HomeMy Public PortalAboutMcCoy FamilyDescendants of James F. McCoy
1 James F. McCoy 1815 - 1884
+Sylvia Elizabeth "Eliza" Johns 1837 - 1910
2 James H. McCoy
2 Janetta McCoy
2 Varena McCoy
2 Mary Ann McCoy
2 John B. McCoy 1862 -
2 Archie Agustus "Bert" ,McCoy 1872 -
+Jennie Avery 1885 -
3 Eva Agusta McCoy 1904 -
3 Archie Gilbert "Gill" McCoy 1905 - 1964
+Blanche Willey 1905 - 1995
4 Betty McCoy 1927 -
4 Bob McCoy 1929 -
4 colleen "Babe" McCoy 1931 -
4 Joe McCoy 1939 -
3 Leslie James McCoy 1907 - 1960
+Thelma Collins
4 Thelma Patricia McCoy
*2nd Wife of Leslie James McCoy:
+Mary Willey
4 Eugene Leslie McCoy 1933 -
3 Ina Evelyn McCoy 1909 - 1911
3 Verna Luella McCoy 1911 - 1995
+Jim Scovel
*2nd Husband of Vema Luella McCoy:
+Ivan Lee Evans
4 Gerald Lee Evans Evans 1931 -
4 Verna Jean Evans 1933 -
3 George Henry McCoy 1913 - 1964
+Doris McFarland
4 John Walter McCoy 1938 -
4 Judith Lynn McCoy 1948 -
3 Myson.Burdett McCoy 1915 - 1991
+Aloha Beck 1920 -
4 James Burdett McCoy 1947 -
3 William Morris McCoy 1923-1931
2 Walter S. McCoy 1878 -
2 Katherine Elmira Elizabeth McCoy 1880 - 1956
+Beck
3 Elizabeth Beck
3 William Beck
THE McCOY FAMILY OF YELLOW PINE, IDAHO
The McCoy Family Beginnings
The McCoy family, of Yellow Pine fame, was started by one James F. McCoy,
born in Tennessee in 1815. He went to California during the gold rush days with
his young wife Eliza and there started his family. From the California gold fields
he worked in various localities in the desert triangle of northeast California, Neva-
da, and southern Oregon as a horseman -cowboy until his death in Drews Valley,
Oregon, in 1884. Four of his eight children had married and gone in different
directions at the time of his death: James H. McCoy, and his sisters Janetta,
Verena, and Mary Ann. The senior unmarried son, John B. McCoy, apparently
became the leader of the remnant family which consisted of:
John B. McCoy, born 1862, Millville CA
Archie Augustus McCoy, born Jan 11, 1872, Susanville CA
Walter S. McCoy, born April 3, 1878, Clover Valley (Elko County) NV
Katherine Elmira Elizabeth McCoy, born Sep 23, 1880, Clover Valley NV
Sylvia Elizabeth "Eliza" Johns McCoy, born 1837, their widowed mother
In 1888, John was working in Bruneau, Idaho, in the Owyhee County desert. He
worked for the Wilkins Horse Company, the largest horse company in Idaho, with
over 4000 head of horses. Owner Kitty Wilkins (1879-1936), was known as the
"Horse Queen of Idaho." (Owyhee Cattlemen, 1979:33) In the 1900 census,
Elizabeth, John, Archie, and Katherine were recorded in the Meeteetse,
Wyoming census. Katherine was listed as Katie Beck, living with her mother and
brothers, and had a newborn daughter that was not named. They lived in the
household adjacent to Verena McCoy Baldwin.
Archie (Bert) McCoy, the family leader
Archie McCoy hated his name so was called Bert by his family and friends. He
left the family group at an early age to work in the mines at Butte, Montana. He
then returned to range work at the ranch of his older sister, Verena McCoy Bald-
win (1862-1935), on the Greybull River north of Meeteetse, Wyoming. It was
there that Bert met and married Jennie Avery in July 1903. Jennie was born in
Ulysses, Pennsylvania, on January 31, 1885, and had come by covered wagon
to Wyoming as a young girl. The newly married couple went to California where
their first child, Eva Augusta, was born at Cedarville on July 7, 1904. They moved
again a short time later to Paradise Valley, near Elko, Nevada, where their first
son, Archie Gilbert McCoy, who became known as Gill McCoy, was born on
October 25, 1905. Bert and family continued to move frequently, and the rest of
his children were born at various localities in Idaho: son Leslie James McCoy,
who became known as "Whitey," was born on May 11, 1907, at Avery; and two
daughters born at Bruneau, Ina Evelyn McCoy, born June 25, 1909, and Verna
Luella McCoy, born January 21, 1911. (Aloha McCoy, letter Nov 7, 1995)
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The Bert McCoy family rejoined the other McCoy family members in Bruneau,
Idaho, in the spring of 1909. In the 1910 census they were shown living in two
adjacent households. The elder brother, John McCoy was noted as head of one
household, still unmarried, and living with him was his youngest sister, Kate,
and her two children. Katie's children were named in the census as Elizabeth
Beck, age 7, and William Beck, age 5. Bert McCoy's household included, in
addition to his wife and children noted above, his older brother Walter, and their
aging mother Eliza (her name was listed as Sarah on the census). Eliza Johns
McCoy died later that same year in Bruneau, at age 73, on November 27, 1910.
Early the following year Bert and Jennie's daughter, Verna Luella McCoy, was
born in Bruneau on January 11, 1911; but their daughter Ina Evelyn died on
August 19, 19'11, of a congenital heart problem and was buried in the Owyhee
desert. Their youngest sons were born north of Bruneau at Mountain Home:
George Henry McCoy on March 1, 1913, and Myron Burdett McCoy on April 19,
1915; Myron became known as `Buster" to his family.
The McCoy Brothers, Owyhee Desert Horse Wranglers
The McCoy brothers were working as horse wranglers in the Bruneau-Mountain
Home area at the close of World War I in 1918. Around that time the horse busi-
ness began a very rapid decline, due to the increasing use of automotive power,
noted by the Owyhee County historian Mildretta Adams (Owyhee Cattlemen,
1979:13). The decline in the horse business probably led the McCoys to begin
searching for other venues of work. In 1918 E3ert McCoy left his family in
Mountain Home and went north to Valley County to seek work. He worked as a
logger in the vicinity of Cascade, Idaho, and drove a freight wagon carrying
supplies to the small community of Yellow Pine, 62 miles east of Cascade. Bert
also worked at the mines around Yellow Pine, wherever there was a job.
Bert was settled in Yellow Pine when he sent for his family in the spring of 1919.
His wife Jennie loaded all oftheir belongings into their wagon and headed north
with the younger children, leaving Gill and Whitey behind with other McCoys.
Jennie drove the four -horse team as far as Horseshoe Bend where Bert met her
and drove the wagon the remaining distance to Yellow Pine. Bert and his family
were met and befriended by store -keeper Albert Behne, who helped them
establish their home in Yellow Pine. (Aloha McCoy, Jan 1980)
In the late spring of 1919, a short time after Bert and Jennie arrived in Yellow
Pine, the rest of the McCoy clan, led by brothers John and Walter, rounded up
about 100 head of horses, not belonging to them, from the Owyhee Desert and
drove them to Yellow Pine. Horse thievery was not new to the McCoys, as noted
in the Owyhee Avalanche, November 23, 1917:
"Sheriff Charlie Rogers returned Tuesday from a four day trip to the Bull
Basin Country in the southwestern part of the county where he went to
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arrest Walt McCoy, charged with altering brands. Despite the wild stories
afloat over the county as the ability and willingness of McCoy to use a gun
if necessary, Charlie experienced no trouble in landing his man here, but
admits he kept his weather eye open during the homeward trip."
Also, Ambros Maher, a rancher on the Owyhee River, noted in his diary on April
18, 1918: "Charlie Rogers is here tonight on his way back from across the river
after Archie McCoy, didn't get him." (Maher diary). Historian Mildretta Adams
notes, "Horse stealing continued for years in Owyhee County." (Owyhee Cattle-
men, 1979:13)
The McCoy clan, including Archie's sons Gill and Whitey, drove the stolen horses
to Yellow Pine. Gill's son Bob provided this story of the event:
"When my dad was thirteen and his brother Whitey was eleven, they trailed
100 head of horses off the Owyhee Desert in Nevada into Yellow Pine. Dad
told me that they [the McCoy children] had never seen a town of any size and
most of the horses were wild that they had caught off the desert. He said
when they got into Boise they had horses scattered all over town, and the
police department helped them gather the horses and get them through town
just to get rid of them. They saw their first pine tree above Horseshoe Bend
on the Payette River. They were amazed at their size... A lot of the horses
died the first winter because of deep snow and the lack of food, something
they never encountered on the desert." (Bob McCoy correspondence, Oct 27,
1995)
The stolen horses were apparently kept in the upper Big Creek valley soon after
their arrival in the Yellow Pine area, as Gill McCoy was noted in a newspaper
article as having been to Warren to get supplies and was returning to Big Creek
where he was running a large herd of horses (Payette Lakes Star, June 27,
1919). At that time the only habitation of consequence in the upper Big Creek
area was the Edwards family store -post office at "Edwardsburg," as the Big
Creek Ranger Station complex was not established until 1924. The Big Creek
Ranger Station "Headquarters" was established in the large meadow where Gill
probably ran his horses.
