Presbyterian Missionary and Preacher’s Wife Narcissa Whitman [otd 08/12]

Narcissa Whitman.
Oregon Historical Society.

On August 12, 1836, Narcissa Prentiss Whitman wrote in her journal, “The hills are so steep and rocky that husband thought it best to lighten the wagon as much as possible and take nothing but the wheels.”

“Husband” referred to the Reverend Marcus Whitman, to whom she had been married less than six months. Narcissa’s calm chronicles of the dangers and difficulties of their trip rather “set the standard” for pioneer wives on the Oregon Trail.

Born in New York state, Narcissa felt the tug of a religious call as a pre-teen. She thought about becoming a missionary for many years, but found no way to further that dream. Then, in 1834 she heard a minister speaking about the need for missionaries in the Oregon Country. The catch was, Narcissa, at 28 years old, was still not married … and the Presbyterians would probably not send out an unmarried missionary.

In February 1835, she became engaged to Marcus Whitman, a physician with an interest in becoming a medical missionary. Neither party ever mentions any courtship, and some historians speculate that they had an “arrangement” in case church authorities decided single women were not welcome as missionaries.

Almost immediately after the engagement, Dr. Whitman left on a trip to the Pacific Northwest. He returned to the East in December and two months later he and Narcissa married.

They immediately headed west to join up with the Reverend Henry Harmon Spalding, Spalding’s wife, and some other missionaries. Narcissa and Spalding’s wife, Eliza, become the first white women to cross the Continental Divide, traveling on to attend the mountain man rendezvous on the Green River.

They entered Idaho in late July and stopped at Old Fort Hall. They visited the fort’s garden, but the plants were doing very poorly. They talked to the factor, who said that “his own did extremely well until the 8th of June, when the frost of one night completely prostrated it. It has since came up again, but does not look as well as it did before. This is their first attempt at cultivating.”

When they continued, they were still dragging one wagon along. Then, as noted above, they decided to dismantle the wagon and use the wheels to assemble a cart. Whitman had to discard her favorite trunk. She wrote, “If I were to make the journey again I would make quite different preparations.”

Three Island Crossing. Re-enactment, Glenns Ferry Tourism.

The very next day they encountered an obstacle that became notorious in Oregon Trail diaries: the Three Island Crossing, near today’s Glenns Ferry.

Some trains found this Crossing of the Snake so dangerous they chose the more arid and difficult route south of the river instead. Narcissa wrote, “Husband had considerable difficulty in crossing the cart. Both cart and mules were turned upside down in the river and entangled in the harness. The mules would have been drowned but for a desperate struggle to get them ashore.”

Despite these and other trials, the missionaries made it safely to the Columbia. The Spaldings opened a mission at Lapwai among the Nez Percés [blog, Nov 29], while the Whitmans built theirs at Waiilatpu, west of today’s Walla Walla. Unfortunately, it ended badly for Marcus and Narcissa. In November, 1847, they were murdered by the Indians they had traveled across a continent to help.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W], [Brit]

Julie Roy Jeffrey, Converting the West: A Biography of Narcissa Whitman, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman (1994).

Narcissa Whitman, “Narcissa Whitman Journal,” published in Myron Eells, Marcus Whitman, Pathfinder and Patriot, Alice Harriman Company, Seattle (1909).

“History and Culture,” Whitman Mission National Historic Site, National Park Service (2004).

Actress Marjorie Reynolds: From Silent Films to Made-For-TV (otd 08/12)

Long-time movie and TV star Marjorie (Goodspeed) Reynolds was born August 12, 1917 in Buhl, Idaho. Her parents were Harry W. and Grace Goodspeed, both from Maine. Her father received his M.D. degree from the Medical School of Maine (Bowdoin College) in 1897. Dr. Goodspeed practiced in Maine, New York City, and Chicago before settling in Buhl around 1909. 

Marjorie Reynolds.
Publicity Headshot.

In 1922, the family moved to Los Angeles. Later, studio publicists offered some fanciful stories about how they relocated, but these can be discounted. In any case, her mother enrolled Marjorie in dance classes at an academy that specifically trained students for roles on the stage or in movies. During the following two years, she appeared as a “waif” or dancer in at least four productions.

