OWYHEE MINING DISTRICT

The famous Owyhee silver mining district actually began with the discovery of gold. In 1863 Michael Jordan and a group of 29 prospectors headed out from the Boise Basin to explore the little known Owyhee country. Traveling over many miles of desert the party finally reached higher elevations in the Owyhee Mountains. On May 18th on Jordan Creek they found what they were looking for…gold.

The placer gold of Jordan Creek started the rush to the Owyhees, but it was later discoveries of veins of silver that propelled the area into the national spotlight. In 1864 rich lodes were found at what would become the Orofinio, Morning Star and War Eagle mines. Then in 1865 the Poorman was discovered. Far from being poor some historians say it may have been the richest single vein ever found. The Owyhee was fast becoming both a busy and prosperous mining district.

Boonville and Ruby City were two of the first early towns in the area. In fact in 1864 Ruby City was named the Owyhee County seat. But before long another community built at what was perceived to be a better location a couple miles up Jordan Creek supplanted it. By 1866 when Silver City was named the new county seat it was well on it's way to becoming the "queen city of the Owyhees".

Paul Nettleton, a current Silver City resident says:
"I've heard there were up to 5,000 people in the town or at least close to the town… Every mine on the hilltop either way had a shack with a half dozen miners living in it. At one time up to 250 mines were active in the area. You know, that's a lot of miners."

In 1867 two more major mines were discovered…the Ida Elmore and the Golden Chariot But there was a major disagreement about whether the mines were on separate veins or one single vein of ore. In 1868 the dispute came to a head when miners at the Golden Chariot broke through to the Ida Elmore tunnels.

Before long a war erupted between the two sides with gunfights breaking out both underground and on the surface. Only through intervention of Idaho Governor D. W. Ballard was the fighting quelled. But the supposed cease-fire wasn't enough to save the life of famous mine owner J. Marion More. A few days later during a shoot out on the streets of Silver City More became the final casualty of the war.

For Silver City the boom years lasted all the way through the 1860s and into the early 1870s. Then the failure of the Bank of California in 1875 crippled the mines on War Eagle Mountain. In the late 1880s and early 90s new discoveries on Florida Mountain led to a revival of mining in the area.

Those discoveries also helped bring an old town back to life. Around 1890 Colonel William Henry Dewey bought most of Boonville. He built a twenty-stamp mill at the old town site and constructed a new town complete with an elegant hotel. The hotel had both electric power and steam heat. He then renamed the community…and of course the name he chose was Dewey.

Another well known mine developer was the namesake for yet another Owyhee County mining town…DeLamar. It's location nine miles west of Silver City had only witnessed limited activity until Joseph Raphael DeLamar, a native of Holland bought the property in 1886. DeLamar poured money into both additional mining infrastructure and his newly constructed town. DeLamar owned mining interests in Idaho, Utah, and Nevada but later sold his Idaho property for around 2 million dollars in 1891.

After the turn of the century most of the mines in the Owyhees slowly began playing out. By 1920 both DeLamar and Silver City were in steep decline. In 1934, the county seat was moved from Silver City to Murphy dealing the town yet another blow.

While DeLamar made a comeback in the 1970s as an open pit mine operation, it wasn't until more recently that Silver City began to recapture a bit of its former splendor.

But that resurgence wasn't the result of mining, rather it was a recognition of the rich heritage that could be found in Silver City. A historical district was formed, and many pioneer families began coming back, repairing weathered structures and breathing new life into the old mining town. Today, it's become a popular summer destination for tourists and is widely regarded to be Idaho's best-preserved "ghost town".