Founded early in October, 1862, about ten weeks after gold was discovered in Boise Basin, Idaho City quickly became a roaring metropolis. By the next summer, it was the largest city in the Northwest, with 6,275 people, 5,691 of them men. Families followed, and respectable businesses, schools, libraries, good theaters, churches, and fraternal orders soon appeared. The town survived several disastrous fires and remained an important mining center until the war shut down gold production in 1942.