After that, she was inactive for several years. She danced in a stage play in 1929 but did not appear again until 1933, when she had three roles that involved dancing. For these, she was billed as Marjorie Moore. One, the silent film Wine, Women, and Song, also included her first small acting part. Her career was securely launched in 1935-1937, with roles in seven productions.

Sadly, her mother died in January 1937. However, later that year, she married John Wesley “Jack” Reynolds, a casting director. He helped get her first (small) speaking role, in the thriller Murder in Greenwich Village, now using the name Majorie Reynolds. Over the next five years, Majorie appeared in at least fourteen low-budget westerns, interspersed with musicals, standard dramas, and thrillers. She was the female lead for many of them, and received quite favorable reviews.

In 1942, she landed what many consider her highest accomplishment: The love interest in Holiday Inn, with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. She got to dance with Fred Astaire, whom she found “wonderful to work with.” Moreover,  Crosby sang the renowned “White Christmas” for her. She received rave reviews for her performance and many predicted it would make her a superstar.

Like many performers, Majorie made time during the war years to deliver shows to service audiences, including a trip to bases in the Aleutian Islands. (She would reprise that role during the Korean War.) Although she took time out to have a baby girl in November 1946, she performed in at least seventeen feature files (starring in most) by the end of 1952. Unfortunately, Marjorie and Jack Reynolds divorced in the spring of 1952. She would remarry about a year later.

She had her first minor role in a TV series in 1949 and that picked up as time went on. Thus, her main focus from 1953 to 1958 was as the long-suffering but resourceful wife on the TV show The Life of Riley, with William Bendix. She found her role somewhat repetitious, but loved the rapport with the cast and crew. 

Bendix & Reynolds. Studio Publicity.

Majorie made only two feature films (in 1959 and 1962) after Riley ended, but found plenty of work in various TV series and commercials.  Her last screen credit, in 1978, was for the three-part miniseries, Pearl. The story dramatizes “ordinary” peacetime life in Honolulu during the few days that ended with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was noted as “one of the ten most watched” programs when it aired in November. Overall, she appeared in over 60 movies as well as countless TV commercials and series episodes.

After Marjorie retired from movies and TV, she filled her days as a hospital volunteer. Also, her second husband became ill in 1984 and she nursed him as best she could until he died in the spring of 1985. After that, she spent more time with her daughter, who also worked in the film industry. In 1997, she passed out while walking her dog, was taken to a hospital for observation, but died that evening, on February 1.

A consummate professional, Majorie was well-like by everyone she worked with in movies and TV, cast or crew. And over those years, she shared the cast with many major stars: Vivien Leigh, Bob Hope, Roy Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, Mario Lanza, Shirley Temple, Robert Mitchum and on and on.

Many wondered why she never became a superstar herself, despite her good looks, outstanding ability as a dancer, and versatility as an actress. One wonders if she might have been too versatile … tackling an amazing range of comedic and dramatic roles. In westerns, she might be a standard heroine to be rescued, a determined ranch or mine owner, or even a dancehall girl. As a wife and (or) mother, she had roles as faithful, doting, jealous, manipulative, cheating … or even unwed (quite racy when she did that back in 1938). Other roles included models, detectives, nosy reporters, a princess, a refugee, and more. That is, her fans never quite knew what to expect … which may have counted against her.
                                                                                 

References:  Colin Briggs, “Marjorie Reynolds: Benevolent Beauty,” Classic Images, Muscatine Journal Division, Muscatine, Iowa (2010).

Gary Brumburgh, “Biography: Marjorie Reynolds,” Internet Movie Database, imdb.com.

Dick Vosburgh, “Obituary: Marjorie Reynolds,” The Independent, London (February 15, 1997).

Idaho Falls Medical Pioneer Clifford M. Cline, M.D. [otd 08/11]

Idaho Falls physician Clifford M. Cline, M.D., was born August 11, 1884 in a rural area sixty miles or so north of Des Moines, Iowa. Accounts of his early life are a bit skimpy. However, in 1900 he was living west of Des Moines with his mother and stepfather, a physician. Years later, Dr. Cline said that browsing his stepfather’s medical library inspired him to pursue that career. He proved to be an outstanding scholar. In 1902 – aged 18 – he was listed among the anatomy faculty of the University of Iowa (officially the “State University of Iowa”). 

