| THE first white
explorers in Idaho were the Lewis
and Clark's party, 1805-6,
followed by the Missouri Fur Co.
and the Pacific Fur Co., by
Captain Bonneville in 1834, and
by Missionaries. In 1834 N. J.
Wyeth founded Fort Hall, which
was an important point in
emigrant days, being at the
crossing of the Missouri-Oregon
and Utah-Canada trails. The
Territory of Idaho was formed in
1863 from parts of Washington,
Dakota, and Nebraska, and then
included the present Idaho,
Montana, and most of Wyoming.
Attention was called to this
mountain-walled solitude in 1860,
when thousands of Californian
miners flocked into it after the
discovery of gold on Oro-Fino
Creek. These adventurers aroused
the hostility of the Indians, who
fought them at many points, and
the defiles of the Owyhee and
Salmon rivers often echoed with
the terrible war-whoops. The
United States troops were
withdrawn to fight for the Union,
and this region was defended by
the First Oregon Cavalry. In
1883-84 occurred the
Coeur-d'Alêne stampede, when
5,100 gold-finders crossed the
terrible snows of the mountains.
The first printing-press west of
the Rocky Mountains and north of
California was set up in 1836, at
the Lapwai Mission, Idaho, for
printing books in the Nez-Percé
language. |
