First Structures Completed at Naval Ordnance Plant in Pocatello [otd 07/10]

On July 10, 1943 workers completed construction of the first usable structures for the Naval Ordnance Plant (NOP) about three miles north of Pocatello, Idaho. The Navy had authorized the Plant in the spring of the previous year. With more facilities completed later in the year, officials commissioned the NOP in early August, 1943.

Early in World War II, planners had to consider the possibility of attacks on the West Coast when they selected a site to refurbish big naval guns. Pocatello offered the proper transport connections to Coastal bases. Not only was it a major railroad junction, but a segment of transcontinental highway ran through the town. And, off to the northwest, the region offered plenty of open space.

Refurbished battleship gun.
Idaho State University Special Collections.

The most impressive structure at the NOP was the big gun shop. It was 840 feet long, 352 feet wide, and over seven stories tall. Inside, skilled mechanics and machinists could reline and refurbish the very largest battleship guns in the U. S. Navy. Repeated firing wears out the bore of any artillery piece. In particular, distortion of the rifling – the grooves that force shells to spin – severely degrades the gun’s accuracy. Only a specially-design facility, with massive tools and equipment, could handle the huge naval cannon.

Later they added three giant storage buildings – 605 feet long by 352 feet wide – where guns could be mounted and the mounts could be exercised. Besides these out-sized facilities, the site included smaller shops and storerooms, plus quarters for civilian and military personnel. In all, the station encompassed fifty buildings, most of them of permanent construction.

Refurbished guns had to be tested before they were shipped back to the fleet for re-installation. To provide a test range, the Navy commissioned a second site, located 50-60 miles northwest of Pocatello on what was generally called "the Arco desert." Except for three large, roughly cone-shaped buttes, that area is a mix a level plains and low, rolling hills.

On November 20, 1943, the Navy’s first tests were run on some small-caliber guns that had been refurbished. The commandant, Captain Walter E. Brown, told reporters that repairs on big battleship guns would begin “soon.” Captain Brown received an armed forces Legion of Merit award for his work in getting the NOP operational.

The test site eventually contained 27 buildings, including powder magazines, warehouses, a variety of shops, an administration building, and quarters for the operating personnel. Ordnance operators first did short-range proof tests, using a protective blockhouse and large reinforced-concrete targets. They also performed tests of the mounted guns, firing them into a vast cleared area to the north of the command complex.

After the War, the Ordnance Plant saw less and less activity, with a commensurate reduction in the civilian work force. The Pocatello Plant was decommissioned and sold in the mid-Fifties.

Officials "re-purposed" the remote test range in 1949, transferring ownership of the facilities to the Atomic Energy Commission, which called it the National Reactor Testing Station.

Test Shot Toward Big Southern Butte. U.S. Navy photo.

Still, during the Vietnam War the Navy again used the site for test-firing 16-inch battleship guns. By then, the northern range contained many new facilities so test operators fired the guns into the side of Big Southern Butte.

After numerous transformations in mission, the former test area functions today under the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the Idaho National Laboratory.
                                                                                 

References: “Naval Ordnance Plant, Pocatello, Idaho,” Idaho Digital Resources, Idaho Commission for Libraries.

"Pocatello, Idaho," Building the Navy's Bases in World War II, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. (1947).

Susan M. Stacy, Proving the Principle, DOE/ID-10799 (2000).

Shelley Businessman and Theater Owner Francis Davis [otd 07/09]

Theater owner and LDS Bishop Francis M. Davis was born July 9, 1883 in Provo, Utah. He first found regular employment when he was just twelve years old. After several years in various unskilled jobs, he began working as an accountant. He spent seven years in that line before becoming a traveling salesman. His route took him into Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

In 1906-1909, Davis served LDS missions in England and Germany. When he returned to the States, he again worked as an accountant. Three years later, he married Mary Ellen Shelley. About that time, perhaps because an accountant’s salary was inadequate for a family man, Davis went back to work as a traveling salesman.

John F. Shelley, ca. 1890.
Shelley Public Library.

Mary’s father, John F. Shelley, was among those who founded two villages near Idaho Falls. In 1892 and 1893, he began developing a spot about ten miles down the river from the “big town.” Besides a home and barn, Shelley also built a store, which became part of "Shelley Siding" on the railroad.

Francis Davis and Mary moved to Shelley two years after they were married.

In Shelley, Davis started as Credit Manager for Shelley Mercantile Company and worked his way up to Assistant Manager. Eventually he would serve on the Board of Directors for the Mercantile as well as the Shelley Light & Power Company and the Shelley Mill & Elevator Company. He would also serve all three companies as Secretary and Treasurer.

