HomeMy Public PortalAboutYellow Pine, IdahoMail Carrier's Bard Trip
Cascade News
�._ January 49 1918
volume III
Number 41
D.G. Drake, who carries the mail between Cascade and Yellow Pine
will not soon forget where he was and what he was doing while other
folks were celebrating the Christmas holidays of 1917- On the in--
ward trip from Cascade, he was swamped in the poftenow just beyend,
the 'Situmit g where he had to leave his horse and muck his wary through
the snow about seven miles to the 41ohnson Creek station. From there
he carried hay back to the animal to keep it alive while he could
make the trip to Yellow Pine and back. On Christmas moaning Mr.
Drake left Yellow Pine on the return trip, reaching the abandoned
horse again after it had been marooned in the snow four days and
nights. After getting his horse out the intrepid carrier again
shouldered his burden of some forty pounds of mail and started again
on his snowshoed for Ca4soade, reaching this place after a hard trip
Sunday evening a little after dark.
Mr. Drake says he is suro the boys who are fighting in the
trenches have nothing on some of the fellows who are carrying Uncle
Sam's bags over the mountain -tops of Idaho.
Becoming alarmed at Mr. Drake's failure to reach Cascadep Frank
Taylor and Bob Vernon had started out to search for him. Upon
reaching Knox they found that he had arrived at that station with
the mail.
198
0
197
will be followed by games and races, and one of the main features of
• this year will be the frog race shared by all® Another high light will
be the exhibit of the wood work (50 some odd pieces) done by the pupils
during the school term. The articles shown this year are mostly birds
and various colorful lawn decorations.
84
Yellow pine Coming Into .Prominence
Cascade News
MY 30, 1919
Volumn V
Number 10
(From Daily Statesman.)
Cinnabar deposits in the Yellow Pine basin bid fair to bring
Idaho into the limelight as a quicksilver producing state.
For the last several. ,years there has been more or less develop-
ment of cirmabear cleAts and recent reports show some apparc:.tly
valuable deposits.
Specimens assayed in Boise during the last month from one of
the properties showed values double the leading California properties
and three times greater than the Oregon mines, according the United
States metal lur,gical, survey. Several properties are being developed
in the Yellow Pine.
Several outfits have recently gone into the basin to do develop-
ment work, although there is said to be three feet of snow on the
level there at the preeent time. One company, had a crew of men working
all winter in tunnel work.
Extracting the quicksilver from the ore is an interesting
problem. The cinnabar ore is placed in an air -tight compartment
and a fire built underneath. Pipes similar to those us:d in a, whiskey'
still run from the furnace, and when the prcipex temperature has bean-
attained, the are gives off a smoke -like substance which condenses
into quicksilver.
The quicksilver is then placed in flasks which, when filled,
weigh about 74 pounds each. They market value of a flask of quicksilver
is now about $80, allthoueh during the war it reached $120.
Yellow Pine Activity
Cascade News
June 27, 1919
Volumn V
Number 13
Iassrs. Frank Nowak of Chicago and J. J. Robbins of Poise,
arrived in Cascade Tuesday evening on their way to Yellow Pine,
where they will look over the Alexander and Williams Antimon— mine
and other properties owned by the Nowak Company, Incorporated, with
a view to ascertaining what additional tools and supplies are needed,
for the additional men to be employed f:-r the ceason's work. Extensive
orperations will begin about July 15th. Mr. Robbins expects to have
several large freighting outfits operating between Cascade and Yellow
Pine during the present season.
The Nowak Company is row ehi.ppi,r.L; to Cascade a cynn:.de plant and
other machinery which is expect-A to arrive within a few days and will
at once be taken in to the mines.
1199
Yellow Pine to Have Better Mail Service
Cascade News
November 21, 1919
Volunn V
Number 25
Mr. Frank Kerby is in receipt of a letter from Senator John F.
NWr,cntv saying:
'With further regard to the postal route from Cascade to Yellow
Pine, I am advised this morning by the Fourth Assistant Postmaster
General, Mr. Blakalee, that an accept,,ble proposal was received in
response to advertisement, and orders have been issued establishing
star route Na. 70317, once a week services during the entire year,
effective December 1, 1919` and discontinuing the present service from
the 30th instant.
In addition to performing once a week service during the entire
year, the contractor will be required to tra-wport not more than six
hundred pounds of mail each trip during the period from July 1 to
October 31, and not more than fifty pounds of mail each trip during
the period from November 1 to June 30th of each yeas.:."
Luc:
...new contract awarded to Mr. .abatei.n...
Cascade News
Volumn V
December S, 1919
The first mail. From Yellow Pins L dex the new contract, awarded to
Mr. Abstcin And effective Dec. 1, Came in on time 'WedneDdV, - evts�ng. The
mail was brought in by Albert aennessey, who had to break: the trail
through five feet of avow over the Cabin. creek xuvIt. Under the
schedulo the nail will leave fellow Fine every Monday morning,
arriving at Ca.scads WednesW evening; leaving this dace Thursday morn-
ing, arrives at Yellow Pine Saturday everLing.
6()�
Behne Still Boosting
Cascade News
June 18, 1920
Volumn Vi
Number 30
A. C. Behne of Fellow Fine arrived tuesday on his way to Boise
where he will meet. a party of eactern men who ere interested. in
mining properties in the Yellow Pine distxict. Rr. Behne says the
people of his section are much eluted over the prc3pects of being
linked up closer witlx tba outside world as a result of road work
planrad for the present season. He says the apecple who ' ve clung
to that section and pinned their faith to its wonderful possibilities
are now begining to realize that the waiting has not been in gain,
as rapid development is sure to follow the building of a read that
will make the transportation of machinery and supplies comparatively
easy. Steps are being taken to build a school house at 'fellow Pine
for the accommodation of a number of children who are now isolated
from educational advantages.
t
122
Yellow Pine Rancher Slain
Cascade News
September 19, 1930
Volumn XVI
Number 27
Alleged Killer in Valley County Jail; is Silent
Jim O'Neil, a man of about 50, of whom there is little known
here, is in the County jail at Cascade and will face a charge of
murder, as result of the killing of Charles Maples, well known
rancher and miner of the Yellow Pine section, at the Jim Carpenter
ranch four miles below Yellow Pine, on East Fork, Wednesday.
Maples was shot through the heart with a 35 calibre rifle and
was killed instantly. Coroner A. D. Robb brought tha body to
Cascade Thursday and has prepared it for shipment. It is expected
to be sent to Wisconsin for burial, where Maples has relatives.
According to F. A. Hamilton, an eye witness and companion with
Maples and O'Neil then at the point of the gun forced Hamilton,
O'Neil cold- bloodedly shot Maples while he was sitting on an oil
can in the door -yard talking to him. O'Neil then at the point of
the gun forced Hamilton to drag the body into a ditch a short distance
from the cabin and then started him for Yellow Pine, telling him to
report that Maples had accidentally killed himself, and told Ham-
ilton not to return.
Hamilton reached Yellow Pine at about noon and Sheriff Wilson
at Cascade was notified and as soon as possible, with Pxmseauting
Attorney .Fred Taylor, Coroner A. D. Robb; and Village Marshall
Enos Smith, left for the scene of the crime. They arrived at Yellow
Pine to late in the day to make the trail trip down the river to
the ranch, but went on the scene early next morning. They found
O'Neil at the ranch where he surrendered upon being called upon
to do so by Sheriff Wilson.
O'Neil admitted having started to get out of the country and
went into the mountains but said he lost his gun after placing it on
121
i
I.gWER OF CHARLES MAPLE BY.JIM 0aNEIL
Cascade News - - --
Yellow Pine Rancher Slain
Vol, XVI September 190 1930 #27
Tried
XVI December 17t 1930 #31
I*
i
i
124
O'Neil Received Preliminary Z.`--.ring Tuesday; Will Be Tried for Murder
Cascade News
December 17, 1930
Volumn XVI
i
Number 31 .
Jim O'Neil, alleged killer of Charles Maples at`Yellow Pine a
short time ago was given a preliminary hearing in the Probate Court
Tuesday. He was represented by F M. Kirby as counsel.
The hearing tools up .almost the entire day and numerous witnesses
were examined before a large crowd of spectators.
The hearing resulted in O'Neil being remanded to the District
Court on a charge of first degree murder.
123
D
the saddle of his horse and said he returned to the ranch because `
there was no use trying to make a get -a -way in that country.
The Sheriff's party arrived in Cascade with the prisoner Thursday
evening.
Hamilton, Maples and O'Neil had been staying together on the
ranch, O'Neil having come there within the past ten days after working
in the mines at Meadow Creek and Deadwood Basin.
O'Neil may possibly be brought to trial at the District Court
session in Cascade in October.
Vol" Z III N V yIEER 4r ---
I
A lb a e rt
Pion C�,erg
pas,
es M® �
Valley County of st one of its I
oldest pioneer` this week w =th
Albert C. Behnel
Alw passing 0i He died j
of. Yellow Pine, hosPita- i
at the St. :I'te hospital.
e into e
Was 91 yars
of age
�•. Behne, who the Yeilo'w I
,. cam ears
Pine country sr ore thaxx 5�sit of
ago and homesteaded the of yellow
what is now thereat faith . the
Pine. He had section, and old -
futur.e of that to refer to
timers xecall he !i�d g en-
Yellow Pine . as the comin
ver of Idaho.
He a well educated mar
Iw2s
and is largely responsible for Ye
low Pine's . school system. Fo
many years he served on the ei
low Pine school board, and
fact, was a member of th%Ie aL
at the 'time of his dea . Yeah
served as postmaster
pine for 35 years.
Wilbert C gehne ,was :born by
Tennessee and .t P in that sts
broth et who resist s by a ;
He is "also survived
unkno
,chose address is wn
I Yellow Pine Times - Yellow Pine History
* I History Project
"Step back in time in
Yellow Pine"
This page will be a collection
from many sources. While
you wait for the photos to
load, scroll down to read the
stories. More to come...
NEW 03 -25 -04
Thanks go to all the authors
whose works are presented
here for the sake of history.
"If you steal from
one author, it's
plagiarism;
if you steal from many,
it's research."
Wilson Mizner
(1876 -1933)
Photo from "The Middle Fork
and the Sheepeater War"
by Johnny Carrey and Cort
Conley - copyright 1977
Vq in I �111
Page 1 of 6
Yethm Pine as it lmkpd during t lee mine began optratian in 1936 and
mining boom.. Scheelite and stibnite evert tungsten was discovered in 1941. There
to necuaer the strategic minerair were 700 people employed in the area &
/tungsten and antimony. An open pit 1942.
"Yellow Pine is a 247 -acre community on the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River, surrounded by
national forest and 70 miles from the nearest town. This community, which just received telephone service in
November of 1996, is truly one of the last remnants of the western wilderness. Its history is as rich as the
nearby Stibnite and Thunder Mountain mining districts.
"Yellow Pine began as a settlement on the Johnson Creek flat, about 1/4 mile upstream from the East Fork of
the South Fork of the Salmon River. In 1906, Albert Behne established the first Yellow Pine post office and
mail service. Behne had a dream A grower of roses who loved classical music and opera, he envisioned a
thriving city complete with street cars. In 1924, he received the patent on the 47 1/2 acres where the village
presently exists, joining the Absteins and the Calls as property owners. In 1930, at the age of 76, he platted the
present day Yellow Pine town site.
Henry Abstein received the patent on the 160 acres north and east of the original town site in 1922. Although
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' Yellow Pine Times - Yellow Pine History
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Abstein's primary interest was mining, he was also an active horticulturist and may of the apple trees that he
planted are still living today. His original ranch has since been subdivided. Several members of his family
remain in the area to this day."
[From "Yellow Pine Cooks!" Community cook book organized by Y.E.S. [Yellow Pine Enhancement Society]
These postcards are from the early 1980's ? ?? - the back of the top one says...
Yellow Pine, Idaho 83677 Located 63 Miles North & West of Cascade
The bottom one says....
Park's Yellow Pine Merc. Yellow Pine, Idaho 83677 Owned and operated by Gene & Bernice Parks.
Everything for the Sportsman & Vacationer, including, Groceries, Gas & Oil, Hunting and Fishing License,
Post Office & State Liquor Store. Open Winter & Summer to serve those who enjoy Idaho's Beautiful back
country. Accessible in Winter by Snowmobile and Air only.
Pub. By Robert Fries, 1312 Brooklawn, Boise, Idaho 83706 Made by Dexter Press, West Nyack, New York
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Yellow Pine Times - Yellow Pine History
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Yellow Pine [driving in from McCall c. 1982 - disclaimer - I would not try this route in a Cadillac!]
"This is one of our favorite trips - breathtaking mountains, tumbling streams, idyllic campsites, yet on the
fringe of civilization where you can still buy a roast beef dinner with cherry pie and get there in a Cadillac.
"From McCall take the Lick Creek road and follow the signs at Yellow Pine Junction 3 miles from City
center. Leave the pavement here for a good gravel road. (The road to Yellow Pine is usually open in June
but don't count on driving to Big Creek until after July 4. Check locally.) ...
"The drive along this creek [Lake Fork Creek] takes you through forested country, past small meadows,
beaver damns and usually a few deer. Climb the summit (elev. 6,910) and you drop down on a canyon
where the scenery is carved of granite peaks that rival Yosemite. Across the canyon, ribbons of waterfall
cascade down the hillsides in silvery streamlets, and at Hum Creek a crash of water pours off the mountain
generating enough energy to power the county.
"Heading out for Yellow Pine you pass the Zena Creek Ranch (meals and lodgings) on a road that winds
along the Secesh and later the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River. Here you're in a rock
garden world where trees and shrubs and flowers vie for growth on slabs of gray rock that form the canyon
wall. We watched kayakers here, ecstatic with this stretch of white water. "First time Idaho," they yelled,
"But not the last."
"At Yellow Pine you find a bit of the old west in the dusty street and frame buildings, board sidewalks or
none at all. You get the local news off the bulleting board in front of the general store and cowboys have
the right of way. We met an obliging one named Don, riding down the dusty main street, left leg in a cast
and crutches slung across the horse's neck. He said it was a dependable kid's horse not likely to throw him.
However, we still felt relieved when only one of them went into the bar that morning.
"We liked Buck and Faye's too, a bar and grill where they serve giant hamburgers and where the mustached
bartender sports a cowboy hat and smokes cigars. Live music on Saturday nights and you can bet the place
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Yellow Pine Times - Yellow Pine History
Page 4 of 6
reels with boots and skirts, whiskey and tall tales. They make their own entertainment here. Big
community barbecues are featured annually on July 4 and Labor Day. When someone suggested a TV
installation on one of the mountaintops, the town spoke as one voice, "No, we don't want the damn thing."
They don't want phones either. They like Yellow Pine the way it is and so do we.
"The town has just about come full circle in the last 90 years. It began as a stop -over for miners on their
way to Thunder Mountain and today it has a small boom on because of new mining activity in the area.
Today the business of recreation also is important, both summer and winter. Larry Marks, owner of the
Yellow Pine Lodge says, "I've seen 150 or 200 snowmobiles sitting on Main Street on a Saturday night.
"All Services available here. Meals, lodging, gas and groceries.
"There are three campground below Yellow Pine. The first one, Yellow Pine is 1 mile from town, Golden
Gate is 2 miles beyond that and another 4 miles brings you to Ice Hole. All are attractive, wooded sites
along Johnson Creek. Tables, grills, firepits, toilets.
Excerpted from "The Idaho Rambler" Copyright March, 1982 by Betty Derig and Flo Sharp
ISBN 0- 9609754 Printed in the USA by Lithocraft Inc. Boise, Idaho
Above: present day Yellow Pine School
Below: 1st dog team for Cox's in 1928.
Lafe drove this team to school.
Photos from "Idaho Mountains Our Home" by Lafe and Emma Cox - Copyright 1977 by V.O. Ranch Books
"That fall Lafe stayed with Mr. Behne (pronounced Bee -nee), the founder of Yellow Pine, so he could attend
school. Lafe developed great respect for this gentleman. Mr. Behne was a well educated man who had been a
telegraph operator. He said he came from the East, but otherwise rarely talked of his past. He did a great deal
of reading, especially the New York Times, to which he subscribed. He looked forward to the papers coming
each week on the dog team mail deliveries."
"At night, Mr. Behne would go down to Homer and Sadie Levandei s place to listen to the "Amos and Andy"
show on the only radio in Yellow Pine. He always asked Lafe to go with him to guide him back to his shack, as
his eyesight was poor. He wore really thick glasses."
"Lafe's first teacher was Mrs. Dixie Hopkins. The student body was made up of Lafe and the Reed children
from the South Fork of the Salmon. The Reed children and their mother stayed at the Abstein place east of
town that winter. Each day the children walked over a mile and a half to school. Lafe says he can still see those
girls walking through the snow, their long dresses dragging with the buildup of ice and snow on the hems of
their skirts.
"The teacher's cottage was next to the store and the school house south of that. All the buildings were of logs
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Yellow Pine Times - Yellow Pine History
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until later years.
"The Yellow Pine School has a colorful history. When Lafe began attending in 1928, there had been a school
in the community for eight years. The first Yellow Pine school was in a tent in 1920. Eight students were in
attendance. In 1922 a log school house and a teacherage were built in the town proper. This was the school
Lafe attended. It has since been torn down, but the teacherage remains as a private residence.
"In 1936 a new one -room school was built with a woodshed adjoining. In a later year when the wood stove
heater was abolished and oil heat installed, the woodshed was improved and became a recreation room. Our
daughters both attended this school."
Ibid. Pgs 31 -33 "Idaho Mountains Our Home" by Lafe and Emma Cox - Copyright 1977 by V.O. Ranch Books
"We had a good time that winter [1943], meeting all the folks from Yellow Pine and Stibnite. There were more
people in this community, with more women and a school. Yellow Pine had 3 bars, a store, post office and
liquor store, and a hotel."
"Most settlers in Yellow Pine were associated with the mines, or had a business there. The folks played an
important role in establishing Yellow Pine, and people remained in the area for many years.
"People have asked us why so many lived a long life (up into the 90's) in Yellow Pine. The best answer we
could give was the clean fresh air. Surely not the home brew!
"Some of the earliest settlers were:
- Albert C. Behne (1854- 1945), who homesteaded in the basin in 1902. Established the village.
- Henry T. Abstein, a well-known prospector and mining engineer -- also homesteaded there.
"Mr. Behne and Mrs. Abstein were instrumental in getting a post office by writing letters -- to prove the need
for a post office. Mr. Behne established the post office in 1905.
- Theordore Van Meter, who built the first store, which is still standing today.
- Homer and Sadie Levander, who purchased the store from Van Meter in 1926.
- The Bert McCoy family, who built the first cafe.
- Fay and Iva Kissinger, who built the first large hotel in Yellow Pine. Fay also established the water system for
the village, or basin as it was called.
- Ray Call and Bill Lotspitch, who built the first sawmill, which was eventually sold to Bill Newell and Fay
Kissinger.
- Al Hennessy, who was a prospector and the locator of the mine at Stibnite. He built several houses in the
village and on Johnson Creek.
- The John Oberbillig family, who located claims on Johnson Creek and later bought the Stibnite Mine from Al
Hennessy.
