville 's expedition was
one of exploration only. Captain
Wyeth came to trade with the In-
dians, but in this he met with small
success. The Hudson Bay Company,
a wealthy English corporation, had
entered the territory and was most
ably represented by Doctor — some-
times called Captain — McLoughlin.
He was an honorable, kind and brave
man, but far-seeing and shrewd. He
covered the country with a network
of English, Canadians, French and
Indians, and met American competi-
tion everywhere by offering higher
prices for furs than his rivals could
afford. Consequently Captain Wy-
eth 's expedition was not a business
success, but he deserves more than
passing notice, not only because his
name is now a household word in
Pocatello, but more especially because
he established Fort Hall, which he
named after a member of the firm for
whom he had come west.

Captain Nathaniel Wyeth, having
heard of the profits to be made in
fur-trading, led an expedition over-

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History of Bannock County

land from Boston, arriving at Fort
Vancouver in the fall of 1832. Here
he was to meet a vessel laden with
supplies and sent by a Boston com-
pany with which he was associated.
But the ship never came. After wait-
ing all winter Wyeth decided that she
had been lost, and returned to Bos-
ton.

In 1834, Captain Wyeth returned to
the northwest and this time a ship
containing supplies did come to meet
him. In his party were three Metho-
dist ministers — Rev. Jason Lee, Rev.
Cyrus Shepherd and Rev. T. L. Ed-
wards, who were the first missionaries
to land in Oregon. It was on this
second trip that Captain Wyeth built
Fort Hall, on the banks of the Snake
river, as a trading post, and here,
on July 27, 1834, Rev. Jason Lee con-
ducted the first Christian service held
in Idaho.

Competition with the Hudson Bay
Company and the loss of many men
by desertion and death, finally forced
the captain to sell out and return to
the east.

Two women deserve notice here as
being the first white women to pass
through what is now Bannock county.
They are Mrs. Whitman, wife of the
Rev. Dr. Marcus Whitman, afterward
killed by the Indians, and after whom
Whitman College in Oregon, and
Whitman street in Pocatello, are

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History of Bannock County

named, and Mrs. Spalding, wife of the
Rev. Spalding. They came to the
Northwest in 1836, and settled in
Oregon.

Another expedition, under Captain
John C. Fremont, after whom Fre-
mont street, Pocatello, is named, was
6ent to survey parts of this territory
in 1843.

At t,his time the condition of Amer-
icans in the Northwest Territory was
far from satisfactory. They had un-
dergone great hardships and risks in
order to establish themselves in the
new land, but their home government
had done nothing to either protect or
organize them. Petition after peti-
tion was sent to congress, but without
effect. So, on May 20, 1843, the
Americans met, at a place called
iShampoig, near where Salem, Oregon,
now stands, and organized a provi-
sional government, designating Ore-
gon City the capital. The first legis-
lature met in a carpenter shop, and
adopted the laws of the state of Iowa,
because an Iowa man, with a copy of
the. Iowa laws in his pocket, happened
to be present.

This provisional government was
entirely successful and continued un-
til 1846, when a new government was
formed and Hon. George Abernathy
was elected governor.

In this same year, 1846, Great Brit-
ain ceded to the- United States her

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History of Bannock County

claim to the Northwest Territory,
with the exception of the Hudson Bay
Company's holdings and those of the
Puget Sound Agricultural Company.
In July, 1863, the United States pur-
chased the interests of these com-
panies for $450,000 and $200,000 re-
spectively, the final payments being
made in 1865.

On March 3, 1853, congress passed
an act creating and organizing Wash-
ington territory, which included all
the Northwest territory except the
present state of Oregon. Ten years
later to a day, the territory of Idaho
was created and organized, containing
all of Washington territory, except
the present state of Washington. The
following year, 1864, Montana was
cut off from the territory of Idaho,
and that of Wyoming in 1868, when
Idaho took her present geographical
limits, being three hundred miles long
across her southern portion and only
sixty across the northern panhandle.

In February, 1864, the territory of
Idaho -was divided into Shoshone, Nez
Perce, Idaho, Boise, Owyhee, Alturas
and Oneida counties, the last of which
included the present county of Ban-
nock. Soda Springs was the first
county seat, which was afterward
moved to Malad City.

Bingham county was created Janu-
ary 13, 1885, out of the northern ami
eastern parts of Oneida county, the

History of Bannock County

southern part of which was made into
Bannock county, March 6, 1893. This
county was named after the Bannock
Indians, who were its original inhab-
itants, and who still own many acres
within the county limits.

In speaking of conditions at the
time when the first seven counties
were created, Mr. John Hailey, in his
"History of Idaho," says: "Quite
a percentage of the whole population
was engaged in some kind of trade,
merchandising, hotel and restaurant-
keeping, butcher, feed and livery busi-
ness, blacksmithing, sawmilling and
carpentering. A large number were
engaged in the transportation of mer-
chandise and passengers. Some few
had settled on ranches and were cul-
tivating and improving them. A few
were engaged in the stock business
and many more than was necessary
were engaged in the saloon and gam-
bling business, with a few road
agents, ready and willing to relieve
any person of his ready money with-
out compensation, whenever a favor-
able opportunity presented itself. The
primary object of all seemed to be
to gather gold. But I think I may
truthfully say that ninety-five per
cent of these people were good, in-
dustrious, honorable and enterpris-
ing, and to all appearances desired to
make money in a legitimate way."

In this same connection Mr. Hailey

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History of Bannock County

also says: "Most of the first settlers
of Idaho were poor in purse, but were
rich in muscle and energy, and most
all possessed a good moral character.
The rule that was in common prac-
tice was for each person to attend to
his own private business, and to have
an affectionate regard for his neigh-
bors and his neighbors' rights, and to
extend a helping hand to the unfor-
tunate that needed help. I speak from
experience, having an extensive busi-
ness and social acquaintance with
many of the early settlers of Idaho,
when I say (with a few exceptions),
the early settlers were as noble, patri-
otic, industrious, unselfish, intelligent,
good, generous, kind and moral peo-
ple as ever were assembled together in
like number for the reclamation and
development of an unsettled country,
inhabited only by untutored, savage
Indians, wild animals and varmints."
iSurely, we people of Idaho have a
proud heritage to live up to!

The following list of prices, quoted
by Mr. Hailey from the Boise News
of December* 26, 1863. published at
Bannock City (afterward Idaho City)
may give pause to some people who
complain of the present high cost of
living:

"Prices current. Corrected weekly
by Higbee & Company, dealers in gen-
eral merchandise, groceries and pro-

History of Bannock County

visions, corner Main and Wall street,
Bannock City.

"Groceries and produce:

Butter, per pound $ 1.25

Chickens, per dozen 36.00

Eggs, per dozen 2.00

Ham, per pound 75

Lard, per pound . .i 40 to .50

Salt, per pound 35 to .40

Side bacon, per pound. . . .60 to .70

Tea, per pound $ 1.50 to 2.00

Flour, per 100 lbs $33.00 to 36.00

Onions, per pound 25 to .30

Rice, per pound 50

Sugar, per pound 70 to .75

Candles, per pound 1.00

Nails, cut, per pound 40 to .50

Clothing.

Women's hip boots $30.00

Women's calf boots 6.00

Men 's calf boots 12.00

Woolen drawers, per pair

$1.50 to 2.00

Red drawers, per pair. $2.50 to 3.50

Men 's quilted brogan 3.50

Gum boots, long legs 12.00

Gum boots, short legs 11.00

Men's cavalry boots. .$12.00 to 15.00

Men's boots, long gr 10.00

Cal. best blankets 16.00

Salem blankets $13.00 to 15.00

Oregon socks, per doz 9.00

Best Cal. wool shirts. . .$3.00 to 4.00
Buck gloves, per doz. .$18.00 to 30.00

Red undershirts, per doz

$30.00 to 36.00

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History of Bannock County

Wines and Liquors.
Best Champagnes, per doz. .. .$48.00

Cal. Wine, per case 24.00

Claret Wine, per ease 24.00

Sherry, per gal., in wood. . . . 7.00

Port, per gal, in wood 7.00

Baker's Bitters, per case

$24.00 to 30.00

Goddard Brandy, per gal 10.00

Hermitage Whiskey, per gal.. 7.00
Kerosene Oil, per gal.. $8. 00 to 9.00

(The above prices were nsually paid
in gold dust at the rate of $16.00 to
the ounce, when the real value of
gold dust was only $14.50 to $15.00
per ounce.)

The above list has been consider-
ably shortened in reproducing it.

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CHAPTER II.

SOME NATURAL HISTORY.

Nature is the greatest of all his-
torians. She is alike the most accu-
rate and interesting. Her pen is the
impress of time, and in characters
more durable than the most lasting
creations of man, she has written the
story of the ages as they rolled slowly
by. Impartial, unprejudiced, and in
this respect omniscient, she has pa-
tiently and unerringly recorded a his-
tory more ancient than that of prime-
val man, more valuable than that of
the proudest monarchy. And so, hav-
ing in the previous chapter traced
Bannock county from an unlocated
spot in an unexplored desert to a
settled and civilized community of
fixed limits, let us now examine the
scene of our story more closely, and
try to read something of what Natur.;
has written there.

The sheltered canyon mouth in
which our city is built was once the
bed of a huge lake, larger than many
present day seas. Fish and prehis-
toric water animals, uncanny and
awe-inspiring monsters, could we see
them today, once sought their prey
where now our houses raise their shel-
tering roofs. The benches that today
are advertised as desirable building
sites, were at one time the sloping

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History of Bannock County

shores of an inland sea. Could we
but read the romance of rock and
soil in all its detail, surely the most
lurid fiction of man would pale by
comparison.

The westernmost point of Bannock
county is bounded by the Snake river,
far-famed for the beauty of its valley
and the rich gold deposits therein.
The character of these deposits has
puzzled prospectors and miners for
many years, because unlike all other
placer fields, it maintains a uniform
fineness and coloring from mouth to
source.

In the Engineering and Mining
Journal for January 25, 1902, Mr.
Robert Bell, a well known mining
expert of this state, published an
article entitled: "The Origin of the
Fine Gold of Snake River." This
article was reprinted in the Pocatello
Tribune, February 15. 1902, from
which we quote, in part :

"One of the most plausible theo-
ries that have been suggested touch-
ing the origin of this extensive dis-
tribution of the precious metal was
advanced by Captain N. L. Turner, a
West Point man, who spent consid-
erable time investigating the prob-
lem in the early eighties. Captain
Turner advanced the theory that the
gold was originally held in solution
by the waters of a great inland sea
or lake that occupied the Snake river

History of Bannock County

valley subsequent to the Miocene
period and that the gradual and re-
peated evaporation of -this great body
of water by subsequent lava flows
resulted in the precipitation of its
metallic contents, generally and even-
ly over its basin area. This theory
would seem to account for the uni-
form size and quality of the golden
colors so generally disseminated
throughout the enormous acreage of
fine gravel beds through which the
Snake river now courses.

"The geological record of the rocks
left along the borders of this stream
offer conclusive evidence of a land-
locked body of water. This great
body of water, which might aptly be
called Lake Idaho, was created by
the closing of the lower valley by a
great dam of brown Columbia lava,
6,500 feet high, now plainly exposed
by erosion."

The highest level of this lake was
about 6,000 feet, and its extent 500
miles in length from "Weiser to the
foot of the Rocky Mountain range,
and 150 miles in width. Its deepest
point was over 4,000 feet.

Mr. Bell goes on to say: "This
lake suffered numerous and extensive
variations of level during the Ter-
tiary period. Some of the more re-
cent horizons are still exposed at
Pocatello, where on either side of the
Portneuf estuary, in plain sight from

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History of Bannock County

the depot, well defined benches or ter-
races of shore-line gravel are left
exposed one hundred feet above the
town; and a succession of low step-
terraces of lake-shore gravel, cut by
the main track of the Oregon Short
Line railroad between Pocatello and
American Falls, plainly indicate the
rapid recession of the lake levels of
this period, and its final drainage and
complete obliteration by the erosion
of the Shake river channel to its
present level.

"Prior to the inception of the great
floods of black lava that have filled
the upper valley (near Pocatello)),
the shore lines and basin area of Lake
Idaho were almost all composed of
granite and Palaeozie formation.
These formations were rich in placer
and quartz gold."

It is thought that the Snake river
deposits also contain some alloy of
platinum or iridium.

But gold is not the only valuable
mineral deposit in Bannock county.
Situated at the mouth of Sulphur
canyon, five miles east of the town
of Soda Springs, is a group of soda
springs with associated deposits of
native sulphur. These mines were
worked in the late nineties and in the
years 1901 and 1902 a considerable
amount of sulphur was taken from
them, but the enterprise was finally
abandoned. The United States Geo-

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History of Bannock County

logical Survey, in Bulletin 470, gives
the following summary of these de-
posits :

"The failure of an apparently well
backed attempt to develop these de-
posits will render improbable any
further attempts in the immediate
future. It is extremely doubtful if
the deposits can be profitably worked
* * in competition with the rela-
tively high-grade deposits of Wyo-
ming and Utah."

The same bureau, in Part I of its
publications for 1909, speaks more
hopefully of the salt deposits in Ban-
nock county. In an article on this
subject, Carpel L. Breger says:

"Valuable areas of salt-bearing
land lie along the "Wyoming-Idaho
border in Bannock county, Idaho. In
the old days, before the advent of
railroads in the west, relatively large
amounts of salt were boiled from the
brine springs in this region and were
hauled by ox team to supply Idaho
and Montana mining camps. The
emigrants to the northwest along the
Lander route also drew upon this re-
gion for their salt. Indeed, some
forty years ago, in the reports of the
Hayden survey, this area was briefly
described as containing the finest salt
works west of the Mississippi. In
those days as much as 200,000 pounds
of salt was boiled per month, selling

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History of Bannock County

in the late sixties at $1.25 a hundred
pounds at the spring's."

Col. Lander, mentioned above, after
whom a street in Poeatello has been
named, led a government expedition
through these parts in 1863, and F.
V. Hayden, whose name has been
given to Hayden street, Poeatello,
conducted a United States geological
and geographic survey in this country
in 1872.

".Since then, however, the area has
decreased in importance. The rail-
roads have passed it by; other salt
works — those of the Great Salt Lake
region — have taken its markets on
account of easier railroad connection.

"Interest in these salt deposits has
recently been revived, owing to the
discovery of rock salt beneath some
brine springs. James Splawn and H.
Hokanson, in deepening these springs
in 1902, encountered a formation of
rock salt six feet below the surface
and this has been penetrated for a
thickness of twenty-six feet without
reaching the bottom. The exceptional
purity of the salt, its cheapness of
production, and the probability of
railroad connections in the near
future, lend interest to the deposits
of the entire district.

"As to quality, salt can be easily
obtained here which is above the aver-
age in chemical purity. This salt
could be produced most cheaply and
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History of Bannock County

with the maximum of cleanliness by
a process of solar evaporation.

"At present the market for the
salt of the area described is limited
to the immediate vicinity. It could,
however, command the markets of
eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and
much of Montana.

The vicinity adjacent to Pocatello
is rich in mineral deposits, but most
of them lie on the Indian reserva-
tion upon which white men are not
allowed to trespass. In his "History
of Idaho," Mr. Hiram T. French
speaks as follows of the mining re-
sources of Bannock county:

"Many outeroppings in the moun-
tains near Pocatello give promise of
most fabulous richness. Many assays
from the rock have been made, and
they run up into the thousands. The
agent in charge of the reservation,
however, has been strict in enforcing
the treaty laws. In the summer of
1893 a company of Pocatello men dis-
covered a copper ledge of marvelous
promise, on Belle Marsh creek, on the
reservation, and made a determined
effort to work it. They put a force
of men to work there and uncovered
a ledge for a distance of a hundred
feet, finding a well-defined ledge of
wonderfully rich copper ore. They
worked it until twice warned off by
the Indian agent, and quit only when
they were finally threatened with ar-

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History of Bannock County

rest. During the same summer a
strong company of capitalists of
Pocatello, Butte and Salt Lake City
organized and made an effort to se-
cure a lease of the mineral lands on
the reservation; but other men in
Pocatello, who had been watching
prospects and opportunity for years,
entered a protest and the interior de-
partment at Washington refused to
grant the lease. The same year a
Pocatello organization made an at-
tempt to obtain permission to de-
velop mines on this reservation, but
failure likewise attended this only
when they were finally threatened
with arrest. In 1891 some very rich
galena was discovered about two miles
east of Pocatello, and this created a
veritable stampede of miners who be-
gan digging vigorously. The signs
were most encouraging, but the In-
dian agent again came to the front
and drove the men from the reserva-
tion. According to the testimony of
all the old timers in this region there
are many rich deposits of the respec-
tive valuable minerals in nearly all
the mountains of Bannock county.
Apparently there is enough of coal
and asbestos deposit here to make
a whole community rich."