The McCoy clan spent the winter of 1919 in Yellow Pine basin. They apparently
seemed secure in the Yellow Pine community but their horse thievery may have
been discovered by outsiders as they assumed an alias family name "Hollan,"
duly noted by census taker -storekeeper Albert Behne who knew their true names
(US Census 1920, Idaho, Valley County, Yellow Pine Precinct). Possibly fearing
apprehension, in the late spring of 1920 John, Walter, Katie, and Katie's two
children took off with the remaining 70 stolen horses that survived the winter,
heading cross-country to the Salmon River. Their route of travel would have been
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over Profile Gap to Edwardsburg, then down Big Creek probably to the end of the
wagon road at the Snowshoe Mine. They crossed Chamberlain Basin, picking up
an old Nez Perce Indian trail that crossed the Salmon River at Disappointment
Bar, then went up -river about a mile to what is now known as Lantz Bar, on the
north side of the river, where they settled in the early summer of 1920. The
McCoys probably thought they were at the ultimate hideout, deep in the Salmon
River wilderness. However, soon after settling in at Lantz Bar, the McCoy clan
was enumerated by a census taker who was very conscientious to have found
them in such a remote location. The census taker noted John McCoy, his sister
Katie Beck, and Katie's two children who were then noted as, "Nellie Beck, age
20" and "Joseph Beck, age 19," both born in Wyoming, which does not corres-
pond with the 19110 census data. Katie later ended up in Pendleton, Oregon,
where she died October 25, 1956. Nellie Elizabeth Beck married Daniel Strong
on June 13, 1921 in Boise. Daniel Strong was a lodger at Curley Brewer's ranch
on the South Fork of the Salmon in 1920. They moved to Canada and had three
chiildren. Katie's children's father„ named Beck, has not been identified in any
records.
John McCoys hideout at Lantz Bar was the early squatter's claim of John Mit-
chell "Mitt' Haynie. McCoy bought Haynie's improvements at Lantz Bar in 1921
and stayed there until the autumn of 1923, according to the late Salmon River
historian John Carrey. In 1925 Frank B. Lantz established a homestead on the
bar and thus the name (Carrey and Conley, 1978:116). John McCoys where-
abouts is unknown after 1923. Bob McCoy said his great uncle died in Montana
at age 71 [about 1933] when he fell off a hay wagon, breaking his neck (Bob
McCoy letter, 1995, undated). A search of death records and census records in
Montana and adjacent Idaho for that era failed to find anything about John
McCoy (Bill Salmon correspondence, 2006).
Walter McCoy
Walter McCoy (aka Walter Hollan) was not enumerated on the 1920 census. If he
had gone to Lantz Bar with his siblings, he only stayed there a very short time,
as in 1920 he took up residence on McCalla Creek in Chamberlain Basin. It may
have been that en route to Lantz Bar he discovered the abandoned homestead
claim that had been established in 1915 by R. A. Wallingford and vacated in
19119. (Preston, 2001:29) The homestead site on McCalla Creek is about three
miles downstream from Moose Meadows and about 15 miles by trail to the loca-
tion of John McCoy's camp on the Salmon River at Lantz Bar.
Soon after of Walter McCoys settlement on McCalla Creek, the place became
known as "McCoy Cabin," arid was so noted on Forest Service maps until recent
years. His neighbors were few. Jesse Root (1883-1935), who McCoy came to
dislike intently, lived part-time at his homestead -ranch on Whimstick Creek,
about eight miles away by trail to the southeast. Further to the southeast was
Cold Meadows, where a ranger station was built in 1923 and occupied during
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the summer. To the west, in the Chamberlain Meadows area, lived William Allen
"Al" Stonebraker and August Hotzel, and the Chamberlain ranger station was
occupied from June to early October (see Preston, 2001:25-33 for detailed
historical descriptions of the habitations in the Chamberlain complex).
An oral history made by an early Yellow Pine resident, the late Lafe Cox (1914-
2002) adds information about Walter McCoys place on McCalla Creek: In mid -
May, 1927, the family of Clark and Beulah Cox, including their 13-year old son
Lafe, left their home near Emmett, Idaho, to look for a new ranch in the Salmon
River backcountry. They had 14 head of horses; Bud Joy and his son Rex had
been engaged to guide the Cox family. Their destination was Mallard Creek, on
the north side of the Salmon. After an abortive attempt to reach Mallard Creek by
way of the South Fork, they turned around and went across Elk Summit to Big
Creek and then on through Chamberlain Basin to Campbell's Ferry on the Sal-
mon River. Campbell's Ferry was then owned by Robert A. "Bob" Hilands (see
history of Campbell's Ferry: Preston 2002). They could not get across the river
because the water was too high, so Bob Hilands sent them back through Cham-
berlain to Walter McCoy's place to get McCoy to take them down the Salmon on
a "goat trail" to a point opposite Mallard Creek where they could get across by
rowboat.
Lafe Cox described Walter McCoy:
"McCoy was his name but at that time he was going by the name of Holland.
They had come out of Oregon [really Owyhee County, Idaho] and they had
got too many horses of the wrong fellows and they had to leave and he end-
ed up over here in Chamberlain. And if he didn't know you, you couldn't see
him. He worked rawhides to make a living. He made rawhide bridle reins and
hackamores and he'd often sell them to the Forest Service fellows. He'd get
enough money to buy groceries on. And his brother [Bert/Archie] lived here
at Yellow Pine and he'd take groceries over part way and take them over to
him."
Lafe Cox goes on to describe Walter McCoy's place on McCalla Creek:
"You had to know where it was, had to be told because he didn't have many
trails in there. They never traveled the same way twice. He was hiding out
from the law. He talked to us and he had a campground. We went down and
camped and he ate with us. It started to rain so we moved over to his house.
Dad and mother stayed in his guest room. Bud Joy, Rex, and I stayed in an-
other building. There were several buildings, but they're all gone [burned by
Forest Service]. His house had a porch on it, and a step to get on the porch.
He had a picket fence around his garden, probably seven feet high on ac-
count of the elk and deer eating up his garden. And he had his yard fenced
5
the plan had to do with McCoy's long time hatred for Jesse Root who had a
ranch in the backcountry a few miles from McCoys place.
It was quickly determined that for Sheriff Rothwell to come from Grangeville (the
county seat of Idaho County) to the scene would require an auto trip of at least
two to three days, through McCall and Warren, thence by horseback a day's ride
to Chamberlain Ranger Station, or the adjacent Stonebraker Ranch, and another
day or more to locate McCoy. Given that there was already snow on the ground
and more to come, it was not reasonable for Sheriff Rothwell to come to the
scene by that means. It was also known that two weeks prior to the McCoy inci-
dent, a few pilots from Nick Mamer Flying Service of Spokane, had begun flying
big game hunting parties from Grangeville to the Stonebraker Ranch in Cham-
berlain Basin. (Lewiston Tribune, Oct 13, 1928) So Sheriff Rothwell called Nick
Mamer to arrange for pilot Jack Rose to pick up Rothwell and "a deputized forest
ranger" in one of Mamer's airplanes and fly them to the Stonebraker Ranch on
Friday, October 26, to begin the hunt for Walter McCoy. The Stonebraker Ranch
was about 12 miles from where McCoy lived on McCalla Creek. (Idaho States-
man, Nov 1, 1928; Idaho County Free Press, Nov. 1, 1928)
The Cook brothers' story indicates that their grandfather, Warren Cook, worked
with Sheriff Rothwell to apprehend McCoy; so, it was Warren Cook who was the
"deputized forest ranger" in the newspaper account. The Cooks' story is a
bizarre tale, reminiscent of an Old West dime novel. The story notes that upon
their arri-val at the Stonebraker Ranch on Friday afternoon, Rothwell and Cook
were met by Jesse Root. Root would have come by horseback, probably from
the road's end at Hays Station, a full day's ride. The plan was to dupe McCoy
into believing that he was playing a good citizen's part in assisting in the arrest of
his enemy, Jesse Root, and thereby Rothwell could avoid McCoy being a
belligerent captive.
The sheriff's posse no doubt stayed overnight at Stonebraker's, then started their
hunt for McCoy on Saturday morning, with Cook and Rothwell borrowing horses
from Al Stonebraker. As was their plan, Jess Root went to his ranch on Whim -
stick Creek and waited while Cook and Rothwell went searching for McCoy. They
first went to McCoy's cabin on McCalla Creek but McCoy was not there so they
tracked him in the snow for two days, eventually returning to McCoy's cabin on
Sunday where they found him standing behind his corral fence. Cook apparently
introduced Sheriff Rothwell and McCoy asked, "What do you want?" Rothwell
replied, 'We need your help to catch Jesse Root, go saddle a horse." Since he
had a great dislike for Jesse Root, McCoy readily agreed to help "capture" Root.
While McCoy was diverted, saddling his horse, Rothwell secretly unloaded
McCoy's shotgun, which was leaning against the fence. The three men then
mounted their horses and rode off to Jesse Root's place, a few miles away on
Whimstick Creek. As they approached Jesse Root's cabin, McCoy was instructed
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with jack pine poles all standing on end. A deer or an elk will not jump a pick-
et fence. You can take a picket fence and put it up four feet high and they
won't jump it."
After staying at McCoy's place four or five days, the Cox family went down the
Salmon River to a point opposite Mallard Creek. Clark Cox did not like what he
saw, turned around, came back through Chamberlain, went down Crooked Creek
to the Snowshoe Mine where they camped. They went the next day to Big Creek,
over Profile Gap to Yellow Pine, and started up Johnson Creek, stopping to camp
at Alec Forstrum's place. Clark Cox bought the Forstrum place; they moved there
in early August 1927 and started Cox's Dude Ranch (Cox 1973: 14-23). Lafe Cox
and his wife Ernrnalater took over the dude ranch from his parents and operated
it until their retirement in 1992 when it was sold. The former Cox Dude Ranch is
currently operated as Wapiti Meadows Ranch.
Walter McCoy was sometimes labeled the "wildman of Chamberlain Basin." For
a few years prior to 1928, Walter McCoy was reported to have threatened some
of the area's few ranchers and trappers with his shotgun, and had been peeking
into windows, robbing cabins, and otherwise acting strangely. McCoy was also
known to have been taking provisions from the Forest Service commissary (sup-
ply building) at the Chamberlain Ranger Station, when it was vacated for the
winter. However, at the close of the 1928 season, when no supplies were left,
McCoy left an angry note, demanding "his" supplies.