- H. H. Bryant, who came from Boise in the early 1920's and bought one of the homesteads on Johnson Creek
that Al Hennessy had proved up on. The Bryants built a fox farm on their land.
- Clem and Ida Hanson, who homesteaded the 260 acres 8-1/2 miles south of Yellow Pine. This is our
retirement place now.
- Alec Forstrum, who homesteaded the 160 acres in the early 1900's just a little over a mile from the Hanson
ranch. In 1927 Alec sold this place to Clark and Beulah [Cox]. They built up the ranch as a recreational
paradise.
- Harry Withers, an early resident of Yellow Pine, who was a jack of all trades. Harry delivered mail by dog
team, had a pack string, owned and operated a diamond drill at the mines, was a cook, a storekeeper and played
music for dances. Harry died November 16th, 1994 at the age of 96.
"Along with the ones mentioned, many others followed, who also helped to make Yellow Pine and the ranches
so famous today. Much could be written of each settler, for they all contributed hard work and encouragement
to this back country village. Mr. Behne envisioned Yellow Pine to be a large city come day, in its own beautiful
mountain setting, but his dreams were never completely realized."
Ibid. pg . 117 -121
"In 1945 Mr. Behne, the founder of Yellow Pine..., passed away at the age of 91. The funeral was held in the
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Yellow Pine Times - Yellow Pine History
Page 6 of 6
school, on a day in August.
"A lady evangelist named Edna Abstein Lister, who formerly lived in the basin, returned to deliver the service
to the crowded room.
"It was a very warm day and her service was quite lengthy. It was not the type of sermon the miners, bar
operators, pioneers and other natives were accustomed to hearing.
"During the service one individual, with perspiration flowing from his forehead, became very perturbed. The
evangelist had just told the mourners to look out the window as she waved her silk scarf in the air. She said,
'Watch Mr. Behne's spirit drifting in the air!'
"At this point the disturbed fellow jumped up and shouted, 'I can't see a _ thing!' he stormed out of the
room.
"The evangelist cut the sermon short, finishing with sweet words of praise and respect for our dear friend.
"Mr. Behne's body was laid to rest near his home, which was against his wishes. Lafe and many others
collected money, a task that took about three years, and got permission to move his body to the proper Yellow
Pine Cemetery, next to his friends."
Ibid pg. 132
(right) Albert C. Behne the founder of Yellow Pine in
the late 1800's. Mr. Behne lived 91 years.
(above) Harry J. Withers, an early resident of Yellow
Pine, who lived to see 96 years.
Photos from "Idaho Mountains Our Home" by Lafe and
Emma Cox - Copyright 1977 by V.O. Ranch Books
Stories from Harry Withers coming next winter!!!
History Project Home Page
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YELLOW PINE �
Sixty -seven miles from Zascade, the town of Yellow Pine
is located on a flat Vnere Johnson Creek enters the East Fork
of the South Fork of the main Salmon River.
Yellow tine was first settled during the Thunder Moun-
tain gold rush in 1902. The first log cabin belon, —.zd to a
family by the name of Bair. Some of the other early settlers
were A.C. Be,hne, Theo. Van - Meter, Charles Werdenhoff, Albert
Henressy, and Henry Aostein.
1ne Past Office was established Many years before the
wain road .-.as completeOl in 1919. Before the road was com-
pleted -she old settlers would take turns carrying the mail
on clog sleds.
Homer Levander and Charley Ellison established the first
store In 1924.
The first sawmill was erected on the west edge of the
town in .1922 and was destroyed by fire several years later.
Two years after the sak-mill was bust, Pay Ki.ce-enger joined
Ray Call and Bill Newell in it's operation. A larger Jaill
was in the process of being moved to Stibnite. The oper-
ation of t.e mill produced most of the timbers for the Sti-
bnite mine and mill operation, also for the Yellow Pig
district.
Ili a report made by Professor D.C. Livingston, in.1919
stated that he believed that tme yellow mine area would be a
large quick silver producer. This brougit sever-I mining
outfits to the area to do development work.
With all the mining outfits coming into the Yellow PL-10
area, a school dietrict uras formed in 1922 and a log school
house was built -at that time. A year later a log cotta✓O
,was built to ho =a'the. school teacher. Mark Lawton Teas the
first teacher in the new school house. -
The citizens of Yellow Pine moved the school away from
the business district in 1934 to the Golth west portion -of
the town.. The school boasted of a piano that was taken from
the flooded town ®f'.Hoosevclt. In 19x19 the teacher at the
Yellow Pine school, lexa. Bertha White, reported that the
piano "preserved it ° e tone quality in spite of the ' dunking' n,.
The piano is still in use at tho school.
Yellow Pine boasted -a population of 3; residents in the
1950 census. It has become a haven 'for big game hunters,
fishermen, and in general peop -ALe who want- to get WWV, f ^oaa
it all and enjoy nature in We rarest forms. :
Lafe and &M Cox . have operated a dude ranch fo �,. the
past 40 years at the original homestead. The ranch is loc-
ated ten mile: from the townsite.
Also some of the businesses st��7 open in•the "winter
months and provide over night and food accodations for
snow mobilers:
Yoll�,w Pixie - refuses to the as most mining toan3 have;
done, and still lives on.
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m c ca'a 4t,5 �onlca,� (0(-(D j'e cE payt z -§ 3
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YELLOW PINE) IDAHO
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• car c aB News, May 13, 1951
19, by 3)o�. 4 Povey, Page 20.
II?71�?
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bHAILEY 29
FAIRFIELD 93
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•CAREY
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26'SHOSMNE FALL 15 N
84 IEROME AMERICAN
FALL •
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• ALBION
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OAKLEY 71 • _A4 _ n
SPENCER / ISLAt
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PALISADES ;
ALPINE
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`WLAVA INGS SPRING
&DOWNEY
' MONTPELIER r
OVID• •'L
91 PARISt 30
P ESTON dh GA I NT
�N�HOLBROOK i RNnn
> the retired life in Cascade. He is
have one son, Don, who also lives in
ellow Pine as a boy, Don has worked
most of his life. He is interested in
Aory and has taken information from
and notes made by his mother, Emma,
Don Campbell:
a link to Central
Idaho's historical past
By Jean Vance as
told by Don Campbell
"I recall in the early
summer of 1921 when I was
not yet five, my Dad took
me to a carnival that was set
up in Emmett, Idaho and
after I had ridden the horse
on the merry- go-round we
returned to the house to find
a group of ladies calling on
my Mother and wishing all
'good bye' for the following
day we were to board the
train for Cascade," said 73-
year -old Don Campbell of
Cascade.
"After arriving in Cascade
our belongings were loaded
into a freight wagon pulled
by two teams of horses and
we headed for Yellow Pine."
The Campbell family,
consisting of Mark and
Emma Campbell and son,
Don, first stopped at Dan
Drake's Lodge in Knox,
Idaho.
Established in 1898 by
Charles C. Randall, Knox
had become a major stop for
miners taking the Thunder
Mountain Road into
Roosevelt. In 1917 Daniel
G. Drake took up residence
and built other structures
which included a lodge.
Campbell's history records
show that the lodge was
furnished with 17 beds and
mattresses, 20 dining chairs
and two tables, 15 dressers,
40 place- settings of dishes
and three stoves - -one for
cooking and two for
heating.
to tell his story. "After an overnight stay,
... ........
said.
When fall came,
Campbell and his mother
left Yellow Pine with the
mail carrier Henry Abstein,
who with his buggy and one
horse, made the trip in and
out of Yellow Pine with
postal deliveries.
"Of course we stopped at
the half -way house our first
night out and in the
morning we encountered a
snow storm which made the
traveling very slow. After a
long day we arrived at Knox
Lodge to spend the night.
Campbell recalls riding
from the Knox Lodge to
Cascade in a truck driven by
a man whose right arm was
partially missing. He was
intrigued at how the driver
was able to shift gears by
putting the partial arm into
a ring that had been
constructed atop the gear
shift.
Emma Campbell rode in
the cab of the truck, her
son and another man
traveled in the back with a
tarp pulled over them. They
brought only their trunk and
bed roll and boarded the New
Plymouth -bound train at the
Cascade depot.
Mark Campbell joined
his family two weeks later
after completing the
building projects in Yellow
Pine. They stayed with
Emma's parents the winter
and summer of 1922- -only
to return to the remote
mining town in October of
1922 with a new baby son,
Charles M. "Scotty" who
had been born in Fruitland,
Idaho on September 25.
"We went back to Yellow
Pine by the same means and
route we had used in the fall
of 1921. On the way from
the halfway station to
Yellow Pine, the tire came
off the wagon and the driver
made an exchange for
another wagon with a road
crew that was working
nearby - -all this with my
mother riding on the seat by
the driver and holding my
three - week -old baby
Service building on what
was known as the "Hansen
crib" -- a structure that was
about 3/8 of a mile along
the bank of Johnson Creek.
It was made of interlocking
logs - -log cabin style - -yet
laid up against the stream
bank to stabilize the soil
and accomodate vehicle
travel on the new road.
Campbell tells of an
experience when he and
another boy were trying
their skill at using a cross
cut saw:
"I had my finger along
the teeth when he pulled the
saw cutting off the
fingernail and into the
finger. Of course, there were
no medical facilities and
infection prevention was a
great concern.
"My mother mixed up a
remedy called "white
linament" which consisted
of eggs, turpentine and
vinegar. After the first
application you would have
to run a mile to catch the
person to apply it again. but
it sure did prevent any
infection!"
Campbell says he still
has the recipe if anyone
would like to try it.
Most of the time the
children played with
imaginary stick horses or
trucks. In the wintertime
they "did lots of skiing!"
In 1923, $36.000 was
allotted for the completion
of the road which would be
open in August to truck
traffic. All during the
summer months Mark
Campbell worked on that
road.
In the fall, the school
house completed, school
began on October 15 with
Miss Ida Woosley as
teacher; and, with nine
students.
The school house was
described as "nicely finished
with beaver board (a type of
compressed cardboard that
was used in place of modern-
day sheet rock- -about 1/4
inch thick), good windows
and a fine floor."
we went on to the halfway
ctation which only had a
"
bunk house - -of sorts, a
stable for the horses and
another outbuilding. We
stayed there the second
night," he said.
The next day the
Campbell family arrived in
Yellow Pine where they
found a one room shack
with two amenities - -a
cookstove in the corner and
a bunk on which they could
throw out their bed rolls.
said.
When fall came,
Campbell and his mother
left Yellow Pine with the
mail carrier Henry Abstein,
who with his buggy and one
horse, made the trip in and
out of Yellow Pine with
postal deliveries.
"Of course we stopped at
the half -way house our first
night out and in the
morning we encountered a
snow storm which made the
traveling very slow. After a
long day we arrived at Knox
Lodge to spend the night.
Campbell recalls riding
from the Knox Lodge to
Cascade in a truck driven by
a man whose right arm was
partially missing. He was
intrigued at how the driver
was able to shift gears by
putting the partial arm into
a ring that had been
constructed atop the gear
shift.
Emma Campbell rode in
the cab of the truck, her
son and another man
traveled in the back with a
tarp pulled over them. They
brought only their trunk and
bed roll and boarded the New
Plymouth -bound train at the
Cascade depot.
Mark Campbell joined
his family two weeks later
after completing the
building projects in Yellow
Pine. They stayed with
Emma's parents the winter
and summer of 1922- -only
to return to the remote
mining town in October of
1922 with a new baby son,
Charles M. "Scotty" who
had been born in Fruitland,
Idaho on September 25.
"We went back to Yellow
Pine by the same means and
route we had used in the fall
of 1921. On the way from
the halfway station to
Yellow Pine, the tire came
off the wagon and the driver
made an exchange for
another wagon with a road
crew that was working
nearby - -all this with my
mother riding on the seat by
the driver and holding my
three - week -old baby
Service building on what
was known as the "Hansen
crib" -- a structure that was
about 3/8 of a mile along
the bank of Johnson Creek.
It was made of interlocking
logs - -log cabin style - -yet
laid up against the stream
bank to stabilize the soil
and accomodate vehicle
travel on the new road.
Campbell tells of an
experience when he and
another boy were trying
their skill at using a cross
cut saw:
"I had my finger along
the teeth when he pulled the
saw cutting off the
fingernail and into the
finger. Of course, there were
no medical facilities and
infection prevention was a
great concern.
"My mother mixed up a
remedy called "white
linament" which consisted
of eggs, turpentine and
vinegar. After the first
application you would have
to run a mile to catch the
person to apply it again. but
it sure did prevent any
infection!"
Campbell says he still
has the recipe if anyone
would like to try it.
Most of the time the
children played with
imaginary stick horses or
trucks. In the wintertime
they "did lots of skiing!"
In 1923, $36.000 was
allotted for the completion
of the road which would be
open in August to truck
traffic. All during the
summer months Mark
Campbell worked on that
road.
In the fall, the school
house completed, school
began on October 15 with
Miss Ida Woosley as
teacher; and, with nine
students.
The school house was
described as "nicely finished
with beaver board (a type of
compressed cardboard that
was used in place of modern-
day sheet rock- -about 1/4
inch thick), good windows
and a fine floor."
Don Campbell now enjoys the retired life in Cascade. He is
married to Rachel and they have one son, Don, who also lives in
Cascade. Having lived at Yellow Pine as a boy, Don has worked
in banking and accounting most of his life. He is interested in
preserving Yellow Pine history and has taken information from
public record, from pictures and notes made by his mother, Emma,
and from his own experience to tell his story. "After an overnight stay,
we went on to the halfway
station which only had a
°moo ' „ bunk house - -of sorts, a
i stable for the horses and
oo -. - oa - - -t
a link to
Idaho's hi!
By Jean Vance as
told by Don Campbell
"I recall in the early
summer of 1921 when I was
not yet five, my Dad took
me to a carnival that was set
up in Emmett, Idaho and
after I had ridden the horse
on the merry- go-round we
returned to the house to find
a group of ladies calling on
my Mother and wishing all
'good bye' for the following
day we were to board the
train for Cascade," said 73-
year -old Don Campbell of
Cascade.
"After arriving in Cascade
our belongings were loaded
into a freight wagon pulled
by two teams of horses and
we headed for Yellow Pine."
The Campbell family,
consisting of Mark and
Emma Campbell and son,
Don, first stopped at Dan
Drake's Lodge in Knox,
Idaho.
Established in 1898 by
a Charles C. Randall, Knox
had become a major stop for
miners taking the Thunder
Mountain Road into
Roosevelt. In 1917 Daniel
G. Drake took up residence
and built other structures
which included a lodge.
Campbell's history records
show that the lodge was
S furnished with 17 beds and
mattresses, 20 dining chairs
and two tables, 15 dressers,
40 place - settings of dishes
and three stoves - -one for
cooking and two for
heating.
another outbuilding. We
stayed there the second
night," he said.
The next day the
Campbell family arrived in
Yellow Pine where they
found a one room shack
with two amenities - -a
cookstove in the corner and
a bunk on which they could
throw out their bed rolls.
They moved in and spent
the summer living in the
shack along Johnson Creek.
"The rest of the summer
my father walked into
students:
Song - "America" by the
audience; recitation -
"Christmas Greeting" by
Leona Wellman; recitation -
"The Sugar Plum" by
Donald Campbell; recitation -
"The Only Kid" by George
Hollan; play - "A Visit to
Santa" by the school; solo-
"Silent Night" by Louise
Valberg; recitation - "That's
Christmas" by Myron
Hollan; recitation - "The
Mortgage on the Farm" by
Verna Hollan; recitation - "A
Southern Christmas" by
Donald Kennedy; play -
"Celebrating Christmas in
Mother Goose Land by the
school; recitation - "The Pride
of Battery B" by Leslie
Hollan; recitation - "A
Woman's Question" by
Louise Valberg; recitation -
"Always Christmas" by
George Kennedy; song -
"Don't Bite the Hand That's
Feeding You" by the school
quartet; play - "His Christmas
Tree" by the school;
recitation - "Preparation of
Christmas Sights" by
Donald Kennedy; readings -
"The Other Boy" and "If I
Should Die Tonight" by Ida
Woosley;play- "Santa Living
Toys" by the school.
Christmas day was spent
at the Johnson Creek
Ranger Station with the
Lorin Wellman family who
traveled the four miles
between Yellow Pine and
the Ranger Station by horse
drawn sleigh. (Mr. Wellman
was in charge of the
previously mentioned
"Hansen Crib.)"
During the winter of
1924 several people became
ill and were taken out of
Yellow Pine to see the
doctor in Cascade by John
Croco, the mail carrier. He
was assisted by Ray Call,
Mark Campbell or Lorin
Wellman. Alex Forstom,
65, and James Edwards, 82,
were both transported via
dog sled. Even the teacher
Miss Ida Woosley became
and ill and left.
Campbell does not recall
if those who left ever
returned; however, a new
teacher, Miss Murphy was
brought in on the return
mail trip to oversee the one
room school.
With Campbell now in
the 4th grade at age eight,
his class boasted seven
students. School was
dismissed that May of 1925
with a community dinner
and, of course, a school
program given by the
teacher and students.
emerged as one of the
pioneers of the Yellow Pine
and Stibnite mining era,"
Campbell said.
In November of 1924
Mark Campbell would start
work in Cascade on the
Moore building which later
was known as the
Mercantile or Coast to
Coast building. Except for
occasional visits he
remained there until
February 1925.
The summer of 1925
brought visitors to the
Campbell's Yellow Pine
home. Mark Campbell's
mother and sister came to
see the family and Mark
remained in Yellow Pine
packing supplies by pack
string to the various Forest
Service lookouts. He also
spent some of his time
working on a barn at the
Fred Holcomb ranch located
down the East Fork River- -
four miles from Yellow
Pine.
"We moved from Yellow
Pine to Cascade in
September of 1925,"
Campbell said, "where I
started to school in the fifth
grade with more kids around
me than I had ever seen.
The teacher was Margaret
Patterson."
The family moved
because they had received
acceptance for Scotty, the
youngest son, to enter the
Shriners hospital in
December 16, 1925. Scotty
and Emma Campbell
remained in Portland until
February 10, 1926.
"I don't know the medical
term, but basically, his left
shoulder and arm did not
develop," he said.
The old, two -room,
Campbell log cabin still
exists as the back part of the
Mahogony Bar in modern-
day Yellow Pine.
"As I look back, I am .
sure my Dad was lured to
the area by a prospector's
dream of the 'gold mine in
the sky' as there were any
number of mining camps
and lots of activities in the
Yellow Pine area.
"My Dad worked at
building the sawmill in
Emmett during 1916 and
1917 and I am sure he could
have continued to live in
Emmett and do his carpentry
work but he wanted to do
some prospecting.
"My story is a very small
part of the happenings that
took place in the early days
of the area. I am sure that a
large number of folks
endured hardships more
severe than those
encountered by my family.
But looking back, I feel that
my folks, Mark and Emma
Campbell, were a vital part
of what took place during
those times." Campbell
concluded
ED U LEU
The Catalina 25 National
ampionship races are
heduled for June 25 -27 at
e Cascade, Idaho. The
es are being hosted by the
uthern Idaho Sailing
sociation, Rostock -Boise
arine (Catalina dealer), and
it local Catalina 25 fleet,
�4.