Pocatello 's railroad and ranching
interests alone insure the develop-
ment of a prosperous and fair-sized
city, and in the immediate attention

History of Bannock County

demanded by these activities, the
mining possibilities of the neighbor-
hood seem for the time to have fallen
into the background. The day will
come, however, when the Indian res-
ervation will be thrown open, and
when that day does come, a new
source of wealth will be released
which might easily place Pocatello
well in the front rank of western
cities.

In the southeastern counties of
Idaho there lies an extensive shore-
line of middle carboniferous lime-
stones and shales, which has been
outlined by the United States Geo-
logical Survey, and a very large por-
tion of which is contained in Bannock
county. This in its entirety composes
the largest phosphate field in the
world, the rock phosphate of the de-
posit being seventy per cent pure, in
beds of from three to eight feet thick.
In December, 1908, the secretary of
the interior withdrew from all kinds
of entry 4,541,300 acres of land, part
of which extends over the Utah line,
pending an examination of their phos-
phate resources. During the summer
of 1909, the United States Geological
Survey conducted field work on this
area, which resulted in the restora-
tion of some of these lands and the
withdrawal of others. The total area
now withheld is 2,551,399 acres.

The rock phosphate deposits of

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History of Bannock County

Bannock county are original sedi-
mentary formations made when this
part of the earth was still under
water. Since then other rock-form-
ing sediments have accumulated, so
that thousands of feet of subsequent
strata have overlain them. Deforma-
tion of the earth's surface has broken
these strata, which originally lay flat.
Hence these rock-phosphate deposits
resemble coal and limestone, rather
than ore deposits, such as veins or
lodes. No entirely satisfactory ex-
planation of their source or manner
of accumulation has yet been given.

The value of these deposits will be
more readily understood when it is
known that prior to their discovery
the total known supply in the United
States was barely sufficient to last
forty years. In addition to this, most
of the deposits were in the control
of European investors, which threat-
ened to put the American farmer at
the mercy of foreign speculators.

In his book entitled, "The Conser-
vation of Natui'al Resources of the
United States," Professor Van Hise,
of the University of Wisconsin, says:
"The most fundamental of the re-
sources of this nation is the soil,
which produces our food and cloth-
ing, and one of the most precious of
the natural resources of America,
having a value inestimably greater
than might be supposed from the

History of Bannock County

present market value, is our phos-
phate-rock resources."

Phosphoric acid is essentially a soil
fertilizer. It is really nothing1 else
than a rich manure, as the odorifer-
ous smell given off when two pieces
are rubbed together amply testifies.
The enormous deposits of this power-
ful fertilizer practically insure the
agricultural future of Idaho. The
secretary of the interior, in a recent
report, said: "The present crop
yields of the virgin fields of the west
under irrigation cannot be expected
to be maintained by irrigation water
alone, and the intensive methods of
that region will within a few years
have to figure on artificial fertilizers
to maintain their great yield."

And Nature, foreseeing our future
need, has provided for it in advance.

The limestone deposits near Inkom
are said to be valuable for the manu-
facture of cement.

The agricultural soil of the county
is composed largely of disintegrated
lava and volcanic ash, which, when
irrigated, is very fertile. The prin-
cipal waterways are the Portneuf,
the Snake, and the Belle Marsh, which
are fed by many mountain tributaries.

The county contains 3,179 square
miles.

Having now determined in our first
chapter the geographical location and
early history of Bannock county, and

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History of Bannock County

in our second examined the nature of
the country and what resources it
contains, we will in the third chap-
ter turn our attention to its first in-
habitants, and consider the case of
our brother, "the noble Indian."

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CHAPTER HI.

THE INDIANS.

Some years ago, when life was
young and all the world one luring
and beckoning field of adventure, the
writer of this modest history spent
five dollars to hear Dan Beard, Ernest
Seton Thompson and others, lecture
on "Woodcraft and Indians." They
6poke of the "noble red man," and
pictured a romantic and heroic being
of high ideals and chivalrous life,
whose adventures were clean and ad-
mirable, whose domestic life was
happy and blameless. At least one
member of the audience went home
from those lectures and shed bitter
tears of remorse and shame because
it was his sad lot to be a cowardly
pale-face. "We mention the incident
because it serves to illustrate the non-
sense that is published broadcast for
mercenary reasons, by people who
really know the truth.

This chapter does not pretend to
be a scholarly dissertation on the
American Indian, but is rather in-
tended to preserve the first impres-
sions made by the Indians on an in-
terested and uninitiated observer.
For the salient and noticeable traits
of these people are more likely to

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History of Bannock County

excite the comment of a newcomer
than they are to live in the haid soil
of familiarity.

The Arabs of the Sahara desert,
like our own Bannock Indians, wrap
themselves closely in camels-hair
blankets during the hottest weather,
which as everyone knows, is extreme
in North Africa. They also wrap
their heads in turbans, and explain
the custom by saying that it protects
them from the scorching rays of the
eun. Otherwise their skin would blis-
ter and dry up with the reflected heat
of the desert. This is probably true,
and it is no doubt for some similar
reason that the Indians wear blankets
all through the summer. It has been
said that the Indians use a powder
of vegetable or mineral character with
which they rub the inside of their
blankets, thereby rendering them im-
pervious to heat rays. Certain it is
that an Indian, clad in a blanket, is
seldom seen to perspire, even in the
hottest weather, while his civilized
brother drips just as profusely as a
white man.

In like manner all strange and
seemingly fantastic and heathen cus-
toms have their birth in reason, if we
can only detect it. The Indian, for
instance, paints his face as a protec-
tion from the dry and arid western
winds, which make some artificial ap-
plication of grease necessary. Let

History of Bannock County

those who doubt this take a glance
at the parched visage of some Ari-
zona rancher.

Some people maintain that the In-
dian is equal in intelligence to the
white man. Common sense tells us
that this is not true. No race men-
tally equal to the Caucasian would
remain for centuries in baibarism and
turn from civilization even when it
is thrust upon them. It is sometimes
said that an Indian is a white man's
equal because he can pass the intelli-
gence test of a twelve year old white
boy, this modicum of intelligence be-
ing scientifically sufficient to rescue
a white man from the ranks of the
mentally deficient. A man might al-
most as well be insane as to escape
insanity by a hair's breadth. And
so, also, of his intellect.

An Episcopalian missionary to the
Indians on the Fort Hall reservation,
said in this connection: "I noticed
when I first began to work among
these Indians that I could establish
no footing of equality between myself
and the bucks, although the latter
seemed to be on the most familiar
terms with my twelve-year-old boy.
This puzzled me for some time, and I
began to watch the intercourse be-
tween my boy and the Indians. Then
I discovered the secret. The mental-
ity of my boy and of the Indians was
on a par. The red men, although

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History of Bannock County

adults in years, were twelve-year-olds
in mind. From that time on I talked
with them on such terms and my for-
mer trouble was ended."

For this reason and because of the
results so far attained, it seems very
questionable whether it is wise to at-
tempt to civilize these people, in the
ordinary meaning of the term. Chris-
tianize them by all means. But two
men practicing the principles of
Christianity can live as happily in a
wig-wam as in a palace — perhaps
more so, and there is no reason why
we should want the squaws to wear
split-skirts because our own women
wear them. There is but little choice,
and perhaps the squaw has the best
of it at that. The South Sea islander
does not want us to wear rings in our
noses because he does, and it seems
hardly fair that we should wish to
throttle the poor Indian with the
shackle that civilization calls a col-
lar, just because we are foolish
enough to wear collars. Christianity
alone will bring these people as much
civilization as they need for both
their happiness and salvation, and
that is more than many of our own
boastful race possess. For the rest,
the Indian, to his honor, be it said,
is a child of nature, who loves his
sagebrush and desert freedom, and it
is no kindness to tear him from the
life he loves so well. No wonder he

History of Banno ckCounty

hates the white man. Most of us
would hate people who insisted upon
making canary-birds, guaranteed to
sing in the parlor, out of us, when we
wanted to be eagles. Perhaps it is
some such reason as this that leads
the Indians on the reservation to
despise those who live among the
whites. The average Indian who
hangs around Pocatello is certainly
inferior to his brother in the sage
brush.

Although the Indian is a lazy man,
who makes his squaw do most of the
work, he is not without some strain of
generosity. The squaw usually fol-
lows along some ten paces behind her
husband, and it is no uncommon thing
to see the buck eating a bag of apples
or other delicacies and throwing the
cores to his faithful squaw, who de-
vours them with relish.

The Bannocks, in common with all
other Indians, have a decided sense
of beauty, — a trait that is seldom
noticed, although one of the best pos-
sessed by the red-men. This artistic
instinct finds play in the basket and
bead work done by these people.
Many of their designs combine great
beauty with great simplicity, and dis-
play a taste that is far from uncul-
tured. In their names, too, the In-
dians show a love of the beautiful.
Where in the whole wide world can
more beautiful names be found than

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(40)

History of Bannock County

Wyoming and Arizona, Idaho and
Oregon, Nevada and Oklahoma?
Resonant and poetical names they
are, suggestive of a bigness quite
commensurate with the vastness of
the states they name. It has been
said that the west, inspired by the
beauty of her Indian names, will some
day produce a new school of poetry,
made possible only by the poetry of
the wild, free red-men.

As in all frontier communities,
many amusing incidents have trans-
pired between the Indians and whites.
Probably everyone in Pocatello knows
"''Stonewall" Johnson and probably
no one in Pocatello knows horse-
flesh better than he. One day
Mr. Johnson bought a horse from an
Indian. The animal had seven dis-
eases— all fatal — but Mr. Johnson,
with infinite skill and patience, grad-
ually cured him of them all. He
nursed the dying beast back to health
and made a valuable horse of him.
Prom time to time the Indian dropped
around to inspect the animal. One
fine day, when the cure was fully
effected, the Indian deliberately en-
tered the field where the horse was
grazing in care of Mr. Johnson's little
boy, mounted and rode away, leaving
the youngster to carry the news home.
Mr. Johnson has never seen either
horse or Indian since. It is said that
the only way to bind a bargain with

History of Bannock County

the Indians is by a deed of sale. On
the other hand, the missionary pre-
viously mentioned, says that he would
rather lend money to an Indian than
to a white man, as the former never
fails to repay the loan.

We have spoken of the Indian's
sense of beauty. He is also cruel, and
his cruelty is written on his face.
Imagine, then, the dismay and terror
of a missionary's wife, who, with her
husband, alighted one dark night at
a little way station just north of
Pocatello. the depot was. locked, and
while the missionary went to look for
a night's lodging, his wife disposed
herself comfortably on a soft and
well-filled gunnysack lying or« the sta-
tion platform. Presently the gunny-
sack moved, stretched a pair of moc-
casined legs, and said "Woof!" The
lady eventually recovered, bu* whether
the Indian did, the story does not
tell.

While possessing much innate no-
bility, the Indian sometimes appears
in a ridiculous light. It is said that
when a part of the reservation was
thrown open a few years ago, and the
red-men reimbursed in cash, many of
them invested their money in vehicles.
They bought every old wagon for
miles around, and when the supply
ran low, took what they could get.
So it happened that one buck bought
an old hearse. In the body of this

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(42)

History of Bannock County

he was wont to carry his numerous
papooses, who gazed at the passing
throng with their squat faces pressed
flat against the windows, while the
proud parents occupied the driver's
box.

These people have a strange aver-
sion to the camera, probably as to
something uncanny and not under-
stood. They believe that to be pho-
tographed saps the strength. At the
last sun dance held in the Bottoms
near Pocatello, it was necessary to
pay one old centenarian five dollars
to induce him to pose for one snap-
shot.

Among the common-places of for-
mer days that are fast passing away
are the wild horses. These animals
Btill roam the plains of Bannock
county, but they are becoming more
scarce every year. They travel in
bands of fifteen or twenty and are
very bold. They will approach with-
in close range of a human being and
feed unconcernedly under his gaze,
but at the sound of the human voice
they become terror-stricken and stam-
pede away in great confusion. Some
daring men rope these animals dur-
ing the summer months and break
them in for saddle use, but their wild
blood is never really tamed. It is
necessary to break their spirit with
cruelty before they are of any use,
and then they are apt to relapse at

History of Bannock County

any time. When one escapes from
captivity it is said that he will
travel hundreds of miles with en-
erring instinct back to the plains
whence he was taken.

The fact that a large portion of the
land included in Bannock county was
set apart for and inhabited by In-
dians retarded its settlement for
many years. The Indians were hos-
tile to the white men, few of whom
settled in the vicinity, except em-
ployes of the stage lines runing from
Salt Lake to Butte, government
agents, etc.

The Shoshone — in the Report of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs for
1913, this name is spelt Shoshoni —
and Bannock Indians now living on
the Fort Hall reservation are types
of the great Lemhi family. The Sho-
shone, or Snake Indians, are fairly
honest, intelligent and peaceable, al-
though all the Indians west of the
Rocky Mountains are inferior to
those living to the east. The Ban-
nocks are more cunning, sly, and rest-
less than the Shoshones. The Sho-
shone family, of which the Bannock
is a branch, are thought to have come
originally from California. While the
name Shoshone is commonly supposed
to mean "snake," some authorities
hold that it means "inland." These
Indians are more pretentious in dress
and ornamentation than those living

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History of Bannock County

farther south, and possess no mean
skill in the art of pottery. Ross, an
authority on Indian affairs, says:
"The Snakes have been considered as
a rather dull and degraded people,
weak in intellect and wanting in cour-
age. And this opinion is very prob-
able to casual observer, at first
sight or when they are seen in small
numbers, for their apparent timidity,
grave and reserved habits, give them
an air of stupidity. An intimate
knowledge of the Snake character
will, however, place them on an equal
footing with that of other kindred
nations, both in respect to their men-
tal faculties and moral attributes."

The different tribes or families of
these Indians speak different dialects,
but have a sign language that is un-
derstood by all. Although stolid and
silent in their intercourse with white
men, they are vivacious and even gar-
rulous among themselves. The play
of their hands when they talk with
signs resembles the conversation of
deaf mutes.

Another writer says: "The Ban-
nocks of Idaho are highly intelligent
and lively, the most virtuous and un-
sophisticated of all the Indians in the
United States."

These Indians were at least intelli-
gent enough to devise a system of
hieroglyphics, examples of which are
still to be seen on the lava rocks to
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History of Bannock County

the west and south of Pocatello, al-
though the Indians of today seem to
have lost the art of reading them, and
their contents remain a mystery. They
are recent enough in execution to have
survived the wear of wind and weath-
er, but how interesting it would be if
we could read the crude romance they
tell — some memorable page of bar-
barous history or some forgotten trag-
edy of desert life !

There are in the neighborhood of
Pocatello also some old Indian forts —
crude constructions of dug-outs and
mountain boulders, interesting only
on account of their origin. The cur-
ious may find one about two miles
out of Pocatello, to the left of the
road that winds back from West Sub-
lette street. It probably differs in
no way from those built by the In-
dians of this vicinity two thousand
years ago, and were they to construct
another today it would be impossible
except by age, to tell the new from
the old. Civilization rolls on apace,
and today's triumph of mechanism is
the scrap heap of tomorrow, but the
stolid Indian, imperturbable and un-
interested, remains much the same,
yesterday, today and apparently for-
ever.

(46)

CHAPTER IV.

THE COWBOY.

(46)

Closely associated with the Indians
in the minds of many people, es-
pecially in the east, are the cowboys.
The prevalent idea in the eastern
states about the far west is much the
same today as it was fifty years ago
— an illusion that the moving pictures
help to keep alive. And yet, prosaic
as it may be compared with the stir-
ring times of yore, there is still a
charm and freedom in western life
unequalled in any other part of the
United States. That western people
are fully alive to the romance and
adventure connected with the settle-
ment of the west, is shown by the
fact that moving picture representa-
tions of western life are popular to
an equal extent in no other portion
of the Union.

The mouth of the Portneuf canyon
was a favorite wintering place for
cattle men and freighters because of
the feeding ground to be found on
the bottoms, the shelter afforded by
the surrounding hills, and the water
supplied by the Portneuf river. For
similar reasons the Indians used the
present site of Pocatello for their
winter quarters. Just west of Po-

History of Bannock County

catello, along the banks of the Snake
river, lay a rich and fertile grazing
ground, where was situated the head-
quarters of the old War Bonnet Cat-
tle company, a big outfit that operat-
ed in this country for several years.

Until the old ranges were broken
up into ranches, which practically
ended the old cowboy life, the Port-
neuf canyon remained a winter ha-
ven for cattle men, and many wild
and thrilling exploits were enacted
here. The cutting up and fencing of
the ranges has been inevitable in the
course of progress and development,
but from the cowboy standpoint it
has not been altogether desirable
Cattle driven by a storm will run be-
fore the wind, and when they meet
an obstacle will halt rather than turn
in the face of the gale. As a result,
many cattle, stopped in their course,
have perished from cold and expos-
ure in recent years.

