Pierce Gold Rush

A larger group of men and horses made a second journey to Pierce, passing near several Nez Perce encampments whose residents had seen few white men since Lewis and Clark came through almost fifty years earlier. The Nez Perce seemed friendly and caused no difficulty, but Indian agent A.J. Cain tried to prevent the miners from entering the Nez Perce Reservation. He first attempted to persuade the Indian ferry not to carry them across the river, and when that failed, he sent 100 United States dragoons to stop them, but bad weather prevented that as well. The group reached Canal Gulch ten days later without incident and began establishing camp. Eight rustic cabins were quickly built, the first buildings of what became Pierce City. Mining began on February 28, 1861, when the Boston Company, including W.F. Basset and John W. Parks, started shoveling pay gravel into their sluices. Freezing temperatures and deep snow made mining difficult, but the prospectors could see fine gold through the ice and kept working. By March 1861, enough gold had been taken out that J.C. Smith snowshoed to Walla Walla with $800 in gold, stirring great excitement and setting off the rush to the Pierce mines.

Idaho · United States