The tentative schedule of
rents calls for a southern
aho Sailing Association
gatta and Catalina 22
gional regatta on Saturday
id Sunday, June 23 -24. The
atalina 25 national
iampionships will follow on
[onday through Wednesday,
ine 25 -27. Winds typically
e light to moderate, with
ine temperatures normally in
e 70 -80 degree range.
Contact Bob Entwistle at
08) 345 -6141 for more
formaton.
I`
i
K
�is is not a fishing der-
: nity to learn or relearn
rvolr; 5 miles east of
ist Highway 22 (Warm
then south on the
voir turnoff. Follow ar-
1990 (Idaho Free Fish -
I not need a fishing Ii-
3h this day!)
PM (There will be plenty
:linic just to fish.)
rpen fishing skills! To
quire no competition or
.tax, be with your family,
iildren, your grandpar-
Ichildren, your spouse,
:quipment (some
if you don't have any),
nts, mosquito repellant,
nscreen! Ice cream will
31
Share The
_ Take A
FREE
(No
1(
p
1
1 I$ to
WHI
11
*Ftno♦ Trinc
PLUMMER �nv[Mr
91 CALDER
95 By Jean Vance as
n 3 told by Don Campbell
•) 'SCLARKIA "I recall in the early
HARVARD
MOSCO,VJ • summer of 1921 when I was
H, DEARY 0 ELK RIVER LOLO. MT.
I not yet five, my Dad took
3 0DOWOIRNHAK RES 12 me to a carnival that was set
IEWISTON• 12—"• •PIERCE up in Emmett, Idaho and
wl\HFSTER• 11 after I had ridden the horse
KAMIAH• 12 •LOWELL on the merry- go-round we
95
KOOSKIA •
COTTONWOOD *` J returned to the house to find
GRANGEVILLE• •ELK a group of ladies calling on
r
i ,L rd CITY my Mother and wishing all
WHITE
BIRD good bye' for the following
•GI,BONSVILLE day we were to board the
R IGG INS H FORK train for Cascade," said 73-
`` : M „ year -old Don Campbell of
NIW MEADOW
COBALT � Cascade.
YELLOW "After arriving in Cascade
I,CALL ", PINE 28
93 our belongings were loaded
101INC II DONNFII.Y w • PoNDS into a freight wagon pulled
WARM LEADORE
• LAKE 20 by two teams of horses and
CAMBRIDGE SF,ADE CHALLIS MAY MACK$INN e
95 75 20 •SPENCER II SLRA(IIC we headed for Yellow Pine."
JP Ey
•'.F ISER n• CP0.OEN 21 •STA_ ~,•AYTON3 22 15 SAINT The Campbell family,
�FRUITLAND NK OWMAN •AND \\ ANTHON.,0ASHTON consisting of Mark and
1 .�P.K 1EAN:OBSIDIAN
84 52 i� HORSE • 28 33 Emma Campbell and son,
FMME�SHOE •� 75 MAC KAY HOwE MUD REXBURG 33
55 BEND 0 33 DRIGGS_ Don, first stopped at Dan
CALCWFLL IOAHO tl •ATLANTA LAKE (15- 20 PPe
21 CITY fore SHN VALLEY 22 2 26 RIRIET3IR Drake's Lodge In Knox,
11.G FEaTHERVIILE 6KETCHUM ARCO •
Idaho.
o iHAIIEY 20 IDAHO SWAN �'
FAIRFIELD 93 26 FA_ LLSVALL Ey •,, ly Established m 1898 by
84 zo �- 26 PALISADES qc•6 Charles C. Randall, Knox
95 MURPHY �CAREY ALP 1:11 had become a major stop for
MOUNTAIN
HOME 75 15 miners taking the Thunder
SILVER HAMMETT c
CITY ,• (93 POCATELLO 34 Mountain Road into
BRUNEALJ0GL ENNS 2F •HOSMNE 15N HEN0.Y
FE 0.R' N ' BAIJCROFT Roosevelt. In 1917 Daniel
aPC,iQ'rP `0 84 JEROME AMFRLL CAN • �• 30 SODA G. Drake took up residence
BURLEY •LAVA SPRINGS �1
51 BUHL• TWIN HOTSPRINGS and built other structures
•
FALL Sy 30 37 •DOWNEV
• ALBION MONTPEL IER o which included a lodge.
ROGERSON• N 15 OVID*.�/ It
li 77! ea 91 PARIS 3D Campbell's history records
OAKLEY . 31 PCSTONtSAINT show that the lodge was
21 NOL BROOK
� HARLES furnished with 17 beds and
Don Campbell now enjoys the retired life in Cascade. He is
married to Rachel and they have one son, Don, who also lives in
Cascade. Having lived at Yellow Pine as a boy, Don has worked
in banking and accounting most of his life. He is interested in
preserving Yellow Pine history and has taken information from
public record, from pictures and notes made by his mother, Emma,
and from his own experience to tell his story.
mattresses, 20 dining chairs
and two tables, 15 dressers,
40 place- settings of dishes
and three stoves - -one for
cooking and two for
heating.
"After an overnight stay,
t t the halfwa
Total enrollment of the Yellow Pine one -room school in
April of 1925. (L -R) Donald Campbell, Myron Hollan, George
Hollan, Donald Kennedy, Elizabeth Smythe, Verna Hollan, Blanche
Willey, George Kennedy.
with two amenities - -a
cookstove in the corner and
a bunk on which they could
throw out their bed rolls.
They moved in and spent
the summer living in the
shack along Johnson Creek.
"The rest of the summer
my father walked into
Yellow Pine to work on a
log cabin which would
become our home. He also
spent time working on the
new school house and
teacher's cottage," Campbell
W%;; wen on o y
station which only had a
91
"Y ", bunk house - -of sorts, a
stable for the horses and
another outbuilding. We
stayed there the second
- :
night," he said.
�. The next day the
'
Campbell family arrived in
Yellow Pine where they
found a one room shack
Total enrollment of the Yellow Pine one -room school in
April of 1925. (L -R) Donald Campbell, Myron Hollan, George
Hollan, Donald Kennedy, Elizabeth Smythe, Verna Hollan, Blanche
Willey, George Kennedy.
with two amenities - -a
cookstove in the corner and
a bunk on which they could
throw out their bed rolls.
They moved in and spent
the summer living in the
shack along Johnson Creek.
"The rest of the summer
my father walked into
Yellow Pine to work on a
log cabin which would
become our home. He also
spent time working on the
new school house and
teacher's cottage," Campbell
Christmas" by Myron
Hollan; recitation - "The
Mortgage on the Farm" by
Verna Hollan; recitation - "A
Southern Christmas" by
Donald Kennedy; play -
"Celebrating Christmas in
Mother Goose Land by the
school; recitation - "The Pride
of Battery B" by Leslie
Hollan; recitation - "A
Woman's Question" by
Louise Valberg; recitation -
"Always Christmas" by
George Kennedy; song -
"Don't Bite the Hand That's
Feeding You" by the school
quartet; play - "His Christmas
Tree" by the school;
recitation - "Preparation of
Christmas Sights" by
Donald Kennedy; readings -
"The Other Boy" and "If I
Should Die Tonight" by Ida
Woosley;play- "Santa Living
Toys" by the school.
Christmas day was spent
at the Johnson Creek
Ranger Station with the
Lorin Wellman family who
traveled the four miles
between Yellow Pine and
the Ranger Station by horse
drawn sleigh. (Mr. Wellman
was in charge of the
previously mentioned
"Hansen Crib.)"
During the winter of
1924 several people became
ill and were taken out of
Yellow Pine to see the
doctor in Cascade by John
Croco, the mail carrier. He
was assisted by Ray Call,
Mark Campbell or Lorin
Wellman. Alex Forstom,
65, and James Edwards, 82,
were both transported via
dog sled. Even the teacher
Miss Ida Woosley became
and ill and left.
Campbell does not recall
if those who left ever
returned; however, a new
teacher, Miss Murphy was
brought in on the return
mail trip to oversee the one
room school.
With Campbell now in
the 4th grade at age eight,
his class boasted seven
students. School was
dismissed that May of 1925
with a community dinner
and, of course, a school
program given by the
teacher and students.
"It was during the
summer of 1924 that my
Dad worked on the buildings
at the Golden Gate mining
camp near the Johnson
Creek Ranger Station. The
camp was the undertaking of
remained there until
February 1925.
The summer of 1925
brought visitors to the
Campbell's Yellow Pine
home. Mark Campbell's
mother and sister came to
see the family and Mark
remained in Yellow Pine
packing supplies by pack
string to the various Forest
Service lookouts. He also
spent some of his time
working on a barn at the
Fred Holcomb ranch located
down the East Fork River- -
four miles from Yellow
Pine.
"We moved from Yellow
Pine to Cascade in
September of 1925,"
Campbell said, "where I
started to school in the fifth
grade with more kids around
me than I had ever seen.
The teacher was Margaret
Patterson."
The family moved
because they had received
acceptance for Scotty, the
youngest son, to enter the
Shriners hospital in
day Yellow Pine.
As I look back, I am
sure my Dad was lured to
the area by a prospector's
dream of the 'gold mine in
the sky' as there were any
number of mining camps
and lots of activities in the
Yellow Pine area.
"My Dad worked at
building the sawmill in
Emmett during 1916 and
1917 and I am sure he could
have continued to live in
Emmett and do his carpentry
work but he wanted to do
some prospecting.
"My story is a very small
part of the happenings that
took place in the early days
of the area. I am sure that a
large number of folks
endured hardships more
severe than those
encountered by my family.
But looking back, I feel that
my folks, Mark and Emma
Campbell, were a vital part
of what took place during
those times." Campbell
concluded.
"Anything you can do..." Donald and
his brother Charles (Scotty) Campbell in
August 1925 at their Yellow Pine home.
i4.
The tentative schedule of
,ents calls for a southern
.aho Sailing Association
gatta and Catalina 22
gional regatta on Saturday
A Sunday, June 23 -24. The
atalina 25 national
lampionships will follow on
[onday through Wednesday,
lne 25 -27. Winds typically
e light to moderate, with
[ne temperatures normally in
e 70 -80 degree range.
Contact Bob Entwistle at
08) 345 -6141 for more
formaton.
LA
his is not a fishing der -
mity to learn or rele2
rvoir; 5 miles east
ist Highway 22 (Wa
then south on t
voir turnoff. Follow
1990 (Idaho Free Fi
not need a fishinc
sh this day!)
PM (There will be pie
,linic just to fish.)
,rpen fishing skills!
:quire no competitior
:lax, be with your fan. ,
Share The Good
Take A Frie
FREE FIS
(No License
1990:
1991:,
iildren, your grandpar-
lchildren, your spouse,
equipment (some
if you don't have any),
nts, mosquito repellant,
nscreen! Ice cream will
e!
37 r
71
p7
COUP
A�M00 F
'
WHITE WI
'
112 Day,
*Float Trips
'*Prices
start at $30.00
*Group Rates
LICFNSED 6
'
Phone 621
home down !1
L - - - --
193
YELLOW PINE
Cascade News - - - - --
Henry Abstein Tells Colorful History of
Yellow Pine Area
Vol. XXXVI May 18, 1951 Tr '142
Mail Carrier's Hard Trio
Vol III January 14, 1918 #1 41
Yellow Pine to Have Better Mail S_.^vice
Vol. V November 21, 1919 #25
"new contract awarded to Mr. Abstein....
Vol. V December 5, 1919 #37
HENRY ABSTE IN TELLS COLORFUL. HIS'T'ORY OF Y`,ELL04 PINE NMNING ,AREA.
Taken from; "Cascade News "
May 18, 1951
Volumn XXXVI
Number 42
The foll -) ing historical account of the Yellow Pine dining area
was submitted.tb the NEWS by 'Mrs. Bertha White, teacher of the Yellow
Pine school, who in tilrn obtained mach of her information from Henry
Abstein, one of the earliest living settlers of that area.
Mrs. White says that as a teacher, she thinks the Yellow Pine
folks are unusually cooperative with the school and that they 'back
the teacher 100 per cent, which she says has made it a pleasant three
years for her there.
The Yellow Pine school has one of the smallest enrollments of any
school in the nation. The three pupils enrolled this year are Janet
and Roxie Cox, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. La£e Cox, and Dennis Peterson.
This is Mrs. White's third year as instructor there. Her home is
near Donnelly where she and her husband own and operate a ranch.
Mrs. White said that the piano in use at the school is definetely
an instrument with a !'past." It was taken from the submerged mining
town of Roosevelt shortly after the turn of the century, and has pre-
served its tone quality in °spite of the "dunking."
Mrs. White's story follows:
On the Stibnite road about 67 miles from Cascade, Yellow Pine,
Idaho, located on the beautiful flat where Johnson creek enters the
East Fork of the South Fork of the main Salmon, was first settled dur-
ing the Thunder Mountain gold rush of 1902. The attraction at the time
was placer gold. Some of tha old timers who bucked elements to help
195
put Yellow Pine on the map were A.C. Behne. Theo. wan Meter, Charles
Wer'1enhoff, Albert Hennessy, -and Henry Abstein.
The principal supply point in those days was Thunder City, about
four miles southeast from the present county seat town, of Cascade,
which at that time had a large general store (Logue Bros.) feed barn,
hotel, and saloon. In 1903 a road was constructed to Knox (at that
time called "Transfer" because the wagon loads were transferred to
pack mules and horses). The Thunder Mt. wagon road was completed
about 1905 via "Twin Bridges" on Johnson Creek, 12 miles south from
Yellow Pine..
The post office of Yellow Pine was established many years before
the road was finally completed to Yellow Pine in 1919. It was about
this date when the Cox ranch, Abstein's, Holcomb place, Behne, and
Ray Call homesteads were filed on. For the first several years, before
Star Route service was granted the old settlers in Yellow Pine took
turn about making trips out to bring in the mail. This at times was
quite a chore in the winter as was the case in later years, even with
dog sleds.
The Profile Trail was not cut thru until 1912. The Profile Mining
District was started about the same time in 1902. The trail travel at
that time going around from Profile via Quartz Creek over "Jacob's
Ladder" (back of the present Abstein Ranch where this trail forded
the East Fork of the South Fork) continuing on then through Yellow
Pine to Knox (Transfer) for supplies. The first Yellow Pine store
was started in 1924 by Homer Levander and Charley Ellison. From
this the surrounding camps were supplied by pack train. The road
to Profile and Big Creek was carried on through finally in 1931.
196
Stibnite camp was started by the Bradleys about 1926, JolLn Oberillig
and his associates having carried the prelimin.ari prospecting and ex-
plorations for mazy years prior. In .fact PrinCle Smithte discoveries
antedated the Thunder Mountain rush of 1902.
The first sawmill in Yellow Pine was erected in 1922 by Racy Call and
Bill Newell« Two years .later Fay Kissinger joined with them in a
slightly larger mill on the west edge of the townsite. This was destroyed
by fire several years later. The present larger sawmill (which at this
writing is being moved to Stibnite) is situated down the river 3 miles
and was erected by Fay Kissinger, and Frank Francis. Most of the large
demand for timbers and lumber for the Stibnite mine and mill operations,
and locally at Yellow Fine, was produced at this sawmill.
.&bout 1922 Yellow Pine School District was formed and the settlers
and prospectors around built a log school house. The following; year
a log teacherage or cottage was built. Turk Lawton was the first
teacher. Both of these log structures still remain in the town of
Yellow Pine.
About 1934 the Yellow Pine citizens decided to move the school
away from the surrounding business district and A.C. Behne deeded to
the school two lots in the uouthwest corner or Yellow Pine townsite.
Here the present roomy school house and comfortalble teacherac-i was
built. School has been conducted here ever since. Sometimes the at-
tendance has reached over 16 and at other times dropped to almost one,.
During the recent school term 15 pupils were enrolled, however only
three attended the full year. School -i11. be out Friday. May 18, with
the traditional picnic on that day honoring the pupils. All the town
folks will share with them in a big covered dish lunch at noon. This
197
will be followed by games and races, and one of the main features of
this year will be the frog race shared by all. Another high light will
be the exhibit of the wood work (50 some odd pieces) done by th; pupils
during the school term. The articles shown this year are mostly birds
and various colorful lawn decorations.
with the late Jake Jensen on the left, and, to the right, the late Joe Davis, the late Eric
Jensen and a friend who is tentatively Identified as John Routson.
Rack From Retreat
Early Yellow Pine District Settlers
Battled Hardships in Mountains
By EARL WILLSON
YELLOW PINE —This writer,
who has frequently been refer-
red to both sarcastically and
humorously as: "Long Line"
Willson, or preferably just as
"Gabby" Willson, has returned
to his retreat atop Profile Sum-
mit and the adjacent areas af-
ter nearly a months seige
in the Boise Veterans Hospital.
There successful efforts were
made to arrest a badly hemor
raging stomach ulcer that held
him in that wonderful institu-
tion completely cut off from his
regular line of research into
the lives of those early day
pioneers and their primitive
way of life.
In this area, a road of sorts
now winds its way up to this
cabin's steps where a salt lick
belongs exclusively to our ant-
lered friends, and occasionally
even a mother ventures near
with her two last season's "two -
heads" — albeit a little alert
but nevertheless content to get
her share of the mineral that
even the brightly colored birds
seem to have a monopoly on
during the midday hours.
Shadows Descend
And now, the deepening shad-
ows descend on this domain
from which we have such a
magnificent view of Coin Moun-
tain being tipped by the setting
sun, even as this promontory
is the first pinnacle over which
that celestial body rises to again
bathe us and our surroundings
with the blessed light of long
sweetly scented days and short
nights.
As we reminisce further in
retrospect, back to the turn of
this century, we can see where
the western slope of Coin Moun-
tain is covered with the stark
remains of dead and charred
lodge pole pines that tower
grotesquely above a new stand
JOHN ROUTSON, now living
in Weiser, was an early day
pioneer of the Big Creek area
of the Thunder Mountain dis-
trict. He carried mail into
edwardsburg over the Elk
Creek Summit and rained
and prospected, as well.
He is now in his 90's.
THE LATE Albert Hennecy
was the original locator of the
now defunct Bradley Stibnite
mine near Yellow Pine. He
owned other prospects in the
Thunder Mountain region and
packed mail into Roosevelt in
the early days. He died in
1956 at age 80.
1i
G `
of young seedlings and increas-
ed highland grazing made pos-
sible by increased light.
Even the eastern slope below
where our original cabin stood,
presented the same picture
(where now a thick stand of
balsam, pinon pine and an oc-
casional black pine towers into
the heavens and obscures our
former view down below where
Profile Creek meanders in a
southerly direction toward the
east fork of the Salmon River
and Yellow Pine Basin.
Early Traveler
This is remindful too, of the
late Pringle Smith — that ec-
Centric character, and native
born southerner, who each sea-
son made his regular pilgrim-
age into the back country with
his pack string. He refused to
cross any mountain stream
over any newly constructed
pack bridge, because, as he said,
he believed in traveling the
bridge that had carried him safe -
ly across during all the past
years.
