Sportsman, Conservationist, and Outdoor Writer Ted Trueblood [otd 06/26]

Ted Trueblood, angler.
Trueblood Collection,
Boise State University.

Hunter, angler, conservationist, and writer Cecil Whittaker “Ted" Trueblood was born June 26, 1913 in Boise. He grew up on a farm near Wilder (10-12 miles west of Caldwell).

Ted sold the first of a prodigious number of articles about outdoor activities in 1931, the same year he graduated from high school. The article ran under the pseudonym J. W. Wintring. As the story goes, the magazine editor thought Ted’s real name was itself a pen name, “and not a very good one.”

Trueblood tried the college life for awhile, first at College of Idaho in Caldwell. In the depths of the Great Depression, he dropped out to find work half way through his junior year. In 1935, he attended a semester at the University of Idaho, but then landed a job as a reporter for a Boise newspaper.

After a year there, he moved to Salt Lake City and worked for the Deseret News. Ted also had a go at freelance writing. That proved inadequate for a newly-married man and in 1940 he hired on with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Trueblood actually had an earlier connection with the Department of Fish and Game. In 1938, he joined the campaign to pass a voter Initiative to created a non-political Idaho Fish and Game Commission [blog, June 21]. The measure passed handily, becoming the first successful Idaho citizens’ Initiative .

Ted’s articles earned him a job as Fishing Editor for Field & Stream magazine. For that position, Ted and his wife moved to New York in 1941. That didn’t last long, due to a “company shakeup” that got him fired. Ted spent a year as a photographer in North Carolina, and then the couple moved back to Idaho. In 1944, Ted was rehired by Field & Stream and they returned to New York.

However, three years later, Trueblood decided to leave the Eastern rat-race behind. By then his name – which many readers thought was a too-good-to-be-true pseudonym – had drawing power.

For the rest of his days he would live the life he wrote so well about. Your "blogster" is one of many who avidly read his articles in Field & Stream and other outdoors magazines. Nor was he just a fishing guru, he also expertly hunted all kinds of game.

Ted Trueblood, bird hunter.
Trueblood Collection, BSU.

But Trueblood was not just a hunter or angler; he loved nature for its own sake. His writing conveyed that feeling, and sent many into the outdoors for their mental and physical well-being. Moreover, he was a conservationist long before it was “fashionable." He is generally given a significant part of the credit for creation of the Frank Church/River of No Return Wilderness Area.

Ted belonged to numerous outdoor and conservation groups: Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, the Idaho Wildlife Federation, and others. Ted received many, many awards for conservation advocacy and outdoor writing, including several “Outdoorsman of the Year" awards.

Along with his writing, Trueblood often spoke and gave demonstrations to interested audiences. He also appeared in several outdoor sports films, many of which ended up on television. Ted even appeared as one of the “featured anglers” in a series of movies on fishing in Canada. Trueblood demonstrated how to tie flies, proper casting techniques, and how to handle “the big ones.” 

Sadly, he contracted bone cancer in his late sixties. After several years of unavailing surgery and chemotherapy, Trueblood died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in September 1982.
                                                                                 

References: Richard J. Beck, Famous Idahoans, Williams Printing, (© Richard J. Beck, 1989).

Roger Phillips, “Ted Trueblood: Outdoor writer set the benchmark,” The Idaho Statesman (March 28, 2002).

“Ted Trueblood: Biography,” Ted Trueblood Collection, MSS 89, Boise State University (2000).

“Cecil Whittaker ‘Ted’ Trueblood,” Reference Series No. 1145, Idaho State Historical Society (January 1996).

General Edward McConville: Civil War Veteran, Indian Fighter, and Philippines Casualty [otd 06/25]

General McConville.
Illustrated History.

General Edward McConville was born June 25, 1846 in Jefferson County, New York, about seventy miles north of Syracuse. Histories of the day noted that he came from a "martial family," whose members saw action in the Battle of Hastings in England, and later in the American Civil war. Moreover, a cousin died in the Spanish-American War during “the glorious assault on San Juan hill."

