Old Mines High above Silver City By Ray Brooks I knew the rough road was public, so I ignored a “Private” sign and opened a sheepherder gate in a fence to drive into the remains of the once-bustling
It Shall Remain Unnamed Story and Photos by Evan Jones On a beautiful fall day in north-central Idaho in 2016, when the sun had come out after many days of rain, I drove into the forest to see
A Ghost Town’s Vivid Past By Eloise Kraemer Over breakfast with friends in the Silver Valley last June, my husband Douglas and I got into a discussion about Eagle City and old sawmills. This brought up fond memories
Stories Behind the Images Photos Courtesy of Clearwater Historical Museum The cover story of the magazine’s October 2019 issue was about a trove of historical photos discovered in rural Oregon that revived interest in the Idaho setting of
The Life and Death of Seneacquoteen By Mike Turnlund It’s grand to live in Idaho, but to quote Abraham Lincoln (who himself was quoting another), “This too shall pass.” Life ends. Death is a fact of life. As
The Ghost Town a Mile from Home Story and Photos by Ernest J. Lombard The author, a retired architect and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA), was raised on a ranch in Bonneville County and has
The Rugged Serenity of Gilmore By Storee Powell There is something incredibly satisfying about immersing myself in a ghost town’s remnants of a bygone time, because I can envision what life was like for the people living there—a
“Check out that old Masonic Lodge, honey,” I said to my wife Felicity. “That’s what our house should look like.”
“I think it’s for sale,” she replied.
I imagined helicopters lifting the barn-sized building out of the canyon in the Owyhee Mountains that shelters Silver City and arranging it on a hillside close to Boise. Then, with a laugh, I realized what she meant. “Oh, you mean live here?” Continue reading
I love exploring ghost towns and digging up Idaho history.
I’ve spent a good amount of time wandering around Atlanta, Rocky Bar, and Silver City to name a few, and when I heard about a ghost town in eastern Idaho called Chesterfield, it went right on my “to see” list. What I saw was definitely not your normal ghost town.
Chesterfield is on the Oregon Trail between Soda Springs and the Old Fort Hall, about eleven miles north of Bancroft. The area around it, which includes the Portneuf and Bear Rivers, was noted by fur trappers as early as 1813. Bannock and Shoshone tribes ranged there long before white people created a trade center where emigrants stopped for supplies. This is where some of the pioneers split off to take the Hudspeth Cutoff southwest to California instead of the Oregon Trail heading northwest to Fort Hall.
At this year’s Memorial Day celebration in Chesterfield, I stood with a group of people watching as the American flag was raised, and the woman beside me said, “Who are you related to?” Continue reading