Few pack bridges there were
though, in those early days, and
,the fording of swollen mountain
streams was often difficult and
hazardous in the rugged ter-
rain adjacent to the Copper
Camp on lower Big Creek, and
up toward Fern Creek and the
quick silver mining prospects
then owned by Pringle and his
associates, then later taken
over by the late John Ober -
billig and successfully operated
by that pioneer under difficult
conditions for many years.
Those were the days too,
when the late Albert C. Hen -
necy owned what later became
the Yellow Pine Mine and the
thriving inland town of Stib-
nite, owned and operated by the
i Bradleys.
Trip Recalled
Reminiscing further into the
past, this correspondent can re-
call a stormy ski trip across
this then "no mans land," and
an overnight stop with Hennecy
before continuing the trip into
the upper reaches of Profile.
That, incidentally, was the rug-
ged Irishm*n who, among other
exploits, had the grueling task
that many times forced old
Hennecy to take shelter in the
lee of a certain huge rock and,
an improvised lean-to. Here he
would subsist entirely on his
usual ration. of chocolate and
raisins until the storm Permit-
ted him to continue the trip on
his long skis. In later years,
"Old Al," was equally proficient
so they say, in the manufactur-
ing of a special brand of "moun-
tain dew," often referred to as
"squirrel whiskey."
T h o s e were troublesome
times in the wilderness areas,
when such characters as those
depicted in the accompanying
photographs lived that way and
loved it. Those were the days
too, when the mountaineer
might be overtaken by "cabin
fever," to the point where he
and his partner had violent
quarrels or even came to blows i
before spring. However, there
was that element of closely knit!
ties that immediately took over
when an associate or any far
flung neighbor needed assist-
ance. In this hour of need, all
differences were forgotten and
the only concern was to render
succor to a stricken partner.
v
No Communication
Often this assistance was dif-
ficult in those early days be-
cause of the primitive areas
vast extent, and the settlers of-
ten lived isolated in these far-1
flung areas where no line of
communication was available
and contact with a fellow man
sometimes extended into weeks
or even months.
Then when death overtook',
any unfortunate mountaineer,'
no undertaker nor minister of
the gospel presided over the',
remains. Usually a rough lum-
,
ber casket was the individual's
last resting place, but very of-
ten not even a wooden box was
available but the remains. were I
swathed in a blanket before be-
ing lowered into a hastily dug
grave.
Today many of these graves
dot the terrain all over the
back country, most of them un-
marked, but mute evidence of
the high cost of pioneering in
any isolated areas. Some of thej
more fortunate, however, are!
resting in a pioneer cemetery;
like the one in Yellow Pine I
where community civic pride
and mutual interest provides an
inclosure and the facilities nec-
essary to beautify the perman-
ent pioneer shrine.
THE RED METAL MINE in the early 1900's was the site of
active diggings. Left to right are "Profile" Sam Wilson,
George Blivens, Charles Ellison, the original locator of the
mine, and Henry Abstein.
vl( Cascau e- /�(,-Ws -
KISSINGER HOTEL AND
SERVICE STATION
YELLOW PINE
..The Kissinger Hotel, operated by
Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Kissinger, is a
new establishment in Yellow Pine,
having been in operation since early
last spring. The rooms are furn-
ished with new beds, mattresses,
and chairs which are the most up-
to -date and comfortable furnishings
that could be obtained. Short orders
and regular meals served at all
hours are cooked by Mrs. Kissinger,
who is a very capable and exper-
ienced cook. The upstairs of the
building is a nice sized dance hall
where pleasant and enjoyable dances
are held. Mr. Kissinger intends to
build an up -to -date and fully equip-
ped garage next to the hotel. He
handles Shell products and has ice,
for sale. Stop at the Kissinger Hotel
and Service Station when you are in
Yellow Pine.
HOUSEHOLDER HOTEL'
YELLOW PINE
Mrs. Lee Householder invites you
to stop at this cozy, home -like place,
which ehe has managed ,since June 1,
1936. Mrs. Householder serves
short order and regular meals at all
hours and her excellent cooking and
fair prices have won her an enviable
reputation. This hotel has eight
nicely furnished rooms which are
rented at reasonable prices. When
you are in Yellow fine, whether for
just a few minutes, a day, or longer,
stop at the Householder Hotel and
enjoy the conveniences and cordial-
ity that are extended by Mrs. House-
holder.
ALBERT C. BEHNE
YELLOW PINE
Mr. Behne has made his home at
Yellow Pine for 33 years. He Is an
authority on the Yelow Pine Mining
district and knows all the early day
history of the west and especially
the Yellow Pine and Thunder Moun-
tain country. When you go through
Yellow Pine be sure to stop and get
acquainted with this interesting old -
timer. Mr. Behne has been post-
master at Yellow Pine for 30 years.
This is the oldest postoffice in Val-
ley County. He also has charge of
the only telephone exchange in. that
section with a line to Cascade and
one to McCall. Mr. Behne has great
faith in the future of the Yellow
Pine district and, as he is _a very in-
teresting and convincing talker, the
people to whom he states his views
are also firm believers in the future
of this beautiful and rich section of
country.
WHITE'S FILLING STATION AND
LUNCH ROOM
YELLOW PINE
This attractive service station and
lunch room was built by Mr. and
Mrs. Ray White, and opened for bus -
iness on July 1, 1936. They expect
G -/93.:�-
to build several new, modern tourist
cabins to be ready for early spring
use. Bottled and canned beer, can-
dies, smokers' supplies, and novel-
ties are carried in stock at present
and Mr. White expects to have
draught beer by next spring. They
carry a complete line of fishing
tackle in stock and next spring will
put in a full line of sporting equip-
ment— ammunition, cameras, lunch
goods, etc. Short orders and regular
meals are served at very reasonable
prices. Mr. and Mrs. White, have
lived in the Yellow Pine district for
five years and are well liked by ev-
eryone who is acquainted with them.
Stop at White's Filling Station and
Lunch Room when you are in Yellow
Pine,
WM. NEWELL
YELLOW PINE
Mr. Newell has operated the saw-
mill at Yellow Pine for several years.
He makes-,mine timbers, planed sid-
ing and flooring, and any lumber
that is used in construction work.
He efficiently serves his patrons and
his sawmil is an asset and a great
convenience to the people of that
section. Mr. Newell is a long -time
resident of Valley County, having
lived in the vicinity of Cascade for
several years before moving his fam-
ily to Yellow Pine. He is an ener-
getic citizen and has great faith in
the future of the Yellow Pine Min-
ing Distrief.
YELLOW )PINE MERCANTILE
YELLOW PINE
The former H. S. Levander Co.,
store in Yellow Pine hhs been owned
by Callender's Mercantile since July
7, 1936, and capably managed by
Mr. Howard Evans for the past year.
This is the only store in Yellow Pine
and has a stock of general merchan-
dise— groceries, dry goods, drugs,
fishing tackle,' ammunition, and
mining equipment included. Mr.'
Evans is also special liquor distri-
butor for the state. The Yellow Pine
Mercantile is the oldest store in the
Yellow Pine district and it has a
good reputation for dependability
and service. Mr. Evans is very ac-
comodating and will appreciate your
patronage. Trade at the Yellow Pine'
Mercantile when you are in Yellow'
Pine.
7-7m Casca&, A�wi - 1 ,73s--
V O DUDE RANCH
JOHNSON CRWEK
The V O Dude Ranch was estab-
�lfshed'in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Clark
Cox, who have built a nine room
lodge that is the last word in hunt-
ing lodges.. There is a dining room
where meals are served by Mrs. Cox,
and a large living room that is furn-
ished in true hunting lodge style
stuffed birds, deer heads, bear skin
rugs, coyote skins, and a large stone
fire place, is fact, this lodge is per-
fectly furnished for such a place.
Mr. Cox is the perfect host and, as he
knows the country, he can tell you
where to hunt or fish. The V O
Dude Ranch is 55 miles from Cas-
cade by auto, in the heart of the big
game country and Mr. Cox has about
60 head of pack stock and equipment
to take out several parties at one
,time, at reasonable prices, and has
guides that are good packers and are'I
thoroughly familiar with the coun -'
j try. If you want to hunt bear, elk,
deer, mountain sheep, mountain
goats, cougar, go fishing, or just
go 'but in the wilds ", go to the V O
Dude Ranch on Johnson Creek.
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•
THE FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE in Yellow Pine is shown, along wizn tine w2wiier a au—sa.
They were constructed in 1922.
fold Stampede at Thunder Mountain
Brought New Life to Yellow Pine Area
By EARL WMLSON
YELLOW PINE —This story
is about Yellow Pine and its
site that took root among giant
ponderooa trees in a meadow'
filled with quaking aspens and
clumps of willows.
A remote settlement, it actual-
ly came into existence just after'
the well known Thunder Moun-
tain gold excitement, but was
of little importance even as a
tiny village, until the advent of
the Bradley Mining Company
operations, and subsequent es-
tablishing of Stibnite at the
Yellow Pine mine near the head-
waters of the east fork of the
south fork of the Salmon River.
At the time of the Thunder
Mountain gold stampede into
the Monumental Creek area,
Yellow Pine was practically an
uninhabited "basin" only a very
few miles above 'Dead Man's"
Bar and the Regan cabins on
the east fork where isolated
placer mining operations were
carried on by the sluice box
and the gold pan. Today, these
cabins are a tumbled down de-
cayed pile of logs, among which
a crude sign was found a few
years ago and is now on display
over the door at the Yellow
Pine mercantile store. The very
skillfully cut lettering showed
that the cabins were built in
1876, and occupied the winter of
1885 and 1886. Later the struc-
ture known as the Buckb.orn
cabin on Regan Flat, was ap-
parently occupied by a pros-
pector known as Fox.
• • « « • •
ALBERT C. BERNE, first postmaster, district mining
recorder and justice of the peace at Yellow Pine, is shown.
The picture wa,4 taken inside the post office just prior to
the turn of the century.
'Three Cabins Built
When this correspondent first
Ientered Yellow Pine in 1907, ac-
jcom anied b his father, the
(late "Profile by there were
only three cabins —the first to
be built in the area was un-
occupied, and the other two
were inhabited by the late Theo -
dove Van -Meter and the late Al-
bert C. Behne who finally be-
came the postmaster, mining
recorder, justice of the peace
and the founder of Yellow Pine.
Contrary to some people who
connect Yellow Pine and its lat-
er business and social activities
with the Thunder Mountain era,
may we set the record straight
by saying that it was many
years later before a few scat-
tered log cabin homes were
erected, or any places of busi-
ness opened up in Yellow Pine
—in fact not until the Bradley
mining operations at the Yellow
Pine Mine seem permanent,
that the hamlet even reached
the proportion of a village.
Then its fatherly founder, Mr.
Behne, who had applied for a
post office in 1905, carried his
own mail from the Johnson
Creek bridge (now known as
Twin Bridges) for at least once
a week until finally the Roose-
velt- Thunder Mountain r o u t e
was abandoned and in turn re-
routed to Yellow Pine about the
year 1909.
The site of Yellow Pine, more
commonly referred to in the old
days as Yellow Pine Basin by
the few scattered patrons of the
post office just preceeding the
turn of the century, was only
considered a very beautiful
meadow nestling among the sur-
rounding ponderosa forests, and
inhabited by denizens of the ad-
jacent areas —a place too, where
the few scattered sourdoughs
might drop into from the high,
snow blanketed areas during
the early spring months and
somewhat relieve themselves of
bad cases of "cabin fever" con-
tracted by all too much isola-
tion.
Homemade Brew
"Cabin fever" could be arrest-
ed, at least temporarily, by
drowning it in the contents of
Mr. Van- Meters open barrel of
home brew he called "old hen."
Actually a mixture of raisins
and other assorted fruits and
juices that made up a concoc-
tion so highly impregnated with
sugar that one tin cup full of
the alcoholic beverage would
either take one blissfully out
of this world or loosen the
tongue at both ends. Incident-
ally too, perhaps "Old Van" had
the only tomcat in Idaho that
could catch enough mink dur-
ing the winter months to keep
him in tobacco from the pro-
ceeds derived from the mink
pelts —at least that's the way
the story goes.
The Yellow Pine of today is
not just an attraction for the
surrounding "hillbillies" and the
outside tourist, hunter or fish-
erman. Denizens of the sur-
rounding yellow pine forests,
after which the settlement was
named, still wander through
and around the town even as
their predecessors did in the
ancient meadow, perhaps even
in pre - historic times. Even the
bear, whose ancestors came
down out of hibernation from
the high elevations early in the
spring to feed on Mr. Behne's
garbage dump, seemingly are
just as curious as to man's re-
cent endeavors in the village.
And no doubt attracted by the
scent of food lingering around
the homes, these clownish ani-
mals have actually disturbed
ladies' privacy by looking in
windows — unusual "peeping
toms" that after being driven
off, we are wondering whether
perhaps bruin did not return for
another look, so undeniably hu-
man are their many antics.
The first school to be held in
Yellow Pine was conducted in
a tent in the year 1920 by a
teacher identified as Miss
Smith, and who taught a total
of eight children. They were
identified as George McCoy,
Doris Edwards, Leslie McCoy,
Eva McCoy, Ted Abstein, Helen
Trinler' Myron McCoy and Gil
McCoy. A photograph in this
group submitted by this writer,
also shows the first log school
house and th teacher's cottage
(now owned by William Schier-
ding of Yellow Pine). These
structures were built in 1922,
and the village showed little
growth up to that time.
Somehow the Yellow Pine of
today seems headed in the direc-
tion of making a modern hamlet
that could well be likened unto
the fictitious Shang -ri -la of the
far away Tibetan mountains, so
vividly portrayed in the book
"Lost Horizon," the similarity
being in the isolation of both
places. The real and the ficti-
tious, the entrance covered over
and then through the blizzard
swept mountain routes, until the
final entrance into snow -free
areas entirely surrounded by
mountain pinnacles that tower
above a basin where compara-
tively long summer seasons, and
the greenery of a typical farm-
ing community, the likes of
which are comparable to the
Cox Dude Ranch on the ad-
joining Johnson Creek, and the
Fred Holcomb place on the East
Fork.
Comparable to Cascade and
Long Valley in elevation, but
much more protected from the
rigorous winter blasts, Yellow
Pine's present population of
"Johnny Come Latelys" are
profiting by the small number
of early pioneers who blazed the
trails and constructed the first
pack bridges to span the
streams.
Packed in Supplies
These first few settlers from
the high surrounding areas
were kept busy packing in the
supplies needed to last through
the eight months of closed trails
and the constantly drifting
snow. Then the silence broken
only by the snow -laden wind
and the cry of an occasional tal-
low hawk.
This was pioneering that
those now interred in Yellow
Pines pioneer cemetery are but
a part of the small group who
scattered to the far flung areas
of what is now known as the
primitive wilderness.
Where in those days such pio-
neer ventures as the old Werd-
enhof and the Sunday Mine at
Edwardsburg were in operation,
and only a winding trail down
Big Creek reached the Copper
Camp and the Jensen brothers
Snow Shoe Mine. These and
many other small operations
from Profile, Quartz Creek and
clear to the Ramey Ridge, were
the reason that held those men
snow -bound and isolated in re.
gions where only the melting
snows of spring could free the
trails and again make trans-
portation by pack or saddle
animal possible. This was indeed
pioneering the hard way.
area. He is shown with Theodore Van Meter at the Van
Meter cabin in Yellow Pine. The cabin is still intact.
-- — -- — YELLOW PINE'S SCHOOL in 1920 was in a tent. And this
photograph, provided by Gill McCoy, now living hr Emmett,
Route 1, and then a student at Yellow Pine, shows the-stu-
dent body. Identified are, from left, George McCoy, Verna
McCoy, the school teacher, a Miss Smith, Doris Edwards,
Leslie McCoy, Eva McCoy, Ted Abstein, Helen Trinler,
Myron McCoy, and Gill McCoy.
Statesman photo by Paul Brinkley- Rogers
Larry Marks on the steps of his newly reopened Yellow Piiieto ge
`es y ew Pine �s boomlnffolo
but keep the TVs in Bo "me"
By PAUL BRINKLEY- ROGERS
The Idaho Statesman
ELLOW PINE — When a small town
starts dying, the church shuts its doors,
the school closes down, and the saloons
put away the barstools and the whisky
bottles and hope for better days again.
That's the way it was in Yellow Pine, an old
logging community deep in the Payette Na-
tional Forest east of McCall. A town whose
population fluctuated with the seasons, it had
seen the number of its year -round residents
dwindle to only 22 last winter.
With the first snow only a few weeks away,
however, indications are that at least 50 to 60 of
the 100 people who have lived in Yellow Pine
this summer intend to winter over. A combina-
tion of the possibility of a mining boom and the
popularity of snowmobiling and outfitter serlow
Pine is being called a "boom."
The boom has meant the reopening of Yellow
Pine's one -room school —closed since one pupil
graduated in 1974; the dusting off of the Mahog-
any and Corner bars; the opening again of Yel-
low Pine's two hotels; regular Sunday calls by
an out -of -town minister to the tiny Yellow Pine
church; the rejuvination of the town's white -
frame Recreation Hall; and a significant rise in
property values.
A new demand for public servi_-Gii nas also
brought road crews from Valley County to in-
spect and repair the often hazardous dirt roads
linking Yellow Pine to Cascade and McCall, and
has started a drive to renovate Yellow Pine's
fire truck, a 1946 Chevrolet, and perhaps to buy
another water pumper.
But the town is still in 'no mood to acquire tele-
phones or television.
As Larry Marks, owner of the Yellow Pine
Lodge, said: "Two years ago someone said they
would sit an antenna on one of the mountains
here. The town said `No. We don't want the
damn thing.' That's the way it was and that's
the way it's going to be. The general consensus
of the town is we don't want phones or TV. We
like Yellow Pine the way it is."
Yellow Pine nestles among groves of pine
trees in a cloud - swathed, narrow valley, 4,750
feet high, formed by the East Fork of the South
Fork of the Salmon River. Mountains as high as
7,000 to 9,000 feet poke their peaks through the
clouds and in September the weather is so un-
predictable that one moment Yellow Pine folks
may squinting in bright sunshine and the next,
sprinting across muddy Main Street to escape a
downpour.
At the heart of the rebirth of Yellow Pine, per-
haps, has been the presence all year long of
about 30 to 35 men and women working for the
Canadian Superior gold mining project at the
ghost town of Stibnite, 14 miles east of Yellow
Pine on a dirt road also recently inspected by
county road crews.
"Superior Mining has had a big influence on
what has happened to this town," said Marks.
"But it may be just one of those years, People
realized that visitors who made the trip here
left disappointed that only Murphy's Bar and
the Yellow Pine Merc (Mercantile Store) were
open and that everything else was closed down.
"So, some people decided to do something
about it.
"I've seen 150 or 200 snowmobiles sitting on
Main Street on a Saturday night," Marks said,
"looking for some place to go. That's why I
bought the Lodge. We can put up about 30 peo-
ple here. Two other places in town can put up
about 35. I've seen it so crowded in winter that
15 people were sharing sleeping space in one
empty cabin.
"This has been the biggest boom this town has
seen for five or six years," he said. "Even the
roads are improving. They were in a pretty sad
state. People were losing mufflers and blowing
out tires. No wonder they didn't want to stay on
here.