Edward himself enlisted for the Civil War as an under-age private in the 12th New York Regiment of Volunteers. During this first term of service, McConville’s regiment saw action in the First and Second Battles of Bull Run, the Peninsular Campaign, Antietam, and several other famous Army of the Potomac battles. Discharged in May 1863, within two months McConville re-enlisted in the 13th New York Cavalry Regiment. Edward’s new unit performed scouting duty and spent part of its time chasing Mosby’s Raiders in northern Virginia.

McConville re-enlisted yet again in 1866, in the Regular Army, and fought Apache Indians in New Mexico and Arizona. Discharged at Idaho's Fort Lapwai in 1873, he then took up residence in the state. Four years later, he raised a force of Idaho Volunteers for the Nez Percés War. In a fight along the Clearwater River in mid-July, Indians ran off many of their horses and pinned them down on a hill that came to be called “Fort Misery.” Even so, they are credited with getting word to the Army commander about the location of the Nez Percés camp.

The Volunteers soon replaced their horses and performed scout duty through most of August. After the Nez Percés escaped into Montana, McConville marched his men back to Lewiston. Even his fresher horses were worn down and sickness had weakened many of the men.

Although he fought the Nez Percés when he was called, he also tried to aid them later as Superintendent of the reservation school at Lapwai. Reappointed through several Federal administrations, he reportedly earned the respect and admiration of Indians and whites alike.

His program included sporting teams which did compete against white squads (Morning Olympian, Olympia, Washington, June 16, 1897): “Superintendent Ed McConville, of the Lapwai Industrial school, has made arrangements for his Indian boys’ base ball team and athletes to visit Spokane … A schedule of games has been arranged with the Spokane team and the Indian boys will engage with the pale face of that section in a number of athletic contests.”

First Idaho Waiting for Action, Caloocan.
Library of Congress.

When the Federal government called for soldiers to fight the Spanish-American War in 1898, Idaho recruited troops to supplement the state Guard [blog, March 14]. About half the officers and well over half the enlisted men in the First Idaho Infantry came from the Idaho Guard. McConville was appointed a major to lead the Second Battalion of the First Idaho.

Through all those years and bloody Civil War battles, and more years exposed to hit-and-run Indian raids, McConville had received only minor flesh wounds. Sadly, the old soldier was shot and mortally wounded in the regiment's first serious engagement in the Philippines on February 5, 1899. Before he died, he received a promotion to Brevet Brigadier General.

Although, according to Hawley, the 1903 Idaho legislature budgeted funds for a monument to General McConville, there's no evidence that any was ever erected.
                                                                                 

References:  [Hawley], [Illust-State]

Jerome A. Greene, Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poos Crisis, Montana Historical Society Press, Helena (2000).

Orlan J. Svingen (Ed.), The History of the Idaho National Guard, Idaho National Guard, Boise (1995).

Mountain Man and Western Explorer Jedediah Smith [otd 06/24]

Jed Smith, drawn ca. 1835
by a close family friend.
Family archives.

June 24, 1798 is one of two presumed birth dates* (the other is Jan 6, 1799) of mountain man and Western explorer Jedediah Strong Smith.

Historians do agree that he was born in Bainbridge, New York, an outpost about 25 miles east of Binghamton. The family moved to Erie County around 1810 and then to Ohio in 1817. Jedediah headed even further west around 1821.

In 1822, William Ashley published a St. Louis newspaper notice that said, in part, “The subscriber wishes to engage one hundred young men to ascend the Missouri river to its source, there to be employed for one, two, or three years.”

That was the beginning of what became the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, organized by Ashley and Andrew Henry [blog, March 20]. Smith joined the company and, in 1824, led a small band of trappers into southeast Idaho. There they stumbled across a party of “pilaged and destitute” Iroquois Indian trappers. These men worked for the British-Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). British-Canadian fur companies had had the western slopes of the Rockies to themselves since the War of 1812.

Smith escorted the hapless Iroquois back to the HBC camp on the Salmon River, near today's Challis or possibly the mouth of the Pahsimeroi River. The Britishers were none too pleased when the Americans showed up, on October 14, 1824. Their leader, Alexander Ross, grumbled about the newcomers “whom I rather take to be spies than trappers.”