C. M. Cline. Family Archive.

From there, Cline moved to the Northwestern University School of Medicine, attaining his M.D. degree in 1905. He then won an internship to a well-respected teaching hospital in Chicago. Married in late 1906, he and his wife moved to Idaho Falls early the following year. “C.M” – as he was almost universally identified in the news – quickly teamed with another physician to operate one of the first hospitals in Idaho Falls.

Already a highly skilled surgeon, Cline continued to travel east during most summers to learn new techniques. However, sorrow visited the Cline household in the summer of 1909, when an infant son died at the age of six months.

In January 1911, the Idaho governor appointed Dr. Cline to the state Board of Medical Examiners. (He would be appointed to the Board again sixteen years later.) In 1912, he briefly moved his practice to Boise, and the couple’s daughter was born there. However, the family was back in Idaho Falls by early 1913. C.M. then made the first of several trips overseas. Leaving Idaho Falls in June 1914, he attended medical conferences in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, then spent until August visiting hospitals in London, Paris, Berne, and Berlin.

All that study was put to good use in 1915, when he and another doctor opened a new hospital, known as the “General Hospital.” This was the first structure built specifically as a hospital in Idaho Falls.
 

General Hospital. Bonneville County Historical Society.

Besides operation of the hospital, C.M. had other business interests in the city. He further expanded those in 1919, when he and a partner worked with a local contractor to erect the Colonial Theater. Said to have the largest and finest stage in the Mountain West, the venue hosted all kinds of theatrical and musical performances. He sold his investment after several years, and it was later adapted for motion pictures.

The General Hospital ceased operation in 1923, when the Mormon Church spearheaded construction of a larger facility, initially known as the “L.D.S. Hospital.” Dr. Cline served on the medical staff as well as the executive board for that hospital.

A Fellow  of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Cline was a member of the American Medical Association and the Idaho State Medical Society. Also, in 1921, he helped organize the Idaho Falls Medical Society and became its first president. As a sideline, he chaired the funding-raising committee for the local chapter of the American Red Cross.

C.M. participated in the Commercial Club, the Elks, and the Idaho Falls school board. He also helped found the Idaho Falls Rotary Club and served as its president for a time. Even all that wasn’t enough to fill his life: He was reportedly an ardent sports fan and a fine gourmet cook.

Dr. Cline  was also a frequent traveler. Besides in-country trips to conferences and educational venues, Dr. Cline took has wife and daughter to Europe in the summer of 1927. Ten years later, he and his second wife traveled to South American, where a group of doctors toured a wide variety of clinics and hospitals. (His first wife died in 1934; he remarried two years later).
 

Boeing 247. Smithsonian Air & Space.

C.M. also kept up with the times outside his profession. Scheduled airline passenger service came to Idaho Falls in 1934, in the form of a innovative ten-passenger Boeing aircraft. That fall, he and his daughter boarded a flight destined for San Francisco. That familiarity served Dr. Cline well a few months later, when he flew to Moscow in response to a medical emergency.

Although he apparently cut back his travel after his second wife died in 1952, he stayed active in his profession until right near the end. Dr. Clifford M. Cline passed away on September 13, 1962, after a career that spanned over a half century.

                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

Bulletin of Northwestern University, 1905-1906, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (1906). Catalogue, State University of Iowa [University of Iowa], Iowa City, Iowa (1903).

“[C. M. Cline News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise, Post-Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho; Winona Daily News, Minnesota; Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah (July 1909 – March 1952).

Harold S Forbush and Contributors, The Idaho Falls LDS Hospital, Ricks College Press, Rexburg, Idaho (1987).

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

Cassia County Attorney and Idaho Chief Justice T. Bailey Lee [otd 08/10]

Thomas Bailey Lee, Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court, was born about twenty miles southwest of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on August 10, 1873. He attended law school after graduating from the University of North Carolina but chose not to practice at that time. Instead, he found a position as a prep school Latin teacher in Asheville. In 1898, he took up the practice of law in Butte, Montana.

Burley, ca 1918. J. H. Hawley photo.

In 1905, Lee moved to the new town of Burley [blog, July 19], becoming the first lawyer there. He also secured a position as a Director of the Burley Town Site Company. He spent two years as the City Attorney for Burley, and also served four terms as Prosecuting Attorney for Cassia County.