Forest Ranger Dan LeVan, who had known McCoy since LeVan had been
appointed the area's Forest Ranger in 1924, said McCoy had been living alone
for seven years, his appearance was neat and clean, and his cabin was a model
of cleanliness; but "too much isolation, too much brooding over real or fancied
wrongs and other causes have injured the memory and brought on visions."
Fearing that McCoy "was not in his right mind and might become violent, Ranger
LeVan contacted Idaho County Sheriff Herve Rothwell in late October, 1928, to
apprehend McCoy. (Idaho County Free Press, Nov 1, 1928)
The task of apprehending McCoy was not an easy one, considering that there
were no roads in the mountain wilderness and there was a foot of snow on the
ground. From his winter ranger's office in McCall, Dan LeVan must have had
several telephone discussions with Sheriff Rothwell in Grangeville, and others, to
develop the apprehension plan. A family story, related by Dan and Dave Cook,
grandsons of Warren Cook, indicates that Warren Cook and Jesse Root, both of
whom were good friends of Dan LeVan, and also knew Walter McCoy, were in-
volved in the plan. Warren Cook, a former Forest Ranger, lived in McCall; Jesse
Root was postmaster -storekeeper in Warren. The involvement of Jesse Root in
6
by Rothwell, "If I holler for help, you come!" Sheriff Rothwell and Cook entered
the cabin and returned with Jesse Root in handcuffs. The four men rode off with
McCoy guarding Root from behind, with his unloaded shotgun. (Dan and Dave
Cook, interview Oct 12, 1999)
The newspaper account indicates that the sheriff's posse came out of the back -
country "by way of Warren and McCall by stage and auto." (Idaho County Free
Press, Nov 1, 1928) By deduction, the sheriff's posse must have gone by horse-
back to Stonebraker's for overnight Sunday, then a days ride to road's end at
Hays Station where they were picked up by auto and taken to Warren. From
Warren they took the stage to McCall (the "stage" is a term left over from the
days of the horse-drawn stage coach which at that time denoted the automotive
transport that (hauled freight, mail, and people between Warren and McCall). On
arrival in McCall, according to the Cooks' story, the sheriffs posse marched into
the jail cell, then exited, leaving a befuddled McCoy behind bars with his empty
shotgun. The next day, Tuesday, October 30, Walter McCoy was taken to
Grangeville by Sheriff Rothwell, accompanied by Forest Ranger Dan LeVan. On
Wednesday there was a sanity examination of McCoy in the court of Judge
Wilbur L. Campbell. Present at the examination were Sheriff Rothwell, Ranger
LeVan, Doctor John Shinnick, and Attorney E3erchman (Bert) Auger. When ques-
tioned, McCoy said that during July and August the sun got too fast and he tried
to stop it; he said he spent several days and nights worrying over that and also
claimed that he was being pursued by the "pitchfork gang, little red devils, the
`Flirt', and a `Riddle'." Walter McCoy was declared insane and was committed to
the Idaho State Mental Hospital at Orofino the next day, October 31, 1928.
(Idaho County Free Press, Nov 1, 1928) Walter S. McCoy died at the hospital a
few months later on April 17, 1929, and was buried at the Riverside Cemetery in
Orofino.
Bert/Archie McCoy Settles in at Yellow Pine
When Bert McCoy arrived in Yellow Pine with his family in the spring of 1919, he
was befriended by storekeeper Albert Behne, as noted above. Behne had arrived
in Yellow Pine basin in 1902 from Spokane, pushing a wheelbarrow during the
Thunder mountain gold rush. Albert Behne (1854-1945) was not a prospector
arid did not have many outdoorsman skills, but he saw a business potential in
Yellow Pine basin. He established a store, and subsequently the Yellow Pine
post office. Behne filed a homestead claim for 47.5 acres for what is now the
Yellow Pine townsite, patented January 31, 1925 (BLM homestead records).
Long-term Yellow Pine resident Harry Withers (1898-1994) remembered:
"The McCoy family (Holland then) had moved into the basin and had a team
of horses, which was used to plow up the meadow back of the hotel and
Murph's joint [Murph Earl's Yellow Pine Tavern] and planted and harvested
a crop of wheat that helped to prove up on the homestead. McCoy claimed
Behne promised him the whole block in the northwest corner in payment for
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his help in proving up. McCoy did get two lots, the two I [Harry Withers] now
have." (Sumner 1986:13)
Long time Yellow Pine resident Pete Hillman and Bert McCoy bought the cafe -
bar from Dan Drake. They needed $1000 down payment and between them they
came up with $500, borrowing the remainder from Charlie Maples (Sumner 1986:
23). Bert's daughter-in-law, Aloha McCoy, writes that Bert added a lean-to on
each side of the building and one in back. One side was a restaurant, in the mid-
dle was a pool hall, and a barber shop on the other side which he leased out.
The lean-to in back was a woodshed. The lean-tos have been removed. Bert lost
the cafe -pool hall in a card game (Aloha McCoy 1980). The old building, now re-
novated, is the Yellow Pine chapel and community center.
Harry Withers wrote, "The McCoys owned the restaurant and pool hall. I spent
the winter with them and was chief cook by common consent, as I liked to cook
and the senior McCoy [Bert] was inclined to become slightly incapacitated occa-
sionally. Also, the boys' [Gill and Whitey] talents didn't seem to run toward the
culinary arts." Withers added that the restaurant was often the scene of raucous
feasts with jugs of locally -produced moonshine whiskey (Sumner 1986:57)
Lafe Cox described Yellow Pine as a center for illegal whiskey production during
the Prohibition Era of the late 1920s and early 1930s. From Cox's description it
appears that the entire community of Yellow Pine was involved in bootlegging,
including Bert McCoy. Bert was arrested in 1931, along with other Yellow Pine
residents Roy Elliot, Charles Carwater, Mike Smith, Morris Corbett, Wayne and
Mrs. Shapply, Rose Pigg, and LeRoy Parker (Idaho Daily Statesman, August 11,
1931). All were jailed in Cascade and Bert's son Gill had to pay his fine. The
"revenuers" were constantly after them, drawn to Yellow Pine by the large quan-
tities of sugar and grain being sent to storekeeper Albert Behne. Lafe Cox indi-
cated that the whiskey production occurred during the winter and hundreds of
barrels would be hidden in the snow. Lafe and his friends would randomly ski
throughout the area so that there was a confusion of ski trails so the federal
agents would not find the places where the whiskey barrels were buried (Cox
1972:32-35).
Whiskey was an essential ingredient for most social activities in early Yellow
Pine; Ted Abstein noted, "Bert McCoy was a great fiddler at the dances when we
had live music, which wasn't very often. That was my downfall. I just loved his
fiddling and wanted to be a fiddler when I grew up." (Sumner 1986:87)
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Carl Kitchen Jr. wrote:
"During prohibition days; the fellows in the village would get real serious about
going out and cleaning up the cemetery, building fences, etc. Men such as
Jim Leahy, Paddy Breen, Bert McCoy, Jack Hanby, and others would pass
the hat to collect money for cemetery renovation. Then the fellows would buy
a jug or two of bootleg whiskey and go out to the cemetery to work. Some-
how, between whiskey and swapping yarns about departed friends, the work
never did get done" (Sumner 1986:35).
Harry Withers wrote this story:
"Pat Leahy, Cinnabar [Mine] foreman, and his brother Jim Leahy, Fiddle
Creek foreman, and I hiked to Yellow Pine on May 24 [1928]. They started
looking for a jug. Bert McCoy, who lived where I now live, had moon - shine,
but was away. One of his sons, who was working at Ray Call's sawmill told
the Leahys where to find an empty jug and where to dig by a certain garden
fence post to find a 10- gallon keg of moonshine. We filled a gallon jug, re-
buried the keg, paid for the jug, and left for Bryant's Ranch to spend the
night." (Sumner 1986:52)
In addition to being a restaurateur and moonshiner, Bert was a part-time pros-
pector and had a little dig near the mouth of Monumental Creek where he built a
cabin in 1931. Bert's daughter, Verna, said, "He was always going to get rich
nE'xt year," (from Fuller interview, 1984). Berl: was working at the claim in the
winter of 1933 when he developed pneumonia and had to be rescued by his son
Gill with his dog sled. Bert never recovered from the pneumonia and died on
June 12, 1933, in a Boise hospital. Bert's mining claim was later relocated by Big
Creek summer resident Wilbur Wiles and patented in 1983; the cabin built by
McCoy burned in a wildfire iin 2002.
McCoy Children in Yellow Pine School
The presence of Bert's children prompted thE� establishment of a school in Yellow
Pine in 1920, first held in a tent. The following year a log school house was built
in the flat at the southwest corner of the village which served until 1936, when the
present wood frame school house was built. The first children to attend the Yel-
low Pine school in 1920 were Doris Edwards, Helen Trinler, Ted Abstein, and the
McCoy children, Eva, Gill, Leslie ( "Whitey "), George, and Myron ( "Buster"). How-
ever, the 1920 school year lasted only a few days. Gill and Whitey wrapped a
bear hide around Buster and pushed what appeared to be a bear into the tent,
frightening the young school teacher, Letha Smith, such that she quit, leaving the
YE)IIow Pine school without a teacher until thE; following year. The teacher for the
two years following was Mark Lawton. His students in 1922, in addition to the
McCoys, included the four oldest children of 'William "Deadshot" Reed: Sam,
Mabel, Pat, and young Bill. Deadshot had moved his family to Yellow Pine from
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his ranch on the South Fork for the winter for schooling, but the family returned to
the South Fork in the early spring before the school term ended. (Lawton, in
Sumner 1986: 110; Deinhardt -Hill, 2003:86)
For summer recreation the McCoy children went on fishing expeditions with their
mother, Jennie. Youngest daughter, Verna, recalls, "My mother was a fisherwo-
man. She would drag all of us kids up someplace so she could fish. [My brothers]
George and Buster and me would ride one horse with her. I was about eight
years old then. We used to go up to Profile [Summit] to Crater and Fish Lakes.
