Snake River Country—A Rangeland Heritage James A
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Rangelands 8(5), October 1986 199 Snake River Country—a Rangeland Heritage James A. Young THE SNAKE RIVER SWEEPS INA GREATARC through The distant mountains, rising rangeabove rangeand culmi- southern Idaho, forminga hugevalley bounded on thenorth nating in some far off sun-kissedpeak, are the most delicate by the mountains of the Idaho batholith and on the south by blue, whileall below is dark and shadowy.As the sun mounts the mountainous lip of the Great Basin. In southern Idaho, higher and colors deepen, becoming violetand purple, of a strength and puritynever seen where rain is frequent—The the BearRiver, a tributaryof the GreatSalt Lake,encroaches walls into the Gem State. To the the River and its shadows,if canyon are near, are sharply outlined and west, Owyhee black in contrast with the intense reflected from streams extend into north central appear light tributary deep Nevada, the sunbathedsurfaces—In the glareof the unclouded noon- drainingthe Owyhee Desertto the Snake. Between the Owy- tide summer sun, the plains arefeatureless, or perhaps,their hee and the Bearthere is aseries of streamswhich risein the expressionis distorted and renderedgrosteque or vagueand highlands at the border of the Great Basin and flow northto meaninglessby the deceptivemirage—As evening approach- the Snake. From east to west, these streams are the Raft esthere is a gradualchange fromglare to shadow. The broad River, Goose Creek, Salmon Falls Creek, and the Bruneau plainbecomes a seaof purple on which floatthe stillshimmer- River.The Snake River itself often had tocut through block- ing mountains. The shadows creep higher and higher, until becomesa line of ing basalt flows in its rush to the Columbia, leaving the each serrate crest light, margining rugged on which line etched centuries rills present river toflow through deepcanyons withnearly sheer slopes every through by and creeks reveal its history." walls. On top of these walls was avast, empty plain, clothed in sand, and sometimes raw lava flows. Despite the forbidding appearance of the Snake River sage, was claimed. The To the 19th century traveler, the land resources of Idaho plains, the country Hudson's Bay Com- hadsent of to searchfor furs the were disguised and in places appeared hostile. Lacking pany parties trappers along streams of the Snake. the decade of knowledge of how to approach the vastnessand aridity of many tributary During Idaho, travelers left of the land that were the 1820's, trapping brigades commanded by Peter Skene early descriptions not in Idaho, but ventured far to the seldom favorable. In his volume Astoria, Washington Irving Ogden trapped only south into the Great Basin. Endeavoring to keep the Ameri- gave a description of the Snake River Valley: can interest afar, the Hudson's Bay Company purchased in the New Nathaniel A dreary desert of sand and gravel extends from the Snake 1837, Fort Hall from England merchant, River almost to the Columbia. Here and there is athin, scanty Wyeth, and kept it as an outpost on the eastern perimeter of herbage, insufficient for the pasturage of horses or buffalo. the Columbia division of the Britishfur trading company. Indeed, thesetreeless wastesbetween the Rocky Mountains Evidence of great pasture potentialityscattered in every and the Pacific are even more desolateand barren than the direction around Fort Hall. Southeastof Fort Hall, John Fre- naked, upper prairies on the Atlanticside; they present vast mont camped on the Bear River and wrote in his journal in desert tracks that must ever defy cultivation, and interpose 1843. and wilds between the habitations of in dreary thirsty man, Thebottoms are extensive, waterexcellent, timber sufficient, traversing which the wanderer will often be in danger of the soil good—All the mountains here are covered with a perishing. valuable nutritious grass called bunchgrass,from the form in Beauty in the sagebrush environment is very much in the which it grows, it has second growth in the fall.The beasts of eyeof the beholder.The 19th century geologist, I.C. Russell, the Indians were fat upon it; our own found it a good sub- became acquainted with the Snake River country by spend- stance and its quantity will sustain any amount of cattle. ing weeks on mule back mapping the geology and water resources ofthe area. Russell suggested: A lot of people moved through the Snake River country One must become familiar with thesecharacteristics, how- during1840's and 1850's following thetrails blazed by thefur ever,and learn to judge the desert by itsown standards before trappers. At Fort Hall in southeastern Idaho, wagon trains their beautiesare revealedto the traveler from humid lands, had a choice between continuing across the Snake River where everyhillside is clothed with verdue and every brook plains on the way to Oregon or turning south to follow the flows from a shadowy vale. They will at first