Utah
Quarterlies, Books & Newspaper Articles
Daughters of the Utah Pioneers
Collection
"In the fall of
1862, parties under the leadership of Ralph Bledsoe, Marion Moore and Jeff
Standifer with a party were the first to arrive in Boise Basin after the
discovery became known. They were the beginning of a tide that rolled into the
Basin, miners, merchants, mechanics, packers, gamblers, preachers, doctors and lawyers,
every occupation, every creed, every people. Some traveled light for the 400 miles between
Umatilla, Wallula, or Lewiston, and the new "diggin's." Some purchased
their own pack strings. Some could afford to hire them. Some became party to a
regularly operated pack train soon in operation under the direction of John Hailey.
Within two years after discovery, ferries bridged the rivers and stage lines vied for the
patronage of the road. Within two years the population became stabilized.
News of the rich placer strike brought not only miners but merchants and professional men
of various professions. While the first miners used lumber--whip-sawed for their
sluice boxes and cabins, the fall of 1862 brought the construction of a sawmill on Grimes
Creek. Schools, churches, a newspaper, theatre, and gambling houses sprang up.
It was the lure of gold, however, that brought most of these men into the Basin. The
majority of them were comparatively young. Money was plentiful, drinking and
gambling not only tolerated but expected. The true characters of these young men
were brought out and developed for good or bad. Several of them have since become
governors of our State. Thus, amidst the hills, where two years before, a band of
roving Indians murdered George Grimes, a community of rugged people in a primitive
environment rapidly underwent the transition from barbarism to conventionalism."
"The second
settlement of the name in the Mormon northeastern occupation, lies three miles south of
Snowflake. It is on Silver Creek, which is spanned by a remarkable suspension bridge
that connects two sections of the town. When the first Mormon residents came, early
in 1878 the settlement was known as Bagley. The present name, honoring John Taylor,
president of the Church, was adopted in 1881, at the suggestion of Stake President Jesse
N. Smith. The first settler was James Pearce, a noted character in southwestern
annals....He came January 23, 1878, and in March was joined by John H.
Standiford."
