Blog Archives

The Bell Told

Posted on by Gerald J. Funke / 1 Comment

Surprise in the Belfrey By Gerald J. Funke On a warm Sunday afternoon, Max Rodriguez came into the sacristy of St. Agnes Catholic Church in Weiser after the Spanish Mass and sheepishly showed me, the pastor, a frayed
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I’m Listening

Posted on by Katherine R. Roberts / Leave a comment

Early in the spring, my best friend Susan and I decided to travel north from Salt Lake City on a grand adventure through the southern half of Idaho.
During the trip, we wandered across an abandoned farm in Malta—or more precisely, we zoomed past it on our way to Boise and I nearly broke my neck trying to keep my eye on it as we went by. Continue reading

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Mystery Solved

Posted on by The Editors / Leave a comment

A while back, IDAHO magazine posted this photo on our Facebook page. It was taken by Robert Ford, who came across the old stone cabin beside the river in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, about eleven miles north of Grand View. “An interesting homestead,” he wrote, “but not sure of its history.”

Later, we received a response to the post from Steph Baldwin, who wrote that a man named Eric Jacobsen grew up in Grand View, where his family has lived for generations. Steph knew that Eric was familiar with the history of the cabin, but he said Eric didn’t use email. It was to our surprise and satisfaction, then, that we eventually did receive a note from Eric. Continue reading

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Death of the Forest Cabin

Posted on by Clell G. Ballard / Leave a comment

I’ve lived my whole life in Camas County, which is almost exactly the size of Rhode Island but has long had a population of around one thousand. The county’s single east-west valley has an elevation of about five thousand feet above sea level, while to the south are low mountains, and to the north are peaks that reach higher than ten thousand feet. Extremely cold winter temperatures (1990 saw an official low of fifty-two degrees below zero) and deep snow discourage everyone except the hardiest individuals from living here.

The farmers and ranchers who settled this area in the 1880s scratched out a living. Mining was a major effort and the remains of dozens of small operations—gold and silver mines, although lead and other trace minerals were present—can be found in all parts of the county. No major strikes were made, but some wealth was taken out of the earth. Many “prove-up” shacks were built as farming homesteads, and even in the highest mountains, every mine had some kind of shelter. A hard rock mining claim I own at 9,400 feet has a typical shack that housed miners early last century. Decades ago, the weight of ten or more feet of snow caused its collapse. Continue reading

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