"But when 89 people — people who lived here
and local ranchers — sent a petition to the
county this year it had some effect. The road
crews came right after Labor Day. They are
still fixing the McCall road and next spring, they
say, they may resurface part of it with- a neo-
prene coating."
Marks paid $85,000 for the Yellow Pine Lodge,
a large, rambling structure which once housed
a dance floor on the second floor. He bought it in
partnership with local outfitter Don Waller and
with Dave Howard, who is reopening the Fern-
croft Lodge at Smith's Ferry.
The Lodge reopened again June 28. "It has al-
ways proved to be a good business," said the
big, burly Marks. "There's a lot of good fishing
and hunting here. People come from all over
the world to Yellow Pine because it is in the
wilderness — on the edge of the Primitive Area.
We had a visitor last week all the way from
England."
Yellow Pine functions as a community with a
town council of five, led by Don Millen, chair-
man, a retired high school principal from Con-
cord, Calif. Three of the seats will be open next
year and, as Marks said, "There's a lot of inter-
est in politics again."
The influx of people this year, many of them
retired persons, has meant that land prices, al-
ways high because Yellow Pine is a tiny pocket
of privately owned properties in the middle of
federal land, are up.
There is not, in fact, too much land for sale —
a small, tin - roofed cabin without electricity
next to the Lodge is on the market for $20,000,
and across the road, a larger house is available
for $40,000. "They're not worth that," said a Ca-
nadian Superior worker, "but the demand is
there."
Much of the town council's efforts this year
have been directed toward refurbishing the
Recreation Hall and improving Yellow Pine's
all - volunteer fire department.
Two barbeques — one on Labor Day and the_
other on July 4 — raised $1,100 toward purchas-
ing new fire fighting equipment. During snow -
free months, the town's old '46 fire engine is
maintained by Tom Nichols but when he leaves
may
w Will
C'
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GRADUATION
BELL DEDICATION
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nall"or Frank Ohiirch
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Bill, Pcrrisffi Chairman.,
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STUT,,:-.'N PIIIW CTS
Art 'i!;xhibit
Decorations
Guest and Alumni books
Hostessp Seating -
Alumni and Teachers
Music Rrogram
Backrcom Floor Painting
Patch desIgn
Program Makeup
Rocm Cleanur,
Yard
Fullenwid,x.
Michelle Miller
All students
Tami Vyborg
Lanni. Nyborg, and
Amy Nontgomery
Camille Nyborg
Awq Montgomenry
Clark Good-win.
fit .St.i2�t3nt.9
"vudwin,
Joe Ali&olson
The
0 say. can you see by the sawn It early
What so proudly we hailed at the twiti't:t'" fast
gleaminF•,,
i hose broad strip —s and bright stars. throjjr, jj t�,�5
pAr:.lous fi.0 -.t,
O'er the ramparts we uatct,ed were sa r all aRrly
utreami.ns,
And the rockets reel glare, the boirls bursting it air
Gave proof thrcu7h the: night that our fla,;, was
still there.
0 say, does that star sppngl.ed harner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home cf the brave,
':qty Hy-T.r.
Eternal Father, strong; to aavGa
Who suffers from our rr_stles= way,
Who bids the m., ht3 ocean deeds,
Ire some appointer; li rats keep,
0 gear us when rre cry to thee
F,.:- .t ^s: ar, peril on the sta,
Cod Bless Ameri --a
!lad tss° America
Land *.�:z;t I love}
,.Lana bide her
And rijid- -- her
l'l ra: *r the nie:ht
a 1iPhI t from above.,
s ^,uuntain5
7 c. crairie
oc -ans while r:ith fc a?,.
—%s America
SPECIAL THANKS
Emma COX
Ruth flascn His Ycrq of School
Connie Fai'mzarurn
Iva Kissiager
Conn--'- BdrkelZ Art Wrrk
Decorations
4 iii Adkins B81. A, s ta"Ati on
Frank Schumak
1Afe Cox Pole and nat,allatin r
Farr X13singer Ground Work
Da'v'e McClinur�ck
Duane Fry
Laura 3codwi.r. T,:i':aw Ping Niwt
Pa tQ ries
Farley Goodwin Use of Truck for
Cleanup
Germ. 14ve joy F:^oNram
NO W-W
STANDING in front of a vacation A -frame he and his wife
built by themselves, Mery Bowman and little Shane Fee
look down hill on the town of Yellow Pine.
a baby bear alive. Photographs of na-
ture, alternately murderous and mel-
low. The mines, alternately booming
and busting. And, through it all, the
presence of the wilderness working it-
self into their lives.
The dogsled has been replaced by the
snowmobile; the pack train by plane;
the tenderfoot treds there now where
once he dared not enter. But, the spirit
of men like Lafe Cox still pervades the
area and the wilderness instills its
timeless lessons in those who choose to
stay.
People come and go in Yellow Pine,
some staying only a year, some staying
several. But just overnight one begins
to feel at home. Livii:: closely and
somewhat dependently o one another,
the people seem part of large loose -
knit family in which the predominant
feeling is one of acceptance. Accept-
ance is "well, because you're one of
us." Your faults, your weaknesses,
your strengths and peculiarities are all
known. In fact, they are taken with a
good shot of humor. For, is many
townspeople point out, in sup a close
community, personal conflict., are in-
evitable. And who knows whether it is
an instinctive sense of creating harmo-
ny or a conscious application of back-
woods wisdom, but the rich vein of hu-
mor which runs through the gossip, al-
ways seems to say — "Well, old Joe's
pretty funny, but then, so is life."
Gossip is mellowed with a wink of
the eye and a shake of the head. Eyes
sparkle with the first nuance of a joke.
The ancient humor is sparked, shared
and understood with but a crinkle of an
eyelid. If you are new, they will laugh
at your jokes, no matter how poor, and
if you are an old timer, your stories are
always good for a laugh, though you've
told them a hundred ways a hundred
times.
In all, there is a spirit of a camara-
derie — not forced — just human. Even
today for some residents, the hard
times come, with days of wondering
"Why Yellow Pine ?" To some, the
question eventually leads to moving on.
But for all, Yellow Pine is, if not a
Shangri -La, at least a stop on the road
— a home along the way, where you
can replenish your humanity and take
stock of yourself, before moving back
to the vaster wilderness "outside."
AIRPORT:
4 miles from ranch to Bryant
ranch (Aeronautics) Airport
RESERVATIONS:
For reservations or more information
write to —
Lafe and Emma Cox
Cascade, Idaho
Phone Boise 344 -0497
JUNE 1 to NOVEMBER 30
Lafe and Emma Cox
Emmett, Idaho
Phone 365 -4565
DECEMBER 1 to MAY 30
ROUTE and MILEAGE:
� Horseslf
.34W. B end
• Emmei'1: �
c,15':
1 9 6 3
CaEN Idaho Centennial
Celebration
` August 2 -3 -4
Square Dances Featured
Horseback Rides
Hiking
Tours to Thunder Mountain Areas
This Ranch began operating in
1927 and has continued under the
same family name. The elevation is
5,068 feet. Truly, this is a Paradise
of the Idaho wilderness.
1'
COX DUDE 0 NCH
Lafe and Emma Cox
"A Sportsman's Paradise —
in the Wilderness"
YELLOW PINE, IDAHO
Licensed and Bonded Members
of Idaho Outfitters and .p
Guides Association �.
Over 32 Years Experience
FISHING
HUNTING
PHOTOGRAPHY
HORSEBACK RIDING
TRAIL TRIPS
SQUARE DANCES
Fun and relaxation for
all the family
1963 --
N,
N
' McCall
UUM
RANC9
Landmar
4
Lak
• Cascade
;t5!
� Horseslf
.34W. B end
• Emmei'1: �
c,15':
1 9 6 3
CaEN Idaho Centennial
Celebration
` August 2 -3 -4
Square Dances Featured
Horseback Rides
Hiking
Tours to Thunder Mountain Areas
This Ranch began operating in
1927 and has continued under the
same family name. The elevation is
5,068 feet. Truly, this is a Paradise
of the Idaho wilderness.
1'
COX DUDE 0 NCH
Lafe and Emma Cox
"A Sportsman's Paradise —
in the Wilderness"
YELLOW PINE, IDAHO
Licensed and Bonded Members
of Idaho Outfitters and .p
Guides Association �.
Over 32 Years Experience
FISHING
HUNTING
PHOTOGRAPHY
HORSEBACK RIDING
TRAIL TRIPS
SQUARE DANCES
Fun and relaxation for
all the family
1963 --
N,
N
FISHIN�:
TROUT:
Rainbows
Eastern Brook
Cutth roats
Native
Dolly Vardens
June 4 to October 31
White Fish
June 4 to February 28
Steelhead
January 1 to October 31
SALMON:
July 15 to !august 20
Fishing seasons in this pamphlet are taken from
Idaho Fish & Game regulations for 1963; Big
Game seasons are taken from Idaho Fish and
Game regulations for 1963. These seasons are
subject to change. Please check current Idaho
regulations.
BY DAY LAKE TRIPS —
Guide per day
Horse per day
LAKES AVAILABLE —
Rainbow
Rock . . . . .
Caton . . . . .
Marion
Coxie
Riordan . . • -
Horseheaven
Black
Buck . . . . .
I o
0
HyUNTING:
�OUNTAIN SHEEP OR GOAT
September 1 to September 15
Guide, packer, horses and equip-
ment and food furnished on one
week deluxe hunt. Price per man
per week —
$300.00
Hunter furnishes personals, sleep-
ing gear, guns and game sacks.
Deposit of $100 each required.
ELK DEER BEAR
September 15 to November 30
Deluxe Trip: Same furnishings as
for mountain sheep hunt for one
week per man —
$225.00
Deposit of $50 each required.
$18 Special Hunt: Hunter furnishes
4 groceries. For one week hunt per
man —
7 miles
81/2 miles
9 miles
11 miles
7 miles
7 miles
6 miles
9 miles
15 miles
Some of the Most Beautiful
scenery Idaho has to offer.
$200.00
Deposit of $50 each required.
Preferably four to five in party.
Drop Camp Rates Only:
Licensed Packer per day,
$20
Horse per day
5
Pack out elk . . . .
30
Pack out deer . . . .
15
Pack out bear . . . .
10
Pack out horns . . . .
5
Packer and horses furnished only to be
packed in and out at this rate.
i
A CCOMMODATIONS:
Families and Organizations Welcome j
Horseback Rides-per hour ... $1.50
Breakfast ..............$1.25
Lodging and Meals: { Dinner :......:""'.:::: 2.00
Special Dinner 3.00
Per person
per day L °Mai °c
9.50
Per person
per week
55.00
Per couple
per day
16.00
Per couple
per week
100.00
Children 3 to
12 years —
Per child
per day . . .
5.00 U,
Per child per week . . .
25.00
Children under 3 no charge
Housekeeping
Cabins:
Per day
$ 6.00 to
$10.00
Per week
$35.00 to
$50.00
Lodge with ranch cooked meals
Modern and Square Dances
Featured
Camp Grounds
Available
License Fees:
Resident fish & game $ 6.00
Resident fish or game 4.00
Deer tag - 2.00 Elk tag - 3.00
Non - resident fish (season) 15.00
Non - resident fish (5 -day) 5.00
Additional day - 1.00
Non - resident fish & game 100.00
Non - resident deer only 25.00
Deer tag - 2.00 Elk tag - 3.00
Non - resident upland bird . 25.00
Please check current Idaho Fish & Game
department regulations for specific
areas and complete information.
b
ti
Family Moves, Takes Half of Students,
,Leaves Yellow Pine School `Quartet'
Little School Is Plenty Big for Student Body
T H E ENTIRE STUDENT
body of what must be the
smallest school in Idaho
poses for a "class picture,"
j o i n e d by three - year -old
Johnny Quast, left, son of the
teacher. Others, from left,
are Steve, Sandra and Tim
Heater, and Jeanne Adkins.
T h e traditional one -room
schoolhouse is the Yellow
Pine School, District 423.
Story and Photos
By MARY JANE WILLIAMS
Statesman Correspondent
YELLOW PINE — "I woke
up one morning and dis-
covered half the kids in
school were gone."
What had happened, first -
year teacher Jack Quast
goes on to explain, is that
one family with five children
had moved away, leaving the
Yellow Pine school with just
enough enrollment for a
bridge game — exactly four
pupils,
If there is a school district
anywhere in Idaho smaller
than District 423 (Yellow
Pine), it hasn't been heard
from yet. The Yellow Pine
school actually embarked on
the 1969 -70 school year with
10 pupils — minimum re-
quired by the State Board of
Education for maintaining a
school — but when the one
family's five students moved
away and another girl of jun-
ior high school age decided
to finish the school year in
Boise, only the four were
left.
=Tlie. academic atmosphere
rPeZ1,Xe -"A 1- , f4 day .
is somewhat informal.
Teacher and students —
Jeanne Adkins (fifth grade),
S a n d r a Heater (seventh
grade), Steve Heater (sixth)
and Tim Heater (third) —
often take field trips on
horseback. Even Quast's
three - year -old son, Johnny,
may tag along.
Jack and all four students
play the guitar which leans
in the corner, and Sandra
and Jeanne are teaching
each other to play the an-
cient Singer piano in the
schoolroom.
(The piano is a story in it-
self. Lafe Cox, local dude
rancher, says the upright
was laboriously carted into
the area during the Thunder
Mountain gold rush just after
the turn of the century. The
piano reportedly has endured
a flood and two fires, but
still produces beautiful
music.)
"Stuffed ballot boxes" are
supposed to be a thing of the
past, with the advent of elec-
tronic voting systems — but
there is such a box in the
Yellow Pine school. It was
about to make their debut as
b a i t this Memorial Day
weekend.
It seems there was no elec-
tion at Yellow Pine last fall,
so it was decided to put the
empty ballot box to good
use.
Half the classroom houses
a ping -pong table, a game
enjoyed by all four students,
Quast says.
He explains that when a
teacher is faced with the
unenviable task of keeping
even four to 10 children oc-
cupied inside, day after day
after day during the winter,
recreation can be something
of a problem. Indoor roller -
skating also has proven to be
a winner, he says.
What brought Jack Quast
— a native of Ontario and an
Oregon State graduate — to
Yellow Pine in the first
place?
Both he and his wife Sue
say they love the out -of-
doors, and decided that a
couple of years living in a
small cabin next to the one -
room schoolhouse in the
Quast says the biggest
teaching problem in such a
small school "is the diver-
gency in grades."
He must be prepared in all
subjects for all grades —
and at Yellow Pine, that
means grades 3, 5, 6 and 7.
(High- school students usually
f i n i s h their education in
other schools.)
Yellow Pine is located
about 80 miles east of
McCall. It is accessible by
road during the summer
months, but the 45 residents
are sealed off from the out-
side world by a wall of white
once winter hits.
A f t e r snow blocks the
roads, Yellow Pine citizens
must depend on planes —
most often equipped with
skis — or snowmobiles for
getting in and out.
School Supt. John C. Rid -
dlemoser, McCall, who says
the McCall - Donnelly district
"inherited the Yellow Pine
district because geogra-
phically it is closest to us,"
makes his visits to the tiny
FOUR CLASSES — and four students — are hard at work in Adkins; and thirdgrader Tim Heater. The school started the
the tiny Yellow Pine school, under supervision of teacher 1969.70 year with 10 students, but one girl decided to finish
Jack Quast (standing). From left are sixth- grader Steve the year in Boise and five others — all in one family —
Heater; seventh - grader Sandra Heater; fifth- grader Jeanne moved out of the district.
DUSTY AND SCARRED, this
venerable Singer piano still is
playable, as Yellow Pine stu-
dent Sandra Heater demon-
strates. Legend has it that
the piano was brought into
the area near the turn of the
century during the Thunder
Mountain gold rush. Two
fires, one flood, and many
years later, it still provides
music in the tiny school.
AN ONTARIO NATIVE, first-
year teacher Jack Quast is
an Oregon State University
graduate. He and his wife
Sue took the post in remote
Yellow Pine because they
thought it "would be great"
to spend a couple of years
living in a small cabin next
to the one -room schoolhouse.
THE IDAHO STATES I.AN, Boise, Sunda. , August 2, 1970
Yellow Pine Picked
As Trailer Court Site
YELLOW PINE — Ranch-
er's Exploration and Devel-
opment Co., Albuquerque,
N.M., has announced the
planned construction of a 50-
unit trailer court at Yellow
Pine.
James A. Mitchell, com-
pany spokesman said the
court will be located adja-
cent to the Yellow Pine
School, on Boise National
Forest land.
Mitchell also said an archi-
tect is drawing up plans for
the court, which will. house
workers at the proposed min-
. ing site at the former Stib-
nite Mine. Twenty -five units
are planned for most imme-
diate use, with the additional
twenty -five as needed, he
said.
There was no immediate
announcement of the size of
the proposed mining oper-
ation, or the beginning date
of -work at the Stibnite Mine.
Mitchell said company offi-
cials are awaiting assay re-
ports from the cores which
have been drilled at the an-
timony mine.
The mine site is the for-
mer Bradley Mining Co.
mine, which operated in the
1940's and recently has been
leased by Rancher's Explor-
ation and Development Co.,
Albuquerque, N.M.
Yellow Pine
One never ceases to learn in this
country. A person can come here,
smug in the faith of his ability, only
to find if you can do it the "hard
way" you'll just have to learn.
This was brought home to me in a
cross -punch to my ego when I had
occasion to keep the kitchen open
at Murph Earl's this last week. I
did real fine until some hunters
came in for steaks. - I've cooked
steaks in many places of con-
venience, but never a frozen steak
for the public. - And in Yellow Pine,
it is only frozen steak. I was in
despair at the results for I couldn't
seem to reach the exact point of
frying to please them. I tried, but
each attempt led to more em-
barrassment and more impatience
on the customers' part. Later I
realized I should have prepared
myself for this by asking. The
story soon spread, but no one
ridiculed me. They offered help
and advice; This is Yellow Pine!
Death of a hunter near Beaver
Creek, a Richard Nelson of
Eureka, California. Seems he rose
early, built a fire, made coffee and
in conversation with his partner,
fell over with a sudden heart at-
tack. I caught this infomation on
our last trip in to Big Creek, Sheriff
Merton Logue and Coroner
Burton Walker were eating at the
Lodge on our arrival. At this time,
we found Frank putting a relic of a
stove together, for the purpose of
heating the store. When assem-
bled, it turned out to be a very
unusual type of stove with many
fancy gadgets and decorations. It
could be classed as a real antique.
Day before hunting season in
their area saw many vehicles
lining the sides of the road to
Copper Camp with barely enough
room for anyone to drive through.
Packer (Jack) Gillahan, driving a
herd of pack animals to his base
camp at Crooked Creek found the
road barred by horses of a group of
hunters tied right across the road.
Some very disgruntled men found
the rope cut and animals loose
when they were awakened by the
noise of Jack's animals, finally
free to move on down the road.
Their irate comments cooled down
when they learned it was a road
they blocked. -- Not a trail!.