For six years, T. Bailey served as District Court Judge for the region encompassing Cassia and surrounding areas. Then, in October 1926, Lee was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Idaho Supreme Court. A month later, he won election to continue in that position. At that point, Bailey moved his family to Boise.  He rose to the position of Chief Justice in 1931.

His most recent biography, in Defenbach, makes the point that, “Three of his ancestors were Revolutionary soldiers, two of them with the rank of captain.”

In 1931, Judge Lee’s Congressman wrote a letter to the Bureau of Pensions. A family Bible, now “two hundred and nineteen years old,” had been submitted as verification to allow the widow of Captain John Dickey to continue receiving his Revolutionary War pension. That document now reposed in the National Archives.

T. Bailey Lee. Family Archives.

Since the relevant pages had been torn out, the Judge wanted the bulk of the Bible back, as a family memento. This request was refused, so Lee wrote a personal note to the Director of the Veteran’s Bureau. Addressed to “My Dear General,” Lee commented, “I am presuming to write you direct upon a purely personal matter, as the only methods I understand are those of a soldier and lawyer. God save me from civilian bureaucrats!”

T. Bailey had personally seen the Bible, “dumped in an old box.” Someone had filed the torn out pages, “and tossed the wrecked volume into the scrap heap.” As such, he went on, “it’s mere junk … and is about as valuable to Uncle Sam as … an empty bottle of Lydia Pinkham's.”

Again the Administrator refused his request … for the good of all researchers, not just the family, they said. In his letter to Lee’s Congressman, the Administrator said, “To insure added protection to the Bible in question it was securely wrapped and tied in kraft paper, given the file number of the claim from which it was removed, and locked in a cabinet free from dust. It is now reposing in a steel vault.”

So the Judge “lost,” but perhaps he accomplished something more important: He rescued a potentially-valuable historical document from oblivion.

Through 1932, judges campaigned for election to the Idaho Supreme Court as partisan candidates. That year Judge Lee ran on the Republican ticket. Although Bailey did better than most other Republican candidates, he lost his seat during the Democratic landslide behind Roosevelt on the national ticket. He returned to Burley after the end of his term, and finally moved his family back in late summer (Idaho Statesman, Boise, August 23, 1933).

Lee would again serve as a District Judge in 1942-1946. He passed away in March 1948.
                                                                                 

References:[Blue],  [Defen], [Hawley]

“Letters Concerning the Family Bible,“ Captain John Dickey Revolutionary War File, U. S. National Archives (1931-1932).

Ben Ysursa, Idaho Blue Book, 2003-2004, The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (2003).

Rancher, Businessman, and Party Leader Robert Coulter [otd 08/09]

Robert Coulter.
Family portrait photo.

Political operator, state Representative and agricultural pioneer Robert Coulter was born August 9, 1875 in Richmond, Kentucky, about eighty-five miles southeast of Louisville. In 1892, he moved to Oregon, where he worked at various jobs, including insurance and real estate, ranching, and boiler room operations. He married in 1901, in Portland, and moved to Washington County, Idaho the following year.

He first ran a dairy operation near Cascade (later county seat of Valley county). Coulter sold that after five years to go into general farming and stock raising. He also helped organize an irrigation company to water land midway between Payette and Weiser on the Oregon side of the Snake River.

Rather than the usual gravity flow, they used an electrically-powered pumping station to lift water from the Snake River. The results transformed sagebrush plains and dry-farmed grain fields into productive fruit and vegetable farms. Within a year, the project inspired five imitators.

When boosters formed the Washington County Fair Association, Coulter became one of its first Directors. In 1909, Robert spearheaded formation of a partnership to deal in real estate and mortgage loans. According to H. T. French, in 1914 the firm was “known for one of the largest real estate and loan companies in the county.”

Soon after he arrived in Idaho, he began taking a very active role in Democratic Party politics. For a number of years, he lived near Weiser and served as Secretary of the party Central Committee for Washington County. In the early 1920s, he moved his family back to Cascade.

For quite a long time, Coulter did not seek political office himself, working diligently for other candidates at all levels. In 1922, however, he ran successfully for the state House of Representatives. He would be re-elected for a total of six consecutive terms, running unopposed in at least one of those elections.

