In August 1862, Tim Goodale opened a new miners' trail through here while guiding Oregon Trail emigrants and a party of prospectors who had discovered gold in Boise Basin. A gold rush followed that fall, and John Brownlee operated a ferry here from 1862 to 1864 before leaving to work his own Boise Basin mine. After James Ruth and T.J. Heath discovered silver mines on Brownlee Creek in 1874, a new ferry began operating here a year later, and service continued until after 1920.