Our drive back to Yellow Pine
gave us many sources of
amusement. Real faith in luck
showed in the sight of two young
men in a very old car, pulling a
very old two -wheel trailer in the
advent they had their kill. As we
passed Profile Sam's cabin; we
noted a camper there, using the
cabin. Old sheets enveloped the old
structure to ward off the cold.
Every curve brought us to almost a
complete stop as an eager hunter
barelled around the bend and
traffic was heavy!!
On a single track road with turn-
outs, every curve presents danger.
The tales we hear are not always
humerous. One very upset hunter,
with a suspicion of tears in his
eyes, told of his hunting trip. --
Camped below Look Out Mountain
- he returned to his campsite after
a short hike, thinking to catch up
his horse for a ride up on the ridge.
Finding the animal missing, he
trailed him down the canyon and
found him lying on his side dead
from a rifle bullet. All he could say
was "This was my buddy, my pal.
I raised him- loved him. - A
beautiful horse, and he's
dead. "Whoever shot the animal
knew it, for the tracks pointed to
his quick retreat.
Looking to the mountains around
us in Yellow Pine, we see the touch
of Old Man Winter's cold hand. We
hear of snow, sleet, and hail from
the cold men returning from the
chase of the Elk and deer.
The end of fall is in sight, at least
in the high country. As Spring
moved slowly up to us, day by day,
so winter will move down to us, day
by day. e. ;j.
1I3o)71
J
By MEREDITH MOTSON
Statesman Correspondent
YELLOW PINE — From the air, Yel-
low Pine is only a cluster of roofs, en-
circled by forest, surrounded by moun-
tains, and buttressed by wilderness for
as far as the eye can see.
But, seen from the streets, that tiny
cluster of roofs is a world in itself — an
outpost of civilization — a civilization in
microcosm comprised of a few people,
a few buildings, and a wealth of local
atmosphere.
Neither a hippy commune nor a liv-
ing ghost town, Yellow Pine is simply a
town of 35 assorted people, young and
old, worldly or otherwise, who, for a,
host of different reasons, have decided
that this is where they want to live.
And living in Yellow Pine means
being content that the nearest town
(McCall) lies more than 60 miles away,
accessible only by rugged road in sum-
mer and snowmobile or plane in win-
ter. It means stocking six months
worth of food and fuel every fall, living
snowbound and fairly self- sufficient ev-
ery winter, getting "cabin fever" every
spring, and sharing your town with
"outsiders" every summer. To live in
Yellow Pine is to live intimately inter-
twined with the ways of nature and the
ways of your neighbors, but to main-
tain your distance and respect for both.
There, in the very heart of the wilds,
the comforts of modern technology are
accessible if needed, and the curses —
as good as a million miles away.
So, who lives there? As in every
town, there are the shopkeepers, the
restaurant owners, the laborers, the
bartenders. Only in Yellow Pine, there
are only one or two of each. Then there
is the school teacher, a few miners,
several odd -jobs men, and a few re-
tired couples. Many first came as min-
ers or packers and simply decided to
stay on.
Fred Bachich, now retired, once
served as superintendent of both the
Bonanza and Bradley mines in Stibnite,
(about 10 miles from Yellow Pine) and
has long since returned with his wife
Milly, "because it seemed like home."
Residents for 12 years now, Milly
smiles and says, "We have no reason
to go out, so we just stay here. Oh,
once we spent a couple winters out
But, generally they enjoy their quiet
life, reading, gardening, visiting their
neighbors. A life quite different, in
fact, from their experience back in the
40's when gold, silver, and antimony
mines were booming and Stibnite sup-
ported a bustling community of more
than 1,000. With its movies, dance hall,
bowling alley, recreation hall and
hometown newspaper, Stibnite sud-
denly put little Yellow Pine to shame.
Once the end of the road, the supply
station where pack trains and miners
bid farewell to the last comforts of
civilization before heading for the wil-
derness, Yellow Pine was not even that
anymore. With the coming of Stibnite,
the road was extended on to the larger
community and Yellow Pine became a
mere stop along the way.
Stibnite, Thunder Mountain and
Roosevelt City boomed all around, but
Yellow Pine never did become a min-
ing town. Yet, today, the old mining
towns are all wind- whittled skeletons
of the past, while, strangely enough,
Yellow Pine lives on. The adventurous
continually return to her fold.
Mery Bowman, who came to the
area at 16 to work on the Stibnite to
Yellow Pine road, is among the re-
turnees. Though he and his wife trav-
eled world -wide while he worked as a
mechanic for Morrison Knudson, "each
time we came back, we'd head for Yel-
low Pine," he says.
Now, at retirement age, they are
starting a small resort of vacation A-
frames there, "for people like us, who
reach the point where it gets pretty
hard sleeping on the ground." Perhaps
it was the mountain air in his 16 -year-
old lungs that first bewitched him, but
he seems confident that the old Yellow
Pine magic is still potent enough to
support his growing resort.
And Yellow Pine is growing, if not in
year -round residents, in summer cabin
owners, whom the community regards,
if not with jubilation, at least with a
certain wistful acceptance, perhaps un-
derstanding that the days are gone
when their private wilderness could be
theirs alone.
Though as akin to the wilderness as
any man could be, Lafe Cox, seems to
have understood this all along. As the
owner of the Cox Dude Ranch (roughly
10 miles from Yellow Pine), he and his
wife Emma have been opening their
doors to newcomers and old timers
alike for more than 40 years. There in
the solitude of the old Cox homestead
on Johnson Creek, Lafe grew up, went
to school, raised his own family, and
still runs the family style dude ranch
with fatherly pride.
He is warmly respected as a fine
horseman and authority on the wilder-
ness, and, from his lifetime experience
with the comings and goings of Yellow
Pine folk, he has absorbed a wealth of
history and character of the area.
One has but to sit by the fire in the
ranch's big front room to understand
the real spirit of the indomitable
little town ... tales of his 10 -mile treks
by dog sled as a boy to attend the Yel-
low Pine school; tales of the old school
marm — "a tiny little woman who only
weighed about 70 pounds soaking wet,
was tougher than iron, but the best
teacher I ever had," and tales of the
trappers, the miners, and the little lady
who brought a herd of milk cows in
when Thunder Mountain was booming,
milked them all winter, butchered
them for beef in the fall, "and came
out with more money than any min-
er!"
Both the toughness and tenderness of
the settlers is no more apparent than
in Lafe's old collection of photographs:
his mother bearing a coyote hide aloft,
wearing homemade skis, heavy boots
and overcoat, and yes, a skirt; the
men, a gritty weatherbeaten crew,
with the harsh climate imprinted in
their look, struggling one year to keep
Backcountry schools survive space age
by Jan McMahan
MCCALL —In this era of
"modern" education and sleek
classroom facilities, there are still
two not -so -sleek or modern
schoolhouses in our own area that
function as "remote necessary
attendance units" for resident
children.
Back at Warren, the old un-
painted school door opened of-
ficially for the 1973 -74 year for a
reported 12 elementary students on
August 30th. The teacher there this
year is Mrs. John Thompson, a 1973
graduate of Montana State
University, who, according to
Idaho County Superintendent Earl
Vopat, will be assisted by her
husband, a wildlife biologist, with
the upper grades, as well as with
the accompanying chores of
stoking the wood fire and shoveling
snow. The "outback" plumbing
facilities are still very much as
they were through bygone years,
and electric lighting depends on
neighboring storekeeper Jack
Pickell's hydraulic generator.
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have
moved into one of Warren's more
luxurious available homes, where
they have running water, a flush
toilet and their own small
generator, and, according to Mr.
Vopat, are looking for-
ward to the year's experience with
a lot of enthusiasm. Last year's
teacher, Dave Hudson, elected to
return to the Riggins school this
year.
Operation of the Yellow Pine
school, an unsettled question until
last week, began September 17th
under the tutelage of Mr. Richard
Miller, a certified teacher who has
just returned from four years in
American Samoa. Mr. Miller, his
pretty wife, also a qualified
teacher, and their three small
children are "hanging their hats ",
at least temporarily, at Cox Dude
Ranch, nine miles south of the
school facility. Two of the Miller
children incr0ased the initial
enrollment to- eight on Monday,
according to Supt. Serve Wilson.
The M -D district trustees had
tenatively elected not to re -open
the school this year but were over-
ruled by the State Department of
Education following protests from
parents planning to stay in Yellow
Pine through the winter. Two
problems, in addition to lack of
pupils, were lack of a certified
teacher and the very poor con-
dition of available housing for a
teacher. Both are apparently
solved at this time and classroom
education once again a reality for
the Backcountry kids.
Dubbed the "University of
Yellow Pine" by residents, that
school boasts commercial, modern
plumbing and an oil furnace. It's
really not so different from other
small educational facilities, ex-
cepting for its remote location and
relative isolation from the `out-
side" during long winters.
Those kids at Warren and Yellow
Pine don't have the luxuries of
after - school TV or a quick trip to
local "hangouts ". What they do
have is a unique late 20th century
educational experience and,
hopefully, instructional guidance
to prepare them for the wider
world in future years.
Superintendent Vopat noted
recently that his Idaho County
district also has a similar remote
unit at Locksaw Lodge on Lolo
Pass, where seven or eight
students were expected this year.
S
Yellow Pine
school bell
40
peels again
Transplanted Minnesotan Bill Erickson and his
By PAUL BRINKLEY - ROGERS
The Idaho Statesman
ELLOW PINE — The big brass bell is ringing once
again at the old one -room school in Yellow Pine be-
cause this remote central Idaho community has a
teacher again for the first time since 1974.
The teacher is Bill Erickson, 36, who just 13 months ago
had a comfortable job at an affluent school in the Minneapo-
lis suburbs. He finds himself today teaching eight children in
grades 1 through 8 in a town with no telephones, no television
but a good deal of fresh mountain air.
Coming to Yellow Pine, summer population 100, was actu-
Statesman photo by Paul Brinkley- Rogers
eight charges at "University of Yellow Pine.'
ally a step upward for the small, stocky Erickson. Last year
he taught in Big Creek, population 16, an even more isolated
backcountry hamlet 15 miles north of Yellow Pine.
It was not until late summer that Yellow Pine, 100 miles
northeast of Boise on the edge of the Idaho Primitive Area,
realized it might have enough children on hand to open its
schoolhouse again.
Part of the McCall - Donnelly School District, even though
McCall is 69 miles distant over a rough mountain road, Yel-
low Pine had to guarantee that at least seven children would
be ready to go to school in August to meet the district's requi-
rements.
Said Larry Marks, owner of the Yellow Pine Lodge and
father of Russell, 13, and Rodney, 11, both students at the
School
(Continued from Page 1F)
school, "We found out in late July we would
have half a dozen kids here.
"Carol Sullivan wrote a letter to Serve Wil-
son, superintendent of schools in McCall, telling
him we wanted to open up the school again. He
radioed back and said he'd be here in mid -Aug-
ust to look at the situation and he carne, met
with the parents, and got them to sign forms
guaranteeing that their children would be M
school."
Erickson, meanwhile, had been working dur-
ing the summer for the Forest Service at Stib-
nite — the old mining town 14 miles from Yellow
Pine — leading a group of youngsters salvaging
timber from ruined buildings.
"I came out to Idaho without a job," Erickson
said, "because I wanted to be in the mountains
and get away from all the driving in the city."
He took a leave of absence from his job in Min-
nesota at the Rosemont Middle School where he
taught life sciences to the sixth and seventh
grades. After the first teacher became ill,
Erickson over teaching duties at Big Creek.
Instead of driving to work, he said, he found
himself cross - country skiing to the one -room
schoolhouse there. It was very different from
Rosemont with its 1,500 pupils. "At Big Creek, I
did all the janatorial work myself," he said. "I
kept the wood - burning stove in the school going
too."
Erickson Liked the solitary life, he decided.
When he heard about the possibility that Yellow
Pine's school might open up again, he applied
for the position. In his favor was the fact that he
has a child of school age, David, 7, which
brought the number of kids of school -age to
eight. His other child is Joshua, 2.
More children are onhand this year because
Yellow Pine is experiencing a modest popula-
tion boom. About 50 to 60 of the people who lived
in the picturesque community phis summer are
expected to winter over, tied to the town by log-
ging, and by the outfitting and snowmobiling
services it provides.
Last winter, the only child to spend the winter
in Yellow Pine was Michelle Sullivan, the
daughter of an outfitter family, who took corre-
spondence courses at the fifth -grade level.
"Idaho is one of the few states I ever heard of
where this kind of thing can be done," said
Erickson.
This year, Yeuow rine rwasas one curia eacn
in first, second, seventh and eighth grades, and
two children each in third and fifth grades.
When McCall approved the reopening of -the
Yellow Pine School (a wooden sign on the fence
outside the red and white frame structure im-
modestly proclaims it "The University of Yel-
low Pine "), the local community got together to
renovate the building and the tiny house next
door provided rent -free to the teacher by the
school district.
As Marks described it, "I donated the stove.
My wife (Judy) helped paint the house. The
town scraped the furniture together." Other ci-
tizens laid new linoleum floors in the school-
house and in Erickson's home.
By the time Erickson arrived the school, built
in 1920, fairly sparkled. Its 250 -pound brass bell
on the porch, which once pealed out aboard the
USS Carson City, was polished again.
It opened still short of the $450 worth of text-
books Erickson ordered and in the first week of
school he was using outdated teaching mate-
rials. But there was heat. Wrapped in the cold
mist and rain that smothers Yellow Pine in Sep-
tember, the school was being warmed by a 1,500
gallon delivery of oil which must last all winter.
Erickson and his wife Peggy, 34, a registered
nurse, are waiting for the snow to fall. There is
usually about six feet of it on the ground in win-
ter. "We are both enthusiastic skiiers," said
Erickson. "That's one of the reasons we choose
to live up here."
He said he is being paid $13,700 to stay in Yel-
low Pine this winter. Once winter sets in there
is no way out of the town, deep in the Payette
National Forest, other than by snowmobile —
three hours to McCall — or by light aircraft
equipped with skis.
"The lack of television doesn't bother me," he
said. "It makes backcountry kids more resour-
ceful. They like the area where they are. They
don't run home to sit in front of the tube. I still
have the problems of discipline I faced in city
schools, but I like these kids here.
"Parents in Yellow Pine are interested in a
good, basic education. Back here you have to be
a firm believer in the basics of education. Par-
ents here told me they want their children to
read and to do arithmetic.
"I spend much more time teaching the basics
than I do science or social studies. If I had my
druthers I would rather do science. But there
really isn't too much use for science out here."
The one -room schoolhouse, Erickson said, "is
pretty much individualized instruction. You
have time to spend time with each child. But
there are problems. With the number of grades
here you probably don't have enough time to
help each child."
_..r'
GV,'1
Back- country outfitter
promises to haul hay
in horse -drawn sleigh
By PAUL BRINKLEY- ROGERS
The Idaho Statesman
CASCADE — A man with two children
tered in the Feb. 2 cross- country ski race en-
at
Yellow Pine wants to do something to show
his kids that he supports them all the way.
Don Wailer, a 29 -year -old outfitter from
Yellow Pine, was in Cascade on Monday
making arrangements to buy a ton of hay he
intends to haul back to the isolated hamlet
Jan. 30.
The hay will travel the 755-mile route to
Yellow Pine through deep snow on the back
of Waller's horse -drawn :sleigh.
"1 want to support the race," Waller said,
and this seemed like a great way to do it. I
can mix business — I need the hay for my
horses — with some fun."
Waller said he hopes to leave Yellow Pine
in the sleigh Friday and arrive in Cascade
late Sunday afternoon. He will leave Cas-
cade on Tuesday for Yellow Pine, arriving
there just before the ski race.
Waller's children, Donny, 8, and Rene, 6,
are among all eight children from Yellow
Pine's one -room schoolhouse who will race
all two children from neighboring Big Creek
10 miles to the top of a 7,605 -foot -high moun-
tain pass called Profile Gap.
Roads to the two tiny communities on
either side of the pass are impassable during;
the winter by snow. Only ski- equipped planes
and snowmobiles can make the trip over
twisting mountain roads.
Yellow Pine schoolteacher Bill Erickson is
organizing the ski race to offset "the bore-
dom" of the long winter, he said. There are
no telephones. or television in the two vil-
lages.
Waller said the old, 10 -foot -long sleigh,
which recently was restored in Boise, will be
drawn by a team of two horses with two
more horses accompanying them to help out.
Along for the ride will be Howard Buettgen-
bach, 40, a Yellow Pine guide who works
with Waller.
"I expect the horses will sink a little into
the snow at times," Waller said, "but snow -
inubilers have been using the route and the
Snow should be packed enough so the sleigh
rides along on top of it.
"We won't have any radio or CB equip-
ment with us. We'll just take our bedrolls, a
frying pan, a coffee pot and a gun."
Waller said the 30 bales of hay will be
enough to feed the 10 horses ne
keeps year -round in the Yellow
Pine area for about eight days. "It
doesn't sound like much," he said,
but that hay will come in handy
toward spring when we run low on
feed."
There is nothing special about
the horses pulling the sleigh, he
said. "They're just ordinary saddle
horses that I broke last year to
pack."
He uses the horses mostly to
transport hunting and camping
gear and the hunters he takes into
the back country around Yellow
Pine: An ordinary seven -day hunt-
ing trip during elk season costs
about $1,000, Waller said.
Waller said he has never made
the Yellow Pine- Cascade trip by
sleigh before.
He will take the East Fork of the
South Fork of the Salmon River i
out of Yellow Pine and follow the
South Fork Road to Landmark.
After camping out in the snow, he
will then go over the top of Big
Creek Summit, elevation 6,614
feet, down Warm Lake road to
Cascade.
Waller said he hopes to offer
rides on the sleigh to children in j
Cascade while he is in town. The I
sleigh also will be in available the
day of the ski race to pick up any
children who drop out.
Hay was not the only item Wal-
ler was shopping for in Cascade.
He is divorced, he explained, and
.would also.like to hire someone to
go back with him for the winter to
cook for him and his two children.
"Cooks are hard to find, nowa-
days," he said. "But a man has to
eat."
Yellow Pine:
by Jerri Montgomery
There has been a bit more
stirring in this village in the
last week beginning with the
weekend arrival of former
Yellow Piners Al and Lois
Chapman. They brought
Vince and Beverly Shutt of
Boise in with them. The four
stayed at the Sno -Inn and
snowmobiled around the
area, taking the Shutts to see
their property across the
East Fork and making a
swing on up to Quartz Creek.
One by one this group sank
into the snow and spent some
time digging out before they
could make the return trip.
Al promised to dance on
Saturday night and this he
did at the B and F. Yellow
Piners were joined by Jerry
and Eade Walters from
Aberdeen, and the Jim
Nisulas, who came into the
bar in time to see the second
performance of Dale
Johnson and his dummy (? )
Jasper.
With each performance,
Jasper becomes a bit wise.
Sitting on Dale's lap he will
move his head from one side
to the other, taking in those
present, deciding who he will
send a verbal jab. Finally,
with his eyes on his victim,
he will converse with Dale
until the punch line is
delivered. Our time with
Jasper is short for he needs a
little oiling between acts.
Our Saturday nights seem
to be shorter this year, many
leaving the bar for bed and
rest. The evening ends with a
few villagers sitting around
discussing the weather and
resulting problems or
whatever comes to mind.