Cowboys and sheepherders are still
seen daily on the streets of Pocatello.
Many of the latter are Mexicans and
they are looked down upon by the
cowboys as being less hardy and
daring.

The two classes have never lived
peaceably together because the sheep
clip the grass so close to the ground
that cattle can find no nourishment,
after the sheep have gone. For this
reason fights were so common be-

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(48)

History of Bannock County

tween the sheep and cattle men that
the government finally alloted to
each grazing grounds of their own.

The sheep men go out with their
charges in the early spring and are
on the range for several months at a
stretch. So many of them went in-
sane from monotony and loneliness
that a law has been passed, requiring
owners to send two men with every
outfit.

Like most men living an open and
free life, these men are for the most
part generous and careless of money,
taking little thought for the future
and oftimes going to excess for the
present.

Some years ago, says a resident of
Pocatello, an Italian, with infinite
patince and trouble, succeeded in
catching a mountain lion in the hills
and brought him safely to town in a
large cage. A band of cowboys, bent
on merry-making, surrounded the
cage and danced about it, letting out
their blood-curdling yells and shoot-
ing their guns. The lion, unaccus-
tomed to such antics, at first snarled
savagely. Later he became quiet.
The cowboys began to thrust at him
through the cage, and then to dare
one another to enter it. At length
one of the men took up the dare.
Armed with a knife and a gun, he cau-
tiously entered the cage. The lion
crouching in a corner, watched the

History of Bannock County

intruder but made no movement. The
cowboy grew bolder and began to
probe and kick the beast. His com-
panions encouraged him with more
hoots and yells, but still the lion lay
quiet. Finally the adventurer with-
drew in despair of stirring up a fight.
The savage animal had been so com-
pletely cowed and terrified by the
noise that it was literally paralyzed
and unable to move.

Mr. Herman Goldsmith, now in the
employ of the Oregon Short Line, but
formerly a cattle man, tells of a town
that boasted but one bathtub, owned
by the barber. To this shop repaired
the soiled and weary of the commu-
nity for ablution and refreshment.
One fine night a band of cowboys
shot up the town and the next day
the bath-tub was gone. Search was
made high and low, but no tub could
be found. The loss was serious, as
there was no railway in those days
and another tub could not be pur-
chased in a radius of many miles.
The town had little godliness, and
now even its cleanliness was gone!
One fine day the disconsolate barber
was given a tip that his bath-tub was
secreted in a cowboy's shack some
miles distant. A warrant was sworn
out, the tub recovered, and the cul-
prit hied into court. Came also the
barber.

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History of Bannock County

(50)

"How many baths do you sell a
week?" asked the judge.

"About seventy," said the barber.

"At how much per bath?" con-
tinued the judge.

"Fifty cents," answered the bar-
ber.

"How many weeks has your tub
been gone?" the court asked.

"Three," the barber said.

Then the court summarized: "Sev-
enty baths at fifty cents each equals
thirty-five dollars per week. Three
weeks at thirty-five dollars is $105."

So he fined the cowboy $105 and
costs, and reimbursed the barber for
his lost business.

The same frontier conditions that
produced the cowboy have served also
to make the westerner a more rugged
and ever-ready man than the eastern-
er. The westerner may lack some of
the culture and finish of his New
England cousin, but he is better
equipped to fight the battle of life
both in his training and in his in-
herent qualities. The west is devel-
oping a fine and unique type of man-
hood. Its vast distances, its noble
hills and far-stret?hing plains make
an atmosphere of bigness that alone
must influence, even inspire the race
that is native to them. It is said
that a little girl, fresh from the west-
ern plains, was asked how she liked
the east. "I don"; like it," she said.

History of Bannock County

"I can not see anything because of
the trees." And the same cramped
conditions that oppressed the child
have perhaps done their part in nar-
rowing the easterner. However that
may be, the easterner is usually a
man of more narrow ideas and of
stronger prejudices than the west-
erner.

We have one other inhabitant in
Bannock county who deserves notice
before he vanishes in the face of civ-
ilization'— the coyote. No one who
has not heard the yell of a coyote on
a still night knows what the phrase,
"blood-curdling" means. These ani-
mals are often crossed with dogs and
make cowardly curs, until they are
taught to fight. Having once learned
the noble art, it is hard to make them
keep tlie peace. Their pelts have a
market value today, and in time to
come will probably be highly prized.

Another class of men who made a
winter rendezvous of the present site
of Pocatello were the freighters — men
who drove the old freight stages from
Salt Lake to Butte. These men were
true pioneers, camping along the old
trails until they knew them blind-
fold for hundreds of miles, and en-
countering great risk from exposure
and from the Indians. Sometimes an
impoverished traveler worked his way
with these freighters. He was called
a swamper, and to his lot fell all the

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(52)

History of Bannock County

chores of the camp — chopping wood,
carry ing water and building fires. He
usually paid well for his passage.

There was always bad blood be-
tween the Indians and freighters, the
former resenting the intrusion of the
teamsters as they passed through the
reservation along the old trail. The
freighters prepared for trouble as
they neared the reservation limits,
and frequently met it.

In August, 1878, two men, Orson
James, and another named James, but
not related to the former, were taking
a load of merchandise from Salt Lake
to Butte, and were attacked by a hos-
tile Indian on the road between Poca-
tello and Fort Hall. The red man
opened fire unexpectedly and shot
James in the back. The freighters
returned the fire from behind their
wagons, but in time the Indian suc-
ceeded in hitting Orson James in the
neck. Then he rode off into the sajre-
brush, but was later captured and
taken to Malad City, at that time the
county seat, for trial. He was sen-
tenced to four months' imprisonment
in the penitentiary at Boise, where
he died before his term expired. Both
men recovered but Orson James was
lame during the rest of his life.

When the Indian just mentioned
was taken to Malad City, he was ac-
companied by a brother. This man
heard Alec Roden, a cow-puncher, re-

History of Bannock County

mark that the Indian on trial should
be hung. He attached undue import-
ance to these words, thinking', in his
ignorance of the white man's methods
of justice, that they would affect the
verdict unfavorably for his brother.
Roden was later sent to the Fort
Hall reservation to attend to a hay
contract. In talking over the trial,
Joe Rainey said to Roden, "You
should not have let that Indian's
brother hear you advise hanging. He
is likely to seek revenge."

Roden laughed the fear away, but
that same evening, while he was work-
ing at the barn, the imprisoned In-
dian's brother shot him dead.

'Such attacks served to keep the
white men on the alert. They were
usually unprovoked, so far as the
people who were attacked knew, but
an investigation generally showed
that the red man, after his fashion,
was visiting a real or supposed wrong
on the first member of the offending
race he encountered.

Few features of the far west are
more widely known, or more charac-
teristic than the prairie schooner. In
parts of South Africa the same pio-
neer conditions exist that prevailed
in our western states until a few
years ago. The climate and nature
of the country are much the same.
It is interesting to notice that the
same conditions, ten thousand miles

(53)

History of Bannock County

away, and untouched by American
western influence, have produced the
same prairie schooner that we see
winding the dusty trails of Bannock
county today. It is probably safe to
say that were two bodies of men sent
from Paris — one five thousand miles
east and the other five thousand miles
west — to new countries of like con-
ditions, the two parties would be
found after several generations to
have evolved the same habits of
dress, custom and life. Yet not the
men, but Nature, the great mother
of us all, would have decided these
things for them.

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CHAPTER V.

FORT HALL.

There are many historical spots in
the United States unmarked by a
monument, but there are probably
few cases on record of a monument
searching for a vanished site. Such
is the case of the stone pillar pur-
chased by subscription to mark the
original site of Fort Hall.

In 1906 Ezra Meeker traveled along
the old Oregon trail and raised money
with which to mark the historical
points along the route. One monu-
ment stands in the High School
grounds at Pocatello. Another was
purchased for erection on the Fort
Hall site. A teamster was directed
to carry it to its destination on the
banks of the Snake river, twelve
miles to the west of Pocatello, and
this man deposited the monument at
the dobies, that were once a stage
station. Those in charge of placing
the monument, being unable to cer-
tainly determine the original site of
the fort decided to leave the pillar
where it lay, until the old fort
had been indisputably located. And
there it still rests, and probably will
remain for some time to come.

It is unfortunate that the most his-

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History of Bannock County

torical point in Bannock county and
one of the most historical in the state
of Idaho, should have been lost
sight of.

No effort will be made in this chap-
ter to decide the question, because
such an attempt would be little more
than a guess. It seems not unlikely,
indeed, that the original site has com-
pletely vanished.

Fort Hall was established in 1834
as a fur trading station by Captain
Nathaniel Wyeth. The captain found
himself unable to compete success-
fully with the Hudson Bay company,
which at that time operated in these
parts, and in 1835 sold his interests
to his rivals and returned to the east.

Here comes the first problem in lo-
cating the original site. The Hudson
Bay company is thought to have
moved the fort. Wbo can tell whether
the sites now pointed out were those
of the first or second post? Some
pioneers maintain that Fort Hall was
moved three times before the sixties,
while others maintain that some old
ruins on the bank of the Snake, about
one and a half miles above the Tilden
bridge, are the first site. This spot
is now overgrown with grass, but it
is possible to detect the outlines of
an old foundation, something over
two hundred feet in length, and what
appears to have been at one time rifle
pits. Evidently it was the location

History of Bannock County

of a large building, but whether or
not of the first fort, who can tell?
Joe Rainey, native interpreter at the
present Fort Hall Indian reservation,
maintains that this was the first site.

Other old-timers say that some do-
bies near the Snake river were a fort
site, but Mr. J. N. Ireland of Poca-
tello, says that he built these himself
and that they were a station on the
old Overland stage road.

The old Oregon trail, which ex-
tended for over two thousand miles,
from St. Louis, Mo., to Portland, Ore-
gon, divided at Soda Springs, in Ban-
nock county, into two almost parallel
courses, which met again at old Fort
Boise. One of these followed the
Portneuf river through the present
sites of McCammon and Pocatello.
The other followed a northwesterly
direction from Soda Springs to old
Fort Hall.

Many pioneers, in their description
of the fort as they first knew it, speak
of a river that can be no longer
found. Either its course has changed
since the early days, or its name
chang-ed; perhaps both, which last
condition would make it very diffi-
cult to identify the present stream
with that of seventy-five years ago.

During pioneer days. Fort Hall was
one of the most important posts alone:
the Oregon trail. It was the first
point west of Fort Laramie, where

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History of Bannock County

travelers could rest securely under
the protection of the flag-, and where
there was a garrison of soldiers to re-
lieve them of all fear of sudden at-
tack from the Indians. Here the
weary and travel-stained pioneers,
pushing- on for the far-famed Oregon
territory, found respite from their
toils and dangers, and enjoyed once
more the companionship of their own
kind. Here, too, preparatory for the
last, long march of their transconti-
nental journey, they repaired their
wagons, and discarded such baggage
as it had seemed wise to bring when
starting, but which later experience
proved to be only an encumbrance.
An area of several acres around Fort
Hall is said to have been covered with
this debris, Avhicli was ransacked by
the Indians and shorn of such parts
as the red men wanted. Prof. W. R.
Siders, superintendent of the Poca-
tello public schools, who has been
interested for several years in the
effort to locate the site of the original
fort, and to whom the writer is in-
debted for very generous and valu-
able information, maintains that it
Might to be possible to identify the
Hudson Bay company's fort by the
rummage in its vicinity. He has ex-
amined the banks of the Snake river
for several miles and been unable to
unearth any such remains. This fail-
ure adds probabilitv to the statement
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History of Bannock County

of old "Doc" Yandell, a trapper in
early days, who still resides in these
parts. Mr. Yandell says that some
years ago he and Pete Weaver lived
on the site of old Fort Hall, which
was then on the banks of the 'Snake
river, and three quarters of a mile
distant from a spring. In later years
Mr. Yandell maintained that he could
walk directly to the site of his former
camp, but when he attempted to do
so, he found that the Snake was flow-
ing within three hundred yards of
the spring that used to be three-quar-
ters of a mile from its bank. It
is probable that since his departure
some spring flood had washed out a
new channel for the river, thereby
changing its course, and placing the
old fort site under water. This might
account for Prof. Siders' failure to
find the debris of which he was in
search.

The name "Fort Hall" has experi-
enced numerous vicissitudes, since it
was first coined eighty years ago. The
Hudson Bay company received it from
Captain Wyeth. When the Hudson
Bay company sold its American rights
to the United States government in
1863, the latter used the name to des-
ignate the military post which stood
about sixteen miles northeast of the
present agency. Here the government
maintained a garrison of three com-
panies of soldiers until about LSS4.

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History of Bannock County

when the troops were withdrawn and
the fort buildings used for Indian
school purposes. When the school
was moved to its present quarters,
which were first occupied in 1904, the
name went with it. Some of the old
fort buildings were moved to the new
site, and the remainder given to the
Indians. Traces of the fort may still
be seen.

The Oregon Short Line station at
the reservation, originally called Ross
Fork, has recently been changed to
Fort Hall and the name is also used
to designate the whole reservation.

The name Ross Fork, according to
Interpreter Joe Rainey, was derived
from an old man named Ross, who
operated a ferry across the Snake
river forty years ago. One or two
old posts still mark the ferry site.

The Fort Hall Indian reservation
for the Bannock Indians was estab-
lished in July, 186S. In July of the
previous year the government ap-
pointed a commission consisting of
N. G. Taylor, Lieutenant General
Sherman, IT. S. A., William S. Har-
ney, John R. Sanborn. S. F. Tappen,
A. H. Terry, and Brevet Major Gen-
eral C. C. Augur, U. S. A., to nego-
tiate treaties with all hostile and non-
treaty Indians, and if possible to set-
tle them on reservations. The treaty
made with the Bannock Indians states
that they were to have "reasonable
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History of Bannock County

portions of the Portneuf and Kansas
prairies." There is no doubt that
not "Kansas" but "Camas" was
meant, the latter being a favorite re-
sort of the Indians, where they
gathered the tuberous Camas root,
which they prized highly as a food!
The mistake in the name must have
been made by an interpreter, clerk or
typesetter, and Mr. John Hailey says
that the government officials under-
stood the mistake, but threw open the
Camas prairie for settlement by the
whites. The Indians who signed this
treaty on behalf of the Bannocks
were Taggee, Tay-Toba, We-Rat-Ze-
Won-A-Gen, Coo-Sha-Gan, Pan-Sook-
A-Motse, and A-Mite-Etse. To them,
no doubt, "Kansas" and "Camas"
meant the same, but the mistake
caused much trouble in later years.

The treaty was made July 3, 1868,
ratified by the United 'States senate,
February 16, 1869, and proclaimed
by President Andrew Johnson, Feb-
ruary 24, 1869.

The governor of Idaho was in-
structed by the authorities at Wash-
ington to have the proposed reserva-
tion surveyed, probably in accordance
with the clause which provided "rea-
sonable portions of the Portneuf and
Kansas prairies." The governor is
said to have visited the Portneuf val-
ley, and with a wave of the hand to
have instructed the surveyor to "sur-

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History of Bannock County

vey out a good-sized reservation
around here for these Indians." He
then returned to Boise. As the sur-
veyor was paid by the mile for his
work, he ran the survey out to as
many miles as possible. Consequent-
ly the reservation included twice as
much land as was needed, but its lim-
its were later curtailed. No notice
was taken of the provision for a por-
tion of the ''Kansas" prairie, but
the Indian agent allowed his charges
to fish, hunt and dig camas on the
Camas prairie whenever they wished.
The country now included in the
Fort Hall reservation was at one time
the scene of many Indian battles. A
hundred years ago, when buffalo still
roamed these parts, the Blackfoot In-
dians ranged along the river that now
bears their name. This tribe was the
arch-enemy of the Bannocks and Sho-
shones, who used to make raids into
the enemy's territory for the pur-
pose of stealing their horses and cat-
tle, and in turn to patrol their own
demesnes when the enemy invaded
them. An old squaw, said to have
been more than a hundred years old.
died on the reservation last year, who
used to tell of a battle fought in her
childhood between the Bannocks and
Blackfeet that lasted four days.

On some of the higher buttes to-
ward the north of the reservation
there still stand stone pillars, built

History of Bannock County

by the Indians. These were look-out
posts, and most of them stand where
a view of the country may be had for
miles around. Here the spies watched
the movements of their enemies and
made signals to their friends. Usually
the look-out lay behind the pillar and
peered around its base, but sometimes
he stood flat against its front. As
the enemy gradually circled in one
direction or another, the spy moved
slowly around the pillar, always keep-
ing his face toward those he was
watching lest in the distance they
should detect his form standing- out
from the pillar and take alarm.

The following statistics were very
kindly furnished by Mr. Cato Sells,
U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs :
The Fort Hall Indian reservation
contains 454.239 acres, of which
38,000 acres were irrigated by 140.37
miles of ditch in June, 1913.

The value of the property and
funds on the reservation of the In-
dians is $4,551,711, or $1,103.97 per
capita.