We'd camp up there until we all got so full of. fish she'd get mad at us because
we couldn't eat 'em all (McCoy interview attached to Fuller letter, April 27, 1984).
Bert and Jennie McCoy had their last child, William ( "Billie ") Morris McCoy, on
October 31, 1923, in Cascade. Billie drowned on Easter Sunday 1931, in the mill
pond in Emmett (Aloha McCoy letter, Nov 7, 1995).
The Willey Ranch Connection
On the South Fork of the Salmon River, northwest of Yellow Pine, was the ranch
of Simeon "Sim" Willey The Willey Ranch was reached from Yellow Pine by a
12 -mile steep trail, known as the "Willey Trail," over Rainbow Saddle and down
the South Fork of Sheep Creek. As the Willey Ranch was lower in elevation than
Yellow Pine, gardens crops could be grown there much earlier in the spring and
later in the autumn. Sim Willey would periodically make the trip to Yellow Pine to
sell or barter his vegetables. Sim also raised cattle on his ranch which were
trailed to Yellow Pine for slaughter. It was by this agricultural commerce that the
McCoy children became well acquainted with the several children of Sim and
Mary ( "Minnie ") Willey, resulting in two marriages, as noted below.
11
Gill McCoy, assistant ranger at Chamberlain, n. d.
Photo courtesy of Dan Levan Jr.
Archie Gilbert "Gill" McCoy
Gill was the oldest of Bert's children, born in 1905. At an early age he ran a trap
line in the winter for marten and fox. In the mid -1920s Gill assisted his father
freighting mining equipment and supplies by pack string from Yellow Pine, which
was the end of the road at that time, to mines; further in the wilderness. On the
return trips ore would be transported to Yellow Pine to be loaded onto trucks. In
1927, several mines at Stibnite were consolidated under the ownership of F.W.
Bradley who formed the Yellow Pine Company. A truck road was completed to
the Stibnite mines in 1929 so that the complex ore, which contained gold and
antimony, could be transported to the railhead at Cascade and thence to the
smelter at Salt Lake City. The truck road terminated Gill McCoy's business of
freighting to Stibnite by pack string. (Fuller 1987:227)
Gill was an expert long distance dog sled driver. In the winter, when the road was
closed by snow, Gill would transport the mail by dog sled between Yellow Pine
and Cascade for the primary Post Office Department contractor, George Stone -
braker, younger brother of Chamberlain rancher Al Stonebraker. Gill was the
winter mailman from the mid -1920s until 1930, when Stonebraker began winter
mail delivery by aircraft (Preston 2003:5) George Stonebraker had a dog sled
race team of nine Irish setters that Gill drove in competition for Stonebraker. In
one such event Gill won fourth place in the slush on Payette Lake in 1931 (Idaho
County Free Press, March 5, 1931; Bob McCoy correspondence, Oct 17, 1995).
12
Gill McCoy, Bill "Slim" Clark, Bill Timm, and a man called "Frenchy," established
a mining claim in the 1930s on Monumental Creek opposite the mouth of Camp
Creek. A stamp mill was moved to the site by Slim Clark from an abandoned
mine on the west slope of Routson Peak, which had been worked around 1908
and the early 1930s. A substantial cabin was built on the claim. Over the years,
the ownership of the claim became confused. In 1963, the question of ownership,
which included Jim Burris, resulted in the shooting of Slim Clark by Burris's son.
Slim Clark bled to death before he could get medical attention (interview with
George Dovel, Aug 15, 1977, in Hartung 1978:42). The cabin became known as
the "murder cabin;" which was destroyed by wildfire in 2000 (Kingsbury, pers.
comm. 2001).
Gill McCoy marries Blanche Willey
After an across - the - mountain courtship of several years, 22 -year old Gill McCoy
married 21 -year old Blanche Willey on May 5, 1926. They had a little one -room
house in Yellow Pine where they lived for four years. For entertainment they
went to dances in the school house, where they "danced all night long," said
Blanche McCoy. Gill's brothers, George and Buster (Myron) stayed with them,
sleeping in a tent next to the house, even in the winter. When Buster was in the
8th grade, about 1923, he quit school and took off across the mountain to live with
the Willey's. At that time Gill had a string of horses which he and Bud Joy and
Sam Cook used for packing hunters and fishermen, as well as hauling freight to
and from Stibnite. From 1931 to 1938, Gill and Blanche lived at Stibnite where
Gill worked outside using teams to haul mine timbers and other roustabout work.
(Blanche McCoy interview, August 3, 1978).
Gill and Blanche's children were:
Betty McCoy, born May 20, 1927, in Boise; died October 9, 1979.
Bob McCoy, born November 11, 1929, at Emmett; died July 9, 1998
Colleen "Babe" McCoy, born July 7, 1931; at Cascade; died April 29, 1995.
Joe McCoy, born April 1, 1939 at Emmett, currently living in Idaho.
13
Monumental Creek Ranch that Gill McCoy bought in 1933.
This photograph was taken ca. 1955 when it belonged to the USFS.
Photo courtesy of Bob and Joyce Dustman
Gill buys Monumental Creek Ranch
In 1933 Gill McCoy bought the Monumental Creek Ranch, at the mouth of Holy
Terror Creek, four and half miles north, or downstream from the abandoned
townsite of Roosevelt. The ranch had its beginnings as the 1913 homestead
claim of R.A. Wallingford. In the early 1920s Rufus A. "Rufe" and Ora Hughes
took over the place and received a patent on the 95 -acre property on June 14,
1928. Roy Elliot had become Hughes' partner and then bought him out. In the
autumn of 1929 Jess and Vernie Vanderpool bought the ranch and ran it for two
years. Jess was also known in the Yellow Pine area by the alias Jess Warner as
he was wanted for horse stealing. Vernie's daughter by her first marriage, Aloha
Beck (see biographical note on page 22), lived on the ranch as a child and later
married Gill's younger brother Myron "Buster" McCoy. When the Vanderpool's
could not pay for the ranch, Roy Elliot sold the place to Gill McCoy (see home-
stead plat on page 14).
Gill moved his family to the Monumental Creek Ranch in 1933 where he packed
supplies for the Forest Service in the summer and did packing for hunters in the
autumn. Gill also ran a few cattle on the ranch and the adjacent forest land. The
family lived on -the ranch year around until 1939 when they moved to Emmett for
better schooling for the children.
14
Gill McCoy began his full -time employment with the Forest Service in 1939, as
alternate ranger on the Big Creek District, working for Ranger Dan LeVan. Ran-
ger LeVan's children were the same age as those of Gill McCoy, resulting in a
very close working relationship and family relationship. When Dan LeVan's wife
Persis died at age 41 in 1945, Blanche McCoy became the surrogate mother to
Dan's young children. Dan LeVan Jr. refers to Blanche McCoy as "my other
Mom" (LeVan letter, Jan 1, 2007). The LeVan -McCoy relationship is further
described in a following Dan LeVan biographic sketch and the included articles
by Dan LeVan Jr.
In 1946, the old Chamberlain District was organizationally reactivated and sep-
arated from the Big Creek District. Gill McCoy was assigned as the Assistant
Forest Ranger for the Chamberlain District, under the oversight of Ranger Dan
LeVan at Big Creek. Upon LeVan's reassignment in 1950, Gill was appointed
District Forest Ranger, believed to be the last appointment of a Forest Ranger by
virtue of job knowledge, without formal education. Gill's primary assistant in
Chamberlain was Buff Parke (Elbert C. Parke, 1894- 1981). Buff's wife, Adelia
(Adelia Routson Parke, 1898 -1981) was daughter of IBig Creek pioneer John
Routson (Adelia authored a fascinating history of her life in the back- country; see
Adelia Routson Parke's, Memoirs of an Old Timer). Sally Preston, remembers
how kindly she was treated by Gill and Blanche McCoy and Adelia and Buff
Parke when she would fly to Chamberlain as a young child in the late 1940s with
her father Don Park, the Idaho National Forest supply officer.
Gill retired from the Forest Service in 1952 and was replaced by Ranger G. Val
Simpson. Gill retired to a rancher's life in Long Valley and died at Cascade on
December 31, 1964. Gill's wife, Blanche Willey McCoy lived many more years;
she died at age 90, in Caldwell, on August 18, 1995 (Idaho Statesman, August
21, 1995). See more about Blanche Willey McCoy in the Willey family biographic
sketch on page 26.
15
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16
Bob McCoy, ca. 1950, at work on Big Creek Ranger District
Photo courtesy of Bob and Joyce Dustman
Life on the Monumental Creek Ranch
The ranch buildings consisted of a two -story log house, blacksmith shop, barn,
warehouse, and cellar. There was a bridge over Monumental Creek to the wagon
road that went upstream to the Roosevelt townsite (Fuller 1987:232) The ranch
was sold to the Forest Service for $1500 on August 29, 1941. All the ranch build-
ings were burned by the Forest Service in the 1960s, except the blacksmith
shop. When Gill's son Bob visited the site in 1966, the blacksmith shop was still
standing. Bob found his toy truck where the woodshed used to stand. A layout
of the ranch buildings, based upon a sketch by Bob McCoy, is on page 16 fBob
McCoy correspondence, Oct 17, 1995) The blacksmith shop remained standing
until it, too, was burned by the Forest Service in the mid- 1970s.
Bob McCoy remembers his early years at the Monumental Creek Ranch:
"Mother (Blanche Willey McCoy) planted a garden every spring. We had ra-
dishes, onions, carrots, lettuce, and always turnips. I still don't like turnips.