Smith managed to stick with the HBC contingent when they first returned to their base in Montana, and then marched back to Idaho under a new leader, Peter Skene Ogden [blog, January 1]. The Americans would dog the Brigade until the groups separated on the Bear River in late April, 1925. Smith’s party headed north to trap the Blackfoot River.

We next see Smith in July at the rendezvous (the first) that Ashley held in southwest Wyoming. Sometime shortly after they met, Ashley took Jedediah on as a junior partner because Andrew Henry had retired from the trade. Back in Saint Louis, Smith helped Ashley organize matters for the next season.

Accounts vary as to when Jedediah next led a trapping party in the Rockies. It is agreed, however, that he and Ashley guided a supply column to the 1926 rendezvous, held in the Cache Valley of Utah. At that gathering, Ashley sold his share of the business to William Sublette and David E. Jackson, two other experienced fur traders.

Smith and his new partners were shrewd enough to realize that going head-to-head with the established HBC might not be their most profitable course. Jedediah therefore led a trapper/explorer party through country then unknown to Americans: across Utah and southern Nevada, and then into Spanish California.

Jedediah Smith’s monumental accomplishments in exploring the West between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast are beyond the scope of this brief item.

Thomas Fitzpatrick.
Colorado Historical Society.

(He was almost certainly the first American to travel east from Oregon through Idaho since Robert Stuart’s trek in 1813.) Unfortunately, Comanche Indians murdered Smith along the Cimarron River in May 1831.

Besides his own accomplishments, Smith provided an example for several other famous Mountain Men. One such was Thomas Fitzpatrick, who was among a group of partners who bought out Smith, Sublette, and Jackson in 1830.

Later, Fitzgerald acted as guide for one of John C. Frémont’s major exploratory expeditions.

* The June date is listed in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
                                                                                

References: [B&W], [Brit]

H. M. Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1986). Originally publication date: 1935.

Alexander Ross, T. C. Elliott (Ed.), “Journal of Alexander Ross, Snake Country Expedition, 1824,” Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 14 (Dec. 1913).

Stephen W. Sears, “Trail Blazer of the Far West,” American Heritage Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 4 (June 1963).

Ricks College (Brigham Young University-Idaho) President Hyrum Manwaring [otd 06/23]

President Manwaring.
BYU-Idaho archives.

Hyrum Manwaring, President of Ricks College (now Brigham Young University - Idaho) was born June 23, 1877, southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah.

In 1890, the family moved to near Provo, where Hyrum began working as a railroad section hand. He eventually advanced to a foreman’s position. However, he felt the need for more education and attended the preparatory school at Brigham Young University.

In 1899, Manwaring started a three-year mission in Australia. He then mixed personal education and teaching for several years until, in 1911, he received his B.A. degree from Brigham Young University in Provo. After teaching English at Provo for three years, he joined the Ricks College faculty in Rexburg, Idaho, as Head of the English Department.

Manwaring’s very first views of the campus and the town depressed him. He later wrote, “I stood lonely and very depressed and silently shed tears to think I was bringing my dear wife and children to this place.” But then, somehow, “I suddenly seemed to catch the spirit of the pioneers, and to dream of the great potentials that lay before me.”

Next, he met the “vigorous” student body, who “looked energetic and eager to work at any task that was hard and challenging.” In the end, he wrote, “I left Rexburg happy and enthusiastic with the potentials I saw and experienced.”

When Ricks became a junior college in 1923, Manwaring served as Head of the Department of Psychology and Education. That same year he received his Master’s degree from BYU-Provo. He also acted as Summer School Director while then-President Romney attended graduate school, and later taught some of the first night classes provided at Ricks.

In 1929, the Ricks Board of Education offered Manwaring the job of Acting President. At the time, the family had sold their Idaho property and moved to Washington, D. C., where Hyrum planned to attend George Washington University. Manwaring took some time to consider his options before accepting the position. His tenure was soon made permanent.

