Around 15 thousand years ago, groups of Native Americans began the long history of land use in this area. Today, the Nez Perce, Shoshone, Bannock, and Shoshone-Paiute tribes continue traditions of hunting, fishing, and gathering food, herbs, and wood. Between 1810 and 1824, mountain men including Joe Meek and Jedediah Smith trapped and explored as they passed through the area. By 1825, the Hudsons Bay Company had established a trade center at Fort Boise, and trappers such as Francoise Payette, Peter Weiser, W.P. Hunt, and Alexander Mackenzie regularly visited Central Idaho, leaving a legacy in the names of local lakes, rivers, and towns. In the summer of 1862, James Warren struck gold at Warren's Diggings, 54 miles north of here, beginning the territory's third gold rush and establishing the first regular trade routes from Lewiston to Weiser. By 1870, Warren's Diggings had over three thousand citizens, a third of whom were of Chinese descent. When gold and wild game became scarce, people turned to ranching and farming. Long Valley and the area around Cascade and Donnelly became a haven for Finnish immigrants who found the area reminiscent of their homeland. The timber industry began in 1895 by furnishing hand-cut railroad ties, and by 1896 McCall had its first sawmill. In 1904, timber companies joined as the Southern Idaho Timber Protective Association, or SITPA, to protect privately owned forest lands. In 1905, at the urging of Gifford Pinchot and Teddy Roosevelt, Congress formed the U.S. Forest Service to protect public land and provide resources for a growing nation. Railroads reached New Meadows in 1911 and McCall in 1914, as the Oregon Short Line and the Pacific and Idaho Northern linked central Idaho to the rest of the world. In 1924, the Blackwell Ski Area, Idaho's first, began winter recreation use in the valley, a tradition that continues at the Little Ski Hill and Brundage Mountain. During the 1930's, thousands of young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps built fire breaks, roads, bridges, dams, and nearby buildings.