The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1904-01-15
The GREAT STATE 4
OF IDAHO.

he Christmas edition OF the Salt
Lake Tribune has the following glow
ing description Of the Gem Of the
Mountains. from the pen Of Clar-
ence E. Eddy. 1t gives one an idea
Of the vastness and wonders Of the
state which we are proud to call our
home.
The state Of Idaho has total area
almost as great as New England, with
a population thirty times less. 1t
lacks not in resources, but in devel-
opment. Il is the land Of tomorrow.
Though the richness Of its gold fields
was first discovered half century
ago, the comparatively unprospect-
ed portion of Idaho still exceeds one
third Of the total area.
The vastness Of ldaho," says a
well-known writer, is not even COM
pretended by many Of its citizens. "
Bancroft in his histories speaks Of it
as grand, wonderful, romantic,
mysterious--a country where men
looked for unusual things and found
them. While esteemed as the pecul-
lar home Of the mineralogist and
miner, nature had not forgotten to
prepare portions Of it for the occu-
patton Of man by giving wondrous-
ly warm and fertile soiI.''
Idaho is accorded to have "a, 900,
600 acres available for agricultural
and grazing purposes, l5-million
tacres Of timber, 200, 600 acres occu-
pied by lakes, and the remainder oi
its 55-million acres, or $4,000
square miles, consists Of deserts and
mountains. In these total figures arc
included ten million acres OF ninera
land.
/ The first settlements in Idaho were
begun in the north by French Cana
dian trappers and Jesuit missionaries
in the south by mormon colony a
Fort Lemhi in 1854. The territor,
was organized in 1868, and admitted
ito the Union Of States July a. 1890
Since the discovery Of gold at Oro
fino creek in 1860 Idaho is estimated
to have yielded $50, 600, 900 in pre-
cious metals, an amount equal to th'
wealth of Rockefeller. According t,
recently furnished Wells Fargo sta
tistics, $500, OOO,O Of this. i'm
mense sum was contributed by tn
placer camps Of early days, includ
ing Orofno, Elk City, Florence
Lewiston, Laapwai, Warren, Pierc
City and Boise Basin. But the great
er portion Of the vast field containin,
these famous camps is comparativel.
! Eunprospected. 1t includes the thous
ands Of mountain streams composin,
, 1.-THE Clearwater, Salmon and St. Jos
eph rivers, with wide sylvan recesse
snow-clad ranges and canyons whic
seem to cut the earth in two.
Further defined, it extends from til
. forest-clad CGur d'Alenes in til
a north to the sands of the Great Snak
n river desert in the south, direct di
i" tance Of over Zoo miles. On the ca
e it is vailed by the Bitter Root an
: Rocky Mountain ranges, frol
which it extends west an average
!, $50 miles.
:. A theme SO comprehensive. admi
but passing outline in this articl
But little information is available, ar
no mans experience can have con
passed the mysteries of this NIGH
wilderness of mountains. We ha'
gazed at it in the north, from Il
:, crags of the C9ur d Alenes; in Il
"a west, from the dome OF the Sevt
h Devils and in the south from II
|e snow-clad SUBMITS Of the Saline
3. river range, 10000 feet above Il
ID sea. But it has loomed lone and va
e. with towering peaks and shadow
a canyons, blending into blue distan
G. and oyerhung by the inurky air
= mystery,.
= Though often the industrious pre-
pector has successfully essayed Il
field, it would still afford safe hidi
for 10000 men within its confin'
Portions Of it, truly, have been qu
thoroughly prospected during I
5 last half-ecntury, yielding millions