4 minute read
EXPLORE IDAHO HISTORY IN SILVER CITY
PHOTO BY TIM ATWELL
Two hours southwest of Boise lies an old abandoned mining town known as Silver City, or Silver, as the locals call it. Open to the public only in the summer months, it offers a space to explore Idaho’s history and the rugged wilderness of Owyhee County.
“It’s gotten busier. It’s mainly campers, ATVs, mountain bike riders, and actually, also just people that are interested in the history,” said Jerri Nelson, who owns the Idaho Hotel in Silver City with her husband. “But mostly, it’s probably the ATVers that are frequenting Silver the most.”
Founded in 1864 after silver was discovered nearby, Silver City quickly became one of Idaho’s most prominent mining towns for gold and silver. Historical documents describe the original town as a tough place, filled with characters who would fit right into an old western movie.
“Idaho Territory had been opened up during the Civil War, and it was easy to stir up hot blood,” according to historian Julie Hyslop.
Another historian, Henry Maize, was more direct: “Society was exemplary, except some high gambling. If a man was caught doing anything wrong we just killed him; that’s all.”
At its peak, Silver City was home to around 2,500 people and 75 businesses. Of those 75 businesses, there were a surprising number of brothels, bars, and gambling joints.
“Men toiled in the bowels of the earth all day drilling into hard rock with ‘hands tools and tobaccer juice,’ only to lose their hard-earned money over a gambling table,” wrote Mildretta Adams in Historic Silver City.
Despite its initial boom, the city soon fell into decline. By 1955, the Lewiston Daily Tribune reported:
“William J. ‘Willie’ Hawes, 79, is the mayor, councilman, police chief, reman, postman, dog catcher and general handyman of this southwestern Idaho mining town. He holds every public office in the community. He has to…because he is now the only permanent resident.”
Remnants from the old town remained intact, however. Original buildings and the cemetery provided a glimpse into a brief and fascinating era of Idaho’s history, and an e ort began to make the town hospitable to visitors once again.
In 1972, the Idaho Hotel was reopened for tourists. Marketed as a place to stay in a “Ghost Town,” the hotel naturally attracted those interested in the supernatural, including an anxious New York Times reporter in 1993 who experienced, “A sense of trespassing, as though one is disturbing a sacred site… One is left with the chilling thought that visitors might well be inviting the wrath of the gods were they to disturb any object.”
Claims of unearthly encounters seem largely exaggerated, though many people still head to the ghost town seeking paranormal experiences.
“Some people say the hotel is haunted. I said, I think it has to be a personal connection or something. I’ve just never felt anything,” Nelson said of her hotel.
“I tell everybody, well, if you see a ghost, I’m going to have to charge you extra. Actually, no, that’s entertainment.”
On weekdays, the town is quiet enough for peaceful re ection and a stroll among the old buildings. Saturdays and Sundays are a little louder as the streets of the ghost town ll with ATVs carrying weekend adventurers.
In a short memoir entitled Tales of Silver City, Alta Grete Chadwick made a fitting observation: “Silver City is coming back to life not as a mining town but as a vacation spot. We see more people come in each summer. Some come in, make a loop of the town then drive out. I guess they were looking for bright lights and night life.”
