Irrigation Developer, Idaho Governor, and U. S. Senator James Brady [otd 06/12]

Senator and Governor James H. Brady.
Library of Congress.

U. S. Senator and Idaho Governor James Henry Brady was born June 12, 1862 in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. According to the biography in J. H. Hawley's History, Brady graduated from Leavenworth Normal School and then taught for three years while studying law. From this statement, one can infer that young James was a intellectual prodigy. Leavenworth Normal School closed after the 1876 year.

Very young professionals, including lawyers, often fudged their age back then so as not to put off potential clients. It appears that's what James did. When the 1880 U. S. Census recorder for Dickinson County, Kansas came round, James listed his age as 24, adding six years. He later began "correcting" that, giving his age as 36 for an 1895 Kansas state census.

After two years as a newspaper editor, Brady started a very successful real estate business, with offices in Chicago, St. Louis, and Houston. Extensions of that enterprise brought him to Idaho in 1895. From a base in Pocatello, Brady led irrigation and water power developments all over eastern Idaho.

One of those projects was an American Falls hydropower plant, which began operation in 1902. The initial structure included a diversion weir to direct flow into the power plant. (A dam impounding the entire river was not built until twenty-five years later.)

In 1907, The Oregonian, in Portland, reported (October 23, 1907) that “The Idaho Consolidated Power Company, with a capital of $2,000,000, has absorbed the American Falls Power, Light & Water Company, the Pocatello Electric Light & Power Company and the Blackfoot Power & Water Company.”

James had holdings in all of these companies and the paper noted that “Brady retains the presidency of the new company.” Power County, created in 1913, got its name from the presence of the American Falls hydropower plant. The town of American Falls easily won the county seat.

Brady also played a major role in the National Irrigation Congress, serving as its Vice President and on its Executive Committee. His activities for other national business development organizations gave him considerable name recognition outside the state of Idaho.

In 1909, Brady began a two-year term as Idaho Governor. During his tenure, Idaho instituted a school for the deaf, dumb, and blind, and made provision for orphaned or neglected children. The legislature also authorized local option liquor laws and implemented a direct primary system.

Brady failed in his re-election bid. However, Idaho's U. S. Senator Weldon Heyburn died in office and, in 1913, Brady was selected to fill the remainder of his term. At the completion of that term, Brady was elected for a full term that was to run into 1921.

War bond sales, WW-I. Library of Congress.

His national reputation earned him a number of important committee assignments. His seat on the Military Affairs Committee particularly interested Brady. Despite deteriorating health, he threw himself into legislative programs intended to support World War I soldiers and sailors, and their families.

The Senator had a heart attack and died in January 1918. Hawley, a political opponent but personal admirer of Brady, wrote, "his dying regret was that he could not live to do his part in the solution of the problems which he saw would confront this country after the victory, which he knew would come to the arms of the Allies."
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

“Brady, James Henry, (1862 - 1918),” Biographical Directory of the United States Senate, online.

“Idaho Governor James Henry Brady,” National Governors Association, online.

Albert R. Taylor, “History of Normal-School Work in Kansas,” Transactions, Vol. VI, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka (1900).

Prolific and World Famous Bridge Designer David Steinman [otd 06/11]

D. B. Steinman.
Boston College collections.

David Barnard Steinman, considered one of the greatest bridge designers of all time, was born June 11, 1886 in New York City. He grew up almost literally in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, which turned his thoughts in that direction. The first in his family to attend college, he received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1911.

Even before the doctorate was finished, the University of Idaho hired Steinman as a civil engineering instructor. A technical publisher later issued his doctoral dissertation as a book that became a must-have text among professionals of the day.

Steinman proved to be an enthusiastic and popular teacher. He handled, at his request, a heavy teaching load of engineering courses. But not content with that, Steinman also organized and taught the first classes in architecture offered by the University. Remarkably, he attained full professor status before he moved on after just four years.

He actually executed his first bridge design while in Idaho. Limited to logs for material and the Boy Scout troop he led as Scoutmaster for a construction crew, Steinman developed innovative ways to complete the design anyway. Beyond that and his teaching, he found time to lead an extensive program of campus improvements.

However, although he enjoyed teaching, a relatively new, little-known university offered too little scope for someone of Steiman's genius and drive. In 1914, he took a job in New York City with one of the leading bridge designers of the era. After a brief period with another well-known designer, Steinman started his own engineering firm in 1920. Soon, he and another designer formed a partnership that would work together for a quarter century.

Entire books have been written about the many bridges (over 400) Steinman and his partner designed and built, the innovations he devised, and the string of awards he won. Some of the projects they tackled were considered almost impossible, and many required new designs and approaches.

One example was the Waldo-Hancock Bridge across the Penobscot River in Maine, completed in 1931. The historian for the Historic American Engineering Record program wrote that, “Technologically, the Waldo–Hancock Bridge represented a number of firsts.”