Someone before us planted some rhubarb. It was still growing wild when I
was there in 1966. We had chickens and every spring Dad would pick out a
range cow with the biggest bag and that was the milk cow for the summer.
We let the calf have the milk in the mornings and Mother would milk [the cow]
in the evenings. To milk the cow you had to get a rope on her and tie her
head to the side of the corral then get another rope around her hind feet so
she couldn't kick. Us kids helped with that part. One time the cow got out and
17
Monumental Ranches Hand drawn map
was across the bridge over Monumental Creek. Mother had us kids wait at
the trail across Holy Terror Creek so when she chased the cow back across
the bridge we could head her up towards the corral. Mother was running
through the trees to get around the cow when suddenly she screamed, then
no more noise. My older sister Betty waded Monumental Creek but my
younger sister Colleen ( "Babe ") and I weren't big enough at the time so we
ran across the bridge. We found her [Blanche] laying flat on her back, trying
to get her breath. She had run into a rope corral that Babe and I had built for
our stick horses and knocked the breath out of her. Beside getting a good
spanking we quit building corrals.
"I don't remember learning to ride — it was something you just did. We all had
our own horse. My first horse was a mare named Liz. Until I got bigger, to get
on her I would have to get her close to the side of the corral then climb the
corral and jump on her. Sometimes it would take more than on try. She would
not always stand still."
"We all had our chores to do. My sister Betty wasn't much of an outside per-
son so she did household chores and Babe and I took care of the outside
chores. We got the firewood in, took care of the chickens, tended the garden,
and helped irrigate which we especially liked because every so often [spawn-
ing Chinook] salmon would get in the ditch. It was great sport chasing the
salmon down and wrestling it out of the ditch. Once in a while we would get
one too big and Dad would help us. As I think back, I believe Dad got as
much enjoyment watching us as we did chasing the salmon."
[Spawning Chinook salmon were common in all the backcountry streams at least
until the late 1950s, as observed by the author when living on the Secesh River,
and observed by the late Val Simpson (1924 -2005) in Chamberlain Creek when
he was Forest Ranger on the Chamberlain District on the Payette National Forest
(G. Val Simpson, oral history 1984)]. Bob McCoy continues his story:
"I can't ever remember wanting for anything while we were on the ranch. Wild
game was plentiful, the best fishing anywhere, and lots of grouse. Wild ber-
ries grew everywhere. Writing about ranch life brings back lots of memories.
During haying season everyone helped. When I was seven I was old enough
to drive the team pulling the hay rake. Dad wouldn't let me on the mowing
machine because it was too dangerous. When we were putting the hay in the
hay barn, Betty led the workhorse that pulled the Jackson fork up and along
the trolley in the top of the hay barn. She hated it because she was scared of
animals. One day she got scared about something and came running around
the barn and the old workhorse, Rondo, followed her. He pulled the Jackson
fork out through the end of the barn. [My other sister] Babe led the horse from
then on. She wasn't scared of trying anything. My job was up in the barn
throwing the hay to the sides as it was dumped from the Jackson fork.
19
'When school started in the fall, Mother and us kids moved to Yellow Pine
where we had a home. My first two years of school [1935 -36] were in a log
cabin. The school district finally built a school house on the flat below town.
All the grades were in one room. There was never over nine kids in school at
any one time. When Betty graduated from the eighth grade [1939], Dad
bought a place at Emmett where there was a high school. We stayed there in
the winters from then on.
"I started working for the Forest Service in 1942. 1 was a flunky in fire camps.
I was twelve ,years old. I worked every summer through 1945 in the Big Creek
district on trail crews and on fires. When I was older and working for the For-
est Service, the most enjoyable times were when I would be out alone with
my pack siring for three or four days at a time. In 1946 1 was stationed at
Chamberlain Basin as a packer. My main job was packing out smoke -
jumpers. During World War 11, most of the smokejumpers were conscientious
objectors. They were very dedicated firefighters. Someone from the McCall
[Supervisor's] Office found out I was only sixteen years old and I was laid off
(you had to be seventeen years old then to work for the Forest Service). I
then joined the Marine Corps." (Bob McCoy correspondence, Oct 7, 1995)
"Every fall the Forest Service [pack stock and riding] stock was trailed out to
lower country for the winter; most of the time on the Salmon River below Big-
gins. In the spring they were trailed back in [to Big Creek]. They would camp
on Profile Creek above Yellow Pine and wait for snow conditions to get just
right [with a hard crust] so they could take the stock over Profile Summit on
top of the snow. On my first leave from the Marines, spring of 1947, they were
camped, waiting on snow conditions. There was Dad, [Ranger] Dan LeVan,
Skook [Myron] McCoy, Warner (Slim) Willey [Blanche McCoy's brother], and
I think Ed James. I caught the mail stage into Yellow Pine and walked up to
their camp. The next day the snow was right and I helped them take the stock
over the summit. When you started over Profile Summit you had to make in
one day because there was no place to hold the stock. When we went over
there was still eight feet of snow on the summit. I stayed with them until my
leave was about up, then radioed McCall and had a plane fly into Big Creek
and get me.
"When I was discharged from the Marines the summer of 1948, 1 went back to
work for the Forest Service. I was stationed on a lookout in the Big Creek Dis-
trict. In 1949 1 was [again] stationed on a lookout in the Big Creek District. In
1950 1 was foreman of a trail crew at Big Creek. That was my last year with
the Forest Service" (Bob McCoy correspondence, 1995).
W
In his last year of packing for the Forest Service, Bob McCoy and Bob and Joyce
Dustman, who had been Big Creek summer employees for several years, were
workmates for most of the 1950 summer. The Dustman's and two other Forest
Service summer workers had the project of clearing many miles of trails in the
Lower Big Creek area. Bob McCoy was their packer. Bob and Joyce Dustman
wrote of their experience working for the Forest Service in Fourteen Summers
with the Payette National Forest, which includes several pages about their asso-
ciation with Bob McCoy and their description and photographs of the McCoy
Ranch on Monumental Creek as they found it in 1950, with the ranch buildings
still standing.
Bob McCoy was married to his first wife Harriet, in 1949, and together they had
six children. In 1967 he married his second wife Reva and together they traveled
to North Africa and the Western States on pipeline construction projects until his
death at age 68, on July 9, 1998, while he was en route to the historic landmark
dedication at the old Big Creek Ranger Station (Payette Lakes Star -News, July
16, 1998).
21
Skook McCoy, alternate ranger at Big Creek, before 1947
Photo courtesy of Dan LeVan Jr.
Myron Burdefft "Skook" McCoy
Myron McCoy was known only as Myron to his wife, Aloha. To his family he was
known as Buster. To his workmates he was known as "Skook." Skook is short for
the Chinook Indian jargon "skookumchuck," meaning "powerful," or close to that.
In 1927, at the age of 12, Skook was essentially on his own and began working
for Milt Hood, packing a string of mules to Sbbnite and Thunder Mountain. How-
ever, with the completion of the truck road to Stibnite in 1929, the mule packing
job dried up (Milt Hood, and his wife Mary, subsequently leased the Thomas
Creek Ranch on the Middle Fork and established the successful Middle Fork
Lodge). In those early winters, Skook also did some trapping. In 1931 Skook
was employed by the Forest Service, as was everyone in the backcountry, on the
great Chamberlain fire. He then did placer mining at Thunder Mountain and later
went to work for the Jensen brothers at the Snowshoe Mine on Crooked Creek.
In 1935 Skook: went to worth; for Blackie Wallace at the Flying "W" Ranch on
Cabin Creek (see Preston 2001:39 -40). Skook fed Blackie's cattle and carried
the mail on the Big Creek route (Wallace had the mail contract at that time).
Aloha Beck's mother and step- father, Jess Vanderpool, had leased the former
Bellingham place on Cabin Creek from Wallace. It was at Cabin Creek that
Skook met 15- -year old Aloha Beck. The following spring, 1936, Skook began
working for the Forest Service on Ranger Dan LeVan's trail crew on Big Creek,
where he could keep his eye on Aloha. On September 16, 1936, Myron "Skook"
McCoy and Aloha Beck were married in Cascade (see details of their courtship
on page 27).
22
For a number of years, beginning in 1937, Skook and Aloha spent their summers
on fire lookouts in the Big Creek District of the old Idaho National Forest, working
for Dan LeVan. The summers of 1937 and 1938 were spent on Chicken Peak.
The intervening winter was spent running the Big Creek Hotel, which they had
leased from owner Dick Cowman (1905- 2004). The summers of 1939 and 1940
were spent on Horse Mountain; 1941 was spent on Rush Creek Point, and 1942
on Lookout Mountain. As a result of a manpower shortage during WW II, in 1943
the two were separated, with Aloha sitting alone on Lightning Peak and Skook on
Lookout Mountain. At the close of the 1943 season, Skook joined the Navy Sea-
bees, returning to the Forest Service at the close of WW II. They spent one more
summer on Lookout Mountain, then Skook became the Assistant Ranger at Big
Creek, working for Ranger Dan LeVan, while Skook's older brother, Gill, who had
been LeVan's assistant, went to the Chamberlain Ranger Station. Meanwhile,
their son, James Burdett McCoy, was born at Emmett on December 4, 1947. In
August 1948, they established their permanent home in McCall. When Dan Le-
Van was reassigned from Big Creek, Skook resigned from the Forest Service to
work for Brown's Tie and Lumber Company in McCall. They later bought a small
ranch at Emmett where Myron " Skook" McCoy died of cancer on August 31,
1991. Aloha still lives at the ranch. Their son James, is a mining engineer, a
graduate of the University of Idaho. Skook is also fondly remembered in the
Dustman story Fourteen Summers with the Payette National Forest.
Leslie James "Whitey" McCoy
Whitey was born at Avery, Idaho, on May 11, 1907. He first married Mary Willey
in Oct 1931, but divorced in early 1937. They had one son, Eugene Leslie
McCoy, born in Boise on Oct 18, 1933, who became an attorney. Whitey's
second marriage was to Thelma Collins. They had daughter Thelma Patricia
McCoy.