Cougar hunter
bagged
his prey
Don Waller will make this
trek via horse -drawn sleigh
to Cascade and back,
starting Friday. Don plans
two days going and two days
in return. He will bring back
a ton of hay for his horses. I
had the thought, for a very
short time, of riding along on
this trip that was until I was
told Don and Howard
Buettgenbach will sleep
along the trail. In this
weather I just do not believe
I want to be that ad-
venturesome. Then too. I
might dampen the fun the
fellers would have.
Tom Nicholas and his
group left on Monday
morning. Many of the Yellow
Piners rode out to attend the
This dummy in the
bar keepsjabbing us
snowmobile and com-
missioner's meeting in
Cascade. The com-
missioner's meeting to find a
solution for the four -wheel
drive vehicles that have torn
up the groomed trail from
the Cascade side.
The cougar hunter, Ted
Christianson, shot his cat the
day before he left, but not
without some trouble. He
started out the morning of
his big day by slipping into
the icy cold water. He fell
through the ice as he was
filling his thermos with
water for the hike. Later,
hearing the dogs voicing the
message "cougar treed," he
moved up a steep incline on
hands and knees. His nose
was almost in the snow and
he saw nothing but rocks and
the snow. Then he felt a dog
licking his face. He realized
the cougar was near and that
he should be alert. Ted shot
the cougar, knocking him out
of the tree. The cat, trying to
regain the tree to climb to
safety, whacked the two
dogs and injured them.
The cougar, finally killed
and brought to Yellow Pine
to be shown off by the happy
hunter from Minnesotta, was
a hard - earned trophy. Ted
and guide, Ray Ralls had
spent many days tramping
up and down mountains in
the very cold weather
trailing the cat Ted left early
"
W n
I S D e c l I
a l l e n c e
By PAUL BRINKLEY - ROGERS
The Idaho Statesman
YELLOW PINE — Friday, Feb. 2, will be remembered as the
day 13- year -old Rodney Marks raced out of the bitter cold and skied
to victory in one of the toughest endurance tests children from this
remote back - country hamlet have ever faced.
It was a race not so, much against his fellow students but against
the subzero temperatures and the steep gradient of the 10 -mile
course, which took him through the spectacular scenery from Yel-
low Pine to the top of 7,607 -foot Profile Gap.
The gap separates Yellow Pine from the even more isolated
hamlet of Big Creek. The race saw all six children from the one -
room schoolhouse in Yellow Pine racing against all two children
from the Big Creek schoolhouse in the first ever cross - country ski
contest between the two schools.
It was so cold Friday morning that the race, scheduled to start at
9:30 a.m., was delayed for half an hour. Even so, it was 20 below
zero in Big Creek and 7 below in Yellow Pine when 10 a.m. arrived
and a radio call started the race simultaneously outside both com-
munities.
Yellow Pine, which celebrated the safe arrival Thursday night of
outfitter Don Waller and guide Howard Buettgenbach after a 2!/2-
day, 71 -mile horse -drawn sleigh ride from Cascade, was geared up
for the excitement of the ski race.
Many of the 45 people wintering over in the village, which has nei-
ther telephone nor television, had stayed up most of the night in the
B &F Bar, toasting the two men with round after- round of beer and
dancing to the music of a honk ,+ -tonk piano and an accordion.
But by 9 a.m. most of the revelers, including Waller, whose chit-
dren Rene, 6, and Donnie, 8, were in the race, were gathered in the
warmth of the Yellow Pine Lodge for a verdict on whether the race
would be staged at all_ Some of the race organizers thought the cold
might be too severe.
The sun, which burned brightly in a blue sky, changed their
minds, however, and the decision was made to go ahead.
The villagers loaded the children on the backs of their snowmo-
biles and took off in a cloud of snow to a point on the East Fork of
the Salmon River where the Yellow Pine entries were to begin. At
For them, it was important to
the same time, Lisa Minter, 11, and her brother Robbie, 6, stood
show they could do it and to finish
outside the Big Creek Lodge to begin their leg of the race.
without giving up."
The Yellow Pine students included Rodney Marks; his brother
Bill Erickson, who once taught
Russell, 15; Rene and Donnie Waller; David Erickson, 7, son,of Bill
school in Minneapolis, said he re-
Erickson, Yellow Pine's schoolteacher; and Michelle Sullivan, 6,
gretted that "a lot of kids from the
daughter of Yellow Pine resident Carol Sullivan. Two other Yellow
city missed out on an event like
Pine children who had been in training for the race transferred to
this. It's too bad that they probably
another school and did not take part,
don't realize how well they could
Joining the Yellow Pine children on skis were their teacher and
do if they had a chance to do this
tSpe RACE_ 1 munities huddled in the cold at the
kind of thing."
„ Margo Conitz, a Yellow Pine resi- summit. _
Maggie Butterfield, who went as
dent, who works for the U.S. For- Five minutes later, his brother
a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest
est Service in the summer. With Russell came across the finish
Service in Big Creek, would not
the Big Creek children on skis line. Only a minute behind him was
say how her village came up with
were their mother, Roxy Minter, Lisa Minter who struggled up the
the name "Big Creek Bullets,"
and their teacher, Jeannette Clark strenuous last half -mile switch-
stenciled on pennants sewn on the
Erickson (not a relative of Yellow back on the Big Creek side and
jackets of the Big Creek support -
Pine's Erickson), 25. skied to a finish and some warm
ers.
Almost the entire population of hugs from her mother and her
"It's just one of those mys-
the two villages turned out on their father Bruce Minter, who runs the
teries," she said, "that we keep to
snowmobiles to patrol the race and Big Creek Lodge and flies light air -
ourselves. The important thing is
to take a boxload of wieners, craft for the tiny community.
that we raced and raced well."
marshmallows and hot chocolate Finishing fourth was Donnie
Minter he supported the
to Profile Gap for a victory feast Waller, about one hour later.
said
cooked over a pine log bonfire built David Erickson was fifth, and
idea of the race, because "compe-
in the deep show. Michelle Sullivan was sixth. The
tition is good for the children.
too many people
Gene Parks, owner of Yellow other children dropped out earlier
There are not
in our town for that kind of
Pine's Sno-Inn, helped monitor in the race because of the bitter
l radio coordination of the race cold, Robbie Minter after one mile,
around
thing." There are only seven peo-
from his snowmobile, and Dorothy and Rene Waller after 31/2 miles,
pie in Big Creek, which serves as a
Millen, wife of the chairman of the Rodney Marks sat by the fire,
center for hunting and ranger sta-
Yellow Pine village council, took a shaking his head. "Boy," he said,
flask of orange juice on her snow- "I
tion, this winter. .
Jeanette Erickson, who arrived
wish I had finished the race in
mobile to refresh the children on 2t /2 hours. That's what my teacher
at the top before rival teacher Bill
their struggle to the top. wanted. I stayed behind my
Erickson, said that she had never
Two hours and 35 minutes after brother, but after a while, I
stressed the idea of competing.
the race began, Rodney Marks thought why stay behind? So I
swept into sight and flashed past a
"The important thing was to
have a lot of fun," she said. "I
went ahead of him and found I
t crowd of villagers from both coin- could stay there."
didn't care if they finished first.
The original log school house in Yellow Pine.
School integral
part
Part of the Heritage
Happening of the people
who grew up in the back -
country village of Yellow
Pine is their one -room
school.
The first classes in
Yellow Pine were held in
a tent, eight students
being taught by a Miss
Smith. Those first pupils
were Doris Edwards, now
living in Tacoma, Wash.;
Ted Abstein, Woodland
Hills, Calif.; Helen
Trinler, and the McCoy
children, George, Leslie,
Myron, Gil and Eva.
In 1922 -'23, the villagers
constructed a log
schoolhouse and
'teacherage, which served
the community until 1934.
The teacherage still
stands near where the
school was and is now the
property of Horace and
Evelyn Anderson of Mc-
Call.
Former students still
9!91F
remember the horse
sculpted from ice that
decorated the school yard
during the winter of 1928.
The ice sculpture was
made by the teacher,
Fannie Forcher, and the
five boys who were her
pupils that year. Mrs.
Forcher, now almost 90
years of age, is living
with her daughter,
Dorothy, in Princeton, W.
Va., and still corresponds
with her former pupil
Lafe Cox. Cox continues
to live on his ranch 10
miles out of Yellow Pine.
In his school days, Cox
traveled the distance to
school in the winter by
dogsled.
The present wood -
frame school was built in
1936 -'37. A large wood
heater kept the
classroom warm. The
teacher, who was also the
janitor, built the fire each
day at 5 a.m. In recent
years an oii neater has
been added.
Yellow Pine became
part of the McCall -Don-
nelly School District in
the 1961 -'62 school year.
That year started with
seven students, but only
three were left by
February. The following
year, school opened with
21 students.
In the 1967 -'68 year,
residents of the village
banned together to ex-
pand the school's
woodshed into a
recreation room. Labor
and materials were
mostly furnished by the
residents.
This year began with
eight students, and
present enrollment
stands at six. The
students are being taught
this year by Patty
Schindeldecker, and the
villagers join in on many
of tl,,� chool's projects.
Dorothy Forcher gallops away on
ice horse sculpted by students in 1925.
G
ellow Pine: Here's howower p
came to our village
by Jerri Montgomery
Jan. 18 -- Today,
riday, the mail came in
ithout a worry about
ow or low clouds and
night the temperature
overs just below 20 as
e 11 p.m. hour draws
ear. The slide on the
'arm Lake summit has
en cleared and the
owmobilers have been
rriving. Some have
anceled, hearing rumors
e trail was either slush
r rough ice.
There were a few times
is past week that the
ghts flickered causing
s to wonder if another
cower failure was going
o hit us.
There was a day when
he electrical power was
i village project with the
ielp of two generators.
Phis was a community
power system conceived
)y three of the village
)usinessmen -- Tom
Nicholas, owner of what
s now the B and F;
"-larence Pond, part
)wner of the store, and
Don Browning, who had
purchased the hotel and
pack outfit from
Kissingers. Their
venerating plants were
expensive to operate and
•equired a lot of TLC.
They contacted Burton
Nalker, head of civil
lefense for Valley
County, and found that by
becoming a declared civil
defense area in case of
national emerggncy, the
village was eligible to
apply for generating
equipment. Through
Walker, they located two
diesel electric
generators, one a 40 KVA
and the other a 50 KVA,
which could be procured
for a nominal cash
consideration. After
much leg work, the tow
units were finally trucked
into Yellow Pine, and
dumped off on the vacant
lot between the hotel and
the Behne house. There
they lay all winter.
In the spring the village
had organized the Yellow
Pine National Defense
Community Unit, as
advised by Mr. Walker. It
was all very proper, with
by -laws and rules and
regs. Fred Bachich was
elected chairman.
Then came the problem
of raising the necessary
funds to install the
distribution system. By
this time civil defense
was threatening to
repossess the units unless
they were paid for some
$600 plus.
As there was no money
in the treasury, the
chairman advanced this
amount on a note. The
note was to be paid in full
when the community sold
the system to Idaho
Power later.
As chairman, Fred
Bachich was sent to
Intermountain State
Bank under the im-
pression $3,000 was
available upon the
signatures of three
businessmen. But Frank
Callender said this was
not a sound approach and
suggested an alternative.
The bank would honor
any Yellow Pine property
owner's individual note
up to $100 to be repaid in
12 months. There were 32
potential subscribers
which would secure the
financing and make the
project a community
effort.
Some took advantage of
this offer and others dug
into their own pockets. It
was then the village went
to work digging post
holes, scrounging poles
and hardware from
Stibnite and Cinnebar.
Ernie Oberbilling
donated electrical hard-
ware from Antimony
Camp and the use of a
truck, and Jack Walker
worked with his truck
hauling poles.
With the money coming
in from the property
owner, we were able to
buy wire and recon-
ditioned meters from
Idaho Power. All monies
advanced by property
owners were to be paid
back in the form of
power. With permission
from the forest service,
two generating units
were installed in the
warehouse, our Ree Hall
toady, along with the
panel boards and main
switches.
One plant was to be
operated, the other kept
as stand -by. Bud
Leatherman contributed
his efforts and knowledge
to hook up much of the
electrical system. Murph
Earl put in his share of
digging post holes. For
$100 American Oil sold us
a 6,400 - gallon storage
tank, still at Cin-
nebar,which Jack Walker
trucked down for us.
About the middle of
June the village was
ready to "turn on," but
had one difficulty. Like
old Mother Hubberd, the
cupboard was bare, with
no money to buy fuel.
Once more they went
scrounging and gathered
up enought diesel oil from
the townspeople to run
the plant until the meters
were read for the first
time. After collecting the
first power bills, we were
financially stable.
In order to conserve
fuel, the plant was
started at 7 a.m. and ran
until 10 p.m. except for
special occasions at one
of the bars or on
weekends. The the power
was left on until the party
broke up.
This operation con-
tinued successfully until
Idaho Power became
interested and took over
the system, around 1967.
As a by the way, in the
early'50s while the mines
were still running, after a
fashion, J.J. Oberbilling
approached Idaho Power
in regards to extending
the power line from
Riorden Creek to An-
timony Camp, where he
proposed to build his new
mill. The power company
was agreeable providing
it could extend the line on
into Yellow Pine and if
the residents were
agreeable to accept this
service.
But when the Idaho
Power representative
met with the town-
speople, two of the
principal businessmen
turned thumbs down.
Consequently, Idaho
Power backed off.
Ten years later, the
Yellow Piners did it the
hard way, on their own. It
is remarkable what a
small group of people can
accomplish when they
are all of accord.
Yellowpine.
by Jerri Montgomery
MARCH 8 -- We haven't
been up on the hill this
winter, but tonight while
riding to Carl Kitchen's
house, we discovered this
could be an adventure.
By our shack the road is
almost smooth, yet a few
yards up the hill, the first
of the ruts show up. To
avoid them one must
angle a truck to one side
of the road and near the
edge of the ditch.
At the Kitchen
residence we were
allowed to peek at the
baby rabbits Muriel is
trying to mother and
feed. Muriel is not en-
joying much sleep at
night, for these five wee
babies must be fed every
three hours. Carl wakes,
warms the milk and then
wakes Muriel who is
beginning to feel like
"Mother Rabbit."
Fay Stark could not
join me for a cup of coffee
at the hotel today. She
had to go home to feed
her husband. I asked her
why she did not send a
lunch with him. Came her
answer, "I did once and
he brought the lunch
home to eat." So now she
cooks.
The quiet of the af-
ternoon was broken
suddenly by Kia's sharp
bark and I knew by her
tone that there were
horses near. Most of the
Van Hoover horse herd
was galloping across the
field below our property.
The horses ran up the
road then turned to
retrace their route. Kelly,
seeing this, hid behind a
tree until the last horse
passed. Then he jumped
out and spooked the
animals so they would
turn into the alley leading
to the pasture. They were
once more penned in. I
believe the pony, Pretty
Boy, was the leader in
this attempt for freedom.
The ski team from
Yellow Pine University
made a good showing in
McCall. Donnie and Rene
Waller did us proud and
the entire team came
home successful. During
their time out, the young
students stayed at the
McCall Hotel, went to a
movie at Alpine
Playhouse, had pizza,
snowmobiled and, in
general, had a whale of a
time.
Friday night was quiet
in this village. Nary a bar
was open. Fred Strand
and his group rode to Big
Creek. Carl Whitmore
and Marion ( Smitty)
Smith rode into Yellow
Pine from Lowman. Carl
and Smitty usually come
in with Tom Nicholas and
Dean Herman at least
once during the
snowmobile season. Yet,
for one reason or the
other, Tom and Dean
could not make this trip.
Saturday groups of
snowmobilers came in
but there was no music in
the village. We heard the
snowmobiles coming
down off the hill, heading
They danced so hard
the floor fell in
for the bar, and later they
roared by this shack on
their return to bed and
rest.
Jim and Louise Daniels
were in a couple of weeks
ago on snowmobile.
Louise flew out for the
return trip. Jim came in
alone a week later.
Jim Daniels has teen
coming into this area for
a good many years. fie
can recall when the hotel
was first built, when Iva
Kissenger worked at the
hotel on the hill, which i.s
now Murph's house, and
he remembers Fay and
Iva's daughters when
they were little tots going
to school in the first
school house.
He spoke of the many
Yellow Pine trees that
were in the middle of the
village and the many
pack strings that lined up
along the main street, the
miners who came to the
village for a Saturday
night and the wild times
they had.
I have been told of the
horse races that once
churned the dust of the
main street and the fights
that started at one end of
the street to end up at the
other end.
The story I like to tell is
of the night Paul was at
Murph's and two women
launched into a rolling,
hair pulling, scratching,
clawing encounter. Paul
was standing by Murph
watching the spectacle.
He finally turned to
Murph and asked "Aren't
you going to do something
to stop this fight ?"
Murph puffed on a
cigarette and drawled
"Nope, they are cleaning
UP my floor." The fight
went on until one gave up
and left.
There was the night
Mary Earl and Ray
Thrall were dancing so
vigorously the floor under
their feet gave way. The
next few days were given
to repairing the floor.
Should anyone come in
for a drink, he was put to
work to lay the new floor.
In this fashion the new
dance floor was soon
ready for some more
stomping.
Jim Cox has written to
ask when the road will be
open so we expect him
when he has the word. We
wonder when Harry
Withers will come in.
There was the day he was
the first one to drive into
Yellow Pine, almost
following the county
equipment.
Road opening used to
be a big event. Someone
would shoot off a gun and
yell "the road is open,"
and the doors of the
houses would slam as the
residents ran to the
middle of the village to
see who was the first to
drive in. There would be a
short celebration. When
the vehicles were lined up
for the drive out, there
would be an exodus for
the outside and the
freedom of the road. This
would usually occur in
the evening and we drove
down the East Fork and
on to the South Fork. We
would take our time,
stopping now and then to
gather to talk or at the
Reed ranch stop to see
how many deer we could
see on the flat. We would
leave a deserted village.
Today there is no such
feeling. Most of the
residents now have
vehicles outside. So the
drive out is usually done
by one vehicle with many
passengers. Or one
vehicle will make the trip
alone. Progress and
changes.
A school bell
for Yellow Pine
By JEAN EBBERT
YELLOW PINE — This town of 35 permanent residents is about
500 miles from the nearest ocean. It lies deep in the Salmon River
mountains, about 150 miles northeast of Boise and about 60 miles
from the nearesC.highway.
Not exactly what you would call a naval environment.
But in Yellow Pine, since six years ago this Memorial Day, the
spirit of the U.S. Navy is alive and well, for the bell of Yellow
Pine's one -room school house is the former ship's bell of USS Car-
son City, a Navy patrol frigate that served in the Pacific in 1944.
The 259 -pound brass bell has been serving the school since May
25, 1974, when it was presented to the school by a representative of
the 13th Naval District. Also present were Senator Church, Con-
gressman Symms, school district Superintendent Wilson, and a
crowd of nearly 200 people. Admiral Zumwalt, naval chief of opera-
tions, and Vice Admiral Hooper, naval curator and director of
naval history, and Governor Andrus of Idaho were also invited, but
could not attend.