seemrepellent Humboldt River across the Great Basin to Huispeth cutoff deserts,on which a long sojourn will be intolerable,when the Raft River California. Many sun is in the cloudless the are through Valley, people passed high heavens, plains gray, but few stayed in southern Idaho. russet brown, and faded yellow, but with the rising sun and through This lack interest was E.P. Pierce again nearsunset they become not onlybrilliant and superb in of changed by gold. color but pass through innumerable variations in tone and found rich gold deposits in August, 1860, on the Clearwater the tint. Whenthe approaching dawn isfirst perceived, the sun is River and by 1861 hundreds of miners were prospecting seemingly agreat fire beneaththe distantedge of the plain.— mountains. Several strikes were made, extending to within 70 miles of Fort Boise. There suddenly becamea reason for The author is range scientist, USDA/ARS,920 Valley Road. Reno, Nev. 89512. 200 Rangelands8(5), October 1986 people to come to Idaho and therefore, a market for beef. winter. The nextyear hedrove 10,000 longhorns fromTexas William Bryon purchased cattle in western Oregon and to the Raft River Valley. Washington and drove them to the Boise Basin in 1864 to supply his butcherbusiness. He had cattleleft when winter THE LINK OF RANCHES ACROSS THE AREA of the descended on the Boise front. He drove the cattle south Snake River was continued in the early 1870's when A.D. toward Nevada hoping to find a low elevation valley where Norton and M.G. Robinson established a ranch on Rock the cattlewould have a chance of surviving until spring. A Creek nearthe present townof Hansen,Idaho. Thenext big trapper told Bryon the Snake River would be frozen hard input into the Idaho livestock industry came from the south enough for the cattle to cross. When the herd reached the rather than the east-west areaof the Oregon trail across the river there was no ice, but plenty of cold and wind which Snake River Country. caused much suffering among the cowboys. Byron was very Jasper Harrell had developedan agricultural empire in the worried. He was stuckagainst the river in an apparent deso- south San Joaquin valley of California. Duringthe 1870's, he late landscapewhere evensagebrush did not grow. Thenext branched out to range livestock operations in northeastern morning Bryon awoke to find his cattlecontent and "full as Nevada in the area where Idaho, Utah, and Nevadajoin. In ticks." He was at a loss toexplain what they had eatenfor he 1872Harrel sent his foreman, J.E. Bower, northto look for had already learned that cattle would not eat sagebrush. new range.Bower found extensivegrasslands dominated by Watching the cattleforage he found they eagerly consumed bluebunch wheatgrassand Idaho fescue along the lip ofthe the herbage of a half shrub that grew in patches around the Snake RiverValley. He was welcomedat the lonesomeranch margins of the basin where he was camped. The shrub was of Norton and Robinson on Rock Creek. They lauded the winterfat and it was to become one of the basic winter for- potential of the country and claimed cattle couldwinter in ages for the cattle industry that grew on the Snake River thewinter parks along thebottoms without risk ofwinter kill. plains. Bower returnedto JasperHarrell with aglowing report ofthe potential of the Idaho country to support cattle. Harrell MANY INDIVIDUALS HAD NOTED FORA LONG TIME respondedthrough his family connections in Texasand the the forage resources of south central Idaho, but the lack of southeastern United States to drive tens of thousands of markets and the hostile nature ofthe Indians had limited the longhorns to stock the south central Idaho ranges. Eventu- developmentof a livestock industry. Joseph Pattee,who was ally Harrall sold his Winecup and Shoesole brands to John an agent for the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Hall, had Sparks and JohnTinnin who developedthe largest ranch on pushed cattle from Fort Hall as far west as the Raft River the western range in the borderlands of Nevadaand Idaho. Valley. The Indians drove him back, but he had shown that cattlecould be wintered in the valley. THE DECADE OF THE 1880's provided a periodof boom James Bascomb took agiant step across the Snake River for the range livestock industry. The hardwinter of 1886 and country and established a ranch and stage station on Rock 1887broke the expansive boom ofthe livestockindustry east Creek near present TwinFalls, Idaho in 1867. Bascombwas of the Rocky Mountains. West of the Rocky Mountains, the killed duringthe Bannock War.The warlike Bannocks leftthe boom continued until the terrible winter of 1889 and 1890. reservationin southeasternIdaho and cut aswath of destruc- Almost all ofthe sagebrushranges west of the Rocky Moun- tion acrosssouthern Idaho intosoutheastern Oregon.As the tains suffered during this winter, one of the coldest and Indians proceeded west they became increasingly violent greatestsnowfall seasonsever recorded.