As a young man Whitey worked in the Yellow Pine area in the mines of Henry
Abstein. He later worked for Sumner Stonebraker (younger brother of Al Stone -
Braker) packing supplies and machinery to Stibnite, then subsequently went to
work at the Stibnite mine. After his divorce from Mary Willey in 1937, Whitey went
to work for the mines in north Idaho and Butte, Montana. He met and married
Thelma Collins in Washington, then returned to north Idaho to work in the mines.
Whitey returned to Big Creek where he carried the mail for two years, then
worked at the Stibnite mine during WWII. After WWII they bought a ranch in
northern Washington, then sold the ranch and moved to Caldwell, Idaho, where
he bought a stock truck, but he spent so much time away from home he sold the
truck and returned to ranching. Whitey died of a heart attack Dec 31, 1960.
23
George Henry McCoy
George was born March 1, '1913, at Mountain Home, Idaho. As a young man he
worked at the Mile High Ranch of Ernest and Roy Elliot on Big Creek, where he
put up hay and packed in supplies from Warren. In the autumn he helped the
Elliots pack hunters and in the winter George hunted cougars and coyotes.
During the great Chamberlain fire of 1931, George worked for the Forest Service
with his pack string. He married Doris McFarland; they had a son John Walter
McCoy born al. Emmett, Sep. 8, 1938; and daughter Judith Lynn McCoy, born at
Ernmett Dec. 421, 1949, she died April, 1978. George died of a heart attack Jan.
25, 1964.
In the early 1930s, George went to Pistol Creek, on the Middle Fork of the Sal-
mon River, packing supplies, and then spent a short time working in the mines.
He returned to Yellow Pine where he packed supplies to Thunder Mountain
mines. In the Nate 1930s George leased the Flying W Ranch on Big Creek from
Blackie Wallace. George formed a partnership with George "Blondie" McGill for
cattle ranching.
Around 1940 they purchased the former Stonebraker, Beale, and Hotzel ranches
in Chamberlain Basin. There they ran cattle in the summer and hunting camps in
the autumn, removing the cattle to winter range near Mountain Home before the
hunters came. The Chamberlain Basin ranches were sold to the Idaho Fish and
Game Department in 1949. The last cattle drive was in the autumn of 1949 in
which 60 head of cattle were moved to the road's end at Big Creek by George
and his 11 year -old son John, and 10 year -old Joe McCoy, youngest son of Gill
McCoy. After selling the Chamberlain ranches, George bought a ranch near
Pine, Idaho, in the Mountain Home area. George also had heavy construction
equipment that he used building logging roads in the Mountain Home area.
Verna Luella McCoy
Verna was born at Bruneau, Idaho, on Jan 21, 1911. She married Ivan Lee
Evans on Aug 31, 1929. They had son Jerald Lee Evans, born at Cascade on
Sep 6, 1931; and Verna Jean Evans, born at Emmett on June 2, 1933. Verna
and Ivan divorced and she married Jim Scovel. Verna died of cancer on April
29, 1995. Her son Jerald Evans became Idaho Superintendent of Public
Instruction.
24
ALOHA BECK McCOY
Aloha May Beck was born in 1920. Aloha is noted in the 1930 census in Lemhi
County, Idaho. The following is Aloha's story, which was attached to her letter
dated, April 27, 1995:
"My life in the backcountry started in 1930. My mother [Vernie] and my father
were divorced in 1929. Mother took up with a man called Jess Warner [an alias
for Jess Vanderpool] in the backcountry. They saw an ad in the Salmon paper for
a ranch for sale on Monumental Creek. They went to see about it, liked it and put
a down payment on it. I had a brother, Isaac LaVere Beck (called LaVere), and a
sister, Lila Lee Beck. The spring of 1930 we left the Lemhi River with everything
we had on horses. We were on our way to Monumental Creek. I do not remem-
ber how long it took us, but I do remember all the rain, snow, and wind. Lila
wanted to be put in the grub box so she could stay warm. I remember staying
over at Meyers Cove because it was snowing so hard. We also stayed over a
day at the Crandall Ranch on the Middle Fork. It is now called the Flying "B" Air
Strip. We went up Brush Creek over Two Point Peak. No trail there any more.
We went past Lookout Mountain and up to the ranch. It was way after dark when
we go to the ranch house. Everyone was so tired and cold. In a few days we
wanted to go riding so Jess had us gather around the table and said, "I have
something to give you and something to tell you. I do not want you to ever forget
it." Then he gave us each a pocket knife and a little container of matches. He told
us that if we ever got lost to put our reins over the [saddle] horn so our horses
could not eat, then let them go where they wanted to go. He told us that they will
always take you back to where you started. He said, "The matches are never to
be used unless you are out someplace and your horse or you break a leg. In that
case, build a fire and make good smoke and someone will see it and come. Your
pocket knife may come in handy in lots of ways." My sister Lila and I would ride
all over that [first] summer. We tried putting the reins up and kicking our horses in
the ribs to see if they would go home. They always did. My brother LaVere liked
to fish instead of riding with us. The salmon used to come there [to the ranch] in
the irrigation ditches. The field out there would just be covered with salmon. We
used to go out there and get them and put them under plants and everything
else. Also, when they were irrigating the fields, you'd see does and fawns all
over.
"In the hay field was lots of badgers and [ground] squirrels. One day Jess told me
if I would shoot them and bring him 200 tails he would give me an old single -shot
.22 rifle. Well, I wanted that rifle so it did not take me long before it belonged to
me. Jess gave all the shells I could use for the job and gave me instructions on
the care of my gun. Then he told me I was on my own. I still have the .22. My
son [James McCoy] learned to shoot with it, too, in later years."
25
"Mom took us kids up to Roosevelt Lake. We could see lots of houses in the lake
and some in the [mud] slide. We went into one house in the slide that was like
walking uphill. Lots of books and ledgers all over the floor. Mother said it had
been an office. Later, fishermen set fire to everything so they could land a plane
on the ice."
"At times Lila and I would ride down the creek to visit with Claude and Elsie Tay-
lor [see Preston: 2001:42]. In the fall we would go to Yellow Pine to school. In the
spring Jess would bring the horses to get us. We would camp at the Fern Mine.
The next morning, long before daylight, we were on our way over Monumental
Summit while the snow was still frozen. It was always a mess because some
places the snow was too soft to hold the horses. The summer of 1931 Jess
packed to the 1931 fire out of Chamberlain Basin. Mother wanted to go with Jess
so she left us kids alone for weeks at a time [see an account of this major wildfire
in Briggs 1963:75 -104]. In the fall of '31 we all went to Leslie's and Mary Willey
McCoy's shivaree [wedding party]. Everyone had a good time. In the fall of '32
We were camped on Johnson Creek, waiting for the people to move to Boise so
we could rent the Van Meter house [in Yellow Pine]. Mother and I was getting
supper over a campfire when Roy Elliot came running up. He told Mother that he
wanted the rest of his money right then [for the Monumental Creek Ranch]. She
told him she did not have it. He cussed her with language I'll not repeat. So Moth-
er told him to get out and he could take over the place next spring. He told Moth-
er he could sell the place for cash. Mother told him to do so." [Elliot sold the
ranch to Gill McCoy].
"On March 21, 1933, my half brother [Jess Vanderpool Jr.] was born in the Van
Meter house; first baby born in Yellow Pine. Mrs. Bill Newell, Mary [Willey] Mc-
Coy, Jess, and myself was with Mother. Mother did not want any of us kids and
let: us know it every day. When Jess Jr. came she did not want him either. I tried
to shield him as much as possible. I learned -to do the family wash on the board.
Jess taught me to make sour dough and bread made from it. He taught me to
cook other things, too. The summer of 1933 Jess got a job cutting wood for Dan
McRae at the Sunnyside Mine in Thunder Mountain. We moved into an old one -
room shack. Mrs. McRae ask Mother if I could help her in the kitchen. She was
cooking for the miners. Mother was pleased II brought home a silver dollar every
day. Every night when I got home the family wash was soaking, waiting for me to
do. When the work. for Jess was over we moved to the Mormon Ranch. Jess
went to work for Mr. Crandall [who was running cattle on his ranch and the
adjoining Mormon Ranch on the Middle Fork]. No school again. On my 14th
birthday I took little Jess for a walk. When We; got back George McCoy was there.
He had been up to visit Fred [Paulsen] and Daisy Tappen [up river at the Pistol
Creek Ranch]. He was headed for the Mile Hi [Ranch on Big Creek] to hunt
cougar with Ernest Elliot. In May [1934] we moved from the Mormon Ranch to
the Garden Ranch on Big Creek. That summer Ernest Elliot died [of spotted
fever]. He was buried on the Mile Hi. We went to his funeral. A lot of people
came. George and Myron [McCoy] were there. That was the very first time I had
ever seen Myron McCoy. He was later to become my husband of 54 years."
"The fall of 1934 we went to Yellow Pine to school. The spring of 1935 we
moved to the Bellingham Ranch on Cabin Creek. The folks had leased the ranch
[from Blackie Wallace]. We moved into boarded -up tents. Jess went to work for a
surveying crew with his pack string. Fall of 1935, no school. Fall of 1935 Myron
McCoy went to work for Blackie Wallace [Merl R. Wallace, 1895 -1972] on Cabin
Creek below us. He was packing the mail and feeding cattle. In the spring of
1936 Jess got a bunch of fellows together and built the cabin on Cabin Creek,
later called a lodge. Myron McCoy went to work again for [Big Creek Ranger]
Dan LeVan as soon as trail work began, spring 1936. When Myron got back up
to the ranch, he ask me to marry him. I told him I would when I was eighteen [she
was then 16]. Later that summer he brought me an engagement ring. Mother was
furious, so Jess told her to calm down because in two years I would probably
change my mind. From that time on things just kept getting worse. Jess went
back to work for the surveying crew again. Mother started to go with them but the
boss told her no women could go. He told her he was not going to take a chance
of her getting hurt. So things at home really got bad."
