Owyhee Canyonlands

At the annual banquet of the Golden Eagle Audubon Society in Boise, one of the silent auction items is a day trip the next May to visit Little Jacks Creek in Owyhee County. The attraction is a chance to see California big horn sheep, which the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Department transplanted into the canyon from British Columbia in 1964. The winner's party leaves Boise at 7 am, loaded into the guide's four-wheel-drive van, and heads for the interior of the huge southwest corner of Idaho, one of the largest counties in the United States. Many hours later, long after the van has left the paved road and rattled its way into the heart of the Owyhee territory, the guide hushes the passengers and shuts off the engine.

The visitors are in the high desert, one of the most remote and hauntingly beautiful landscapes in the American West. Who ever knew the horizon could stretch so far away? The soft contours of the land rolling away to infinity, however, are deceiving. The visitors quietly leave the van, careful not to slam the doors. As they walk silently toward the northwest, the rolling country simply drops away, and a canyon below opens up to view. Each step closer reveals more of the canyon- wall tapestry until finally, near the rim, one can see the floor of the canyon.

Binoculars ready, the people sit at the edge of the canyon and begin looking for the sheep against ledges, rock falls, and bright green patches of vegetation. At last someone spots a cluster of sheep. The guide relaxes, having delivered on his promise. The sheep are all female, as this is the season to deliver the young. Some of the sheep are obviously pregnant. The visitors can hope to see a birth, but the guide has never promised that. The male sheep are elsewhere in the uplands, unlikely to be seen.

Little Jacks Creek is a tributary of the Bruneau River, which is one of the few rivers that feeds the Snake River from the south. After millions of years, the stream has cut its way through the layers of basalt that erupted when this part of the earth's crust passed over the hot spot. In some years the creek, along with a few other tributaries, supplies enough water to the Bruneau to allow city folks a float trip down the river. It's the only way to see some spectacular scenery. Certain narrow stretches of the Bruneau Canyon have walls as vertical as the side of a New York skyscraper.

People have settled the Owyhee canyonlands very thinly. The ones who live here mostly work on cattle ranches. Some parts of the county are two hours by air from medical help or law enforcement. To survive is to be resourceful and independent. Although many Idahoans like to call themselves "rugged individualists," the residents of this part of the state have richly earned the right.