Boise Basin · August 1862
Bigger Than Portland.
Bigger Than Seattle.
On August 2, 1862, George Grimes and Moses Splawn discovered gold on Grimes Creek in the Boise Basin. They rode back to Walla Walla carrying five thousand dollars in gold — and set off the largest rush since California in 1849. Within eight months, the basin held 25,000 people. By 1864, Idaho City had surpassed Portland, Oregon, to become the largest city in the Pacific Northwest — with more than 7,000 residents, 200 businesses, five theaters, a lending library, and a newspaper that is still printing today.
It burned four times. Each time it rebuilt — in brick, with iron shutters and earthen attic floors — until what remained was a town that refused to disappear. The gold ran out. The population dropped to 104 by 1920. But the buildings stayed. The Idaho World newspaper stayed. The Masonic Temple — oldest west of the Mississippi still in use — stayed. And the history stayed, pressed into every wall and street on a six-block stretch that has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975.
Today Idaho City has about 500 residents, hot springs five minutes from downtown, 400,000 acres of Boise National Forest out every door, and a Main Street that looks almost exactly like it did in 1867. Day trippers come up from Boise and drive back at dusk. Guests at Majestic Mountain Ranch wake up inside it.
Idaho City · Boise National Forest