"In July, Mother went up to the store [at Big Creek]. While there, Dick Cowman
[the owner] ask her if I could come work for him. He needed someone to help in
the hotel. So I went to work with Mrs. [Lesta] Coonrod. I really enjoyed working
there. My brother [LaVere, then about 14] had gone to live with Dad. Lila would
not take care of little Jess. On September 14, Mother brought little Jess up for me
to watch. I told her I just did not have time to watch him. She told me I would
have to any way, so I told Mrs. Coonrod about it. She went to Dick and told him
we were so busy I had no time to take care of both jobs. Dick told Mother if I was
to baby sit, I could go home to do it. If she wanted me to work there, I could not
baby sit. She gathered my wages, then called me to her room next to the store.
She told me I knew who Jess was seeing and just would not tell her. I could not
tell her because I did not know. Then she cussed me and threatened my life. By
that time she was yelling. Lots of fellers from trail work and hunters coming in
were on the store porch and could not help but hear her. I was so ashamed of
her. The next day Jess brought the surveying crew in for mail and more grub.
Later that same day, Myron came in off trail work. They both heard all about
what had gone on. Everyone decided we should get married. Jess found us a
ride to Cascade, also someone to stand up with us. So September 16, 1936, we
were married."
27
In a later letter, April 27, 1996, Aloha McCoy wrote:
"You ask about Bill Adamson. I had never seen or heard of him until he came
in to Big Creek as [Ranger] Dan LeVan's government packer. For years, he was
[the Forest Service fire] guard at Burgdorf. They let him go, so he ask Dan for a
job. Mother and Jess [Vanderpool] split the blankets the spring of 1937. She
came back to Big i Creek but Jess never did. Mother took up with Bill Adamson,
then around Christmas got married. Bill worked two or three years for Dan. Dan
had to let him go because of my trouble- making mother. They then moved to
Cambridge where he worked in the sawmill. "They never went back to Big Creek."
Aloha wrote on December 2, 1998:
"I have five acres here [in Emmett] and rent the pasture in the summer to a
neighbor for his cows. It helps pay the taxes and I don't have to work keeping it
up. It gives me my yard to putter in. My [children] Jim and Kathy live in Boise so
I drive over there or they come over here ... I can look out my front window and
see the snow - capped mountains behind Horseshoe Bend ... It really is nice here."
The Story of
The McCoy Family of Yellow Pine, Idaho
The first school in Yellow Pine was held in this tent in 1920.
Back Row: Teacher Miss Smith, Eva EcCoy, Helen Trinler.
Front Row: George McCoy, Verna McCoy, Doris Edwards, Myron McCoy,
Ted Abstein, Leslie McCoy, and Gilbert McCoy
Myron McCoy was only five years old.
1 ,�,"' �%•#* � ' � �.'�� � ,�• a rt,. ' ` `�� t � } � .1 i � _ 4$ l b � ? �.
Yellow Pine, Idaho In 1931
Fred Franz home, School House, Teachers Cottage, Yellow Pine store,
LaVanders home, Albert Hennesy come, Archie McCoy's poolhall, and
the last house at the foot of the hill is the McCoy home.
Ir
Ak
�-
i �
The first school in Yellow Pine was held in this tent in 1920.
Back Row: Teacher Miss Smith, Eva EcCoy, Helen Trinler.
Front Row: George McCoy, Verna McCoy, Doris Edwards, Myron McCoy,
Ted Abstein, Leslie McCoy, and Gilbert McCoy
Myron McCoy was only five years old.
1 ,�,"' �%•#* � ' � �.'�� � ,�• a rt,. ' ` `�� t � } � .1 i � _ 4$ l b � ? �.
Yellow Pine, Idaho In 1931
Fred Franz home, School House, Teachers Cottage, Yellow Pine store,
LaVanders home, Albert Hennesy come, Archie McCoy's poolhall, and
the last house at the foot of the hill is the McCoy home.
Paf:e 1
The McCoy Family of Yellow Pine, Idaho
Mr. Archie McCoy (Bert) was born in Susanville, California. He
ranched end worked in mines when he was a young man. He went to
Butte, Montana and worked in the nines there. He left the mines and
went to ranching; on the Greybull giver above Meeteetse, Wyoming.
While there he met a young lady, Jennie Avery that had wrown -up on
the Greybull River. As a very small girl she had moved from Ulysses,
Pennsylvania (Where she was born), to Greybull, Wyoming in a covered
wagon. They were married in July 1903 at the McCoy ranch above
Meeteetse. They left Wyoming; and went back to California. One Yesr
later their first child Eva McCoy was born at Cedarville, California.
One year later their second child Archie Gilbert McCoy was born at
Paradise Valley, Nevada. The rest of the children were born in Idaho.
Some of the places are no longer on the map. The other children came
every two years apart. They are :Leslie James McCoy was born at Avery,
Idaho, Ina Evelyn McCoy was born at Lowrey, Idaho, Verna Luella
McCoy was born_ at Bruneau, Idaho, George Henry McCoy was born at
Mountain Home, Idaho, Myron Berdett McCoy was born at Mountain Home,
Idaho, Eight years later Billy Morris McCoy was born In Cascade,
Idaho. Ina died at age 2 years. Billy died at age 7 years.
In 1918 Archie McCoy (Bert) left his family in Mountain Home, while
he went to look for work. He went to work in the woods at Cascade.
He also freighted supplies to Yellow Pine with team and wagon. He
worked in some of the mines in the back country.
In the springy; of 1919 Archie sent for his family. Jennie loaded
all of their belongings into a wagon, put her children (except Gilbert
and Leslie) into the wac-on, and took off for Yellow Pine, Idaho.
She drove a four horse team as far as Horse Shoe Bend, where she met
Archie. He drove the team on into Yellow Pine. Gilbert and Leslie
stayed awhile with an uncle. A short time later Gilbert and Leslie
drove a bunch of their fathers range horses into Yellow Pine for him.
They drove them along the foothills around Boise. They all helped
build a nice log cabin, which in later years burnt to the ground
in the middle of the winter. In 1919 there was no school in Yellow
Pine. In 1920 the first school was held in a tent. The picture
with this sheet of paper shows the tent and the children of the first
school. flack Row of Picture: Teacher Miss Smith, Eva McCoy, Helen
Trinler, Front Row: George McCoy, Verna McCoy, Doris Edwards,
Myron McCoy, Ted Abstein, Leslie McCoy, and Gilbert McCoy. Myron
McCoy was not old enough to 1 o to school, but the teacher let him
Archie built a poolhall in Yellow Pine. It is now the Yellow Pine
church. He had a leanto on each side and one in the back. On one
side he had a restaurant, the other side was a oarber shop. He ran
the poolhall and restaurant. He leased out the barber shop. The
leanto in the back is still there. It was a woodshed. The two leanto's
have been removed. Archie later sold the poolhall.
Verna McCnv Evans is now the Mother of Jerry Evans The Superintendent
of Putlic Instruction at this time. We also have a Lawyer, A Mining
Ens sneer, Heavy Equipment Operators and Diamond Drillers in the family.
These are ;rF.ndchildren of Archie and Jennie McCoy.
This has been v:ritten �y Mrs. Myron B. McCoy January 1980
McCall, Id,:jho
Page 2
The McCoy Family of Yellow Pine, Idaho
Eva McCoy married Earl Wilscn. They had one Son. They moved to
Portland, Ore.pon.
Gilcert (kno in fs Gill) helpe(l his father frieght supplies from
Cascade to Yellow Pine in the summer months. In the winter he would
run a trap line. He married Blanche Willey. She was born and grew
up on the South Fork of the Salmon River. They had four children.
In 1927 he went to work for �titnite Mining Company. He packed a
Company packstring with supplies and Machinery. There was not any
road beyond Yellow Pine at that time. It was just a wagon road from
Cascade. In the winter months he packed mail, and supplies to
Stibnite with a dog team. The road was finished to Stibnite in 1929
or 1930. When the road was finished Gill then went to work at the
mine. Gill used to travel all over to compete in dog team races.
He was very good at it too. He worked at Stibnite for ten years.
Gill. bought the Hughs ranch on Monumental Creek. It is six miles
below Roosevelt Lake. The forest service renamed it the McCoy ranch,
later naming it Monumental ranch. It now goes by that name. He ranched
and packed hunters for a few years. He went to work for the Forest
Service and sold his ranch to them. He was assistant ranger at Big
Creek, then acting ranger in Chamberlin Basin. He worked for the
forest service for ten years. He quit to go back to ranching.
Leslie McCoy when a young man went to work in the mines for Mr.
Abstein. He later went to work for Sumner Stonebreaker packing
supplies and machinery to Stibnite. In the winter months he r&n a
trap line on Monumental Creek. He married Mary Willey. He then
went to Stibnite to work. They had one Son. They separated after
two ,years. He then went up North and worked in the mines. He also
worked in the mines in Butte, Montana. He went to the Northern
part of Washington where he met and married Thelma Collins. They
have a daughter. They came back to North IdF +ho where he again worked
in the mines. They returned to Big Creek Where Leslie carried the
mail down the Creek for two years. He returned to Stibnite and
worked during the war. When the war was over they bought a ranch
in r ?nrf-Yin"VI % '_:•- t1 ;nc*'-r -.ri !TjV,n- r ^rir+haA frn-r r11if-.m- a ea vaarc rahcv
finally sold the ranch and moved to Caldwell, Idaho. He nought a
home, and a stocktruck. He spent a few years driving his truck.
He spent so much time from home, so decided to sell his truck and
go :;ack to ranching. His Son is a Lawyer.