The crop raised by the Indians in
1913 were valued at $73,591, and dur-
ing the same year they sold $51,520
worth of stock. These items, added
to the receipts from other industries,
made their total income for the year
amount to $169,262.42.

The Indian population of the reser-
vation, June 30, 1913, was 1.819. Of

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History of Bannock County

these, 273 were operating' farms for
themselves, 222 children were en-
rolled at the reservation school, and
thirty were enrolled at the Episcopal
Mission School of the Good Shep-
herd.

The largest ranch operated by an
Indian contains 160 acres.

Only three crimes were committed
by Indians during the year. Two ar-
rests were made for drunkenness.

The most prevalent diseases among
the Bannock Indians are tuberculosis
and trachoma.

There are no longer any soldiers
on the reservation, but a patrol of
Indian police guards the public safety.
These men are splendid types of their
race. The delight of their lives is
to arrest a white man.

There is an atmosphere of content-
ment on the reservation and a good-
will between the Indians and govern-
ment agents employed there that is
a credit alike to red men and white.
While most of the full-blooded bucks
on the reservation wear thick braids
of hair, most of them appear to be
clean shaven. Yet they seldom, if
ever, use a razor. When their beards
begin to come in, they pluck out the
hairs, thereby solving the barber
problem for all time.

In the government school, too, the
air is one of wholesome contentment.
No more eheerimr sight could be
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History of Bannock County

wished for than that of the Indian
boys and girls chatting cheerily as
they eat their bountiful dinner in the
large, well-lighted, dining room of the
government school. It is a pleasure
to acknowledge here the unfailing and
uniform courtesy the writer has al-
ways experienced on his visits to Fort
Hall.

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CHAPTER VI.

The Nez Perce Indian War.

In the days when Bannock was a
part of Oneida county, the Nez Perce
Indians went on the war path. The
trouble started in Oregon and ended
a thousand miles away at Bear Paw,
Montana. Several accounts of this
outbreak have been published, some
of them going into much detail, but
no one, to our knowledge, has told
the story of the rapid flight of a band
of Chief Joseph's 'followers across
Oneida county. To fill the gap and
because the history of Bannock coun-
ty up to 1889 is identical with that of
the county of which she formed a
part, this chapter is written.

The Nez Perce war, like so many
of the early troubles between red men
and white, was due to a dispute
caused by a treaty.

The first Indian treaty in Idaho
was executed between Governor Ste-
vens, of Washington Territory, who
was also ex-offieio superintendent of
Indian affairs, and the Nez Perce In-
dians, June 1, 1855. Up to this time
there had been no serious trouble with
the Indians in this part of the north-
west, with the exception of the Whit-
man massacre in 1847, when the Cay-
use Indians killed Dr. Whitman and

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History of Bannock County

several other settlers. The Nez Perce,
however, showing signs of uneasiness
at the increasing number of whites
and the large tracts of land they were
appropriating, Governor 'Stevens
thought it wise to have an under-
standing with them. In brief, the
treaty set apart the Nez Perce reser-
vation, allowing to the Indians cer-
tain annual payments and providing
for the establishment of an agency
and Indian schools, in return for
which the Indians ceded to the United
States their claim to other lands. One
independent, sagacious and brave Nez
Perce chief, named Joseph, refused
to sign this treaty, and with his ad-
herents, continued to roam the coun-
try as before, unti*amelled by reserva-
tion limits or the provisions of treat-
ies.

In May, 1877, Chief Joseph and his
followers were ordered from the Wal-
lowa Valley, Oregon, to the Nez Perce
reservation in Idaho, and given until
June 14th to make the move. The
Indians felt the injustice of being
called upon to observe a treaty to
which they had never agreed, and in-
stead of obeying the order, made a
rapid journey to the east of the
Salmon river country in Idaho, and
suddenly attacked the thinly settled
whites there, killing; seventeen, and
wounding many others. They then
fired the settlers' homes and farms

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(68)

History of Bannock County

and drove away their horses and cat-
tle. Volunteer companies were quick-
ly formed to protect the whites in
the outlying districts, but during the
mobilizing of the men, several more
were killed. Three other small bands
of non-treaty Indians linked their for-
tunes with those of Chief Joseph ; one
band, under Chief Looking Glass, an-
other under Chief White Bird, and
the third under Chief Tchulhulsote,
known as the Dreamer Chief.

General Howard, at Fort Lapwai,
who had been relying on a promise
given by Chief Joseph to obey the
order to move on to the Nez Perce
reservation, immediately sent two
companies of cavalry, under Colonel
Perry, to deal with the Indians, while
other soldiers were summoned from
Walla Walla, Portland and San Fran-
cisco.

The Indians continued on the ram-
page for the next two davs until June
16, 1877. On that day, Colonel Perry
arrived on the scene and gave battle
to the red men in Whitebird canyon.
In an hour thirty-four of his ninety
men were killed and two wounded.
He beat a hasty retreat to Grange-
ville.

On June 22nd, General Howard
himself took the field with a force of
two hundred and twenty-five men and
an equipment of artillery. From that
time until his final surrender to Col.

History of Bannock County

Nelson A. Miles, October 5, 1877,
Chief Joseph led his followers from
one point to another, extricating them
from apparently hopeless predica-
ments, and showing a military shrewd-
ness that ranks him among the first
warriors of his race.

In their flight eastward one body
of Nez Perces pursued a southerly
course, crossing Oneida county a lit-
tle above Eagle Rock, now called
Idaho Falls. It is thought that they
expected the Bannock Indians on the
Fort Hall reservation to rise and join
them, but if this was the case they
were disappointed. Perhaps the Ban-
nocks saw the folly of casting in their
lot with an ally who was already in
flight, but as will appear presently,
the Nez Perces received no help from
the Bannocks.

The Nez Perces followed a trail
down Birch creek. At the same time,
August, 1877, two freighters, named
Hayden and Green, were traveling
northward to Salmon City, with eight
or ten wagons, loaded with merchan-
dise. In their party were two hired
men, two Chinamen and a swamper,
who was working' his passage. A
party of the Indians met the Hayden
and Green outfit and approaching
them in a friendly manner, said they
wanted to buy flour. Hayden asked
them the price then current in Salmon
City— $1.75 per hundredweight. The

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History of Bannock County

Indians beat him down fifty cents per
hundredweight in his price, bought
and paid for their flour, and moved
on. Soon Hayden met a second de-
tachment of the Nez Ferces, who also
wanted to buy flour. He quoted these
men the same price he had sold to the
first party for, but the second also
beat him down. After paying for
their purchase, the Indians passed on
and joined their comrades. When the
two bands compared notes, they found
a discrepancy in price, and turned in
their tracks to overtake Hayden.
When they came up with the freight-
ers, thej' forced them to go into camp
near the sink of Birch creek, and be-
gan riding threateningly around the
wagons, which the freighters had cor-
raled in regular form. The swamper
became uneasy and, when opportunity
offered, took to the hills. After a
time the Indians took a barrel of
whiskey from one of the wagons and
having opened it, used it as a free
bar. Now Hayden and his compan-
ions felt alarmed. One by one they
made cautiously for a willow grove
on the creek bank, but one of them
was killed within thirty yards of the
camp, another ten yards further, while
a third was shot down when nearly
a quarter of a mile distant. All three
bodies were mutilated. The Indians,
now maddened with drink, turned
their attention to the two Chinamen,

History of Bannock County

whom they abused cruelly. Forcing
them down on all fours, they rode the
yellow men with spurs, using their
whips and rowels freely. Tiring of
this sport, the Nez Perces after tak-
ing what they wanted, made a bonfire
of the freight wagons, which were
afterward found burned to the hubs.
The Chinamen availed themselves of
this opportunity to escape. Both they
and the swamper were rescued after
wandering for several days in the
mountains., but all three men were
insane from exposure, hunger, fear
and abuse.

Colonel George L. Shoup, of Salmon
City, who was expecting the arrival
of the Hayden party, went up into
the hills where he could get a view
of the road, just at the time the In-
dians forced the freighters into camp,
to see whether the wagons had come
into sight yet. Taking in the situa-
tion, the colonel hurried back to
Salmon City for aid, but the rescuers
arrived too late. All they could do
was to give decent burial to Hayden,
Green, and their two companions.

After this massacre, the Indians
followed down Birch creek, crossed
the Lemhi river and made a long
day's journey, without water, to
Hole-in-the-Rock, in Beaver canyon,
close to the present town of High-
bridge.

At this time, Mr. E. N. Rowland

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History of Bannock County

who now lives on a ranch five miles
west of Pocatello, was traveling north-
ward with a freight outfit. He had
gone a little beyond Eagle Rock when
word eanie that the Indians were on
the warpath. Hurrying ahead, |he
overtook other freighters, who in turn
held back for others to overtake them.
In this way forty or fifty men band-
ed together for mutual protection.
Presently, looking southward, these
men saw a great cloud of dust ap-
proaching, and prepared for trouble,
but the newcomers proved to be
friendly Bannocks, a hundred and
fifty or two hundred strong, who had
heard that the Nez Perces were in
the country. They were making a
raid to steal the invaders' horses.
Mr. "Rowland says the same band
passed them again a few days later,
leading with them about two hundred
captured ponies.

Further on, just as they were go-
ing into camp for their noonday meal,
the freighters saw an Indian some
distance ahead turn out of the road
and disappear among the rocks. A
couple of hours later, before resum-
ing their march, a few of the freight-
ers made a cautious search and found
the Indian dead from thirst. This
was the first of several dead Indians
found by the freighters, all of whom
had died in the same manner. The
hot August weather had dried up the

History of Bannock County

few streams between the scene of the
Hayden tragedy and the Indians ' next
halting place, Hole-in-the-Rock. Their
whiskey orgy of the previous night
had left them in bad shape for a
long, dry march and some of the
weaker of them perished by the way.
It is but a few miles from High-
bridge to the Montana line, and the
fleeing Nez Perees circled on toward
Bozeman, in that state, without per-
petrating any more outrages in Idaho.
In June of this same year, 1877,
a band of Bannock Indians from Fort
Hall, influenced probably by the ac-
tion of the Nez Perees in refusing to
be restricted by the terms of treaties,
left their reservation and proceeded
toward Boise. The band was well
armed and well mounted. When word
reached Boise that these Indians were
in camp, less than thirty miles away,
the town was greatly alarmed and
a body of volunteers, under Captain
R. Robbins, was quickly equipped for
action.

A small detachment of men was
sent to interview the Bannocks, with
instructions to bring the band, or at
least the chiefs, into Boise to have a
talk with the governor. The embassy
returned the following morning, June
20th, bringing with them thirty or
forty stalwart Bannock warriors.
They created a sensation as they rode
double file through the main street

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(74)

History of Bannock County

of the city to the governor's office.
Here they were introduced to the gov-
ernor and several of the leading men
of Boise, with whom they held a long
peace conference. In the end it was
agreed that the people of Boise
should provide the Indians with pro-
visions and accommodations for their
horses until the following day, and
give them a few hundred pounds of
flour and meat, beside certain amounts
of sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco, etc., the
Bannocks for their part undertaking
to return peaceably to their reserva-
tion.

Mr. John Hailey, who was detailed
by the governor to see that the com-
pact was carried out, has given us
the following account of their de-
parture :

"Early the next morning, with the
assistance of a few of our good boys,
we gathered up all these contribu-
tions and checked up to see if they
filled the agreement. Everything was
satisfactory, we helped them to pack
up, and then tried to impress on them,
first, that we had kept and fulfilled
our part of the agreement, and sec-
ond, that they must not fail to fulfill
their part of the agreement. They
seemed to realize the importance of
fulfilling their part, so we bade them
a good-bye, wishing them a speedy
and safe journey to their home on
the Fort Hall reservation. They went

History of Bannock County

and kept their part of the agreement
for this year, 1877, but in 1878 they
gave us trouble."

The trouble to. which Mr. Hailey
refers was the Bannock Indian war,
which we will take up in the next
chapter.

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CHAPTER VH.

The Bannock Indian War and the
Sheep-Eaters.

(76)

For seven years previous to the
treaty of 1S69, the Bannock Indians
had given no trouble. In the late fifties
and early sixties thej7 committed anum-
ber of depredations, and in 1862, Gen-
eral Conner, with a body of troops
from California, administered a de-
feat to them at Battle Creek, near the
present town of Oxford, that effectu-
ally ended their misbehavior for sev-
eral years. The bones of Indians
killed in this fight are still found in
the vicinity.

It was told in a previous chapter
how a confusion pf the terms Camas
and Kansas occurred in the Bannock
Indian treaty of 1869. The document
stated that the Indians should have
a portion of the Kansas prairie, in-
stead of Camas. The two words were
synonymous to the Indians, but wise
men among the whites foresaw that
the mistake would cause future trou-
ble. Accordingly, in the spring of
1873, Mr. John Hailey called on the
secretary of the interior and the com-
missioner of Indian affairs in Wash-
ington and urged that the mistake
be corrected. As a result a commis-
sion of three was appointed to settle

History of Bannock County

all disputed points with the Nez
Perce and Bannock Indians, but noth-
ing was accomplished by the embassy.
The treaty still read "Kansas" and
the Bannocks still believed that they
were entitled to a portion of the
Camas prairie, where there were no
white settlers at that time, and where
the Indians roamed at will.

The trouble came in 1878. In May
of that year some hogs were herded
on Camas prairie and William Silvey,
George Nesbet and Lou Kensler drove
a band of cattle and horses there to
graze. The men camped about ten
miles south of Corral Creek crossing.
On the twenty-seventh of May, two
English-speaking Indians, called Char-
ley and Jim, visited the campers and
appeared in every way friendly. They
came again early the next morning,
ate breakfast with the white men and
continued their show of friendliness
until Silvey, Nesbet and Kensler had
scattered to their several camp du-
ties. Then Indian Charlie, without
warning, shot Nesbet through the
jaws with a pistol as he was gather-
ing up some dishes from the ground,
while Indian Jim fired a shot at
Kensler, who was saddling a horse,
and grazed the side of his head. Nes-
bet and Kensler made a dash for
their tent, where they seized guns and
opened fire on the Indians, who were
now shooting at Silvey. They fled

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(78)

History of Bannock County

before the bullets and Silvey escaped
unharmed.

Nesbet was badly wounded. His
companions tended his injuries as well
as they could, saddled a couple of
horses, and started with him for
Boise. Wlhen they had gone a few
miles they looked back and saw a
large body of Indians devastating
their camp. They gave the alarm as
they traveled along toward Boise,
which Nesbet was a week in reaching.
Upon examination, his mouth was
found to be alive with vermin, caused
by fly-blows, but Dr. Treadwell
cleansed it and sewed his tongue to-
gether, and after much suffering Nes-
bet recovered.

The Indians spent a day in the
raided camp on Camas prairie, killing
cattle and drying beef, gathering
horses and preparing generally for
war. Two white men, Mabes and
Dempsey, were with them. The lat-
ter had lived with the Bannocks for
several years and had an Indian wife.
The Indians made Dempsey write a
letter to Governor Braymen at Boise,
threatening to kill settlers and de-
stroy property all over the state, if
troops were sent to fight them. They
then sent Mabes to deliver the letter,
and killed Dempsey.

It was learned later that there was
a division among the Indians at this
time, some favoring war, and others
counselling against it. Buffalo Horn,

History of Bannock County

who was bent on mischief, finally se-
cured a following of some two hun-
dred warriors and a few young In-
dian women, while the remainder of
the Indians returned to the Fort Hall
reservation.

Buffalo Horn and his followers next
appeared at King Hill station on the
Overland stage road. They robbed
this place and then raided Glenn's
Ferry, five miles below, on the Snake
river, where they destroyed several
wagon-loads of merchandise consigned
to Boise merchants, and held a big
spree on some whiskey they found
there. The next day they went on
down the river to Bruneau, killing
John Bascom and two other men on
the way, and two others, Jack
Sweeney and a Mr. Hays, whom they
found at, or near, Bruneau. The
murders would have reached a much
higher number had it not been for
the alarm spread by Kensler, Nesbet
and Silvey, which gave tht settlers
an opportunity to escape.

In the meantime, W. C. Tatro, who
had met the fleeing campers and
learned of the outbreak from
them, carried the news to Rocky
Bar, where a company of volun-
teers was at once raised by Hon.
G. M. Parsons. At the same time,
Colonel Bernard, accompanied by
Colonel R. Robbins. who had rendered
valuable services in the Nez Perce
war of the previous year, led a body

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History of Bannock County

of troops from Boise. Both parties
took up the trail of the Indians at
Camas Prairie and followed in their
tracks.

The people of Silver City in Owy-
hee county, hearing that a band of
hostile Indians was encamped in the
mountains to the north, sent a com-
pany of twenty-six men, undei Cap-
tain Harper, to give them battle. The
white men were greatly outnumbered

d the Indians had the advantage
of position. A long and fierce fight
ensued, during which Captain Har-
I fir Lost two men. The result was in-
decisive, the white men returning to
Silver City, and the Indians with-
drawing the following day.