In 1915, Davis was made a Bishop of the Shelley LDS church. He also developed an interest in the growing motion picture – “movie” – business. Until then, the only available commercial entertainment was in Idaho Falls, which had hosted traveling road shows since the 1880s. The first movies appeared there in 1907. By the end of 1915, Idaho Falls had four movie theaters.

Virginia Theater, 2008.
Cropped from photo at Wikimedia Commons,
submitted by Sociotard.

In 1918, Francis built the Virginia Theatre, which was equipped with the latest features current at the time. Within a few years, the facility would make the transition from silent films to talkies.

Around 1936, Davis began allowing the Shelley Chamber of Commerce to use the theater for a Christmas children’s show. (The Kiwanis took over sponsorship after awhile.) The tradition continued for at least twenty years after Francis sold the Virginia to his son Ralph in 1946.

Davis became a very prominent leader in the LDS Church, both in Shelley and in Idaho Falls. He served as President of the LDS Temple in Idaho Falls for about fourteen years, starting around 1950. As such, he officiated at a remarkable number of weddings between then and about 1963. Not infrequently, he would perform more than one on a given day , and a few times three, four, or even more.

In November 1967, around 6 p.m. on the day before Thanksgiving, F. M. Davis was killed in a one-car accident. His car plunged into an empty canal at a curve in a rural road. Whether he lost control or had a fatal health event was not reported.

Although the Virginia Theater closed for awhile, it is now very active. By today’s standards, it is rather small as a movie venue, so they focus mostly on stage plays and improvisational theater.
                                                                                 

References: [French], [Hawley]

“Auto Accident Kills Francis M. Davis,” Idaho Falls Post-Register (Nov 23, 1967).

“Golden Jubilee Edition, 1884–1934,” Idaho Falls Post-Register (September 10, 1934).

Trapper Osborne Russell Observes "Beer Springs" (Today's Soda Springs) [otd 07/08]

In July of 1834, fledgling mountain man Osborne Russell wrote, "We travelled down this river and on the 8th encamped at a place called the Sheep Rock, so called from a point of the mountain terminating at the river bank in a perpendicular high rock."

Sheep Rock, sometimes called Soda Point
… near Soda Springs, Idaho.

He then noted: "The Sheep occupy this prominent elevation (which overlooks the surrounding country to a great extent) at all seasons of the year."

Osborne Russell was born June 12, 1814 in Maine. So far as is known, he received very little formal schooling. Yet at some point he learned to write clearly and accurately, with a better than average vocabulary. He ran away to sea as a teenager, but picked the wrong captain: Most of the crew jumped ship in New York and young Osborne went with them.

Russell then spent a couple years with a fur company in Wisconsin and Minnesota before joining Nathaniel Wyeth's Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company [blogs, Jan 29 & Dec 20]. After attending the mountain man rendezvous in southwest Wyoming, Wyeth's party continued west in early July.

On July 8, Russell continued, "On the right hand or East side of the river about 2 miles above the rock is 5 or 8 mineral Springs, some of which have precisely the taste of soda water."

Trappers knew these springs well; they called them "Beer Springs." A party led by Captain Benjamin Bonneville had visited the springs less than a year before [blog, Nov 10]. He claimed that his men "threw themselves into a mock carouse." He went on to say, "It was a singular and fantastic scene, suited to a region where everything is strange and peculiar."

Russell said, "This place which now looks so lonely, visited only by the rambling Trapper or solitary Savage will doubtless at no distant day be a resort for thousands of the gay and fashionable world, as well as Invalids and spectators."

Nine years later, an expedition led by Second Lieutenant John C. Frémont visited the springs. He noted that “A traveller … at every step is arrested by something remarkable and new.” They analyzed the water in one spring and found it heavily loaded with dissolved solids … ten times a level that is considered “very hard.”

The feature became a well-known landmark on the Oregon Trail.  Abigail Scott (later, Duniway) [blog, July 29] was one of many who commented on the springs. In 1852, she wrote, “About 11 o'clock we came to the Soda Springs; They are a great curiosity.”

Osborne Russell’s prediction about a “fashionable” resort was off only in the timing. In 1887, the Union Pacific Railroad built the Idanha Hotel in Soda Springs. The resort hosted travelers for over thirty years. However, the hotel burned down in 1921 and they did not rebuild it. That was probably because the more heavily developed Lava Hot Springs lay 15-20 miles to the west.

Idanha Water bottle label. Soda Springs, Idaho.

In addition to the resort, the Natural Mineral Water Company began bottling "natural" soda water, also in 1887. (They were probably part-owner of the hotel, but the records are somewhat uncertain.) The Company shipped Idanha Water all over the world, and won both national and international awards.