Verna McCoy married Ivan Evans when he worked at Stibnite.
They met in Yellow Pine. They had one Son and one Dau_hter. They
later separated. Their son at this.time is, The Superintendent
of Public Instruction. Verna is now married to Jim Scovel. They
are living in Caldwell, Id_iho.
By Aloha fleck McCoy January 1980
McCall, Idaho
The McCoy Family of Yellow Fine, Idaho
PaF,:e 3
George McCoy vent to Bi T CreF-,k to work for Ern�:st and. Roy Elliot
at their Mile His:h ranch. fie tlelried put up the hay and packed
in supplies from Barren, Idaho. They packed out hunters in the fall.
In the winter months he would hunt cou ar, (;o otes, etc. He pulled
a pack string on the Chamberlin :asin fire in 1931. He married Doris
McFarland. They had two chil,luen, one boy an.-J). a girl.
He left Yellow Pine and vent to Pistol Greek, where he pecked in
supplies. He also worked in the mines for a short time. He came
back to Yellow Pine and pulled a packstring to the Thunder Mountain
mines. He then went to work for himself. Fe leased the Flying W
ranch on Cabin Creek, from Blackie Wallace. He ran the cattle on
shares. At the end of the lease he took his cattle to Chamberlin
Fasin. George and Blondie McGill became pardnerS at the ranch in
Chamberlin Basin. He stayed there until they sold the ranch. He
then bought a ranch-at Pine out of Mountain Home, Idaho. He worked
in the woods building logging roads. He operated the heavy equipment
on the road job. His Son is now building logging roads. He also
operates the heavy equipment.
Myron McCoy went to work for Milt Hood at the age of twelve. He
was pullin:r; a pack string of mules to Stibnite and Thunder Mountain.
He also packed out hunters. In the winter time tie did some trapping.
At the aye of 16 he went to work on the big fire in 1931 at Chamberlin
Basin. He placer mined at Thunder Mountain later going to work at
the Snowshoe Mine on Crooked Creek. Crooked Creek runs into Big
Creek of the Middle Fork. Myron married Aloha Beck. Her Mother
and Stepfather had the Bellingham place on Cabin Creek leased.
Her Stepfather with friends built the cabin which is now called
Cabin Creek Lodge. Myron and Aloha spent m�:ny years on Lookouts.
Myron worked for the forest service. Two years on Chicken Peak,
two years on Horse Mountain, one year on Rush Creek Point, two
years on Lookout Mountain. Myron then joined the Seabees and was
sent to Saipan then on to Okinawa until the war was over in 1945•
He came home and spent one more year on Lookout Mountain.
The next 4 ,Jcars he was assiv_tant Ra.np.er at 1 i.r Crc,-k ficadouarters.
He c_uit the forest service to go to work for .browns lie �.nd Lumber
Co. Later changeing to Boi , Cascade when they bought the mill.
Myron and Aloha had one Son. When he was six months old they moved
to McCall, where they boun:ht their home in Aia ^ust 1948. James
finished school in McCall then went on to the University of Idaho.
He is riow a mining- Engineer. The Myron McCoys are still living
in McCall.
Aloha Beck McCoy 1980
�� � L1 •i v r rr-ti'-
Myron "Skook" McCoy
EMMETT — Myron "Skook"
McCoy, 76, of Emmett, died Sat-
urday, Aug. 31, 1991, in an Em-
mett hospital.
Graveside services will be held
at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4, at
the Emmett Cemetery. American
Legion Post ##49 and VFW Post
##4900 will officiate.
Myron was born April 19, 1915,
at Mountain Home, the seventh
child of Augustus and Jennie
Avery McCoy. They moved to
Yellow Pine where he attended
school. He married Aloha May
Beck on Sept. 16, 1936, at Cas-
cade. Myron served during World
War II with the 130th Battalion of
Seabees. His battalion prepared
the United States base at Okina-
wa, and arrived there in advance
of the main Marine landing. He
worked at Boise Cascade in
McCall for 30 years, before retir-
ing to Emmett in 1980.
Myron was a gentle and quiet
man, and will be greatly missed
by all who knew him.
Survivors include his wife of
Emmett; a son and daughter -in-
law, James and Kathleen McCoy
of Salt Lake City; a sister and
brother -in -law, Verna and Jim
Scovel of Caldwell; four sisters -
in -law, Doris McCoy of Mountain
Home, Blanch McCoy of Anchor-
age, Alaska, Thelma Pirnie of
Caldwell and Lila Downey of
Cambridge; a brother -in -law, Jess
Vanderpool of American Falls;
and four nieces and six nephews.
He was particularly close to a
niece, Pat McCoy of Boise, and a
grandniece, Cindy McCoy of
Mountain Home. He was preced-
ed in death by his parents, four
brothers and two sisters.
Friends may call today until 8
p.m. at the Potter Funeral Chapel
in Emmett.
S; a1'- New5 MaY tg� y
COLLEEN L. "BABE" McCOY
Colleen L. "Babe" McCoy, 63,
died April 29, 1995, in Clear Lake,
Calif.
A potluck in Babe's memory will
be held Saturday, May 27, 1995, at
AlohaMcCoy's in Emmett, from noon
on. Friends and relatives are invited.
She was born July 7, 1931 at Cas-
cade to Archie G. and Blanche 1.
McCoy. Babe's early life was spent
on the family ranch on Monumental
Creek, Big Creek Ranger Station and
Chamberlain Basin.
Winters were spent at Emmett,
where she graduated from her high
school class in 1949.
After school, she joined the U.S.
Marine Corps, which she loved, and
rose to the rank of sergeant.
When she left the Marines, she
was employed by Duffy Reed Con-
struction on projects in Idaho, Mon-
tana and Nevada as a payroll clerk.
Later she moved to the San Fran-
cisco Bay area, where she was em-
ployed as a courier for Technicolor
and Purolator, which transferred her
to Clear Lake, Calif., where she lived
for the last 15 years.
She is survived by her mother,
Blanch 1. McCoy of Cascade, who
resides in a care center in Caldwell;
two brothers and sisters in -law, Rob-
ert S. and Reva McCoy of Aztec,
N.M., and Joseph F. and Patsy McCoy
of Cascade, also several nephews and
nieces. She was preceded in death by
her father, Gil McCoy, and her sister,
Betty McCoy.
_�.+ ,j teS V-kidh i�95
Blanche I. McCoy
Blanche I. McCoy, 90, of Cascade, and
formerly of Emmett, died Friday, Aug. 18,
1995, in a Caldwell care center.
Graveside services will be held at 2
p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 23, at the Emmett
Cemetery, under direction of the Potter
Funeral Chapel, Emmett. Father Leonard
MacMillan of McCall will officiate. A pot-
luck will be held following the services at
the home of Aloa McCoy, 1817 Pioneer
Ave., Emmett.
Blanche was born Aug. 15, 1905, to
Simeon and Minnie Willey at the family
ranch on the South Fork of the Salmon
River. She spent her early years on the
ranch until at age 16 she went "over the
hill to Warren." She later moved to Yel-
low Pine to attend high school. It was
there that she met and married Gil
McCoy.
They resided in Yellow Pine, Stibnite,
and at the family ranch on Monumental
Creek until 1940. They moved to Emmett
where the family "wintered," returning
to Big Creek and Chamberlain Basin for
summers. In 1951 they moved to Cas-
cade where they lived together until Gil's
death in 1964.
Blanche continued to live in Cascade
until 1974 when she moved to Anchor-
age, Alaska. While there she attended
the university and achieved her dream of
obtaining a "college education." She
earned several associate of arts degrees
and continued her studies there until the
age of 85. In 1991 she returned to Idaho,
living for a time with her son in Council
before moving to the care center in
Caldwell.
Blanche was proud of the fact that she
was the niece of Norman B. Willey, the
first governor of the state of Idaho.
She is survived by two sons and their
wives, Bob and Reva McCoy of Aztec,
N.M., and Joe and Patsy McCoy of Cas-
cade; eight grandchildren; 13 great -
grandchildren; and three great- great-
grandchildren. She was preceded in
death by her husband, Gil; and their two
daughters, Betty and Colleen McCoy.
ey�d�t July I�"3
Robert S. McCoy
Bob McCoy died Thursday, July 9,
1998, aftera long battle with heartdis-
ease.
Bob was born Nov. 25,1929, at Em-
mett, Idaho, to Blanche and Gil
McCoy. Bob grew up in the cattle,
ranching areas of Valley and Gem:
counties, and on the McCoy Ranch?
(Monumental Ranch) in what is now
the Frank Church Wilderness area ,
His early working years were spent
ranching, mining, and in various posi-
tions with the U.S. Forest Service.
Bob married his first wife Harriet in
1949, and together they had six chit -
dren.They moved to the back country
then to Cascade in the 1950s. He
worked inroad construction all around
the West until 1968.
In 1968 Bob began working on
pipeline construction which he contin-
ued until his death. He married his cur
rent wife Reva in 1967, and they lived 11
primarily in Aztec, N. M. Bob and Reva
traveled pipeline jobs from North
Africa west to the California coast.
Bob was a back country pilot at
young age. He had an artist's skill with,
pencil, charcoal, and pastels. He en-
joyed drawing animals and wildlife
scenes primarily.
Bob was preceded in death by his
father, Gil; his mother, Blanche; and
his sisters, Betty and Babe. He is sur-
vived by his wife, Reva; his brother,
Joe; and his children, Tim, Roxanne,
Mike, Shannon, Leslie, and Gil, and
their spouses. He had 12 grandchil-
dren, three great - grandchildren, two
nephews and one niece.
Bob's ashes were spread over New
Mexico desert area pipeline. A wake
will be held at a later dat9; For informa-
tion regarding this c_ ;Joe McCoy at
(208) 382 -3500; "'Mike McCoy of
(208) 634 -8602.