When he heard of the Silver City
engagement. Col. Bernard hurried
thither, and sent Col. Bobbins out
with a detachment of men to see why
the mail stage, due the day before,
had not arrived. They found the
stage destroyed by the Indians, and
the driver killed. The only passen-
ger had escaped on one of the lead
horses of the stage.

The Bannock Indians soon persuad-
ed others to join them. They gained
recruits from the Duck Valley In-
dians, the Lemhis, Winnemuccas,
Malheurs and Snakes, and with their
allies numbered about two thousand
warriors, women and boys. As they
traveled they killed or stole all the

History of Bannock County

cattle and horses they met and de-
stroyed a large amount of property.

From Silver City, Col. Bernard
moved on to Fort Harney. Col. Rob-
bins, who was scouting' ahead, suc-
ceeded in locating the camp of the
Indians by night. He followed their
trail for some distance and then
climbed a steep hillside to a level
plateau, along which he crawled un-
til opposite the red men's camp. In
the clear starlight, he could see all
the Indian camps and calculated that
they contained at least a thousand
warriors. The white men had less
than three hundred soldiers.

After a conference, Colonels Rob-
bins and Bernard decided to attack
the hostile camp. Col. Robbins, with
thirty-five men, charged and sur-
prised the enemy in the early morn-
ting, while Col. Bernard, with the
main force, proceeded up Silver Creek
to the canyon where the Indians were
encamped.

Although completely surprised, the
red men betook themselves to some
fortifications they had made among
the rocks, while the soldiers shielded
themselves as best they could. The
two parties kept up a fusilade
throughout the day, and during the
following night, June 23rd, the In-
dians decamped, leaving a hundred
dead behind. Five soldiers w<re
killed and a few slightly wounded.

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History of Bannock County

Before beginning the battle, Col.
Bernard had sent word to General
Howard, who was at Malheur, say-
ing that he was about to enter an
engagement with a large force of?
Indians and might need reinforce-
ments. The general arrived the fol-
lowing morning and took command
in person.

Colonel Bobbins and his scouts fol-
lowed the Indians, who headed in a
northwesterly direction, while the
troops came on behind.

Within a few miles of John Day
river, Bobbins came to a sheep cor-
ral in which a large fire had been
built by the Indians. Tht brutes had
then bound together the hind legs of
the lambs found on the place and
thrown them into the corral to burn
to death. They had killed the old
sheep and left them to rot. In an-
other place the scouts found a herd
of Merino bucks, whose forelegs the
Indians had cut off at the knee, leav-
ing the poor animals in agony. Such
exploits were typical of the Indian
on the warpath.

On another occasion the scouts saw
a white man on foot running for his
life from a party of pursuing Indians,
who overtook and killed their victim
before the rescuers could arrive. The
man was found, scalped and muti-
lated, and although still breathing,
too far gone to give even his name.

'Scalping was quite an art amon?

History of Bannock County

the Indians, and one in which, sad
to say, some white men became very
proficient. The Indians did not re-
move the whole head of their vic-
tim's hair, but only a circular por-
tion, about the size of a silver dollar,
from the crown of the head. Some-
times in an attempt to win false
glory, a man would cut two or three
scalps from one head, taking the ex-
tra ones from the sides, but a judge
of scalps could always detecjt the
fraud, and unerringly select that
which had been taken from the crown.
Some white scouts scalped the In-
dians they killed, and sold the tro-
phies, properly cured, for good sums,
the price among eastern curio seek-
ers ranging from fifty to seventy-five
dollars. The wound inflicted by
scalping was by no means fatal, al-
though most people who went through
the ordeal died, because they had
been badly wounded first. But in-
stances are on record of men who
afterward recovered and were none
the worse for their experience.

On July 8th, Colonel Robbins lo-
cated and surprised the Indians in a
canyon leading up to the Blue moun-
tains in Oregon. He was supported
by Colonel Bernard with his troops,
and succeeded in driving the red men
from their position. But the Indians
took to the hills and got away, leav-
ing several dead behind them.

The Bannocks had crossed into Ore-

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History of Bannock County

gon in the hope of persuading the
Umatilla and Yakima Indians to join
them. In this they were disappoint-
ed, which, added to the close pursuit
of the soldiers and the, now, well-
picketed condition of the country, dis-
heartened the marauders, and they
began to sneak back in small bands
to the reservations from which they
had come. On their way they com-
mitted many d< predations.

In Umatilla county, Oregon, Mr.
Charles Jewell, hearing of the Indian
outbreak, secured an equipment of
guns and carried them to his herders,
Avho were tending his sheep about
thirty-five miles from Pendleton. He
stopped at a rancher's door for a
friendly chat, and had barely alighted
from his horse when a volley of shots
from some ambushed Indians laid him
on the ground. The other man was
killed and Mr. Jewell was left for
dead. When the Indians had gone,
he crawled into the house and se-
cured a pair of blankets and a
shingle. On the shingle he wrote:
"Charles Jewell — shot by Indians —
is in the brush near by — call me if
you see this." The wounded man
then dragged himself to the road,
posted his sign (here, and crawled
into the brush, where he wrapped
himself in the blankets. For three
days and nights he lay without food
or water, and when finally some pass-
ing men found his sign and were led

History of Bannock County

to him by his feeble answer to their
call it was too late. He died a few
days afterward in Pendleton.

The three leading war chiefs of the
fighting* Indians were Buffalo Horn,
Bear Skin and Egan. The two for-
mer had been killed since hostilities
began in May. About the middle of
July, Chief Homily of the Umatillas,
with ninety followers, went up into
the hills to recover some horses that
Chief Egan's men had stolen. He
arranged for a conference with Chief
Egan and thirty of his men, and in
the midst of it, at a given signal,
fell upon Chief Egan, killing him and
his thirty companions. He then af-
fixed the dead chief's scalp to a long
pole, with the hair flying in the breeze
and carried it triumphantly back to
the reservation. General Howard
had doubted the loyalty of the Uma-
tillas up to this time and Chief Hom-
ily killed Chief Egan as an evidence
of his good faith toward the whites.
Colonel Robbins was sent to the scene
of the massacre to determine whether
Chief Egan were really dead. Every-
thing was found just as Chief Hom-
ily had described it.

Chief Egan's death completely de-
moralized the Indians. They had
now lost their three greatest fighting
chiefs, and wherever they went they
found the white men ready for them.
Volunteer companies had been formed

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History of Bannock County

all through that section of the coun-
try, even as far south as Nevada, and
the triumphant advance of the red
men had turned into a search for
safety. They broke into small par-
ties, traveling along out-of-the-way
trails and largely by night, killing
and plundering when the opportunity
came, but always heading for the res-
ervation and safety. It is now more
than thirty-five years since this war
ended, during which time the Ban-
nock Indians have given no further
trouble. The large increase in popu-
lation makes another outbreak prac-
tically impossible.

Idaho has seen one other Indian
war, known as the Sheep-Eater In-
dian war. This was fought with the
Tookarikkas, in 1879. These people
were a mixture of the Shoshonts and
Bannocks, apparently inheriting the
bad qualities of both without their
good qualities. They were outcasts,
even among the Indians, and won
their soubriquet of "Sheep-Eaters"
by stealing sheep from the ranges.
They were cowardly and treacherous,
and subsisted largely by theft. In
May, 1879, they killed some settlers
and burned some property on Hugh
Johnson's ranch on the south fork
of the Salmon river, near Warrens,
and as a result were rounded up by
government and state troops and
sent to Vancouver, Wash.

History of Bannock County

We give this war only passing no-
tice because it belongs to the history
of Bannock county, only through the
relationship of the Tookarikka and
Bannock Indians.

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CHAPTER VIII.
The Stage Coach.

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Previous to 1863 there was no reg-
ular line of transportation through
Bannock county, the mails being car-
ried by pony express, which made the
postage on letters cost from fifty
cents to one dollar each, and the few
people whose business called them
across southern Idaho traveled singly
or in groups, in the saddle, or by
wagon, as suited their convenience
end opportunity. But, however they
traveled, they all followed the line of
the old Oregon trail.

In 1863, Oliver and Conover stock-
ed a road from Virginia City, Mon-
tana, to Salt Lake City, the impetus
given to transportation in these parts
by the development of the mines in
Montana promising to make such a
venture successful. The trail through
Bannock county followed closely the
present tracks of the Oregon Short
Line running north from Fort Hall
{ilong the Montana division. The sta-
tions were from twelve to fifteen
miles apart, there having been one at
Fort Hall, another near the Lavatta
ranch, another at Pocatcllo creek and
a fourth just west of McCammon,
formerly called Harkness.

The freighting season opened in

History of Bannock County

April and lasted until November. The
bottom lands to the west of Poeatello
were a favorite wintering resort for
the freighters because of the facili-
ties they offered in the way of pro-
tection, water and food.

The freight wagons were drawn by
either mules or oxen, and so slow was
their progress that they made only
from three to five trips a season. The
more costly and perishable merchan-
dise, such as drug's and chemicals.
was usually carried on the passenger
stages.

A mule train was made up of from
eight to twelve animals attached to
two or three wagons; an ox train of
about fourteen animals. These cum-
brous outfits traveled about twelve
miles a day.

The passenger stages, however,
traveled about one hundred miles in
twenty-four hours. They were drawn
by from four to six horses, who were
changed every twelve or fifteen miles,
while the drivers changed every fifty
miles. They were usually accompa-
nied by a messenger, who was a kind
of guard and rode beside the driver.
Most of the stages were of the thor-
ough-braced type, the bodies resting
upon leather straps instead of springs,
vhieb gave them an easy, swinging
motion. They were usually fitted
with three seats and carried nine pas-
sengers, and were very comfortable
\r> travel in. A few post stages, which

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History of Bannock County

would accommodate twenty-six pas-
s-enters, were run over this road, but
the" traffic was not heavy enough to
brine: them into general use.

In 1864, Ben Halliday, whose name
has been given to a street in Poca-
tello, secured a contract to carry the
United States mails, and bought out
Oliver and Conover. This line was
later called the Halliday Overland
Mail and Express, a name retained in
the Overland Limited of tolav, on the
Oregon Short Line and Union Pacific
railroads.

Ben Halliday was well known
throughout the far west fifty years
ago, and his name is linktd insepar-
ably with her early history. Mr. Hi-
ram T. French, in his History of Ida-
ho, says: ''Ben Halliday was a prom-
inent figure in the development of
the country west of the Mississippi,
and filled a place that no man lack-
ing in courage, judgment or charac-
ter could have held. To one who
knows the west, 'Overland' is even
yet a word to conjure by. In fancy
one sees the dashing horses and lurch-
ing coach, and hears the crack of the
driver's whip."

Hon. John Hailey writes from per-
sonal knowledge of the famous stage
man as follows: "Ben Halliday was
a little over the average in size,
strong in stature, fine looking, soci-
able, generous, energetic and far-see-
ing. In conversation his intellectual

History of Bannock County

face and eyes would fairly shine. He
was open and frank in all his deal-
ings. He was brave, quick and dar-
ing in engaging in any legitimate
business that tended to open the re-
sources of this great western coun-
try.

"At the time Mr. Halliday estab-
lished his Overland Stage Line from
the Missouri river to Salt Lake City,
and from Salt Lake City to Helena,
Montana, and to Boise, the country
through which his stages must run
was wild, inhabited by none save In-
dians, usually hostile, and a few white
men who were equally dangerous. Few
men would even have entertained the
idea of engaging in such a dangerous
and hazardous business, which in-
volved the investment of several hun-
dred thousand dollars to build sub-
stantial stations, and fit up the road
with the necessary live and rolling
stock, f oragt , provisions, men arms,
and ammunition for the protection of
life, property and the United States
mail, but Mr. Halliday did it success-
fully. He opened the great Overland
Route and transported mail and pas-
sengers from the east to west and re-
turn with reasonable celerity and se-
curity, besides making the route much
safer for others to travel and blaz-
ing the way for the Union Pacific
railroad, which was commenced soon
after."

The stage line through Bannock

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History of Bannock County

county passed from the hands of Ben
Halliday to the Wells Fargo Express
company, and later to the firm of
Gilmore and Salisbury, who continued
the service until the opening of the
Utah and Northern railway made
stages a thing of the past.

The mountain fastnesses along the
Portneuf canyon, made this the most
dangerous stretch of road between
Salt Lake City and Butte. It was
very difficult to trail men over the
lava rocks that abound along this
route, and the wild nature of the
country beyond them offered road
agents a fair chance of safety. The
gold bullion brought down from the
Montana mines made a tempting
prize, and encouraged highway rob-
bery to such an extent that the out-
rages in time gave birth to the vigi-
lantes, who gave the robbers short
shrift and in time succeeded in prac-
tically ending their operations.

The first hold-up in Bannock coun-
ty occurred in 1863, about a mile and
a half west of Pocatello creek, when
Jack Hughes, a Denver man, was
robbed of $0,000 by Brocky Jack, at
that time a well-known character
alonjr the stage road. The trick was
easily turned and Brocky Jack es-
caped with his booty without firing
a gun.

In 1865, a far more serious affair
was perpetrated near Robbers' Roost
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History of Bannock County

Creek, a few miles west of the pres-
ent town of McCammon. A stage of
the Concord type, carrying several
passengers and $60,000 of private
money, was betrayed by its driver,
Frank Williams, to a gang led by Jim
Locket. As he rounded a steep hill,
Williams turned his horses suddenly,
breaking the reach of the coach, and
the road agents, concealed in the
brush, which was so thick at this
point that it scratched the sides of
the stage, gave the word to halt.
Among the passengers were two
wealthy St. Louis merchants, David
Dinan and a man named McCausland.
These men were apprehensive of be-
ing held up and carried their guns in
their hands, ready for instant use.
This precaution probably caused their
death. At the cry, "Hands up," the
passengers discharged their guns into
the brush, shooting too high to wound
their opponents, but thereby bringing
upon themselves a volley that killed
both Dinan and McCausland and two
other men, one of them being Law-
rence Merz, a passenger who was sit-
ting by the driver. Charles Parks, a
messenger, riding within the coach,
was shot in the foot, while one man,
whose name is variously given as
Brown and Carpenter, escaped un-
hurt. The murdered men were bur-
ied in a gulch near the scene of their
death and the coach, riddled with bul-
lets, was taken to Malad.

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History of B anno c k C o u n t y

None of the members of this gang
were apprehended, but Williams, the
driver, was arrested and hung. He
retained his position for some ten
days after the hold-up, and then, ac-
tuated perhaps by a guilty conscience
and the fear of detection, resigned
and went to Salt Lake. Here it was
noticed that he spent money very
freely, and he was seized later in
Denver. Jim Locket was a man of
such notorious character that no at-
tempt was made to trail him, the few
settlers in the neighborhood at that
time preferring to give him as wide
a berth as possible.

Three men, named McCay, Jones
and Spangler, followed a stage out
of Malad City in 1870, and held it
up some six or seven miles from that
city. Spangler and Jones were after-
ward captured, but Jones escaped
from jail, and Spangler cleared him-
self by giving information that led
to the recovery of $6,000 of the $9,000
taken from the coach.

Two weeks later, in 1870, a very
daring hold-up was made by two men
near the top of the Malad divide.
One of the men was variously known
as Ed. Flag, Frank Long and Frank
Carpenter. The other, whose name
was Stone, was said to belong to a
good family in Louisville, Ky.

These two men placed three dum-
mies in a half-exposed position near

History of Bannock County

tnje road and succeeded in making off
with $36,000 in gold bullion without
firing a shot. The stage carried no
passengers.

The driver returned to Malad and
said that he had been held up by a
gang of five men. After some delib-
eration, J. N. Ireland, now a resi-
dent of Pocatello, Tom Oakley, Dan-
iel Robbins and four others, set out
to trail the bandits. This was not a
difficult matter in the early days, pro-
vided the fugitives took to the brush,
which they were obliged to do in
most cases in order to find conceal-
ment. Their horses, in pushing a way
through the growth, left a well-de-
fined track that a child could follow,
and as travelers were few, there was
little danger of hitting the wrong
trail. But while it was sometimes
an easy matter to follow up a gang
of robbers, few men cared to under-
take the task. A road agent knew
that capture probably meant death
and his very occupation was a suffi-
cient guarantee that he would kill
without scruple. He had the advan-
tage, too of being able to ambush
his pursuers, and shoot them before
they could seek cover.

The posse of seven men took up
the trail of the bandits at the spot
where the hold-up occurred and traced
them to Birch Creek. As evening
came on and darkness closed in, and

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History of Bannock County

when they bad ridden some twenty
miles, the pursuers came within a
half mile of the robbers, whom they
found to be on the opposite side of
the creek. In the early morning they
crossed the creek, and were close upon
Flag and Stone, before those men
were aware of their proximity. Not
expecting1 pursuit, the highwaymen
were not on their guard. They con-
cealed themselves in a steep hollow,
where slender willows, about the
thickness of a man's finger, and sev-
en feet high, grew in such profusion
that they formed an impenetrable
hiding place.