In 1931, Governor C. Ben Ross appointed Coulter to be Director of the Bureau of Budget. In that position, Coulter led the preparation of the budget to be presented to the legislature. He was also, ex officio, a member of another board charged with recommending construction of needed public buildings.

Senator Borah, 1937. Library of Congress.

Defenbach’s History of Idaho, published in 1933, characterized him as “one of the most forceful figures in Democratic politics at this time.” He served as Chairman of the Idaho Democratic Party for the first time in 1934-1935. Asked about party prospects, he incautiously predicted that they could defeat popular Republican Senator William E. Borah [blog, June 29] the next time he ran for re-election. Borah won handily.

For most of Coulter’s career in the House, Democrats were the minority party, yet he proved to be a very effective floor leader. When the party attained a majority in 1933, he was elected Speaker of the House. Coulter then apparently did not run for re-election, but filled the position of state Land Commissioner in 1933-1935. He would hold that office again in 1941-1947.

In 1935-1937, Coulter chaired the State Liquor Commission. Some time during this period, he moved to Boise. He served again as Chairman of the Idaho Democratic Party in 1940-1941 and 1942-1943. He ran again for that position in 1952, but was soundly defeated.

Two years later, he retired from the chairmanship of the Ada County Democratic Central Committee. He called that  “the last office I shall hold in the party.”

Coulter lived to be almost one hundred years of age, passing away in August 1974.
                                                                                

References: [Defen], [French]

Robert Coulter Collection, MS 415, Idaho State Historical Society.

“[Robert Coulter News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise; Post-Register, Idaho Falls; The Express, San Antonio, Texas (May 1912 – June 1961).

Bartleson-Bidwell Emigrant Party Enters Idaho, Headed for California [otd 08/08]

John Bidwell, 1840.
Meriam Library, Chico State University.

On August 8, 1841, the group generally referred to as the Bartelson-Bidwell emigrant party entered what would one day become the state of Idaho. By most accounts, John Bidwell had been the driving force behind this first larger movement of settlers to the West.

John was born in 1819, in New York state. Later, the family moved west as far as Ohio. John himself continued further west, and 1840 found him teaching school in Missouri. Unhappy with his prospects there, Bidwell listened with great interest to stories of California told by Frenchman Antoine Robidoux.

Many years later, Bidwell wrote, “His description of California was in the superlative degree favorable, so much so that I resolved if possible to see that wonderful land.”

As a result, sixty-nine emigrants headed west in May 1941. The “captain” of the train was one John Bartleson, who had campaigned for the position and refused to go unless he got it. Bidwell apparently didn’t care, he just wanted to get on with it.

In his account, Bidwell wrote, “Our ignorance of the route was complete. We knew that California lay west, and that was the extent of our knowledge.”

Fortunately, they learned that a party including Roman Catholic Father Pierre-Jean de Smet [blog, Jan 31] was also starting west. Their guide was experienced Mountain Man Thomas “Broken Hand” Fitzpatrick. Since larger parties were generally safer, de Smet and Fitzpatrick let the Missouri group join them.

Bidwell said the presence of the “old mountaineer” was particularly important when the train’s “easily excited” people first encountered Indians. Without Fizpatrick’s experience and knowledge, Bidwell felt, “the result would certainly have been disastrous.”

Father de Smet. Library of Congress.

The travelers followed what would become the primary route of the Oregon Trail in southeast Idaho. By the time they reached Soda Springs, only sixty-four emigrants remained: one had accidentally shot and killed himself, one stopped along the way, and three turned back.

Fitzpatrick and de Smet planned to head north from Soda Springs, following a path that would take them to Fort Hall. Although the emigrants had only crude maps to go by, they were sure the Fort Hall route would not get them to California. They did know from missionary reports that the more northerly track would take them to Oregon.

Thus, half the party decided to visit the fort and take the known trail to Oregon. They were the largest emigrant party to cross Idaho to that time. A “freelance” Methodist preacher had joined the column somewhere in northeastern Kansas. He gave an account of the trek across Idaho. Fort Hall impressed him greatly, and he observed that it was “in a handsome part of the country.” The party had abandoned their wagons before reaching the fort. Yet even with just a pack train, the preacher wrote, “it is very dangerous traveling up and down the rocky hills.”

