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ISHS 78-65-2 Bucket ladder and front gantry of close connected bucketline dredge operated near Idaho City, Idaho. The 15 cubic foot dredge was owned and operated by the Boston and Idaho Gold Dredging Company.

By 1863, the need for safe passage, equipment, food, supplies and human companionship led to the establishment of more stable towns. The city of Boise exemplifies how mining paved the way for permanent settlement in an otherwise undesirable environment. The city, centrally located between major mining strikes, served as a supply base for thousands of miners. Just off one of the Oregon Trail’s alternate routes, Boise steadily grew as the need for food led hopeful eastern farmers to undertake long-term agricultural investments in the region.

On February 4, 1865, the Idaho Statesman reminded farmers, “Every product of the farm or garden can here find a market in which no one can compete short of four hundred miles transportation … Instead of leaving your family to go the mines, put in what crop you can.” Farmers brought their families and their own need for even more industry and supplies. “The number of mechanics as well as miners will be multiplied,” noted the Statesman. Mining successes, or more likely the wild-eyed dream of successes, brought sustained growth as people filled the basic and extravagant needs of miners.

Women, mostly absent from the get-rich-quick prospects of boom and bust towns, found themselves an active part of building and maintaining Idaho mining regions. Contrary to popular belief they did not just offer company to lonely, single miners. In 1863, in the city’s gold fever heyday, 584 women called Idaho City home. While they comprised only ten percent of the population their presence proved essential. Women farmed, managed businesses and served as missionaries, in and around several mining towns. On June 2, 1894, The Coeur d’ Alene Miner prominently featured advertisements for two women-run businesses. Mrs. T.H. Bussey’s store apparently had “just received a new stock of the Latest Novelties in Millinery,” while Mrs. A.A. Scofield’s business boasted of “Dry Goods, Carpets, Ladies’ Furnishing Goods and Notions.” Further proof women trekked along perilous mountainsides to assist in and profit from Idaho’s mining business.

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