Mr. Ireland and his party rode past
this hollow to the robbers' horses,
where a council of war was held. At
last Mr. Ireland and Dan Robbins
volunteered to trail Flag and Stone
while three of the party remained
with the horses, and Tom Oakley,
armed with a very fine rifle belonging
to Mr. Ireland, took a position on
the hillside behind a rock, where he
could pick off the road agents if they
emerged from the brush.

Cautiously, with every sense alert,
the two daring men worked their way
into the hollow. They knew they were
within a few feet of their quarry, but
could see nothing of them. Pres-
ently Mr. Ireland said: "Dan, here's
where we're close upon them, because
they have trampled these willows

History of Bannock County

down and they have sprung up
again. ' '

At the same moment Oakley's voice
called a warning from the hill, "Look
out! You're close on them!"

Simultaneously a shot rang out and
Daniel Bobbins fell, riddled with shot.
Flag and Stone made a clash from
cover, but Oakley brought them both
down with two well-directed shots
from his rifle. The two men lay side
by side, Flag dead, and Stone with
a wound in his leg that necessitated
its amputation.

Mr. Ireland and his companions
tried to get iSltone to tell where the
$36,000 taken from the coach was
hidden. Stone at first insisted that
the stage had been held up by five
men, three of whom had in turn
robhed himself and Flag, who were
left empty-handed. These three men,
Stone said, had the money. Tom
Oakley, after whom the town of Oak-
ley in Bannock county was named,
was a man of forbidding appearance
and a bad man to trifle with. He took
a hand in the matter and Stone finally
confessed that the money was hidden
near Elkhorn, where it was after-
ward found.

After the fight, which occurred in
the early morning, Mr. Ireland rode
back to Malad and returned the same
day with a doctor, having traveled

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History of Bannock County

over forty miles after his harrowing
experience.

Mr. Robbins recovered from his
wounds and died a few years ago in
Salt Lake. At the time they entered
the willow thicket, Mr. Ireland was
wearing a grey and Mr. Robbins a
white shirt. Stone said afterward
that he and Flag saw the gleam of
the white shirt through the foliage,
and were thus enabled to shoot Rob-
bins, although they could see no other
portion of the two men.

Stone was sent to the penitentiary
at Boise, but after a short imprison-
ment secured a pardon and became a
preacher.

Not until after their return from
this expedition did Mr. Ireland's
party learn that a large reward had
been offered for the capture of the
two road agents. A quarter of the
$36,000 stolen was divided among the
seven men, who received $1280 each.

Another successful use of dummies
was made by a lone bandit, who
placed several at a turn in the road
not far from Malad, and succeeded in
relieving a coach, driven by James
Boyle, of several bars of gold. There
were no passengers in the stage.

One night during the summer of
1873. a stage manned by Charley
Phelps and Joe Pinkham was ordered
to stop by a road agent, while pass-
ing through Portneuf canyon. In-
stead of obeying the order, the stage-

History of Bannock County

men fired in the direction of the
voice. The fire was returned and
Phelps, who was driving, fell back,
mortally wounded. Pinkham caught
up the reins and the stage dashed on
without stopping. Phelps was buried
in the cemetery at Malad, where the
following inscription stands over his
grave :

"In memory of Charles Phelps,
of St. Lawrence County, New
York. Driver on the Overland
Stage Line, who was mortally
wounded, July 16, 1873, in an at-
tack on his coach by highway-
men, in Portneuf Canyon, Idaho,
and died on the following day.

"Age 43 years.
"He fell, as all true heroes fall.

While answering to his duty's
call.

"This stone is erected by his
friends and companions, who
loved and respected him, and sin-
cerely mourn his death."

The days of the stage coach have
passed, and with them the incidents
that we class under adventure and
romance in the reading, but that
meant hardship, danger and exposure
in the making. The advent of the
railroad was the beginning of a new
era in Bannock county — an era of
prosperity and growth, but also, let
us not forget, an era for which the
way was paved by the hardy pioneers

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1?'?69.3A

History of Bannock County

who faced the wilderness unafraid,
and tamed it for the uses of civiliza-
tion. These men, following their
humble lot in life and performing
their toilsome duties from day to day,
were in truth empire builders, to
whom is due the respect and honor of
all right-feeling men.

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CHAPTER IX.

THE RAILROAD.

It occurs to few men, as they glide
smoothly across the Snake river in
a vestibuled train, and watch the
seething waters toss and tumble be-
low the substantial iron bridge, to
think of the problem the passage of
this same stream afforded the trav-
eler of fifty years ago. In his "Ven-
tures and Adventures," Ezra Meeker
tells of how he crossed the Snake in
1852. Mr. Meeker and his party had
crossed the plains from Iowa, on their
way to Oregon, and by the time they
reached Idaho their funds were al-
most exhausted. Ferries were scarce
and where one was found, the price
asked for a passage was prohibitive
to most of the immigrants.

'"Some immigrants," writes Mr.
Meeker, "had caulked three wagon
beds and lashed them together, and
were crossing, but would not help
others across for less than from three
to five dollars a wagon, the party
swimming their own stock. If others
could cross in wagon-beds, why could
not I do likewise? Without much ado,
all the old clothing that could possi-
bly be spared was marshalled, tar
buckets ransacked, old chisels and
broken knives hunted up, and a veri-

(101)

History of Bannoc k C o u n t y

table boat repairing and caulking
campaign inaugurated, and shortly
the wagon-box rode placidly, even if
not gracefully on the turbid waters
of the formidable river.

"My first venture across the Snake
river was with the wagon gear run
over the wagon box, the whole being
gradually worked out into deep wa-
ter. The load was so heavy that a
very small margin was left to pre-
vent the water from breaking over
the sides, and some actually did, as
light ripples on the surface struck
the "Mary Jane," as we had chris-
tened (without wine) the 'craft,' as
she was launched. However, I got
over safely, but after that took light-
er loads and really enjoyed the nov-
elty of the work and the change from
the intolerable dust, and the atmos-
phere of the water."

The Utah & Northern was the first
railroad to enter the territory of
Idaho. It was promoted by John W.
Young, a son of Brigham Young,
whose name has been given to Young
street in Pocatello, but although a
large sum of local capital was invest-
ed, the enterprise received its chief
support from Joseph and Benjamin
Richardson, two contractors of New
York City, whom Young interested in
the project.

In March, 1873, congress granted
a right of way to Young's company
(102)

History of Bannock County

running along the Bear river valley,
through Soda Springs, up the Snake
river valley and across Montana to
a junction point with the Northern
Pacific. The act allowed ten years
in which to complete the work of
construction. A second act, passed
in June, 1878, empowered "the Utah
& Northern Railroad company and
its assigns to build their road by way
of Marsh valley, Portneuf and Snake
river instead of by way of Soda
Springs and Snake river valley."

By the spring of 1877 the road had
been constructed as far as the Snake
river. In the following year a bond
issue of $4,991,000 was "floated and
during 1880 the rails were extended
to Silver Bow, Montana, a distance
of 328 miles from the Utah line.

In July, 1882, congress officially
ratified an agreement made at Fort
Hall between the Shoshone and Ban-
nock Indians and Joseph K. McCam-
mon, whose name has been given to
the town of McCammon in this coun-
ty, and several railroad officers, by
which the promoters secured a right
of way through the reservation.

The opening of the Utah & North-
ern railway gave the first great im-
petus to settlement and development
in southeastern Idaho, making it pos-
sible to market produce profitably
and at the same time bringing the set-
tler into touch with the outside world.

(103)

History of Bannock County

The Portnenf canyon, through which
this line was constructed, is one thou-
sand feet lower than any other
mountain pass within three hundred
miles either north or south, and con-
stitutes a natural gateway through
which a very large portion of the
produce of the great northwest must
pass on its way to an eastern market.

The Utah & Northern Railway com-
pany was consolidated with the Ore-
gon Short Line Railway company in
August, 1889, being known as the
Oregon Short Line & Northern Rail-
way company, and in 1897 the two
were merged into the present Oregon
Short Line Railroad company.

The Utah & Northern had con-
structed a narrow gauge line. When
the old Short Line Railway company
built its line between Granger and
Huntington it used the transportation
facilities afforded by the Utah &
Northern both to the east and west
of Pocatello. During the early part
of 1882 the Short Line laid a narrow
gauge track between Pocatello and
the Snake river crossing, now Ameri-
can Falls, and from McOammon, at
that time called Harkness, to a point
near the present station of Pebble.

During the year 1882, the Utah &
Northern track between MeCammon
and Pocatello was rebuilt to stand-
ard gauge, the narrow gauge equip-
ment of that company being provided
(104)

History of Bannock County

for by laying a third rail. By the
summer of 1SS7 the entire line be-
tween Poeatello and Silver Bow, Mon-
tana, was operating on a standard
gauge, while the lines to the east and
south had been similarly reconstruct-
ed before 1890.

At the time the first railroad bridge
across the Snake river was huilt,
American Falls was located on the
western side of the river. The popu-
lation was made up of the usual as-
sortment of men, who make up the
population of frontier towns. The
good, the bad and the indifferent were
there — graders, stockmen. Chinamen,
gamblers and business men, with a
few women — all rough and ready:
hardy people of the plains and the
mountains. Law and order were ad-
ministered in a ready manner and
summary justice was meted out to
the evil-doer by self-constituted
judges and juries.

Two of the worst characters in the
neighborhood at that time were cow-
boys, gamblers and probably mur-
derers; "Tex" and "Johnson," as
they were known to the people of
American Falls.

One night some Chinamen were
murdered and the more law-abiding
citizens decided that if the culprits
were found they should suffer for
the crime. The two cowboys. "Tex"
and Johnson, were suspected of the

(105)

History of Bannock County

murder, but as no certain proof was
obtainable, they were not punished,
but ordered to leave town. This they
did, going1 to the east side of the river
and spending the night in a house
occupied by Buck Houston. The next
day they returned to the west side.
The law and order element immedi-
ately organized a necktie party, with
"Tex" and Johnson as the chief
guests. With a grim brevity the two
were taken to the river, ropes thrown
over an iron span, and with a short
wait for the usual last words they
were hurried into eternity. Their
bodies swung back and forth, sus-
pended from the bridge, the falls
roaring and splashing beneath them,
and the spray shooting up into the
air, wetting their high boots and
leather chaps.

Afterwards the two bodies were cut
down and taken to the top of the
bluff, overlooking the river, and there
they were buried. Two rough slabs,
with "Tex" carved on one, and
"Johnson" on the other, were placed
at their heads. The mounds where
these men were buried are still dis-
cernable.

In most newly-settled communities,
justice is administered quickly and
wit hunt the formality of legal pro-
ceedings. This was especially true
of the early days in the west. Time
was when the regular method of col-
(106)

History of Bannock County

lecting overdue bills in Bannock coun-
ty was at the mouth of a gun, and
this within the memory of living men.
Horse theft was punishable with
death throughout the far west, the
penalty being no more than propor-
tionate to the crime. For the west
in those days was a desert country,
&nd the loss of a man's horse often
meant a horrible death by thirst be-
cause the next watering place was
further away than a man could walk.
So it happened that while a cowboy
sometimes paid a hundred dollars for
his saddle and only twenty-five dol-
lars for his pony, he would forgive
the man who stole the former, but
without scruple hang the man who
stole the horse.

The terminal facilities of the Ore-
gon Short Line at Pocatello have
been steadily increased and the road-
bed improved because of the immense
traffic caused by the development of
the tributary territory. In 1904 the
"Michaud Cut-off" was made in or-
der to straighten the track a few
miles west of Pocatello. Since 1910
the road has been double-tracked be-
tween Lava Hot Spring's and Mich-
aud, and in that year the svstem of
mechanical block signals was com-
pleted from the eastern to the west-
ern boundary of the county. A branch
line, connecting Alexander and Grace,
a distance of about six miles, was

(107)

History of Bannock County

opened in 1913. Among other note-
worthy recent improvements are the
Batise Springs water plant, the Cen-
ter street viaduct and Halliday street
subway in Pocatello, the new shop
buildings and depot, now being built
in the same city, and the new depot
and water plant at MeCammon.

The Oregon Short Line is the ar-
tery through which pulses the very
life blood of Bannock county. In the
Pocatello shops over eleven hundred
men are employed, and those who find
work on the Montana and Idaho divi-
sions bring the number to about 4000.
It is, therefore, a very fortunate
thing for the community at large that
the Oregon Short Line Railroad com-
pany is one of the apparently few
large corporations in tlhis country
today that realizes a moral responsi-
bility toward the general public. A
.'.omparison of the Safety First move-
ment as conducted by this company
with the conditions that are not only
tolerated but apparently encouraged
by the owners of the Colorado mines
shows what a great blessing or curse
the attitude of big corporations to-
ward the public welfare may be.

Some years ago, l\fa*. Harriman,
while talking with the claims attor-
ney of one of the roads in which he
was interested, about the policy to
bft ndonted in dealing with injured
employes in (he maiier <»? settlements,
(108)

History of Bannock County

and particularly of providing them
with some kind of work when they
had been so seriously injured that
they could not fill their former posi-
tions, said that he wanted "all in-
jured men to be dealt with along the
lines of practical Christianity." That
this idea is still followed by the com-
pany is shown by the fact that in
June, 1914, only one injured employe
had a suit pending against the com-
pany for injuries received in its ser-
vice; the rest being satisfied with the
terms of settlement accorded them by
the company.

The Safety First movement, by
which the Oregon Short Line seeks
to guard the safety of .'its employes
?nd of the public alike, is an educa-
tional measure inaugurated about two
years ago and intended to interest all
people.

The work is carried on by means
of committees. At each division point
is what is known as a "sub-commit-
tee," composed of men from all
branches of the service, who suggest
changes in the road's equipment or
in existing conditions, that will make
the work of railroading safer. If
the suggestions made cannot be act-
ed upon locally, they are referred to
the "division committee," which in
turn accepts or rejects them, and if
unable to enforce them by its own
vote, recommends them to the "cen-
tral committee." This body is eom-

(109)

History of Bannock County

posed of officials of the road and their
decision is final. In this way the
entire Short Line force, from the
newest and lowest paid employe to
the highest officer, is interested in
the common safety, and is in a posi-
tion to suggest measures for the gen-
eral good. That the system is suc-
cessful is shown by the fact that dur-
ing the year ending June, 1913, there
were 2829 people injured on the Ore-
gon Short Line. During that ending
June, 1914, the total was reduced to
3711, or 39.5 per cent. During the
first six months of this year there
were only 606 accidents, as against
955 for the same months of 1913 —
a reduction of over 61 per cent.

The company is also conducting a
campaign to eliminate the accidents
caused by trespassing. In 1913, 5434
trespassers wore killed on the rail-
roads in the United States. Of these,
10 per cent were tramps, 70 per cent
young men or heads of families, and
20 per cent were children under 14
years of age. By trying to educate
school children, their teachers and the
general public in precautionary meas-
ures, and by attempting to secure
proper legislation on the subject, the
Oregon Short Line Railroad company
is trying to still further enhance its
value to the people at large and to
reduce to a minimum the accidents
connected with all great railroad cor-
porations.
(330)

CHAPTER X.

GENERAL CONDITIONS AND
DEVELOPMENT.

In his book " Astoria," written
about 1840, in which he gives the
history of an attempt made by the
first John Jacob Astor to establish a
fur trade to the west of the Rocky
Mountains, Washington Irving re-
peatedly regrets the fact that the
great stretch of the western plains
must forever form a desert stretch
between the civilization of the west
and that of the east. In one place
he says: "Some portions of it (the
prairie) along the river* may par-
tially be subdued by agriculture,
others may form vast pastoral tracts,
like those of the east; but it is to be
feared that a great part of it will
form a lawless interval between the
abodes of civilized man, like the
wastes of the ocean or the deserts of
Arabia; and, like them, be subject
to the depredations of the ma-
rauder."

In this the great writer proved to
be a false prophet. Irrigation and the
principles of dry farming are fast
converting the desert into productive
farm land, and land that a few years
as-o could be had for a sony is today

(111)

(112)

History of Bannock County

held at high prices. The United
States Census report for 1910 gave
the average value o'f land in Bannock
county as $7.76 per acre. In 1910,
the same bureau °-ave the average
value as being $21.57.

This increase in value, however, is
not due to development alone, but
also to the increased rainfall during
recent years, which has made it pos-
sible to profitably till soil that was
before considered arid. The total
precipitation in Pocatello in 1901 was
7.56 inches. In 1906, it was 18.17
inches, and in 1907, 17.43 inches,
while in 1914 it was over 18. 6U
inches. Some scientists explain this
by saying that the increased areas of
irrigation give off a sufficient evapor-
ation to form clouds, which precipi-
tate the evaporated water in the form
of rain and snow, while others main-
tain that the surface of irrigation
waters is not large enough to effect
the annual precipitation. But what-
ever the explanation, the fact remains
that many hitherto unproductive
tracts have now sufficient natural
moisture to make them productive.