The other thirty-two pioneers, including Bidwell, held to their original goal. Fitzpatrick could offer only second- or third-hand information about how they might get to California.

The Bidwell group turned south along the Bear River, having sent four men to Fort Hall to learn what they could. Bidwell wrote, “We were now thrown entirely upon our own resources. All the country beyond was to us a veritable terra incognita.”

Despite their profound ignorance, they did win through to California, although they almost starved along the way. Bidwell later played a prominent role in California history.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W]

John Bidwell, “The First Emigrant Train to California,” Century Magazine, New York (1890).

David L. Bigler, “Bartelson-Bidwell Party” Utah History Encyclopedia, Utah History to Go.

“Site Report - Cache Valley (1822-1884),” Reference Series No. 610, Idaho State Historical Society (December 1981).

Joseph Williams, Narrative of a Tour from the State of Indiana to the Oregon Territory in the Years 1841-2, Edward Eberstadt, New York (1921).

Murphy and Twin Falls Get Regular Train Service [otd 08/07]

Coincidentally, August 7 marks two different Idaho railroad milestones.

On this day in 1898, the Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railway initiated railroad service to Murphy, Idaho. Colonel William H. Dewey [blog, Aug 1] promoted the line, with construction beginning in September 1896. The venture encountered just one unusual obstacle, but it was a substantial one: They had to bridge the Snake River. Even the economical design chosen – Parker trusses – represented a major expense in the overall budget.

Guffey Bridge, ca. 1898. Directory of Owyhee County.

Right after workers completed the bridge in 1897, the town of Guffey, named for one of Dewey’s partners, sprang up a mile or so downstream from the crossing. Guffey was the railway terminal for a time, and grew to be quite a respectable little town. Shippers transferred their freight to wagons for the long climb into the mountains.

Then crews laid the tracks into Murphy. The transfer point quickly moved there once trains began arriving. At the time, developers had high hopes for the mines around Silver City, but those optimistic notions never panned out.

In fact, the original concept called for the tracks to continue into the town of Dewey, a few miles from Silver City. That would have required the construction of another 25 miles of railway, with an ascent of over 3,800 feet. Needless to say, that line was never completed. By around 1912, all the big mines in the Silver City area had shut down.  Still, shipments of livestock and other agricultural products kept the railway going until 1947.

Today, Murphy – although it is the county seat of Owyhee County – has a population of less than a thousand. Hardly a trace of Guffey remains … but the Guffey Bridge is still in place as a pedestrian crossing.

Citizens of Twin Falls hailed August 7, 1905 as “Railroad Day,” for that was when the first train on the Minidoka and Southwestern Railroad arrived in town. The Milner Dam project, promoted by Ira B. Perrine [blog, May 7] brought irrigation to the plains south of the Snake River Canyon. That, in turn, spurred the formation and growth of Twin Falls.

In late 1904, further promotion by Perrine and others initiated the construction of a branch line to run from Minidoka to Buhl. The promoters also created the town of Burley where the tracks crossed the Snake River [blog, July 19]. As the tracks neared Twin Falls, townspeople planned a gala celebration in anticipation of their arrival. Celebrants rode into town from all over the region for the big day.

Buhl Depot. Twin Falls Public Library.

In fact, a special dispatch to the Idaho Statesman (published August 8, 1905) on the big day said that, “About 350 people came in this morning on the train, and hundreds came from all portions of the surrounding region by team.”

The dispatch writer estimated that “Five thousand people are in Twin Falls tonight celebrating the advent of the Minidoka & Southwestern railroad to the metropolis of the Twin Falls region.”

The railroad’s arrival sparked an even greater surge in the growth of Twin Falls. Within a few weeks, local stockmen began shipping substantial numbers of sheep and cattle from their depot. In less than a decade, the town had a population of about eight thousand. Similar expansion occurred at the terminus of the line in Buhl, which was incorporated in 1908.
                                                                                 

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

“Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railroad (1896-1898),” Reference Series No. 218, Idaho State Historical Society (January 1993).

Jim Gentry, In the Middle and On the Edge, College of Southern Idaho, Twin Falls, Idaho (2003).

A Historical, Descriptive and Commercial Directory of Owyhee County, Idaho, Owyhee Avalanche Press (January 1898).