Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1908-03-19

Rock y Bar held the county seat
of Alturas county until 1882, when
il was stolen from her by the then
notorious HALEY gang.
In 1880, the good silver days, the
pick OF the prospector unearthed
the Minnie Moore and the Queen of
the Hills in the Wood river VAL
ley, and then came other rich dis
coveries of the large beds of silver
ore in that reg ion-the Idahoan,
the Democrat, Red Elephant, Dol
larhide, Carrie Leonard and other
noted mines.
New towns sprung up all over the
Wood river country-Bellevue,
HALEY, Ketchum, Sawtooth, VII
emma, Galena Bullion, Muldoon,
Era and Arco, being the most con-
spicuous. On the depreciation of
silver all these places with the ex-
ception of HALEY Bellevue and
Ketchum passed into history.
In 1882, HALEY, Bellevue and
Rocky Bar contested at this fall
election for the county seat. At
this time there were large forces OF
men at work on the Oregon Short
Line railway, both on the main line
and on the Wood river branch from
Shoshone to HALEY. Haley had be-
come the central point and from all
points to this town flockcd bright
but unprinciplcd lot of political ex-
ploiters, and their main object was
at this time to capture the county
seat by fair means or foul. The
pc lis were supposed to open at 8 a.
M, but on that memorable day
they must have been opened the
night before at Haley, as over 900
votes were cast there before 9 o.
clock of that morning.
There was no rcgistr alton in
those days and the graders on the
railroad all voted for HALEY,
wherever a polling place was
held, from HALEY to Mayfiled,
and HALEY was elected as the
county seat by a larger majority
than there were actual voters-for
vote early and often they did, and
so the county seat was stolen
from Rocky Bar. n the ensuing
winter the Territorial legislature
passed bill creating Elmore coun-
ty with Rocky Bar as the county
seat. The Haley gang had their
emmisaries on the ground and by
their influence Governor O'Neal
vetoed the bill and put the new
county to sleep for time.
In 1894 a pill creating Butte
county with the county seat at
Mountain Home, was introduced
but the bill disappeared with the
House committee on counties.
Again, in 1885, a bill for the
creation Of Elmore county, with
the county seat at Rocky Bar came
up. The Haileyitcs marshalled
their cohorts in full force to defeat
the bill, resorting to bribery and
every other corrupt means to carry
out their object. The bill went
down but not the spirit of the pco-
pie OF southwestern Alturss. They
lost the tight but said, "We'ii try |
it again"
Hon. E. c. Helfrich was in the
Territorial council, or upper
house, and John j. Guheen, now
attorney general, was in the lower
house from Alturas, and both
worked we'll for the division of AL
turas and the creation of Elmorc.
In the session of 1888, Hon. D.
L. Bailey introduced the bill Gre
ating Gilmore county and although
Speaker Burkhart of the house was
a Haileyite and permitted all
kinds of filibustering by the adher-
snts of the HALEY gang to defeat
It's passage, the bill passed the low
II. house
M. A. Kurtz, of Nampa, was
member of the lower house, and his
extravaganza figures of speech in
to the bill, earned for
linn that session the nick name Of
Tragedy" He defined the bill
IS "a vile scheme to Polandize the
Empire County of Alturas, a plot
ouler than that which drove the
lager through the imperia
Mouth into the noble body of the
Caesar. "
A member from the far north, in
he same debate, asserted that "if {
/ fiend were brought to the earth
rom the lowermost regions of S
lell, to paint black picture, ne {
ould not paint anything so black I
IS the plot behind the bill-a plot I