looking back
Continued from page 154 prosperous as the cattle and sheep irrigated and produces millions of on the north and east by the Snake industry boomed; tens of thousands of bushels of potatoes, corn, beets and River, the famous Silver City mining animals were fattened up on nearly wheat, as well as crops like alfalfa. area lies in the Owyhee Mountains in unlimited grass and driven to the near - Owyhee County is still one of the the north of the county. The famous est railhead in the fall. largest in the U.S. and one of the most Dry Route of the Oregon Trail cut Even with the success of the live - remote. The corner of Idaho, Oregon through Owyhee County, becoming stock industry, the life in Owyhee and Nevada, and the Great Basin region the first real road in the region, and it County was difficult, its extreme isola - remain a place for those that like wide was used as a trail for the immigrants tion making day to day life a lonely open spaces, and peace and quiet. And, for more than thirty-years. struggle for most of its residents. if you are serious about finding the real After gold was discovered, the boom Ranches were often so large, and so far Wild West, take a drive down Interstate brought in thousands of miners search - from civilization that people seldom 80, then turn north, somewhere around ing for their piece of the treasure. Like left because the travel was too difficult. the famous old cowtown of Elko, most gold rush towns of the period, Agriculture in general remained a Nevada, and drive for a couple of hours. some found gold, but most found fail - tough life until 1864, when congress If the empty Nevada landscape does - ure. However, successful or not, they all passed the Carey Act, also known as n’t already look a little like the Wild came hungry, and beef in this isolated the Federal Desert Land Act. It allowed West to you, cross through the Duck region was almost non-existent. private entrepreneurs to build irriga - Valley Indian Reservation and into The first large herd of cattle finally tion systems on federal land and sell Owyhee County, Idaho. Today, the reached the new territory of Idaho and the water to ranches and farms. The region has a population of 11,500 peo - entered the county through the soil of the Owyhee region is great for ple scattered across 7,676 square miles Bruneau Valley in the fall of 1869. It agriculture and will grow nearly any - for an average of 1.4 people per square wasn’t easy going for the vaqueros and thing; but it needs more water than is mile. Working buckaroos saddle up cowboys of the day. For nearly a year, a produced naturally. every day in this big chunk of country; handful of men from Owyhee County With the water came the next big they drag calves to the fire and gather struggled through the unpredictable boom – farming the dry lands of cows in the fall. They’re all out there, FULL PAGE weather and imposing western geogra - Owyhee County. Today, most of the somewhere in the wide open spaces of phy to drive the herd of 1,400 head up farm land of Southern Idaho is heavily the Owyhee. from the Brazos area of Texas. Most were Durham cattle, with a few Longhorns mixed in. These would become the seed stock of the new Idaho cattle industry; and the hungry miners and citizens of this remote out - post couldn’t wait for their first steak. 1/6 In a few years, Owyhee County had an estimated 100,000 cattle and many ran free, much like their early Longhorn counterparts in Texas. As the HOR. mining boom began to wind down to its inevitable bust, ranching and farm - ing was emerging as the next big indus - try. In a few years, the region became
1/12 1/6 HOR.
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If you want to get away from pretty much everything, take a trip down the 346 mile-long Owyhee River. R O Z E
P E T A L FULL PAGE
he term ‘Wild West’ has been used in conversation, in the was situated in the extreme southeast movies and in writing of all kinds for at least a hundred years. corner of the new boundaries with the Oregon and Nevada territories. At times, everything west of the Mississippi River has been The new county had been called the called the Wild West; from the flatlands of the Midwest to the Owyhee since it was explored by the shores of the Pacific. After a hundred-and-fifty-years of west - early trappers of the Montreal-based ern expansion, what we think of as wild has gradually been tamed into Northwest Company. The name came cities, towns, farms, ranches and people - lots and lots of people. from three Hawaiian natives that joined the trapping expedition of 1819. The natives of the islands had been dubbed Often, people who live in the East for them. If you really want to see Owyhee’s by Captain Cook after he first and in the big cities are heard bemoan - some of those places you heard about set foot on the Sandwich Islands in ing the loss of the wide open spaces of or read about while growing up, you 1778, and the name stuck. When the the old days. They love talking about may be required to get a ways off of three natives mysteriously disappeared the fact that the Wild West and all the the pavement. exploring a fork of the Snake River, the real cowboys are all gone; and how On March 4, 1863, President Lincoln rest of the expedition named the they would have loved to live a hun - signed the Idaho Territory into law. It region the Owyhee for the missing dred-years-ago so they could have broke up the politically disputed trappers - and the name stuck again. been part of that life. Washington and Oregon Territories At the northern most edge of the Their facts are partly right. The West and initially made the Idaho territory Great Basin, the Owyhee country con - may not be as wild as it was back then, large enough to include most of pres - sists of rolling sage prairies, deep and maybe there aren’t as many wide ent-day Wyoming, Montana and canyons and mountains, and is cut open spaces as there once was; but Idaho. The first county in the new ter - through by the Owyhee River. Bordered they’re out there if you want to look ritory was called Owyhee County and Continued on page 153
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