It was one of the first two in the United States to use pre-stressed cabling, which reduced the installation and adjustment time. Also, for the first time, parts were pre-marked as to where they were to be installed – another significant cost savings. The bridge was also the first to include a tower truss type that would later be used in the Golden Gate Bridge.

Like engineers worldwide, Steinman was shocked by the wind-caused collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940. He went on to make major contributions to our knowledge of bridge aerodynamics.

Mackinac Bridge.
Wikipedia Commons, submitted by “Jeffness” in April 2007.

Steinman considered the Mackinac Bridge his "crowning achievement." The span, which connects the bulk of Michigan to its upper peninsula, held the record as the longest suspension bridge in the world for forty years. It's still the longest in the Western Hemisphere.

While Idaho could hold him for only four years, the University can point with pride to a remarkable number of his students who went on to make important engineering contributions. One of his students became Chief Engineer for the Hoover Dam project. Another worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority and consulted with Israeli officials on water projects for the Jordan River.

Steinman was working on a design to bridge the Strait of Messina, to connect Sicily to the Italian "boot," when he died in August 1960.
                                                                                 

References: [Brit]

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

Katherine Larson Farnham, Waldo-Hancock Bridge, HAER No. ME-65. Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service, Washington, D. C. (November 1999).

Rafe Gibbs, Beacon for Mountain and Plain: Story of the University of Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (© The Regents of the University of Idaho, 1962).

Richard G. Weingardt, Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers (August 1, 2005).

More Paved Highways, Better Bridges Demanded by “Good Roads” Groups [otd 06/10]

On Tuesday, June 10, 1913, the Fourth Annual Convention of the Intermountain Good Roads Association opened in Boise. Convention sessions ran through Thursday evening, with such topics as "Good Enough Roads for the Traffic." Thursday morning, former Idaho Governor James H. Hawley spoke on "Good Roads and Their Relation to Mining."

Mud is the enemy. National Archives

On Friday, the convention offered a tour to the Arrowrock Dam site. The dam was then about two years from completion. At this fourth convention, member states were identified as Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado.

Roads in Colonial America were notoriously bad. As long as most people lived near the Atlantic coast, goods and people could travel by small ships built for that trade. Roads stretching inland were little more than widened trails scraped on the surface. That slowly improved, mostly through the efforts of toll road builders.

Thus, except for special cases, almost the only decent road surfaces were the streets in towns that could afford them. Rural areas largely made do with dirt tracks that turned to bottomless quagmires when it rained. Farmers knew they would benefit from better roads. However, the status quo was “good enough” most of the year and they shied away from the cost for something they used only once in a while.

Oddly enough, pressure for change arose from what was essentially a recreational fad, the bicycle. Without going into the morass of who invented what, when, bicycles were “all the rage” in the United States by the 1870s. Clubs proliferated, and they wanted to do more than just pedal around town. Thus, bicycle enthusiasts started the Good Roads Movement in 1880.

Good Roads associations quickly grew all over the country. The advocacy changed as cars became more common, and automobile companies took up the cause. By 1913, better roads and bridges for motor vehicles were the main focus.

The first Intermountain Association convention had urged "the American Automobile Association to consider a transcontinental route from New York to San Francisco or Los Angeles or the north coast cities." Such a planned road would hopefully replace the hit-or-miss (often "miss" in the West) patchwork of locally-maintained routes.

The Boise convention passed a resolution that expressed the delegates' "appreciation" of national efforts to construct such a route: "a great national free thoroughfare for the accommodation of all sorts of transportation."

Delegates also advocated educational improvements. They recommended the creation of collegiate engineering coursework "wherein shall be given special consideration and attention to the subject of public highways." Moreover, the faculty offering that coursework should establish an outreach program to provide instruction for county road builders and overseers.

As it happened, the University of Idaho already had such a program. They had completed their second annual good roads short course just months earlier. One of the lecturers was David B. Steinman, who would go on to become a world renowned bridge designer [blog, tomorrow].

Howdy! Montana State University Archives.

Another resolution said, "we demand the opening of the Yellowstone and all other natural parks to motor-propelled vehicles, thus enabling the people of our country to 'See America First'." That resolution paid off two years later, when the first cars were admitted to Yellowstone Park.

At the conference, delegates elected prominent Boise physician Dr. Lucien P. McCalla to be the Association’s next President. Within a day of so of the convention’s closing, Dr. McCalla received a telegram welcoming the Intermountain Association as an affiliate of the National Highways Association. Such recognition was expected to significantly enhance the prestige and resources of  the regional body.
                                                                                

References: [Brit], [French]

“Fourth Annual Convention of the Inter-Mountain Good Roads Association,” Better Roads Magazine, Vol. III, No. 7, Better Roads Publishing Company, Jamestown, Ohio (July 1913).

William Clark Hilles, The Good Roads Movement in the United States: 1880-1916, M. A. thesis, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina (1958).

“Join National Organization on Highways,” Idaho Statesman, Boise (June 14, 1913).

Mary Pickett, “Powered Vehicles had Bumpy Start in Yellowstone, Glacier Parks,” Montana Standard, Butte (October 4, 2008).