The only weather bureau in Ban-
nock county is situated at Pocatello,
at an altitude of 4,483 feet, and the
following statistics were registered at
that place: The average number of
days per year with more than .01 inch
<>'!' precipitation is 92. The mean

History of Bannock County

temperature is about 47.5; nearly the
same as that of eastern Massachu-
setts, but more equably distributed.
The earliest killing- frost of the win-
ter usually comes about the middle of
October, and the last in the spring
toward the end of April.

The population of the county in
1910 was 19,242; in 1900 it was
11,702. Some idea of the cosmopoli-
tan character of the population may
be gathered from the fact that there
were in this county in 1910, 52 Chi-
nese. 360 Japanese, 129 negroes, 641
Greeks, 483 English, 288 Danes, 280
Italians, and 232 Swedes, beside
smaller numbers from fifteen other
nationalities. Only 51 per cent of the
population were nativ° born children
of native parents. The county con-
tained 11,405 males, and 7837 fe-
males. These were divided into 3.668
families, housed in 3.560 dwellings.

In 1910 the county had 1,503 farms,
as against 769 in 1900. The value of
all farm property was $10,957,609, an
increase of 188.6 per cent over the
total valuation in 1900. The value of
all crops in 1910 was $1,339 642, the
most valuable being cereals, which
totaled $653,768. Hay and forage
came next at $610,585. The remain-
ing crops were made up of grains and
seeds, vegetables, fruits and nuts, and
a few other products. The total irri-
gated area is about 110,000 acres.

(113)

History of Bannock County

The altitude in the valleys varies from
4,250 i'eet to 5.780, -while among the
mountains it is, of course, much
higher. There is a large acreage of
fine, well-watered pasture land in the
county, on which grows an abundance
of nutritious bunch grass. McCam-
mon, Downey, Oxford, and Soda
Springs are all surrounded with rich
agricultural lands, and at the latter
place are a number of hot mineral
springs, whose waters are bottled and
widely sold. Lava Hot Springs will
in time be a health resort of more
than state-wide fame, the beauty of
its surroundings as well as its health-
giving springs making it an ideal spot
for rest and recreation.

There was a time when deer, bear
and other game were plentiful in this
county, and it is only about ten years
since a settler was sitting quietly in
his cabin one summer evening, read-
ing a magazine, when he was dis-
turbed by a slight noise. He paid no
attention to this, but was suddenly
startled a second time by an ear-
splitting scream from his cat, who
made a dasli 'for the door, and in her
exit, jumped over a bear, who was
calmly walking in. The settler was
not in the habit of entertaining stray
bears in his cabin, and was at a loss
to know how to greet the visitor. In
his perplexity he emitted a yell that
startled all the bears for many miles
(114)

History of Bannock County

around and caused the one lone
bear in the cabin to make a hasty
dive for cover under the bed. The
rancher's gun hung over the bed, but
he did not turn that way. He headed
toward the door. As he neared it,
the bear, for reasons known only to
himself, made a dash in the same
direction and man and beast were
jammed in the narrow entry. The
man pushed in and the bear pushed
out, but in his excitement the animal
turned clean about in the open and
presently rushed back into the cabin
to his own surprise no less than that
of the inmate. The latter, however,
was now safe on his bed, and reach-
ing for the gun, he probably added
considerably to Mr. Bruin's perplex-
ity by sending him unexpectedly into
kingdom come.

Parts of three national forests are
situated in Bannock county; the
Caribou in the east, the Cache in the
southeast, and the Poeatello in the
western part. The Poeatello division
of the Poeatello forest was cieated
September 15, 1903, from an examina-
tion by Edward T. Allen.

Following an examination by Rob-
ert B. Wilson, the Portneuf division
was created March 2, 1907. The
Malad division, created May 28, 1906,
as a part of the Bear River forest,
became a part of the Poeatello in the
reorganization of July 1, 1908. These

(115)

History of Bannock County

national forest lands, covering, in
general, the Portneuf and Marsh
Creek watersheds, were merged into
the Pocatello forest July 1, 1908.

The Bear River forest, almost en-
circled hy the Bear river or its tribu-
taries, was formed May 28, 1906, and
with the Logan became the Cache
July 1, 1908.

The Caribou forest was established
January 15, 1907, the part in Ban-
nock county lying mainly on the wa-
tersheds of the Blackfoot, Salt, and
Bear rivers.

Peter T. Wrensted, Clinton G.
Smith, and J. F. Bruins, in turn, su-
pervised the Pocatello, the headquar-
ters during this time being at Poca-
tello. The Pocatello and Cache were
joined March 1, 1914, for administra-
tive purposes, under Mr. Smith,
whose headquarters are now at Logan,
Utah. Logan is the headquarters of
the Cache, which has had four super-
visors, John F. Squires, Mark G.
Woodruff. W. W. Clark, and C. G.
Smith. The Caribou has been admin-
istered by Supervisors J. T. Wede-
tneyer, N. E. Snell, and George G.
Bentz. The headquarters is at Mont-
pelier.

The need of planting to restock the
great areas of burned and insuffi-
ciently forested land in the national
forests was recognized almost as soon
as they were proclaimed. Particular-
(116)

History of Bannock County

ly was this need felt as to the forests
withdrawn for watershed protection,
and on watersheds furnishing1 a do-
mestic supply the need was most
urgent. At that time a pleasing
theory existed that every forest
ranger should have a nursery in which
to raise trees for setting out in the
hills during his spare time. With
this idea, the nursery on Mink Creek
among others, was started.

It was then realized that nursery
and planting work presented special-
ized technical problems calling for a
high degree of skill to meet success-
fully the adverse conditions of an
arid region. Soon after the nursery
was started, it was realized that suc-
cess could be hoped for only by cen-
tralizing this work at favorable loca-
tions. The shipping facilities at Poea-
tello, together with the need of ex-
tensive planting there with a favor-
able site for the nursery determined
the location at that place.

The early work was experimental
and principally valuable as indicating
the future methods to be followed.
However, actual production of stock
was begun on an extensive scale in
1911, and since that time half a mil-
lion or more young trees have been
shipped each year to the forests of
southern Idaho and Utah. The pres-
ent capacity of the nursery is about
2,000.000 plants a year and the nur-

(117)

(118)

History of Bannoc k C o u n t y

sery is firmly on its feet with a rec-
ord of successful production of stock
for several years at a cost not ex-
ceeding five dollars per thousand for
the stock supplied. At present there
are probably three or four million
young- trees in the nursery, the prin-
cipal species being Douglas fir and
yellow pine.

Stream Aoav protection is the first
object o'f the service on the area of
the Pocatello city watershed. Dur-
ing the time that this area was part
of the Indian reservation there was
not much difficulty with stream flow
protection, but when it was opened,
the citizens received an object lesson
in the effects of free grazing that led
to the inclusion of the watershed in
a forest and the prohibition of graz-
ing. The protection of this area has
been devoted to prevention of fire,
prohibition of grazing and replanting
to forest. During the last five years,
not five acres of this area has been
burned. Control of grazing is more
difficult because the boundaries are
not fenced, but it may be stated that
with the exclusion of stock, the for-
age has been completely replaced,
forming a sight such as gladdened the
eye of the first explorer and inciden-
tally a cover that prevents erosion
and rapid run-off of water. The
streams are almost always clear and
the city of Pocatello has an except-

History of Bannock County

tionally pure and palatable supply of
water.

The planting operations will prob-
ably have no effect on the water sup-
ply of the present generation, as it
is being undertaken for the future
timber supply and present experimen-
tal value. About 200,000 trees are
being planted a year and recently
with good success. The conifers
planted are slow growing, but the
early plantations are a foot or two
high and even the present generation
should see fine groves as a result.

Lately the question of stocking this
area with game has been considered.
It is pointed out that the area is an
ideal natural range for elk, deer and
other game, also that such a use would
not interfere with the stream protec-
tion, but would furnish meat, sport
and attractiveness to the region and
would tend to reduce the fire danger.
To provide complete use with com-
plete protection will be the next logi-
cal step.

In spite of the wild and sometimes
forbidding scenery that meets the
traveler's eve from the train window,
there are probably few more peaceful
communities than Bannock county in
the farming sections of the east.
Women frequently live alone and un-
protected on isolated ranches and are
seldom molested. The case of Hugh
Whitney, the bandit and outlaw who

(119)

History of Bannock County

robbed Pocatello o'f a true citizen,
and upon whose head there rests a
large reward, is today an exception.
His story is too well known to be re-
peated in detail here. In brief, Hugh
Whitney, who was a Wyoming sheep-
man, and a companion, held up a sa-
loon at Monida, just over the Mon-
tana line, in 1911, and were appre-
hended on a train running south to-
ward Pocatello. The sheriff who had
boarded the train to make the arrest,
placed his guns on a seat in order to
handcuff the prisoners. Whitney
grabbed those and shot both the sher-
iff and Conductor James Kidd, who
was helping the officer. Conductor
Kidd died in Pocatello within a few
days. The sheriff recovered.

Whitney and his companion jumped
from the moving train and separated
in making their escape. Wlhitney was
trailed by posses for weeks, and in
the course of the chase killed several
of his pursuers. Although blood-
hounds were used in the attempt to
capture him, he eluded all pursuit
with an ingenuity worthy of a better
cause. When the excitement had died
down somewhat, he and his brother
held up a bank in Cody. Wyoming, driv-
ing the employes into the safe and
locking them up there while they
made their escape.

Evidently the days of "bad men,"
in the criminal sense of the terra, are
(120)

History of Bannock County

not yet ended in the far west, but the
facility o'f communication afforded by
the railway, telephone and telegraph
makes their trade very hazardous,
and the ordinary citizen lives in less
danger of being held up or shot than
does the wayfarer on the streets of
New York or Chicago.

(121)

CHAPTER XL

POCATELLO.

The city of Pocatello, so named in
memory of an Indian chief, stands at
the western entrance to the Portneuf
canyon, and for that reason is appro-
priately known as the "Gate City."
Its site marks the junction of the
Montana and Idaho divisions of the
Oregon Short Line railroad, and the
tremendous volume of traffic that
passes through its yards, together
with the many departments main-
tained here, is rapidly developing a
large and prosperous city. Twenty-
five years ago the town was a mere
'hamlet; in 1910 the United States
Census returns gave a population of
9,100, and in 1914 Polk's Directory
credits Pocatello with over 12,000 in-
habitants, to which must be added
some 500 transients. The city is the
metropolis and county seat of Ban-
nock county, and the second largest
place in the state of Idaho.

Pocatello is pre-eminently a rail-
road town, and to the railroad she
owes her birth as well as her growth.
When the westward course of the
Oregon Short Line crossed the tracks
of the Utah & Northern railroad,
some fifty miles south of Idaho Falls,
(122)

History of Bannock County

then called Eagle Rock, a hamlet nat-
urally sprang up at the junction.
This was in the heart of the Fort
Hall Indian reservation, but the rail-
road had a grant of some two hun-
dred acres for its right of way, upon
which it allowed settlement, and upon
which, in 1882, it erected the Pacific
hotel and station. Shoshone had been
selected by the railroad officials as, a
division terminal, but there beinsr
some dispute relative to the townsite,
they determined upon Pocatello in-
stead. In 1887 the town received a
further impetus in the removal thither
of the shops from Idaho Falls, which
brought several hundred men, many
of them with families, into the ham-
let. For the accommodation of this
addition, the railroad company built
what is today known as Company
Row.

One of the most historic buildings
in the city is the two-story frame
house to the left of the west end of
the Center street viaduct. In the
days when buildings were scarce and
the little available space overcrowded,
this building, now used for office pur-
poses, served as a public meeting hall.
Portneuf Lodge, No. 18, A. F. & A. M.
was organized here in 1SS6, and met
in the building for some time. In the
late eighties the building was used
for public school purposes, and in
1891 as the fire hall. At various

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History of Bannock County

times it has been used as a church, a
theatre, a pool hall, and within its
walls were held many a church fair
that helped to build the present city
churches, and many a dance that lives
yet in the memories of the older mem-
bers of Poeatello society. The city
council also used it for a meeting
place.

Although there was no land open
for settlement, there quickly grew up
a typical frontier town, "wide-open,"
as the saying is, where excitement ran
high, where vice went unashamed, and
where saloons and gambling knew no
closing hours nor Sunday laws. At
last the demand for more room be-
came so insistent, that the United
States government purchased two
thousand acres of reservation land
from the Indians, to be used as a
town-site. This was surveyed in 1889,
and the following year lots were sold
at auction at prices ranging from ten
to fifty dollars. At that sale the
foundation of many comfortable for-
tunes of today were made. Already
some buildings had boon erected, and
it was feared that the purchase of
their sites by other parties migtyit
cause trouble. But the squatter's
right was honored, and the man who
had built a store or homo was allowed
to secure a title to his holdings.

The community was organized into
a village during this year, with H. L.
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History of Bannock County

Beeraft as chairman of the board of
trustees, and D. K. Williams, A. F.
Caldwell, L. A. West and Doctor
Davis members. Another tract of
reservation land was opened for set-
tlement in 1905..

Before 1892, Pocatello had a popu-
lation of over three thousand, and by
an act of legislature it was in that
year created a city of the first class.
At the first city election, held in 1893,
Edward Stein was elected mayor; Ed.
Sadler, clerk, and J. J. Curl, treas-
urer. Eight councilmen were also
elected.

Echvard Stein, Pocatello 's first
mayor, and now a citizen of Boise,
has had an eventful career. He is a
grandson of Baron von Stein, com-
mander-in-chief of the Prussian army
during the Napoleonic wars. His
father, William von Stein, a veteran
of the Franco-Prussian war, became
a follower of the brilliant reformer
Carl Schurz, and upon the failure of
the latter 's attempt to establish a
democracy in Germany, was cast into
prison. He was afterwards released,
but lost his title to nobility. Edward
von Stein was born in Schubina,
Poland, January 17, 1854, and was
educated at the Prussian University
of Bromberg. His republican tenden-
cies naturally turned his attention to-
ward America, where Carl Schurz
and many another European revolu-

(125)

History of Bannock County

tionist had already found a haven,
and with his father's approval, em-
barked in 1871 on the steamer
Weiland from Hamburg to New York.

Because he had reached an age at
which the German military service
would have claimed him, young Stein
had entered upon his journey without
a passport, an application for which
would have led to his compulsory en-
listment in the army. Presently an
officer of the ship accosted him and
demanded his passport, and proceed-
ed to make a search for it when none
was forthcoming. But the search was
vain, which the officer announced in
a loud voice, adding that officials had
warned the ship's officers that young
von Stein had no passport. The
future mayor of Pocatello thereupon
produced a packet from his pocket,
which he handed to the officer, who
examined its contents, and promptly
shouted to his superior officer, "I find
the papers of Mr. Stein to be quite
correct." The packet contained the
four hundred marks his father had
given him at starting.

It was, therefore, with a light
pocketbook that Mr. von Stein land-
ed in the United States. He was
anxious, however, to see something
of the country before settling down,
and got as far as Chicago before his
funds failed. He accordingly pawned
some of his belongings, and was de-
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History of Bannock County

jectedly walking the streets, wonder-
ing where to turn in his perplexity,
when a gun was thrust suddenly in
his face, and the order given, "Hands
up." The highwayman found noth-
ing of value on his victim, and when
he learned that the boy was penniless,
took him to a restaurant and bought
him a meal, and told him where he
could find employment as a Polish-
German interpreter in a brick yard.
From then on von Stein's fortunes
began to advance. He spent some
time in "Wisconsin, was recalled to
Europe in 1876 by his father's death,
when he made an extended tour of
the continent, returned to this coun-
try and made a fortune in the Black
Hills, which he later lost in mining
ventures, and moved on to Colorado,
where he married. In 1884 he came
to Idaho, and in time became super-
intendent of car service on the Ore-
gon Short Line, with headquarters in
Pocatello.

Before his tenure expired, Mr. von
Stein resigned his office as mayor of
Pocatello, and moved to Nampa, where
he had purchased a section of land,
and helped to organize that town.
He still has property interests in
Pocatello.

A. B. Bean succeeded Edward Stein
as mayor of the city, and was fol-
lowed by W. F. Kasiska, the present
proprietor of the Bannock hotel and

(127)

History of Bannock County

owner of large real estate and busi-
ness interests in and about Pocatello.
Mr. Kasiska held the office until 1898,
when W. T. Reeves was elected, who
in turn was succeeded by A. B. Bean,
the former mayor of 1894.

During 1895,^ J. B. Bistline filled the
office. Mr. Bistline is a member of
the Bistline Lumber company and has
been a resident of the city since 1891.