Over the next decade, Manwaring's faith and natural optimism must have been sorely tried. Budgets had always been tight, and even before he assumed the Presidency rumors abounded that the school would be closed. This being the depths of the Great Depression, the LDS Church found it couldn't give the school away. The state of Idaho said they couldn't afford to run it.

To survive at all, as a church or state institution, Ricks needed full accreditation. With that, earned credits could be transferred wherever a student might want to go. Hyrum pushed hard to upgrade programs, and to convince the accrediting body that they provided a quality education. Finally, despite its uncertain future, the college received the coveted certification in April 1936.

The following year, the school began to receive better funding from Church authorities. Even so, rumors about a possible closure continued to surface whenever finances were particularly tight. Finally, in the spring of 1940, school officials received word that there would be no further attempts to give the school away.

Student Center. BYU-Idaho photo.

As with most colleges and universities, Ricks had to substantially step up recruitment during World War II. Even so, male enrollment for the fall of 1943 showed a dramatic decline.

In 1944, Manwaring made his last commencement address as College President. He continued teaching at Ricks for almost a decade, and then taught part-time until he passed away in 1956. Today, his memory is honored at BYU-Idaho in the Manwaring Student Center.
                                                                                 

References: [Defen]

David L. Crowder, The Spirit of Ricks: A History of Ricks College, Ricks College Press, Rexburg, Idaho (1997).

“Hyrum and Bessie Manwaring,” The Presidents and First Ladies, Brigham Young University – Idaho.

Jerry C. Roundy, Ricks College: A Struggle for Survival, Ricks College Press, Rexburg (1976).

Irrigation Water Flows into East Idaho's Great Feeder Canal [otd 06/22]

On June 22, 1895, water was diverted from the Snake River into the Great Feeder Canal. The Diversion Dam, located about 20 miles northeast of Idaho Falls, supplied water to one of the most ambitious of the early irrigation projects in Idaho. The main Canal and the many smaller canals it feeds now make up one of the largest irrigation systems in the American West.

Headgates, Great Feeder Canal.

As in the Boise and Payette river valleys, pioneers along the upper Snake River began digging small irrigation ditches almost as soon as they settled there. Thus, the first "active irrigation farming" began in 1868, just three years after Matt Taylor built his toll bridge [blog, December 10]. The farm was located about 15 miles north of the spot called, successively, Taylor's Bridge, Eagle Rock, and (today) Idaho Falls.

Still, the region remained mostly ranch country until the railroad arrived in 1879, when homesteads blossomed. To this point, settlers had mostly tackled side streams of the Snake River itself, or creeks flowing into it. Finally, in 1880, ambitious irrigation companies filed two major water rights. They edged small weirs into the Snake’s current to divert water into multi-user canal systems.

Within a decade a network of canals laced the plains along both forks of the Snake. However, water supplies for these systems depended largely upon the vagaries of the river. It was sometimes a case of too little or too much. Often, small diversion dams washed out during spring high water and had to be rebuilt every season. Conversely, major changes in the river course sometimes left entire canal systems without a source.

One such twist created what locals called the "Dry Bed." The Bed had once been an important river channel but now lay dry most of the year. Thus, in 1895, a score of different canal companies cooperatively formed the Great Feeder Canal Company. Construction began immediately on a substantial diversion dam and ditch segment. They located the dam far enough upriver so the flow would fill the old channel and feed water to numerous component canal systems.

Reported with a full-page spread in the Idaho Falls Times (June 27, 1895), the opening was a well-attended, gala event. There were songs, a prayer, a poetry recital, and – of course – speeches by various dignitaries.

All did not go quite as planned, however. As the third or fourth major speaker began, “Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to – ”
“Boom!!!” the Times reporter wrote. The miner handling the dynamite had jumped the gun on breaching the holding wall, “and with a mighty roar in rushed the foaming stream and 2,000 second feet of water had passed through the headgate before the speaker could utter another word.”

Great Feeder Canal.