“Resolutions of the Good Roads,” The Evening Standard, Ogden, Utah (Sept 26, 1910).

Treaty of 1863 Reduces Nez Perce Reservation, Sows Seeds of Trouble [otd 06/09]

On June 9, 1863, U. S. government negotiators concluded a treaty with the Nez Percés Indians. That treaty substantially reduced the "official" reservation, and promoted tensions that would bear ill fruit many years later.

Nez Percés Chief Lawyer, ca. 1861.
University of Washington Special Collections.

By 1845-1850, white settlement between the future border of Idaho and the Cascade Mountains had significantly intruded on native tribes there. This resulted in series of clashes, the “Cayuse War,” that ran on until 1855. At that point, the government “negotiated” treaties that forced several tribes onto small reservations. In fact, the restrictions in those treaties led to yet another Indian war three years later.

Officials also negotiated a first treaty with the Nez Percés in 1855. However, unlike the other tribes, the Nez Percés received a reservation that included much, although not all, of their traditional homeland. Space precludes a full discussion of all the white misconceptions concerning the tribe and this treaty. Basically, white officials felt they were benevolently “granting” the Indians an expansive domain. Conversely, the Nez Percés saw the treaty as recognition of their sovereignty over lands they had held since before Europeans settled in the New World.

Also, the Indian Agent disliked dealing with fifty-plus band chiefs. Thus, he arbitrarily designated a Head Chief who would ostensibly speak for all. His chosen one was a man known to whites as "Chief Lawyer.” Indian leaders, who composed a council of equals, put up with this foolishness, but not to the extent of letting the so-called Head Chief do anything important. Fifty-eight band chiefs signed the 1855 reservation treaty.

Yet even then many tribesmen opposed the agreement. They felt that the goods and services promised by the white negotiators were not a fair trade for the lands that were ceded. Then delays in providing the promised payments further strengthened the anti-treaty faction. Still, events proceeded without severe problems for several years.

But opposition to the pact grew even greater when white settlers began to push onto Nez Percés treaty lands. The numbers were small at first. As time passed, however, more and more stock raisers began to compete for Nez Percés range. Given time, even this friction might have been resolved.

But then prospectors discovered gold on the reservation lands in Idaho. Local chiefs feared permanent settlers, but transient miners seemed to pose no particular threat. The Indians agreed to the construction of a warehouse where steamboats could offload shipments for transfer to pack trains. Nothing more, however, was to be built there.

Lewiston, 1862. Nez Perce County Historical Society.

Whites violated that agreement almost immediately. The full tent city of Lewiston sprang into being on Nez Percés land and grew explosively.

Government officials had a far greater agenda than just solving the Lewiston situation when negotiations for the 1863 treaty began. Land-greedy settlers wanted the territory alloted by the 1855 treaty. With glowing promises, officials "persuaded" Chief Lawyer to accept, for the whole tribe, a small allotment stretching from near Lapwai to around Kamiah.

Naturally, tribes living on the “ceded” lands refused to sign the new treaty. The Nez Percés were thus split into "treaty" and "non-treaty" factions. By some chicanery, officials scraped up over 50 signatures for the treaty, even though the agreement covered no more than half of the bands.

Amazingly, this untenable situation held, despite rising tensions, for fourteen years. (As usual, few of the glowing promises were honored consistently.)
                                                                                 

Refrences: [B&W]

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

Francis Haines, The Nez Percés: Tribesmen of the Columbia Plateau, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman (1955).

Silver City Volunteers Battle Bannock Indians at South Mountain [otd 06/08]

On June 8, 1878, a loose column of Silver City volunteers moved generally southward along South Mountain Creek. Angry Bannocks led by Chief Buffalo Horn were trying to join possible allies in Oregon. Common sense said they might head west over this broad, rugged saddle between the Silver City Range and South Mountain.

High plateau between Silver City Range and South Mountain.
IdahoSummits.com, Dan Robbins.

Many factors combined to cause the Bannock War. Most stemmed from the failure of white officials to deliver on the promises that induced the Shoshone and Bannock tribes to moved onto the Fort Hall Indian Reservation [blog, June 14]. One provision reserved the southern Camas Prairie for the tribes. The camas beds there were a vital food source. They became almost a matter of life and death when the Indian Agency failed to provide adequate rations. (This happened on a regular basis.)

White stockmen ignored the Camas Prairie clause of the treaty and officials did nothing to enforce it. Tension peaked when settlers drove hogs onto the Prairie. The hogs loved camas bulbs and devastated the beds. Even then, the tribes did not retaliate immediately. But finally, facing starvation, Bannock warriors fired on three stockmen, wounding two. Over the next week or so, the Indians burned many outlying homesteads and killed several settlers.

On June 4th, citizens in Silver City met and organized a troop of volunteers to fight the Bannocks. The roll call looked like a “who’s who” of Owyhee pioneers, including some who had been there from the beginning. For years they had dealt with Indian attacks on isolated settler cabins, stagecoaches, and freight wagons. They had no confidence that the Army would do any better this time than they had before. The volunteers marched out on the 7th and camped at a ranch about fifteen miles south and a bit west of Silver City.

