The History of the Salmon River Mining Region

Author: Clete Edmunson

Retail Price:  $22.95

270 Pages

6x9 Trade Paper Binding

Photos - maps 

The History of the Salmon River Mining Region is the heart & soul of the history of Idaho itself. No other region encapsulates everything that was and is Idaho more. Just a short year after gold was discovered in Pierce, miners forced their way onto Nez Perce land to discover the gold in some places inches thick on the bed rock below the peat bogs of a high mountain meadow that would be forever known as Fabulous Florence. Ten thousand gold prospectors would struggle up the steep Salmon River slopes in search of riches, only to be met with starvation and death during one of the worst winters in history. But that following summer, the survivors hit the bonanza, with the amount of gold taken off the bedrock rivaling California a decade earlier.

Restless for another strike, a year later a group of prospectors traveled down and across the mighty Salmon River and up to another high mountain valley to discover gold in what would become Warren. This historic mining town, still standing after all these years, experienced it all. It started with placer mining, which led to discovery of a network of rich gold veins above town, including the Rescue, Charity and Unity Mines. During the Great Depression, Warren was home to one of the largest dredging operations in Idaho. The town itself was temporarily moved to make room for the massive floating dredges.

The region is also home to the famed “rush to the Hump” to get to the Buffalo Hump Mines, along with gold discoveries in the Marshall Mountain Mines, Ruby Meadows and near Secesh. The region is also home to famous Burgdorf Hot Springs and the infamous Loon Lake Bomber crash site.

For 165 years this region experienced every boom and bust of the mining cycle, along with the influx of the largest percentage of Chinese miners in the west, including Idaho’s most famous Chinese immigrant, Polly Bemis. The Salmon River Region was also unique in that the residents faced two conflicts with local Indian Tribes, during the Nez Perce War of 1877 and again in 1878 with the Sheepeater Campaign.