Today, Alexander Reservoir covers most of the springs Russell observed. However, the town of Soda Springs does feature a man-controlled geyser powered by a geothermal source of natural carbon dioxide.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

Osborne Russell, Aubrey L. Haines (ed.), Journal of a Trapper, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1965). [Original imprint produced in 1914 by Syms-York Company, Boise, and republished in 1921.]

Soda Springs, Idaho, Idaho online.

Miner, Store Owner, and Dairyman Francis Marion “Frank” Davis [otd 07/07]

Francis Marion Davis was born on July 7, 1838 near Monmouth, Illinois, about 55 miles west and a bit north of Peoria. He lost his father when he was a boy, so he and his brother Thomas lived with and worked for a farm family there. Thomas is covered in my blog for January 2. As explained in that article, the young men headed west in 1860, probably in the spring.

F. M. “Frank” Davis. [Illust-State]

Whatever their initial plans were, at some point they learned of the new gold discoveries in what would become northern Idaho [blog, October 2]. They joined a large party traveling to the gold country. Victims of a swindle in central Idaho, they arrived at Elk City in July 1862 on pack animals with almost no supplies. By then, all the best prospects had been claimed, and many were already played out.

So they went to Walla Walla for supplies and prospected in Oregon and then in the Boise Basin. After awhile, they decided they could do better supplying the camps with fresh vegetables. So they claimed land in the Boise Valley and planted crops. Profits from their early sales of onions, cabbages and potatoes proved that their plan was sound.

Thus, they were there in July 1863 when Major Pinkney Lugenbeel picked a site for his fort [blog, July 4]. A few days later, a group of pioneers gathered in the Thomas Davis cabin to platt a town near the fort. Oddly enough, six lots were assigned to “F. M. Davis” but none to Tom. (Davis almost always went by “F. M.” or “Frank,” rather than Francis.) That was most likely a formality since it’s known that Frank remained a partner in Tom’s fruit ranch for several years.

In 1864, the brothers and two other partners imported seven thousand apple trees for the ranch. That investment paid off handsomely when the trees began to bear fruit. In 1870, Frank purchased a stock of merchandise and opened a hardware store on Main Street. That might have been when he sold his interest in the apple farm. However, he only seems to have kept the store for about a year.

That was because he was also running, with a partner, a business that dealt in milk and butter. In 1873, he took sole ownership of the dairy concern, which flourished under his management. Thus, in late 1875 and early 1876, he purchased a quarter section of land near the city and established a full dairy operation.

A year later, the Idaho Statesman reported that Frank had sold “a splendid piece of property” on Grove Street. That was probably to finance improvements to his farm. By 1880, he was heavily advertising his “choicest quality” milk and butter. Nor was that just advertising fluff. According to reports, he had “an enviable reputation for the excellence of his dairy products.”

Dairy Herd, ca. 1890. National Archives.

With the business going so well, in 1884 Frank had a fine new home built for his family. That fall, the Statesman editor visited the place and declared that it was “the best and most costly farm residence in the county.” Observers were equally impressed with his barns and other equipment for a modern, first-class dairy.

Francis “Frank” Davis passed away rather suddenly in March 1891. While not so well off as his brother, he left an estate that would be valued at about $2 million in modern terms. He was held in such high regard that, thirty years after his death, memorials still lauded his “sterling worth” and his prominent role as an Idaho pioneer.
                                                                                   

References: [French], [Hawley], [Illust-State]

“[F. M. Davis News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (May 1870 – March 1891).

“First Platt of Boise City,” Eighth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Idaho, Boise (1922).

“Will of Francis M. Davis,” Probate Court of Ada County, State of Idaho, Record Book [hand-written], Boise, Idaho (1891).

Newspaperman and Printing Company President Harry Syms [otd 07/06]

Harry J. Syms, co-founder and President of the Syms-York Company, was born July 6, 1866 in Aukland, New Zealand. After learning the printer's trade, he found employment in several South Pacific locations, including Australia, Fiji, and the Hawaiian Islands.

San Francisco, ca 1888. National Archives.

He came to the United States in 1888 and worked at a San Francisco newspaper. After a year there, Syms moved to Shoshone, Idaho, where he bought and operated the Shoshone Journal for five years.

In 1894, he sold the paper to a consortium of prominent county Republicans, who wanted to operate it as party mouthpiece. Harry later ran for office as a Republican himself, so it's not entirely clear why he did not retain an interest in the paper. He may have continued to run the paper for awhile because he remained in Shoshone until the spring of 1895. Syms then became City Editor for the Caldwell Tribune.