Sources disagree somewhat as to who knew what on the 8th. It seems that the whites only suspected the Bannocks were in the area, while Buffalo Horn may have known all about the white column. Accounts of their meeting vary: Some say the two groups exchanged challenges and insults, and then the Indians attacked. Others claim the initial assault was a total surprise.

The truth probably lies somewhere in between, with some whites yelling at the Indians, while others didn’t even know the tribesmen were close by. In any case, the Indians' sudden attack threw the volunteers into confusion and, outnumbered at least two to one, they retreated to avoid being surrounded.

Guns blazed on both sides. Indians fell, but four or five volunteers were unhorsed, either because their mounts stumbled or were hit. Shots killed two whites, including Oliver Purdy, one of the discoverers of the Jordan Creek placers. The outcome was very much in doubt when the Indians suddenly broke off the attack and milled about. Before they could regroup, the volunteers galloped off.

Bannock tribesman at the reservation. National Park Service.

Who mortally wounded Buffalo Horn is uncertain, but it surely turned the tide of battle and may have turned the course of the war. For Buffalo Horn was their most experienced chief, having fought as an U.S. Army scout against the Sioux and in the pursuit of the Nez Percé in 1876 and 1877. With their leader gone, many Bannock scattered and made their way back to the reservation. The rest hurried into Oregon and joined the uprising there, where most of the rest of the War was fought.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W]

George Francis Brimlow, The Bannock War of 1878, Caxton Printers, Ltd., Caidwell, Idaho (1938).

Mike Hanley, with Ellis Lucia, Owyhee Trails: The West's Forgotten Corner, Caxton Printers, Caidwell, Idaho (1973).

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

Farm Equipment Dealer and Agricultural Developer Sylvester Hill [otd 06/07]

Agricultural pioneer Sylvester Hill was born June 7, 1855 in Dekalb County, Illinois. Bolstered by a business school education, he first worked as a traveling salesman for the Deering Harvester Company. The Deering company was one of several farm equipment firms competing for business in the Midwestern grain fields.

Reaper-binder, ca. 1881. National Archives.

Sylvester spent seven years on the road selling. He then became Assistant Manager and then Manager for the Deering interests in Minnesota. Around 1888, he left to help organize another implement company. Unfortunately, their majority investor died suddenly and the company folded. Hill then became a District Manager for the Plano Manufacturing Company, another of the strong competitors in the grain cutting and binding business.

After five years with Plano, Hill moved on to work for the Milwaukee Harvester Company. At this stage of his career, Sylvester had held management positions in three of the four strongest companies in the farm equipment field. The only one he had not worked for was the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. Cyrus McCormick, Jr., son of the inventor of the patented McCormick reaper, led the company. It was arguably the strongest competitor in the now-crowded business.

In the fall of 1901, Sylvester quit Milwaukee Harvester and moved to Idaho. He never said “for the record” why he quit the business to which he had devoted over half his life. Less than a year later, Cyrus McCormick engineered a consolidation of McCormick, Deering, Milwaukee, Plano, and one other small firm into the International Harvester Company. It is difficult to avoid the notion that there’s more to this story than we know. Perhaps Hill “saw the handwriting on the wall” and left before consolidation forced him out.

Sylvester Hill.
J. H. Hawley photo.

Hill purchased “raw” land near Roswell, 2-3 miles south of Parma across the Boise River. Over the next five years, he converted his sagebrush-covered tract into productive farm acreage. Perhaps his expertise with the latest agricultural equipment aided with those improvements. The Idaho Statesman reported (September 2, 1906) that “One of the best crops of clover seed ever produced in this section has just been threshed by Sylvester Hill … ”

He sold that first spread for almost five times what he paid for it and then homesteaded another, larger plot. Hill held that land for over a decade before again selling at a premium.

Sylvester next had a contract with the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation to build a long stretch of the Golden Gate irrigation ditch. (The Golden Gate Canal branches off from another canal about six miles west of Caldwell and winds about eighteen miles west to end less than two miles from the Snake River.) He spent nine years as Secretary and Treasurer for an irrigation district in the area before retiring in 1917.

At that time, Hill sold his farm property and moved to a home on the east side of Parma. However, Sylvester apparently found sitting at home uncomfortable and sold that place about eighteen months later. He moved his family into Boise and began selling insurance. By 1921, Sylvester and his wife, along with an unmarried daughter, had started wintering in California.

Finally, in August 1925, Hill sold their Boise home. He then retired for good and moved to Glendale, California. Hill passed away there in 1937.
                                                                                 
References: [Brit], [Hawley]
“[Sylvester Hill News],” Idaho Statesman (Sept 1906 - Aug 1925).

Weiser Stockman and Irrigation Developer Thomas Galloway [otd 06/06]

Tom Galloway. Illustrated History.

