Losing it 1

ISHS 71-12-61-a Interior view at the Morning Plant Mine near the entrance to the tunnel.

Spurred on by E. D. Pierce’s 1860 discovery of gold at Orofino Creek, thousands flocked to northern Idaho. Many prospectors branched out in the remote surrounding areas in search of the next big find. In August 1861, a party of miners found gold in the Salmon River sixty-five miles south of Pierce’s initial discovery. The twenty-three prospectors quickly established a new mining district.

The new town of Florence, originally called Millersburg, sprouted up almost overnight. In one day, Joaquin Miller, a poet and freighter by trade, extracted $100 in gold from an area creek. Others named the waterway Millers Creek in his honor. Stories of enormous wealth, real and fictionalized, continued to draw fortune seekers. Word of the town’s gold output quickly spread across the region. Jacob Weiser tale of fortune compelled many to join the ranks of miners. In two days Weiser found nearly 500 pounds of gold. With promising stories like that in mind, hopeful miners came to Florence in droves to stake their claim.

By June 1862 population estimates in Florence ranged from 8,000 to 10,000. Less than a month later, however, the population plummeted and over 6,000 people left the area for good. In September 1863, only 575 people lived in Florence. A few months later only fifty miners remained during the unforgiving, frigid winter months. The larger paying claims had been all but exhausted from Florence and only a few, desperate loners remained. Florence’s two-year stint as a bustling city center is indicative of the fate of most mining boom town’s in Idaho. The Florence area yielded almost $10,000,000 in gold during its heyday, over $200,000,000 in 21st century terms, but the area could not be sustained once the people extracted all its wealth.

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