At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Syms enlisted in the First Idaho Regiment, where he became a 1st Lieutenant. He served with the unit in the Philippines, then returned to Boise City after his discharge in 1899. The following year, the Republican Party nominated Harry as a candidate for State Auditor. However, a coalition of Democrats and Silver Republicans won all the state offices that year. Syms never again ran for public office.

Around 1901, Harry moved again, to become the owner and operator of a newspaper in Mountain Home. After just a year there, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him Register of the U. S. Land Office in Boise. He returned to the city to handle those duties.

Near the end of his appointment, in 1905, he became co-founder and President of the Syms-York Company. His partner, Lem A. York, had comparable experience in publishing and printing, including a stint with the Owhyee Avalanche newspaper.

They started with just two small presses crammed into a basement. However, by 1910 they occupied another location with considerable first floor and basement space, and a full range of equipment. The firm continued to grow and by 1920 had "the largest printing and binding establishment in the state of Idaho."

Printing press, ca 1905. Library of Congress.

The Syms-York Company printed the usual wide range of materials, including brochures, handbills, blank invoices, and so on. On several occasions from 1907 through 1919, they won the contract to print compilations of bills passed by the legislature, as well as various revisions of the Idaho Code of Laws.

The company also produced a fair number of books, although not always as the official publisher. Thus, A Romance of the Sawtooth (1917), reportedly the first novel published in Idaho, was produced by the author, but printed and bound by Syms-York.

They did publish John Hailey's History of Idaho (1910). And in 1914, Syms-York issued a limited edition of Journal of a Trapper by mountain man Osborne Russell [blog, Dec 20]. The demand for that account led the company to release an expanded version some years later. In a "Publisher's Note," Lem York said that Russell "was a great uncle of the writer of these explanatory notes."

In January 1920, because of poor health, Syms sold his interest in the firm and York became President and General Manager. Syms retired first to Redondo Beach, and then to Santa Monica, California. Finally, some time before 1930, he and his wife settled in Glendale. Harry passed away there in 1932 (Los Angeles Times; March 26, 1932).
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

Jann G. Marson, "Platen Press Printing in Idaho," Idaho Center for the Book Newsletter, Boise State University (April 2000).

“News of the Printers,” The Pacific Printer and Publisher, Volume XXIII, No. 2, San Francisco, California (February 1920).

Osborne Russell, Aubrey L. Haines (ed.), Journal of a Trapper, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1965).

“[Syms News Items],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (March 1895 - January 1920).

Vengeful Assailant Murders Judge John C. Brady in Rathdrum [otd 07/05]

On the night of July 5, 1901, farmer Henry Williambusse shot and mortally wounded newspaper editor and Probate Judge John C. Brady. This event was the violent climax to a dispute of two years standing.

Kootenai County Courthouse, Rathdrum, ca 1908. City of Rathdrum.

During the summer of 1899, locals in Rathdrum, Idaho "charged" Williambusse with insanity and brought evidence for the accusation before Brady in his capacity as Kootenai County Probate Judge. After hearing the evidence, Judge Brady found for the prosecution and sent Williambusse to the Asylum in Blackfoot.

Born in Iowa, Brady graduated from Northern Indiana Normal (now Valparaiso University) in 1884. For the next ten years, he taught school in Iowa, Montana, and finally Idaho. Then a job as school principal drew him to Rathdrum. The little town had started as a waystation on the mail route between Walla Walla, Washington and Missoula, Montana. It remained only that for nearly a decade until 1881, when it became a station on the Northern Pacific Railroad. By the time Brady arrived in 1894, Rathdrum was a thriving community whose citizens were “justly proud of their public schools.”

Four years after Brady arrived, voters elected him as a Probate Judge. Early the following year, he bought the Silver Blade newspaper and became its editor. Sadly, his wife died that spring, leaving him alone to raise two young children.

A few months after Williambusse arrived at the Asylum, he escaped. Recaptured a few days later in Ogden, Utah, he was sent back to the institution. The following summer, he ran off again and returned to the Rathdrum area.

Apparently Williambusse had made some progress – either shedding his symptoms or getting better at hiding them. Officials made no attempt to send him back this time. The Asylum Superintendent did suggest that the sheriff watch for any signs of a relapse and be ready to take Williambusse back into custody.

According to the History of North Idaho, Williambusse "made no secret of the deep-seated grudge" he still harbored, yet the sheriff took no action. Perhaps the officer had not heard, or discounted, his "many threats" against those who had put him in the Asylum.

On July 5th, Brady was working late at the Silver Blade. According to Brady's later deposition, Williambusse entered and said, "How are you, Brady? How do you feel tonight?"