Weiser pioneer Thomas C. Galloway was born June 6, 1837 in Iowa County, Wisconsin, about forty miles southwest of Madison. According to the Illustrated History, his grandfather came to America from Scotland in time to fight in the Revolutionary War and was present at Yorktown when Lord Cornwallis surrendered there. Thomas was a teenager when the family emigrated along the Oregon Trail to Yamhill County, Oregon in 1852. Tom pursued a variety of jobs, including some time as a teacher, before leading pack trains to the British Canadian gold camps.

In 1863, Galloway packed supplies into the Boise Basin, then stayed to work in the gold fields. The following year, he and Woodson Jeffreys settled along the Weiser River [blog, February 11]. Tom built a log hut at the future site of Weiser City, and then replaced it three years later with a frame structure. Galloway ran these first buildings in the area as a simple hotel for several years. About 1868, he began a major expansion of his horse and cattle holdings.

His horse herd grew to be one of the largest in the area. Galloway’s Weiser City properties increased in value even more with the arrival of the Oregon Short Line Railroad in early 1884.  Tom served two terms on the Territorial Council (equivalent to the state Senate) in 1882 and 1884. He moved the family to Boise City at that time, partly so their children could take advantage of its better educational institutions. Tom maintained interests in Weiser and they moved back when the children had graduated from high school.

Weiser, ca. 1888. Weiser Museum.

During this period, Galloway was considered such an expert on stock raising that the leading agricultural journal of the day published his views on “Points of a Good Jack.” He recommended various male ass breeds for siring mules for different uses. If one needed a heavy draft animal, “then the Maltese ass or the Poitiers ass is required.”

In addition to his ranch, real estate, and business holdings, Galloway led the way in bringing irrigation to the higher plains along the Weiser River. A cooperative started the project, but apparently had neither the resources nor relevant skills to complete the job. Thomas attracted additional investors to finish the work. However, according to Judge Frank Harris, they eventually sold their rights to a local water district "at somewhat of a loss" because of the hassles involved in running the enterprise.

By the turn of the century, Tom owned over fourteen hundred acres of land around Weiser, some of it within the city limits. In late 1901, Galloway represented Idaho as a Delegate-at-Large at the Annual Convention of the National Live Stock Association. A few months later, he was elected President of the Washington County Stock Raisers Association.

In 1903, he served a term in the state House of Representatives. He also served as a justice of the peace in Weiser City, on the city council, and later on the school board. While the Galloways lived in Boise, they had a son, Thomas C. Jr., who became an eminent medical researcher [blog, March 17.]

Galloway House.

The elder Thomas passed away in June 1916. The Weiser mansion he had built in 1899-1900 is now on the National Register of Historic Places. He reportedly sold eight hundred horses to finance the place. (Today, it is a bed & breakfast furnished in period decor.)
                                                                                 

References: [Illust-State]

Thomas C. Galloway, “Points of a Good Jack,” The American Agriculturist for the Farm, Garden and Household, Vol. 48, Orange Rudd Company, New York (1889).

"T. C. Galloway dies," Oregonian (June 11, 1916).

Frank Harris, 'History of Washington County and Adams County," Weiser Signal (1940s).

Charles F. Martin (ed.), Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Convention of the National Live Stock Association, December 3-6, 1901, P. F. Pettibone & Co., Publishers, Chicago (1902).

Eleven Dead, Millions in Damages Due to Teton Dam Failure [otd 06/05]

On the morning of Saturday, June 5, 1976, observers noticed a major leak in the north abutment of the Teton Dam. This came after two days of increasing seepage. Within about three hours, a whirlpool in the reservoir behind the structure signaled that a substantial flow was undermining the dam.

Spillway of intact dam. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Located on the Teton River 13-14 miles northeast of Rexburg, Idaho, the structure was the culmination of over forty years of speculation, and then planning. In 1932, during the heyday of Western dam building, the U.S. Geological Survey studied the Teton River for potential water storage sites. Not much came of that investigation.

The Bureau of Reclamation took another look in 1947, again with no subsequent action. Interest revived in 1961, and a report the following year recommended that a dam be built.

After almost a decade of site studies, construction began in February 1972. By June 1976, the reservoir had been filling for about eight months.

Even some supporters had raised doubts about the siting for the Teton Dam. Unfortunately, their qualms, and protests from outright opponents, had been brushed off or dismissed as unfounded. The claimed benefits from irrigation and flood control supposedly made the project worth the cost. The risks were considered minimal.

Although supervisors sent bulldozers out to plug the growing gaps, subsequent analysis suggests that nothing could have stopped the collapse at that point. The tunnels designed to empty the reservoir were not yet in service, and were probably too small anyway.

By noon, a wall of water was roaring down the canyon. At least two towns were virtually wiped out and Rexburg suffered major damage. Idaho Falls only avoided catastrophe by frantic efforts in sandbagging and digging relief trenches to reduce pressure on a major bridge.

