WARREN

Warren was one of the earlier gold discovery sites in Idaho. Anxious prospectors began spreading out from the initial discovery at Pierce to locate new gold strikes at Elk City, Florence, and then Warren.

James Warren was the leader of a group of miners from Florence who headed south across the steep Salmon River country in the summer of 1862. They eventually found gold at a remote area that became known as Warren's diggings. After the gold discovery it's estimated about 2,000 people lived in the Warrens vicinity.

Two camps called Washington and Richmond were the leading "towns" in the area. Washington was obviously named by Union sympathizers while Confederate supporters populated Richmond. Richmond only survived a few years because miners found it was on rich placer ground and basically dismantled the town site looking for gold. Eventually Washington became known as Warrens because it was the only town left at Warren's diggings.

As the rich placers around the Warrens area began to play out many white miners sold their claims to the Chinese, who were willing to work much harder to make them pay. By 1870 about half the miners in town were Chinese.

A Warren miner who later became governor of Idaho, Norman B. Willey, wrote:
"A good deal of ground has been sold to Chinamen this year. Many claim too poor to be of any earthly value to any human being have been sold to these barbarians at good figures."

One of Warren's most famous Chinese residents was Polly Bemis. Her Chinese name was Lalu Nathoy. When she was a young girl Lalus impoverished family sold her to buy supplies necessary to save the rest of the family. She ended up in San Francisco and was then was brought to Warren in the early 1870s. According to local lore, saloon owner Charlie Bemis gambled with Polly's Chinese owner. Bemis put up his saloon and some cash money while the Chinaman risked a little gold and Polly, his Chinese slave girl. Bemis won and Polly moved into one of Charlie's cabins and ran a boarding house and a laundry. Later, when Charlie was shot in the face during a gambling dispute Polly nursed him back to health. Then when Polly was threatened with deportation under a new federal law the two were immediately married. They ended up settling on a small homestead down on the Salmon River. Their cabin is now a popular stop for tourists traveling on the river.

Today Warren's Diggings are known simply as Warren. Many of the buildings in the community are well over 100 years old. And just outside of town a decaying dredge is a reminder of a later period of gold mining here. From the early 1930s until 1942 dredges turned over nearby streambeds to get at the remaining gold. In a little more than a decade of dredging over $4 million in gold was recovered.