Confederate refugees from Missouri began farming in this area in 1863 and 1864, when gold and silver mining camps created a great demand for flour and cattle. Driven from their Missouri River homes below Kansas City by extremely bitter Civil War border warfare, they made a new start by digging riverside canals and planting crops. They helped make Idaho an overwhelming southern Democratic territory from 1864 to 1880. Settlements from Caldwell to Notus were known as Dixie, and those farther west were Lower Boise.