"Pretty fair; how are you?"

The farmer drew a revolver, and said, “Take that in your old face." He shot Brady under the right eye, extinguished the light, and left.

The sheriff's home lay about fifty feet distant, across a small yard. He and his wife heard the shot and saw the light go out. Then they heard the Judge cry, "I am murdered!"

Although the sheriff grabbed his gun and chased a dark figure, the shooter escaped.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, the eye socket had deflected the bullet so it did not kill Brady immediately. On the 14th, he made a statement, which began: "I ... believing I am at the point of death, and every hope of this world gone ... make this my dying declaration."

He then described his assailant and provided the dialog noted above. The next day he dictated a will, and died two days later, having undergone “eleven days of great suffering.”

Authorities captured Williambusse in Spokane a few days after the shooting. In February 1902, he was convicted of murder and "sentenced to hard labor for the rest of his natural life in the state penitentiary at Boise."
                                                                                 

Reference: [Illust-North], [Illust-State]

“Pine Versus Callahan et al,“ The Pacific Reporter, Vol. 71, West Publishing Company, St. Paul (1903).

Major Pinkney Lugenbeel Picks Site for Fort Boise [otd 07/04]

Major Lugenbeel, ca 1880.
U. S. Army Archives.

On July 4, 1863 Major Pinkney Lugenbeel formally selected a spot to build a military encampment, which the U. S. Army initially called Camp Boise.

A West Point graduate and Regular Army officer, Lugenbeel had been assigned to train Volunteer recruits in the Pacific Northwest at the start of the Civil War. These partially-trained western Volunteer troops quickly replaced Regular Army units that were transferred east.

Undermanned Army garrisons had done their best to protect pioneers on the Oregon Trail from Indian attacks, with spotty results. The situation became critical when the Regulars transferred out and Volunteer replacements were slow to arrive. Then, in 1862, Boise Basin discoveries added thousands of gold miners to the mix. Additional finds around what became Silver City, in May 1863, exacerbated conflicts with the Indians.

Miners in the brand-new Idaho Territory [blog, March 4] demanded better protection, as did emigrants on the Trail. Federal officials finally ordered Major Lugenbeel to lead a mixed force of Volunteers – Oregon Cavalry and California Infantry – into Idaho and establish a base there.

He selected a spot with good prospects for water and forage, but back from the main channel of the Boise River. Pioneers reported that the river had run a mile wide over the flood plain during the previous season. Not knowing how often this happened, Lugenbeel took no chances. (Nothing like it has happened since.)

The location also had potential as a crossroads between the Oregon Trail and the developing tracks that connected the various mining districts. The day after Lugenbeel chose his location, a correspondent in Placerville sent a letter to The Oregonian (published on July 18, 1863), in Portland. It said, “Maj. Lugenbeel has located the new Fort Boise at a point twenty-five miles from the mouth of Boise, on that stream. The distance from Placerville is thirty miles.”

The writer had the distance to Placerville about right, but his other guess missed badly: The mouth of the Boise River is more like fifty miles from Fort Boise. Long before troops completed the Camp and its support facilities, Boise City sprang into being close by. Less than three months later, the first Territorial Census recorded 725 people in the Boise district. It became the Territorial capital near the end of 1864.

Fort Boise (it’s not entirely clear when the name changed) became the Army’s main base of operations in southern and central Idaho during the Indian wars of 1877-1880. During that period, reports began to refer to the site as Boise Barracks. Major Marshall Wood served as Post Surgeon at the Barracks, starting in 1894. Two years later, he prepared the first systematic reports about Rock Mountain Spotted Fever [blog, June 3].

Commanding Officer’s Quarters, Fort Boise. Library of Congress.

The Barracks served as the Idaho National Guard mustering point for their deployment to the Philippines in 1898. In 1912, the Army left the site and the Idaho National Guard took up occupancy.

Guard units gathered at the Barracks and deployed to the Mexican border in 1916, and assembled for duty in World War I a year later. The Guard moved elsewhere in 1919. Over the years since, various state and federal offices have used parts of the old Fort and some land has gone into private ownership.

In 1972, the Park Service added several of the remaining structures, collectively known as “Fort Boise,” to the National Register of Historic Places.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W]

Carolyn Thomas Foreman, “Colonel Pinkney Lugenbeel,” Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 24, No. 4, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City (1946).

“Fort Boise,” National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (1972).

“Location of Fort Boise and Boise City,” Reference Series No. 1119, Idaho State Historical Society (June 1996).

John D. Unruh, Jr, The Plains Across, University of Illinois Press, Urbana (1979).