As with all such systems, their work had only begun. Continual upkeep and periodic upgrades – supplemental dams, replacement headgates, and more – were and still are required to maintain a good flow to water users. Today, besides its traditional uses, real estate ads tout residential properties that are near or "back up to" the Great Feeder Canal. (Which does not necessarily mean a property has any water rights associated with the Canal, but it sounds impressive.)

The Great Feeder, or Dry Bed as it is still identified on many maps, is also host to an odd, but useful annual event. A special fishing season opens on April 1 when the channel is emptied for routine maintenance. Individuals with valid fishing licenses can each "harvest" a half-dozen fish – which would die anyway – using any means short of chemicals, electric shock, or explosives.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W], [Hawley]

Barzilla W. Clark, Bonneville County in the Making, self-published, Idaho Falls, Idaho (1941).

Mary Jane Fritzen, Idaho Falls, City of Destiny, Bonneville County Historical Society (1991).

John L. Powell (ed.), “Great Feeder Canal Company Records, 1896-1983,” Manuscript MSSI 31, Brigham Young University-Idaho Special Collections, Rexburg, Idaho (2002).

Steven Pope, “Dry Bed Canal Fishing Begins,” KIDK.com (April 1, 2010).

Sportsman, Animal Advocate, and District Judge Charles F. Koelsch [otd 06/21]

Judge Koelsch. H. T. French photo.

Idaho District Judge Charles F. Koelsch was born June 21, 1872, in Mayfield, Wisconsin, about twenty miles north of Milwaukee. He graduated from high school at the age of fifteen and then studied at Northern Indiana Normal School (now Valparaiso University). Charles taught school several years after that, but also studied law.

Koelsch moved to Boise City in 1895 and began reading law in the offices of William E. Borah [blog, June 29]. At that time, Borah was gearing up to run for the U. S. House of Representatives. Koelsch was admitted to the Idaho bar in November 1897 and practiced in Borah’s office for about a year. Charles dissociated himself from Borah’s office when voters elected him to be a Probate Judge in the fall of 1898.

Charles served two terms in that capacity. In 1904, he was elected to the position of Prosecuting Attorney for Ada County. During his term as Probate Judge, Koelsch published An Exposition on the Constitution of the State of Idaho, the first text to discuss and analyze provisions of that document.

As Prosecuting Attorney, Koelsch played a peripheral role in the trial of “Big Bill” Haywood, accused of conspiring to assassinate ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg. In 1946, Koelsch wrote “The Haywood Case: A Review” for the Idaho Mining Journal, Boise. It is often cited as an account by an “insider” of events during the trial and the surrounding context.

After his term as Prosecuting Attorney, Koelsch returned to private practice in partnership with Joseph T. Pence. About that same time, Pence was elected to a term as Mayor of Boise [blog, November 9]. Charles himself was elected to a term in the state House of Representatives in 1912. The firm of Pence & Koelsch would handle many important cases for well over a decade.

In 1926, Koelsch campaigned for the seat as Judge of the Third District Court, covering Ada, Boise, Elmore and Owyhee counties, but lost (badly) in the primary. Three years later, Governor H. Clarence Baldridge appointed him to that position when the incumbent resigned. Koelsch continued to be elected to the judgeship for over twenty years.

A “great sportsman,” in 1938 Charles and some like-minded citizens proposed a voter Initiative to create a non-political Idaho Fish and Game Commission. Koelsch drafted the Initiative, which passed handily.

Pronghorn antelope. Idaho Fish & Game.

During his long tenure as judge, Koelsch handled many crucial issues. But in 1944, he “ruled” on a less weighty matter involving a jury trial where he was presiding (Post-Register, Idaho Falls; November 23, 1944). Asked if female jurors should or should not wear their hats, he said, “If they are pretty hats the women may as well wear them. … If they are those ugly ones, the ladies had better take them off.”

Charles retired from the bench only when forced to do so by a change in the legally-mandated retirement age. That was on January 1, 1951. His son, M. Oliver Koelsch, actually succeeded him in that position. (Eight years later, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed M. Oliver to be a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge.)