M. D. Rice was the next mayor and
in 1901 Theodore Turner was elected
to the office. He was re-elected in
1912. Theodore Turner is one of the
most prominent men in the political
life of the county. He was a state
senator in 1900, and in 1902 was
elected state auditor. Besides hold-
ing many public offices, Mayor Turner
has taken great interest in the Acad-
emy of Idaho and in the good roads
movement.

Dr. 0. B. Steeley succeeded Mr.
Turner in the mayor's chair, and has
since served the county as coroner
and the city as school trustee. In
1904, D. Swinehart filled the office,
and in 1905, W. H. Cleare. Mr.
Clears was one of the organizers of
the Farmers cV Traders Hank in l'oca-
tello and also of the Railroad Y. M.
C. A. He served in the citv council
during the years 1901-2, and lias been
a member of the board of trustees of
the Academy of Idaho.

Dr. C. E. M. Loux, of the lumber
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History of Bannock County

firm of Loux, McConnell & Co., a
member of the city council, was
elected to the mayoralty in 1907. and
D. W. Church, cashier of the Ban-
nock National Bank, in 1909. Mr.
Church is one of the most prominent
members of the Republican party in
Bannock county, and was a state sen-
ator in 1898. He has been identified
since the organization of the city with
nearly every movement for civic bet-
terment and advancement. Mr. Church
was succeeded by J. M. Bistline. a
brother and business partner of the
mayor of 1899, who in turn was fol-
lowed by Theodore Turner, who is
now filling the office for the second
time.

Many other residents of Pocatello
whose names make a list too long to
repeat here, have rendered valuable
public service to both the city and
county. Among them may be men-
tioned Judge T. A. Johnston, who for
a period of twelve years, beginning
in 1900, served the county as probate
judge; Oscar B. Sonnenkalb, who has
been county surveyor since 1896; the
late D. Worth Clark, Lorenzo Brown,
Andrew B. Stevenson, and John Hull,
who have served in the state senate ;
Wl. A. Staley. W. J. Inkling, Col. H.
V. A. Ferguson, and W. A. Hyde,
former members of the state house
of representatives; Alfred Budge,
who. after long and faithful service

(129)

(130)

History of Bannock County

as district judge, has just been ele-
vated to the supreme bench of the
state; Daniel C. McDougal. attorney
general of the state of Idaho in 1908,
and Hon. Drew TV. Standrod.

Judge Standrod was elected district
attorney in 1S86, while he was still
a resident of Malad, where his father
practiced medicine for many years,
and in 1890 he ran successfully for
election as judge of the Fifth Judi-
cial District of the state of Idaho.
He moved to Poeatello in 1895, since
which time he has been actively iden-
tified with the legal and financial ac-
tivities of the city. In addition to his
interest in the First National Bank
of Poeatello. of which he is president,
Judge Standrod is interested in ten
other banks in the inter-mountain
country. He is a leading figure in the
Republican party, and has recently
resigned a six year appointment on
Idaho's first Public Utilities Commis-
sion, after serving nearlv two vears.

Of Senator Brady, who is not only
one of the most distinguished citizens
of Poeatello. nor yet of Idaho, having
been governor of the state, but also
of the United States, he being a mem-
ber of the nation's highest legislative
body, we will speak in the next chap-
ter.

Men who left Poeatello ten or fif-
teen yean ago would hardly recognize
the city today. Recently a man re-

History of Bannock County

turned from Ohio, who had owned a
large number of lots near Center and
Main streets in the late nineties, and
who sold them for a modest sum after
having- held them for some years on
speculation. He learned to his sur-
prise and chagrin that the property
he had sold for fifteen hundred dol-
lars is worth more than twenty thou-
sand today. Another old-timer who
grew tired of the west and returned
to his eastern home, in acknowledging
the receipt of a picture of Pocatello,
wrote that the picture was very nice
but that he knew it was not a picture
of Pocatello because Pocatello had
no trees !

Not only is the city well supplied
with trees, but it is equipped with
the full complement of an up-to-date
city. Commercially it is one of the
most active and prosperous in the
west. It has an ample supply of
water, of electric power, a street ear
service, and is gradually installing
new improvements in its street and
sewerage system. It is a common
thing in the west for growing cities
to outstrip themselves in their zeal
for improvements, and an unwise en-
thusiasm and optimism has plunged
many municipalities into embarrass-
ment and debt. Pocatello has been
wisely governed in this respect, and
if she is rather behindhand in some
lines of improvement, this is far

(131)

History of Bannock County

preferable to being several years
ahead, and attempting by a forced
growth to meet an unneeded equip-
ment. Several local organizations,
notably the Civic Club, have done
much for the betterment of civic life
in the city, and it is probable that the
next five years will see a decided im-
provement in the appearance of both
streets and homes.

The religious needs of the city are
well supplied. The Congregational
church was organized in 1888, and
Trinity parish, of the Episcopal
church, was established the following
year. Since then the Baptist, Metho-
dist, and Presbyterian denominations
have built up strong institutions. The
Latter Day Saints and the Roman
Catholic church ai*e so strong that
they have each two churches, one on
the east and one on the west side of
the town. No reference to the re-
ligious growth of Pocatello would be
complete without a sketch of the Rev.
Father Cyril Van der Donekt, who
came to Idaho as a missionary in 1SS7
and has resided in Pocatello since
1888.

Father Van der Donekt was born
in [-ielgium in 1865 and was educated
in Etenaiz College, in the Seminary of
iSt. Nicholas, and in the American
college in Louvain. By a special dis-
pensation from Pope Leo XIII, he
was ordained when twenty months
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History of Bannock County

under age, and came directly to Idaho,
where he has since labored. During
six years he was general missionary
for the whole of southern Idaho, his
ministrations covering eleven coun-
ties, and for some time he was the
only secular priest in the whole state.
In addition to St. Joseph's parish, a
large and strong institution, Father
Van der Donckt has built a parish
school, and will soon see a hospital
added to his establishment. The pro-
longed and faithful services of such
a man as Father Van der Donckt are
invaluable to any community, but es-
pecially to a country in its formative
stage. The hardships, discourage-
ments and indifference that the latter
condition always throws in the way
of a missionary call for no ordinary
amount of pluck and perseverance,
and great credit is due to the man
who faces them unflinchingly and who
out of nothing builds up a flourishing
and useful work.

Among the religious activities of
Pocatello, the Railroad Young Men's
Christian Association takes a leading
place. This is the second largest in-
stitution of its kind in the United
States, having a membership of over
fifteen hundred members. Its success
is due to the ability of its general
secretary. A. B. Richardson, and his
associate, Eric A. Krussman.

During recent years Christian Sci-

(133)

History of Bannock County

ence has becoe firmly established in
Pocatello.

Other among the city's public in-
stitutions are the Carnegie Public
Library and the Pocatello General
Hospital.

In addition to her public school
system, of which Supt. W. R. Sliders
is the head, Pocatello is the seat of
the Academy of Idaho, a state insti-
tution created by the legislature of

1901. and opened for instruction in

1902. The city gave ten acres as a
site 'for the Academy, and in 1905 the
state gave the institution forty thou-
sand acres of land, the sale of "which
will provide an endowment. The work
of the Academy is largely along tech-
nical lines, and for the use of the
agricultural department a hundred-
acre farm has been purchased just
south of the city. Miles F. Reed is
president of the Academy, which has
about three hundred students.

Standing sentinel over the city,
towering above it to the south, and
doubtless protecting it from many a
wind and storm, is Kinport's peak.
Harry Kinport, for whom this moun-
tain was named, is now dead, but he
was well known in Pocatello a few
years ago, and is supposed to have
been the first white man to climb the
mountain. He signalized his feat by
planting a flag there. Kinport was a
business man in Pocatello 'for several
(134)

History of Bannock County

years, coming* to the town in 1885.
He was always a great hunter and
fisherman, and when President Roose-
velt visited the city, caught a mess
of trout and presented them to the
visitor.

There is every reason to hope that
Pocatello will have a population of
over 20.000 before the next census.
Its facilities as a distributing point
are attracting many manufacturing;
and merchandise companies, who are
building warehouses, and the fact that
the Oregon Short Line railroad has
built a freight depot to handle the
traffic of a town of 50,000 population,
shows that the management of that
line expects a big growth.

(135)

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.

(Kid)

There are twenty-three counties in
the state of Idaho, of which sixteen
have a smaller and six a larger popu-
lation than Bannock, while twelve
counties have a smaller area and ten
a larger. Therefore, Bannock is one
of the larger counties of the state.
This position she has creditahly
maintained in hoth the number and
the quality of her public men, of
whom several were mentioned in the
last chapter.

Others who deserve mention here
are former State Senators Ruel
Rounds, George C. Parkinson, Louis
S. Keller, John B. Thatcher, George
H. Fisher and W. H. Mendenhall, our
present senator, and former State
Representatives William A. Walker,
Robert V. Cozier, L. R. Thomas,
William McGlee Harris. Denmark Jen-
sen, W. H. Lovesy, Edward L. Holz-
heimer, Thomas M. Edwards, John
Schutt, C. W. Dempster, W. H. Men-
denhall and C. W. Cray, I). J. Lau
and D. J. Elrod, the county's present
representatives.

Many of these men have been re-
turned to office several times, J.
Frank Hunt, of Downey, having rep-

History of Bannock County

resented the county either as sena-
tor or representative continuously
since 1900, with the exception of one
term of office. In 1900, Thomas Ter-
rell was elected lieutenant governor
of the state, and in 1908, James H.
Brady, of Pocatello. present United
States senator for Idaho, was re-
turned as governor.

Senator Brady was born in Indiana
count}, Pennsylvania, June 12, 1862,
but was taken to Kansas by his
parents in early boyhood, where he
was educated in the State Normal
College. He taught school for three
years, fitted himself for the profes-
sion of law, edited a semi-weekly
newspaper for two years, and then
became interested in the real estate
business. In time he was operating
successful offices in St. Louis, Chi-
cago and Houston, Texas. The irri-
gation and power possibilities of Ida-
ho attracted him to this state in 1895,
when he beeame identified with the
development of the Snake river val-
ley, the Idaho. Marysville and Fort
Hall canals being among the projects
in which he was active. He has been
a leading factor in the electrical de-
velopment of southeastern Idaho, the
Idaho Consolidated Power company,
at American Falls, being one of his
useful and successful enterprises.

Although a man with large private
interests that demanded much time

(137)

History of Bannock County

and attention. Senator Brady has
been an active and ruling figure in
the Republican party in Idaho for
several years. In 1900 he was a dele-
gate to the Republican national con-
vention and in 1908 he was a mem-
ber of the committee sent by the con-
vention to notify William H. Taft of
his nomination for the presidency of
the United States. He was vice-
president of the National Irrigation
Congress in 1896 and 1898, and a
member of its executive committee
from 1900 until 1904. The senator
has always represented his constitu-
ents efficiently and well and in re-
turn enjoys their personal good-will
and loyalty.

It was Senator Brady who made
possible the "Western Governors'
Special," a railway train which
toured the east in 1911 in what proved
to be a very successful attempt to
forge closer the links that bind the
east and west, and to demonstrate by
exhibits carried on the train that the
sums expended by the United States
government for the reclamation of
arid western lands were wisely in-
vested. The governors of Idaho,
Washington, Oregon, California, Ne-
vada, Wyoming, Montana, North and
South Dakota and Minnesota accom-
panied the train, each in his own
car. The expedition, which has been
justlv termed "one of the most
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History of Bannock County

unique incidents in the annals of
publicity," was entertained at din-
ner in the White House at Washing-
ton by President Taft.

Among the-men who played import-
ant parts in developing Bannock
county, is the late Henry 0. Hark-
ness, who founded the town of Mc-
Cammon, which formerly bore his
name.

Mr. Harkness was bo:n in Nor-
walk, Ohio, in 1838, and as a young
man learned the rade of machinist.
When the Civil war broke out, he en-
listed in the Washburn Lead-Mine
regiment and attained the rank of
captain before he was honorably dis-
charged from the service in 1865. The
following year he left Atchison. Kan-
sas, with an outfit of four wagons and
ten oxen, and crossed the plains to
the Madison valley in Montana. Here
he engaged in stock-raising but a se-
ver, winter killed most of his cattle,
and in the spring of 1867 he moved
south into Idaho. He spent three
years in the northern part of the state
and in 1870 settled in the Portneuf
valley, where he once more raised
stock. He was a man of unusual
business sagacity, combining shrewd
foresight with an ingenuity that de-
fied defeat, and he soon acquired both
wealth and influence in the commu-
nity. He was county commissioner
of Oneida from 1874 until 1880. At

(139)

History of Bannoc k C o u n t y

the time of his death in 1911, his
estate consisted in part of seventeen
hundred acres of land near McCain-
mon, sixteen hundred acres in the
vicinity of Oxford, the large H. 0.
Harkness hotel at M^Caminon, which
was a landmark in the county for
several years but was destroyed by
fire i 1913, the flour mill in McCam-
mon, and several mammoth feed
barns in the same town. Mr. Hark-
ness was the first postmaster of Mc-
Cammon and the first man in south-
ern Idaho to own an electric light
plant.

Another citizen of McCammon who
is a factor in both the political and
business life of the county is the
Hon. Thomas M. Edwards, who, with
his brothers Walter and Charles own
the McCammon Investment company.
Mr. Edwards was a member of the
State House of Representatives from
190S until 1910, and a member of the
Republican state central committee
for Bannock county in 1910 and 1911.

Thomas Edwards was born in
Yankton, S. D., in 1864. His father,
Colonel Thomas H. Edwards, was a
veteran of the civil war and his
grandfather, Col. Jonathan Edwards,
was a veteran of the Mexican war.
Thomas Edwards settled in McCam-
mon in 1900. being attracted to the
town by the opportunities it offered.
Since that time he has helped to or-
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History of Bannock County

ganize the McCarmnon State Bank, of
which he was formerly president, the
McCarnmon Telephone company, the
Portneuf - Marsh Valley Irrigation
company, the Downey Townsite & De-
velopment company, the Ferguson-
Jenkins Drug company, of which
Thomas Jenkins and Samuel Fergu-
son are the present proprietors, and
several other smaller enterprises.

The first permanent settlement in
Bannock county was made in 1866,
when a party of Latter Day Skints
established themselves at what is now
Malad City. Since that time most
of the larger Christian denominations
have carried their missionary work
into the county, whose religious de-
velopment unfortunately has been
carried on principally by a succession
of short ministries. In addition to
the Rev. C. Van der Donckt, of whom
some account has already been given,
two men, however, have worked long
and faithfully in building up the re-
ligious life of the county. One of
these is the Venerable Howard Stoy,
an archdeacon of the Episcopal
church, who, with headquarters in
Poeatello, gives pastoral care to over
twenty-five mission points, although
not all of these are in Bannock coun-
ty. His jurisdiction, indeed, covers
a distance of more than two hundred
miles westward from the Wyoming
line, and in the course of his work

(141)

History of BannockCounty

lie sometimes travels three thousand
miles in a month. He has opened up
many a town and hamlet to ehurchly
influence and has conducted services
at points that had never known a
Christian service until his coming.
Such men, above all others, are con-
tributing to both the present and
future upbuilding of the community,
and to them is all honor due. Mr.
George Peacock, a missionary of the
American Sunday School association
of Philadelphia, is another man who
is sacrificing all worldly interests in
order to carry Christian instruction
to children who must be without it,
except for him. Mr. Peacock organ-
izes undenominational Sunday schools
in places that have no church, these
schools in time being taken over by
the first church to establish itself in
the town.

The principal occupations in the
county at the present time are ranch-
ing, stockraising and railroading. It is
quite possible that mining will be
added to these in years to come, and
that manufacturing will soon be
added to the list is a very safe pre-
diction. The exceptional railroad fa-
cilities, the abundant water power
afforded by the rapid current of the
Portncuf, and the conveniences of a
city like Pocatello will offer strong
inducements to manufacturers, as
soon as the population of the sur-
(142)

History of Bannock County

rounding country is sufficiently great
to offer a lucrative, market.

The history of Bannock county is
one of which her citizens may well
be proud. It has been consistently
progressive and healthy. The suffrage
was granted to women in 1896, when
the state of Idaho adopted woman's
suffrage, and in 1911 the county ex-
ercised its local option rights and
voted for prohibition.

With the exception of the strike in
the Oregon Short Line Railroad shops
in Pocatello in 1911. when the shop-
men walked out, there has been no
really serious labor trouble in the
annals of the county, and in the case
of the strike in 1911, which is still
unsettled, there was no violenee nor
rioting.

The history of Bannock eounty is
a history of honest men and clean
citizens. Its pages are unstained by
any public scandal, or official dishon-
esty, but, on the contrary, bear the
records of an industrious and true-
hearted race of men. The future of
the county is promising and bright.
The foundation of her development
has been truly laid, and her command-
ing commercial position, her abun-
dant and fertile resources, her splen-
did climate and her excellent railroad
facilities insure a prosperity that few
other communities can expect.

(143)

THE -=----

' " '" 111