Failure in progress. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Your blogster well remembers this disaster. I was returning from a conference in Phoenix. The first news I heard came from two men sitting behind me on the plane. They were Federal emergency response people headed for Idaho Falls. The two had no idea of the full scope of the crisis, but they knew it was bad.

Authorities let our plane land, but then sent it south to the Pocatello airport. At that point, all the hotels along the river had been evacuated and the bridges were closed. Since the airport is on the west side and we lived on the other, I ended up staying with friends. We escaped damage at our place. However, a young lady who worked for me lived in a mobile home in the flood’s path. Floating timbers from a pole mill battered everything in the trailer park beyond recognition.

In the end, the flood caused the deaths of eleven people and an estimated 13 thousand cattle. Financial losses included the $100 million building cost as well as over $300 million paid out for damage claims. It is difficult to quantify the value of farmland scoured bare of topsoil, habitat obliterated, and other damage, but some estimates run as high as $2 billion.

An investigating committee concluded that no one factor caused the disaster. They wrote, “The fundamental cause of failure may be regarded as a combination of geological factors and design decisions that, taken together, permitted the failure to develop.”
                                                                                 

References: Stacey Solava, Norbert Delatte, "Lessons from the Failure of the Teton Dam," Forensic Engineering: Proceedings of the Third Congress, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia (October 19-21, 2003).

Committee on the Safety of Existing Dams, Safety of Existing Dams: Evaluation and Improvement, National Academies Press, Washington, D.C. (1983).

Dylan J. McDonald, The Teton Dam Disaster, Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, SC (2006).

Pettigrew Amendment Clarifies Forest Reserves Management [otd 06/04]

Senator Pettigrew. Library of Congress.

On June 4, 1897, President William McKinley signed a "Sundry Civil Appropriations" bill, which included an amendment crucial to the development of our national forests.

The "Pettigrew Amendment" – for South Dakota Senator Richard F. Pettigrew – addressed issues that had rendered previous forest legislation "ineffectual and annoying."

Initially, the Federal government saw the public lands as simply a source of revenue. The General Land Office sold them off to private interests for whatever money they would bring [blog, Feb 1]. Then the Homestead Act of 1862 sparked a crucial change in the handling of the public lands.

Before, even the supposed bargain prices charged by the Land Office barred most people from ownership. An ordinary workman might make only $50-60 a month. Thus, the $200 cost of a quarter section amounted to about four months income. Although living expenses were proportionally smaller, a family might need years to set aside enough savings to buy land.

Under the Homestead Act, fees came to only $18, and that was not even due all at once. The settler had only to “prove” the plot – build some sort of home, and work the land for five years.

Newcomers settled thousands of homesteads within just a few years, and around a million within a half century. So, in that sense, the Act was successful. However, opportunists inflicted much abuse under the law. (A whole story in itself.) Some of that abuse hit forested public lands, which were already under assault. Timber pirates routinely found ways to clear cut forests, take their money, and run.

The Homestead Act allowed them to give a semblance of legality to their depredations. They paid the fees for a whole host of “settlers,” who then filed for homesteads. Besides “improving” their properties, the settlers could work for the timber company for as long as the trees lasted.

With these and their other tactics, big timber companies had razed vast expanses of forest in the East and Midwest. To combat them, in 1891 Congress authorized the President to set aside "forest reserves" encompassing tracts in the public domain [blog, Feb 1]. However, lack of any regulatory guidance or budget made the law "ineffectual" at managing the reserves.

Boise National Forest. U.S. Forest Service photo.

Worse yet, placing those lands legally off-limits for "beneficial use" annoyed locals who depended upon them for their livelihood. As a result, they often connived with lumber companies to circumvent the reserve provisions.

The 1897 law clarified the conditions under which a reserve could be established. Thus, the legislation declared that it was "not the purpose or intent of these provisions" to tie up acreage that was more valuable as farmland or for its mineral resources. Moreover, one specific goal was "to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States."

Thus, the amendment initiated the development of effective methods for managing the nation's forests. A major revision –  The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 – tried to reinforce the multiple-use concept for the national forests. It required that “the public lands be managed in a manner which recognizes the Nation’s need for domestic sources of minerals, food, timber, and fiber from the public lands … ”

However, more recent Federal interpretations have largely ignored that provision. The Forest Service is responsible for over 16 million acres of timber land in Idaho – roughly five time that held by private interests. Until 1995, the two sectors each produced over 650 million board feet of lumber annually.

Since then, however, production on national forest land has fallen drastically: The Forest Service now allows less than 15% the production sustained for over sixty years by private interests. In fact, state timber lands – a bit more than a million acres (7% versus the National Forests) – have out-produced the Federal forests since about 1999.
                                                                                

References: [French], [Hawley]

Philip S. Cook, Jay O’Laughlin, Idaho’s Forest Products Business Sector, Report No. 26, Policy Analysis Group, University of Idaho, Moscow (August 2006).

Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, Oxford University Press, New York (1965).

Harold K. Steen, The U. S. Forest Service: A History, University of Washington Press (1976).

United States Department of the Interior (eds.), The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976: As Amended, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Washington, D.C. (2001).