Koelsch did not retire from active participation in public affairs, however. Before 1900, Charles had helped form Idaho’s first humane society, to prevent cruelty to animals. That group did not last. However, he was later affiliated with the Idaho Humane Society that is still in operation today. Three years after his retirement, Koelsch signed (Post-Register, Idaho Falls, August 4, 1954) an animal cruelty complaint “in behalf of the Idaho Humane Society.”

Charles F. Koelsch passed away in April 1965.
                                                                                 

References: [French]

Idaho Humane Society: History, Boise.

“[Judge Koelsch News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (August 1926 – February 1950).

J. Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle … , Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York (1997).

Byron Johnson, “Homer Martin - a ‘Poacher’ Extraordinary, ” Wild Idaho News, Boise (Aug 14, 2006).

Charles F. Koelsch: MS 152, Idaho State Historical Society, Boise (December 11, 1990).

Boise River Water Flows into the New York Canal [otd 06/20]

On June 20, 1900, a rude diversion structure turned water from the Boise River into the New York Canal. The diversion, though feeble, culminated nearly twenty years of effort to bring irrigation water to the higher benches paralleling the river.

New York Canal construction. Boise State University.

Individuals and small cooperative groups began diverting irrigation water from the Boise River less than a year after the 1862 gold discoveries in the Boise Basin. With limited resources, ditch developers had to be clever and creative. Whenever possible, they led their channels along old creek beds and other natural depressions. According to Beal & Wells, "by the summer of 1864 all the river bottom land in Boise Valley was under irrigation."

As Idaho's population grew and funds became available, developers tackled larger, more ambitious irrigation projects. Around 1882, investors from the East began considering an extensive project along the Boise.  They had the notion that gold recovered from hydraulic placer sites over on the Snake River might pay much of the construction cost. After that, collecting fees for water delivered to new farms on the Boise Bench would almost be “gravy.”

The placers would have produced mostly “fine gold,” that is, tiny particles that can be finer than flour. Fine-sized gold tends to be of higher purity and there can be a lot of it along a big river like the Snake. However, no economical methods to recover the dusty material existed at that time. Thus, in the end, the placer gold mining notion went nowhere.

Company Engineer Arthur D. Foote laid out plans for a system that could eventually irrigate an estimated half million acres. Foote then spent thousands of dollars to survey a seventy-five mile main canal and an intricate grid of lateral ditches. With an elaborate map drawn from these surveys, planners could start wooing investors.

Work began on the upper end of the canal in 1884. However, very little got done because a recession in the East dried up capital. The startup firm did just enough work – basically, a handful of men chipping away at the rocks – to maintain their water right through 1886. Competing efforts also lagged, and then collapsed.

Not until 1890 did serious work again proceed on the canal. A fresh infusion of capital resulted in about 14 miles of partially finished ditch before that money ran out in late 1892. Then the nationwide Panic of '93 caused yet more delay. When money again became available, in 1896-1898, several competing interests fought over who had rights to what. Some of these cases rose all the way to the Idaho Supreme Court.

Boise River Diversion Dam, 1909.
Canal in foreground. National Archives.

In 1899, various interests finally reached an accommodation in what became the new New York Canal Company. At last, in 1900, they got water through their ditch. However, the amount was a mere trickle compared to Foote's grand original concept. Insufficient flow and uncertain water rights created a snarl of problems.

Finally, water users asked Congress to authorize a larger project to meet their needs. In the end, the U. S. Reclamation Service (later the Bureau of Reclamation) took over the canal and made it part of a larger Payette-Boise Project (Idaho Statesman, September 1, 1905).

The Bureau of Reclamation made two key additions to the project: a permanent Diversion Dam, 7-8 miles upstream from downtown Boise, and a reservoir (now called Lake Lowell) near Nampa. Finally in 1909, substantial amounts of water began flowing through a greatly expanded New York Canal system.
                                                                                 

Reference: [B&W], [French]

“The Beginning of the New York Canal,” Reference Series No. 190, Idaho State Historical Society (March 1972).

Arthur Hart, “Idaho History: The New York Canal was an epic achievement,” The Idaho Statesman, March 14, 2010.