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• striking it rich | • making it | • losing it | • standing up | • improving it | • timeline | • gallery home | • collections |
| 1860 | Gold discovered in Orofino Creek, at present-day Pierce, Idaho in August. |
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| 1861 | Lewiston established as a service community for Idaho mines on May 13. |
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| 1862 | A prospecting party led by George Grimes discovers gold in the Boise Basin. Idaho City is founded. Gold discovered near present day Warren. Idaho's first newspaper, the Golden Age, begins publication in Lewiston. |
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| 1860–1863 | Gold, silver and other rich mineral discoveries from Pierce to Florence to Silver City cause a rush of wealth-seekers to the Idaho Territory. |
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| 1863 | Idaho Territory established. |
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| 1866 | Gold discovered at Leesburg in Lemhi County. |
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| 1867 | Owyhee Miners' League in Owyhee County organizes as state's first labor union. |
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| 1870 | Southeastern Idaho's gold rush to Caribou. |
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| 1872 | U.S. Assay Office completed in Boise. Chinese labor forced out of Owyhee mines. |
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| 1875 | Bank failures cripple some south Idaho mines. |
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| 1880 | Lead-silver discoveries in the Wood River region bring thousands to Bellevue, Hailey and Ketchum. |
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| 1882 | Idaho first electric light illuminates the Philadelphia Smelter near Ketchum. |
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| 1884 | One of the world's richest deposits of silver and lead is discovered in the Coeur d 'Alenes. |
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For nearly 150 years prospecting treasure hunters negotiated Idaho’s seemingly infinite backwoods in the search for gold and silver. The story of Idaho is the story of mining. Throughout, Idaho’s history, mining and the industries it spurred created the need to incorporate the region into a territory and eventually a state.
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