Army Doctor M. W. Wood and Spotted Fever Research [otd 06/03]

Marshall Wood. U. S. Army archives.

Lieutenant Colonel Marshall William Wood, Army Medical Corps, was born June 3, 1846, in Watertown, New York, about sixty miles north of Syracuse. He enlisted as an Army Private in late 1864 and was twice wounded in Civil War action.

After his discharge in the summer of 1865, Wood found a position as a medical assistant at a retired solders home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There, he began his medical studies in a physician’s office.

In 1870, he re-enlisted in the Army, this time as a “Hospital Steward” in the medical department. His duty assignment took him to Chicago, where he could take classes at Rush Medical School. In 1875, he became an Assistant Surgeon in the Army Medical Corps, with the rank of 1st Lieutenant.

Over the next twenty years or so, Dr. Wood served at stations all over the United States. At one point, he spent eight straight years at Western posts and came under fire at least two times in the Indian wars. In 1889, Wood also published a Dictionary of Volapük. Volapük was (is) an artificial language similar to Esparanto. It enjoyed considerable popularity from about 1880 to 1900.

By the time Wood moved to Boise Barracks, he had been promoted to the rank of Major. Major Wood took over as Post Surgeon in late 1894. In 1896, one of his monthly reports referred to a malady, “spotted fever,” that seemed to be common in the Boise Valley.

The Surgeon General asked for more information. Wood consulted with several Boise City physicians, including George Collister [blog, Oct 16], Warren Springer [blog, Mar 30], and several others. Wood’s report to the Surgeon General, Spotted Fever as Reported from Idaho, is generally recognized as the first systematic description of disease symptoms, treatment methods, likely causes, and so on. (Wood carefully credited the doctors who contributed to his report.)

Post Surgeon’s quarters, Fort Boise. U. S. Army archives.

Major Wood served in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. At the attack on Santiago, he commanded the only divisional hospital that made it to the front. A Medical Corps history noted the danger of their position and that enemy rifle fire had “killed a contract surgeon during the battle of San Juan Hill.” Wood received three commendations for Distinguished Service during this campaign.

Wood retired for the first time in 1904. He said he moved back to Boise because "it has the most favorable climate of any city I know." In Boise, Wood invested in mining ventures and operated a ranch not far from the city. He was also active in the Masons and the Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.), the society of Union Civil War veterans.

Wood volunteered for active duty and served during the 1916 Mexican border incident [blog, June 18], and then for World War I. Over 70 years old, Wood handled the examination of younger physicians slated for field duty with the Army.

After his final retirement in 1919, Lieutenant Colonel Wood returned to Boise. There, he again took an interest in the affairs of various patriotic organizations. Thus, a couple years later, he was elected national Surgeon General of the G. A. R.

In 1927, when he was over 80 years old, Wood represented Idaho at an American Legion convention held in Paris, France. He was then believed to be the only living Legion member who had seen active duty in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, Mexican intervention of 1916-1917, and the (first) World War.

Dr. Wood passed away in August 1933.
                                                                                 

References: [French]

Mary C. Gillett, The Army Medical Department: 1865-1917, U. S. Army Center of Military History, Washington D. C. (1995).

James F. Hammarsten, “The contributions of Idaho physicians to knowledge of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever,” Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, Vol. 94 (1983) p. 27–43.

James H. Wickersham, Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Idaho, Boise (1934).

“[M. W. Wood News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (Sept 29, 1904 – Sept 23, 1927).

Boise Replaces Volunteer Fire Department with Professional Firefighters [otd 06/02]

On June 2, 1902, Boise’s volunteer fire crew disbanded and fire protection became the responsibility of the new professional Boise Fire Department.

Early Boise Fire Station. Boise Fire Dept.

Boise City “survived” without an organized fire brigade for quite a long time, considering the threat. As in every other early town, pioneers built almost all their structures out of wooden logs and rough-sawn lumber. It was not like they did not see the risk. They knew that Idaho City had almost been wiped out twice, once in 1865 and again in 1867 [blog, May 17]. Serious fires had also hit several large businesses in Boise City.

In March 1867, hopeful organizers called a meeting at the courthouse, “for the purpose of organizing a hook and ladder company.” According to James H. Hawley’s History, “The meeting was well attended and a volunteer company was formed, but its records appear to have been lost.”

Many towns had a succession of volunteer companies, earlier ones falling apart when a key leader moved away or lost interest. That’s basically what seems to have happened in Boise City. Even when citizens threw together an abortive volunteer brigade, they had no equipment. People simply grabbed whatever ladders and buckets they could.

A fire in December 1875, in the heart of downtown Boise, finally catalyzed the creation of a permanent volunteer fire brigade. Witnesses felt sure the fire could have been quickly controlled, but the large crowd that gathered had no equipment. More importantly, the Idaho Statesman (December 27, 1875) asserted, “There was no one to lead or direct what to do.”

A month later, a group gathered to organize a fire company, and met again three weeks after that for the election of officers (Idaho Statesman, February 17, 1876). The company had enrolled 56 members by mid-May.

