In 1862 Tim Goodale opened an Oregon Trail Cutoff that descended a steep ridge just west of here into the valley below. Later that year, a gold rush to Boise Basin came up Payette Valley, and the next summer farmers along the river began raising crops to supply the mines. For a year or more they were troubled by a notorious band of horse thieves based at Pickett's Corral at the head of the valley before you. Late in 1864 the farmers organized the Payette Vigilance Committee and drove out the Pickett Corral Gang.