Less than a month after that, they had their first “hook and ladder” wagon. In this context, by the way, the “hook” refers to a metal pike and side-hook device mounted on the end of a long pole. Firemen use it to snag burning materials (walls, ceilings, timbers, etc.) and pull them out of the way.

Three years later the company got its first steam pumper, equipped with a thousand feet of hose. When the engine arrived, Boise City was still building its first emergency water cisterns. They soon had a basic system  in place, and added piped water to some areas in 1881. Fireman parked the pumper at the nearest cistern, hydrant, or ditch and hoped the hose would reach the fire.

Most of us have seen the stirring vintage photos of an old-time fire wagon that thundered down the street behind straining horses. For a long time, that picture was not accurate for Boise City. To save time, the volunteers themselves hauled their wagons, including the steam pumper. Not until 1895 did the department procure horse teams.

Boise fire wagon. Boise State University Library.

The volunteers initially converted a blacksmith shop on Main Street as their fire station. They eventually moved into a portion of the then city hall. In 1889, that facility was designated the Central Fire Station.

After the transition to a paid unit, the city began to upgrade their equipment, and eventually added two more fire stations. My blog of January 28, about Fire Chief William A. Foster, outlines how the Department expanded in the early decades of the Twentieth Century.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

“The Department's History,” Boise Fire Department, CityofBoise.org (1999-2010).

Arthur Hart, Fighting Fire on the Frontier, Boise Fire Department Association (1976).

Indian Agent Discourses on “The Snake Indians” [otd 06/01]

On June 1, 1863, J. W. Perit Huntington, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon, addressed a report to his Washington, D. C. boss, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The essay summarized what he had learned about the Indian tribes commonly known as the “Snakes.”

J. W. Perit Huntington.
Image courtesy of
the Oregon State Library.

He wrote, “The word Snake appears to be a general term applied to several bands or tribes of Indians quite distinct in language and characteristic, and inhabiting different tracts of country, but so connected by relationship (having intermarried with each other for long periods), and by long continued friendly intercourse, that they are usually regarded by whites and neighboring Indian tribes as one people.”

The Journals of the Corps of Discovery for 1804 contain the first mention of the “Snake Indians.” Captains Lewis and Clark learned of the “tribe” as a source of horses while they wintered at Fort Mandan, about forty miles north of today’s Bismarck, North Dakota.  The following year, near the Salmon River in Idaho, they traded for horses with the Lemhi Shoshone, one of the tribes collectively known as the Snake.

The next recorded encounter happened in 1811, when a fur company party led by Wilson Price Hunt met some Snakes in Wyoming. Later, two Snakes guided them over Teton Pass into Idaho [blog, October 5].

During the fur trade era that followed, mountain men and the Snakes mixed amicably, some whites acquiring Indian wives. The early flow of pioneers on the Oregon and California Trails through Idaho offered more opportunities for Snake bands to trade profitably. Thus, despite minor incidents, relations between the Snakes and white remained friendly.

However, the discovery of gold in California released a flood of gold-seekers and pioneers on the trails. That further degraded hunting and grazing in those areas, and clashes became more frequent and more violent. Then prospectors found gold in Idaho. Now, the tribes had to deal with miners and merchants who built cabins and stayed.

By the time Huntington prepared his report in 1863, conflict had escalated severely. The Superintendent tried to name the tribes he thought fit under the “Snake” designation. Modern scholarship does not agree totally with his list, which included the Modocs and the Klamaths.

Still, he did correctly identify the groups we now call the Shoshone, Bannock, and Northern Paiute Indians. He estimated their collective population as perhaps “5,000 to 6,000 souls” and said, “They have had but little intercourse with the whites, and that little of a hostile character.”

The worst of that violence, he felt, was between the miners and the tribes: “Many murders and thefts have been committed by the latter, which of course have been retaliated by the whites. In fact an actual state of war has existed there for the last twelve months.”

Shoshone Encampment.
William H. Jackson photo, Library of Congress.

He had conferred with the regional Army commander, and “The general concurred with me in regarding a war with the Indians inevitable, and regretted his inability to send troops to that region sooner than midsummer.”

Huntington strongly recommended that “the Indian Department” meet with the Snakes, hand out presents, and negotiate “the purchase of their lands.” He went on, “In my opinion the public interests urgently demand that an effort be made to accomplish this object.”

Unfortunately, the administration had no attention to spare for his recommendation. Over five years would pass before protracted military action brought a measure of peace with the western Snake bands.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W]

Wilson Price Hunt, Hoyt C. Franchère (ed. and translator), Overland diary of Wilson Price Hunt, translated from the original French Nouvelles Annales des Voyages (Paris, 1821), Ashland Oregon Book Society (1973).

Daniel S. Lamont (Director), The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. (1897).

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Gary E. Moulton (ed.), The Definitive Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (2002).

“The Snake War: 1864-1868,” Reference Series No. 236, Idaho State Historical Society (1966).