Their bad luck, for it was a fine day.
Amy Montgomery, the school's sole eighth grade student, gradu-
ated that day. The McCall- Donnelly High School Band played. The
women of Yellow Pine provided lunch. Church and Symms pre-
sented flags that had flown over the U.S. Capitol.
Lafe Cox led the flag- raising ceremonies and was named the
bell's custodian. His wife Emma unveiled the bell. Lafe and Emma
received a carved wooden plaque from Superintendent Wilson for
their many services to the school. Lafe snowplowed on winter days
so the school could open, or he "bused" students to school on his
skimobile. He and Emma had housed Richard Miller, the school's
teacher, and his family at their ranch.
Yes, a fine day. The bell would be in good hands.
This was only proper, for the bell had served honorably on Car-
son City during her wartime cruises. When Carson City was decom-
missioned in 1949, the bell was put in storage in Seattle.
In the fall of 1973, Richard Miller came to teach the "Yellow Pine
Nine" — nine pupils in eight grades. Miller later wrote, "the little
red school house was all that it should be, except that it lacked a
bell."
A Navy veteran, he knew that many ships were in mothballs, and
possibly a bell could be secured through the Navy. On Dec. 3, 1973,
he wrote to Zumwalt, asking that a ship's bell be sent to this, one of
the few remaining one -room schools in the country.
Hooper replied for Zumwalt on Dec. 19, saying that a bell was
available and would be shipped if the school would pay the shipping
costs, and if a custodian would be designated who could receive the
bell and report annually to the Navy on its location and condition.
The cost of shipping the bell would be $37. The Yellow Pine Nine
raised $15 and the school district agreed to pay the balance. On Jan.
15, 1974, Miller wrote Hooper that the conditions would be met, and
that the school was planning to dedicate the bell on the upcoming
Memorial Day. He added, "While we are small in number here in
Yellow Pine, we are not lacking in dedication to our country ... a
simple yet poignant ceremony might be a reminder to other Ameri-
cans that pride in our country still flourishes."
Now the Navy took over. The bell was crated and sent overland
across the Cascades and the plains of eastern Washington, leaving
behind the Pacific, but carrying deep in its brass the sounds and
spirits of long days and nights at sea, of arduous and unglamorous
patrols, of hundreds of sailors who had marked their days at sea by
its clang.
The bell arrived in Cascade in March. Yellow Pine was still
snowed in, so Ray Arnold of Cascade flew the bell the last 40 miles
in his ski - equipped airplane. Lafe Cox and Miller then hauled the
bell by truck to Cox's garage, where Miller spent the next two
months polishing it.
And that's how on Memorial Day 1974, after a quarter century of
silence„ Carson City's bell came to ring again, to mark for Yellow
Pine's citizens the rhythm of school days, to be honored and
cherished.
Amy Montgomery has married and moved away from Yellow
Pine. Richard Miller is now principal of the American High School
in Seoul, Korea. Lafe and Emma have retired from running their
ranch, and now live just a mile- and -a -half from the school.
"That day in 1974 was one of the most honored and memorable
days in the 52 years Lafe and I have lived in Yellow Pine," she
says.
I believe it.
(Jean Ebbert, a former naval officer and a Navy wife for 25 years,
is a regular columnist for Navy Times.)
by Jerri Montgomery
Jan. 27 -- I learned through a phone call from
Boise and a note from Cascade of the passing of
Murphy Earl. Once the shock and deep sense of
loss eased, I sat and relived the years I knew
this man.
I first knew Murph some years ago casually
in his suit and tie in Boise, meeting him now and
then at the Western Cafe and Bar. I came to
have a friendship with him in our first trips to
Yellow Pine, and it was through Murph that
Paul and I bought the house we were to move in-
to and dub "our shack."
I smile as I recall how in the first year, I act-
ed with the greatest respect when near Murph.
That was until the evening he pushed me to
anger and I argued with him. It was then I
realized Murph Earl enjoyed an argument.
From then on he and I would argue with gusto
and enjoy every minute of it.
I am seeing Murph at the drums, playing with
Don Caward, Harlow Struble and Tommy
Richardson, or whoever played the music for a
Saturday night dance.
Murph loved to be in Yellow Pine, holding
court in the big Log Bar, telling hunting and
fishing stories, talking about the hey day of
Stibnite or cooking for a group on the rotisserie.
I remember fall evenings sitting in the back
room with Murph on one of the couches in front
of the huge fireplace, or cooking steaks on the
grill in the fireplace. One night Murph dropped
a steak in the ashes. Velda Cahill told Murph he
had to eat that steak.
I have pictures of Murph behind the bar with
his old buddies sitting across from him -- Ray
Thrall, Frank Hansberry, Paul Montgomery,
Harry Withers, Pat Nobles. Now, Ray, Paul
and Murph have gone.
At times I feel I have lived a thousand years,
watching so many friends pass on. Each year
now, my friends and loved ones leave me. Yet
the memories linger on and on.
Murph was an integral part of Yellow Pine.
We waited for Murph to drive in, come spring,
and in the first hour after he opened his door,
the bar would fill. The winter cold of the bar
would ease once the barrel stove was fired up,
and amidst the confusion of boxes on the floor,
conversation would flow. The voice of Jim
Reeves would be heard from Murph's stereo or
the juke box would play.
Murph made no big waves in Yellow Pine. He
is a legend. I was told by an old -timer Murph
had done much for this village, quietly,
anonymously. The most treaured gift he left
was the memories.
I wonder now if the log bar will be opened
come spring. What changes will take place? I
am sad to even contemplate changes.
When I return to Yellow Pine, I will look to
see Murph sitting on the porch seat of his bar
and in my mind's eye perhaps I will see him and
feel his presence for men of Murph's caliber are
not forgotten. I received four phone calls and a
note to tell me the news of Murph's death. I am
grateful for this thoughtfulness.
Today I sit in the dining area, watching the
boats come and go by the bay. Ramey San ven-
tured out into the yard to bask in the sunshine.
A lovely day, sweater weather. Rain fell for
three days, on and off, and to the north, we hear
of mud slides covering main highways and
destroying homes. But in Newport, this seems
to miss us.
I see on TV the news of snow in Boise and
Valley County. I know what this winter will br-
ing to Yellow Pine. The snowmobiles will be out
in full force. There will be a wait for mail or a
flight out, and the wood stoves will be burning
day and night. Come a thaw, the rivers will run
high, the boulders will crash through the night.
Here, the daffodils are coming up, a
hummingbird flew into the yard three days ago,
and the robins can be seen hopping in yards
where ever one drives. Across the bay, east-
ward, snow caps a distant mountain.
Bus Westcott and Irene Baker called us two
nights ago, a welcome surprise. This couple had
barely returned from fishing in Mexico. They
caught only two pelicans, which they released,
but they had warm weather.
Murphy Earl, tendinAi bar
at his bar and cafe in Yellow Pine.
Saturday night there will be a crab feed at the
American Legion Hall. We will be there to eat
our fill and dance. This is fresh crab, which tn,-
diner has to crack.
I am closing now. My deepest sympathy to
Murph's family, to all who knew the big man
and cared. Murph Earl will linger in the fond
memories.
-�r
r
•
w
1a, —;ho
rl� -tee
-F,q,r Al 01, .2 P4 as
CAN A TOWN EXIST
W ithoutATi l ephone?
Meet some
of the people of
Yellow Pine,
Idaho,
who get along
very well
without it
i ICA A IS A LABYRINTH
of wires. With more
than 160 million tele-
phones in the country
today, virtually every
home in the nation is
connected by wires
and space satellites that permit one to talk
to anywhere in the world.
Can you imagine, then, a world without
them'? if the telephone in your home sud-
denly goes out of order, you can always
use a neighbor's or find a pay phone nearby.
But what would it be like without even
those? Could you live without phones
completely? Could you live in Yellow
Pine, Idaho, for example'?
Yellow Pine is truly an American anach-
ronism. It is one of the last towns in the
U.S. without a single phone. Situated deep
in the mountainous 2.9 million -acre Boise
National Forest, Yellow Pine is 52 miles
from the nearest town (and telephone). From
January to late April, the only way into this
snowbound wilderness is by ski plane.
Most people journey to this tiny hamlet
(pop. 100; 60 in winter) to hunt, fish and
pan for gold. But I came to Yellow Pine to
find out firsthand how, in this day and age.
people live without telephones.
The main street of the town is just a
block long. There are two bars, two inns.
a single -room schoolhouse, a nondenomi-
national church and Parks' Merc, an old-
BY M I C H A E L S. L A S K Y
tasmoned combination general store- ly relishing the story. "After a while, he
gas station- Laundromat -post office that decided he'd better call his wife to say
is usually the first place a visitor stops he was staying a few days more. They
upon arrival, started arguing, and she told him in no
I'm no different, and when I go inside, uncertain terms to get home.
I'm greeted by Debbie Rekow, an em-
ployee. "Now I know why you folks to h ndle tthe radio didn't
microphone, which
don't have telephones," I comment as I has this button you press in to talk and
enter. "The phone installers probably release to listen. So I stood by him and
got lost trying to find this place." pushed it in and out at the right moments.
"Yellow Pine isn't the easiest place to When he finally couldn't stop her scream -
travel to, that's for sure," says Debbie. "A ing, he yelled, `Well, listen, honey, right
burly truck driver came in here recently now I have a lady here, and she's push -
and said, 'This sure is God's country!' ing my button!'
`Oh, you find it pretty ?' l asked. He said, "She hung up. It must have been a
What 1 mean is that God's the only conversation with very high ratings, be-
one who could find it! "' She laughs. cause all the radios were on monitor.
"So how do you get along without a "People here are pretty self - sufficient."
telephone nearby? Aren't there times notes Darlene. "One man knows auto -
when you wish you had one ?" motive mechanics, and there's another
"The only time when a telephone who's a carpenter and plumber. Some -
seems to be really important around one else can handle electronics, and so
here is when there's an emergency of on. Neighbors help neighbors. We can't
some sort," says Debbie. "We do have just pick up a phone and call a service
a two -way radio to receive and send man to come way out here!"
messages. But there are only certain Although the townsfolk enjoy the isola-
hours that the radio is monitored. I tion that life in Yellow Pine provides,
"Now that
I'm a mother, a ,. the snowbound I
phone seems winters test the
like more of a '' fortitude and
necessity. One resolution of
night my baby, everyone.
Amber, was "Some peo-
running a very pie have gone
high fever. But stir -crazy here.
it was 3 a.m., and I've had to I
and the radio � �X escort them to
monitor was Boise for a lit -
off. If I'd had a tle R and R,"
phone, 1 could Sheriff Dave
have called a At the local bar: Young and old alike gather 'round McClintock
doctor to help a two -way radio for word from the outside world. tells me. "Booze
her and quiet and boredom
my nerves." The towns folk are the biggest
Across the problems 1 get
dusty dirt street from the lo-
that is the town's are like pioneers— cals. Frankly,
main drag is the my job would
nine -room, 19- }Jut some have be easier if 1
bed Yellow Pine had a tele-
Lodge, run by a phone. Radio
Bob and Dar-gone Stir -crazy airwaves are
l e n e Rosen- not always de-
baum. As soon as I enter, Darlene pours Sometimes atmospheric conditions lions make
me a cup of coffee. it impossible to transmit or receive mes-
sages can you live way out here in the . But, personally, I don't need a
middle of nowhere without a telephone ?" phone. I've lived so long without one
As Bob sticks a wad of tobacco into that I've learned to live without."
s cheek, he says, "You know, we real- Part of the Yellow Piners' reluctance
can communicate with the outside to install phones is that they are, sym-
orld. We just have to do it over the bolically at least, the last link with civi-
radio. We call down to Cascade, and lization. The absence of phones has kept
they have some gizmo that patches us the townsfolk independent. pioneers and.
into a phone, which they dial." well, different from the rest of us.
"The bad part about these calls is that "Like everything else, there is good j
they aren't private," says Darlene. and bad about having no phones in town,"
"Anyone who's tuned in can hear. In says Bob Rosenbaum. "The constant
winter, some people monitor the radio ringing doesn't interrupt your life, espe-
all day as entertainment. cially during meals.
"Some visitors come purposely to get "Of course, potential customers of
away from telephones. We had a man the inn can't call us for reservations.
staying here who was playing hooky But," he adds, "we don't get bill collec-
from his wife," Darlene tells me, clear- I tors bothering us either."
Zak Z Pa�v4
Yellow Pine
asks county
to open road
By Bradley Blum
The Star -News
Sixteen residents of Yellow
Pine told the Valley County
Board of Commissioners
Monday that they want the
Warm Lake Highway kept
open over Big Creek Summit
this winter if federal
authorities will allow the
South Fork "Road to be open-
ed.
At a meeting earlier this
month in Yellow Pine, Payette
National Forest Ranger Earl
Kimball told residents that the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
agreed to a proposal that
would allow wheeled traffic on
the road along the South Fork
of the Salmon River during
two weekdays each week this
winter.
The Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice has the authority over
whether the road can remain
open in the winter under the
Threatened and Endangered
Species Act of 1969.
- Some wildlife biologists think
the elk herds that winter along
the South Fork are an important
part of the habitat of the gray
wolf, which is considered an en-
dangered species. The Fish and
Wildlife Service is charged with
deciding what activities on the
road pose a threat to the wolf.
At the Sept. 3 meeting in
Yellow Pine, it was agreed that
any plans to keep the South Fork
Road open hinged on whether the
county would keep Big Creek
Summit open.
6T le-r" /i -e 2- 12 S
At the commissioners' Sept. 9
meeting, Commissioner Howard
Koskella said that the county
road department would remove
snow on the Warm Lake
Highway until Jan. 1, 1986, but
after that would allow the road to
snow shut.
At the time, Koskella said that
the county did not have the
money to keep the road open all
winter, and would reopen it in
early spring using a new rotary
snowblower purchased this sum-
mer.
On Monday, Koskella told th,
Yellow Pine residents that tht
county planned to cease snow
removal efforts over Big Creek
Summit after Jan. 1 unless the
commissioners received indica-
tion from the residents that they
want the highway kept open.
"We know you're not all in
agreement yet, because we have
been approached by some
residents who say they don't want
it open and others who say that
they do," Koskella said.
However, none of those ap-
pearing at the commission
meeting said they were opposed
to keepsrr� the roads open.
One t#ember of the audience
suggested that a vote should be
taken since a large percentage of
Yellow Pine's residents were in
attendance at' Monday's meeting.
Commission Chairman Adolf
Heinrich asked which residents
supported having the county keep
Big Creek Summit open, provid-
ed that the South Fork Road
could be kept open, and all 16
Yellow Pine residents said yes.
Another meeting between the
U.S. Forest Service and residents
has been scheduled for 10 a.m.
Oct. 8 at the Krassel Ranger
District office in McCall.
Yellow Piners as
BY ERIC BECHTEL for aid over
The Star -News
Five Yellow Pine residents ap- Fork of the Salmon River Road,
peared before Valley County the forest service has more than
commissioners Monday to re- 600 sediment- generating roads in
quest county help in preserving the area of the South Fork.
the South Fork of the Salmon "They're closing 15 miles of
River Road as an access between d , +1, h h
Cascade and Yellow Pine.
roa e winter, w en t ere are
few sediments, and leaving open
Beginning this
year, the road
600 miles on their inventory," he
will be closed by the Payette Na-
said. "The logic of that just
tional Forest even more than the
doesn't make sense."
closures over the past winter.
The long -term forest service
H
e also said it doesn't make
plan is to permanently close 15
sense to use the Warm Lake -
miles of the road within three to
Landmark route as an alternate
five years.
access.
Closure is necessary to reduce
"I can't see Landmark as a
man- caused sediment into the
reasonable access. I worry about
South Fork of the Salmon river, a
my brakes going out going down
sensitive salmon spawning area,
there in the summer," he said.
forest officials have said.
Howard Koskella, county com -.
The Forest Service has propos-
mission chairman, agreed that
ed the Warm Lake - Landmark --
the Warm Lake- Landmark route
Johnson Creek route as an alter-
would be a poor alternative to the
native to the South Fork of the
South Fork of the Salmon River
Salmon River Road and has pro-
Road.
posed that those using the alter-
"I still don't think it would be
nate road pay for its mainten-
a safe road for winter use,"
ance.
Koskella said. To keep it usable
According to Yellow Piners,
the South Fork of the Salmon
River Road is the only reasonable
access to Yellow Pine, and the
Forest Service's rationale for
closing it does not make sense.
"Everyone in our community
was damaged by the decision last
year," Yellow Pine resident
Howard Buettgenbach told com-
missioners. "We had a number
of medical emergencies, but there
was no access. The planned
closure for this year would be
much more extensive than last
year's."
Buettgenbach said he: had
found that, besides the South
during the winter, he said, it
would require sanding or gravel-
ing every day, and the county
could not afford that cost.
He said it is possible Hecla
Mining Company would assume
responsibility for the road if the
mining firm goes into year -round
operation in the Stibnite area.
Koskella said the county has
asked the forest service to turn
operation of the South Fork
Road over to the county.
"We asked if they would turn
that road over to us, and they just
grinned." he said.
Yellow Pine resident Mike
S7d i- Ne-W5 /gut 1;, t4F7
k Valley
road
Screiber asked the commission to
repeat its request to the forest ser-
vice. If nothing else, he said, it
would provide more ammunition
for planned legal action against
the forest service.
Valley County Engineer Les
Ankenman was asked by the
commission to draft a letter to
the forest service renewing the
county's request.
Besides legal action against the
Forest Service, Yellow Pine resi-
dent John Sumner told the com-
mission there is an element in
Yellow Pine advocating the
removal of any gate the Forest
Service constructs to block the
road.
Sumner said that a 1986 case
involving a Yellow Piner who
violated a winter closure of the
road was decided in the Yellow
Piner's favor by a federal judge.
The federal judge, Sumner
said, stated it was unconstitu-
tional for the forest service to
prevent a landowner from having
reasonable access to his property.
John Hanson said he believes
the forest service is not being
honest in its reasons for closing
15 miles of the road.
"The first eight miles (of the
road) are the single highest con-
tributor to sediment, "' Hanson
said. "If they were truly in-
terested in preventing sediment,
they'd close it all from the
blacktop."
The reason only a 15 -mile
stretch of the road is being clos-
ed, Buettgenbach believes, is that
the forest service wants to keep
logging areas open on each end of
the road.
>x
k /Z/ %.3
Harmonica festival pays tribute
to frontier musical instrument
YELLOW PINE — Contes-
tants will be coming from all
over the world, literally, for this
year's Yellow Pine Harmonica
Festival, which gets underway
Friday and runs through Sunday.
Well, a few of them, any-
way, will make some very long
trips to take part in this back -
country community's fourth an-
nual celebration of the impor-
tance of the harmonica in the mu-
sical history of the old west.
Hands down, the winner of
the farthest traveler award, pro-
vided that he makes it, of course,
will be Hea Bong Lee, who is
traveling from Seoul, South Ko-
rea, for the contest.
In addition, Vi and Ken El-
liston, from Lakefield, Ontario,
Canada, are on the list of contes-
tants for this year's festival.
That international contin-
gent will be joined by harmonica
players from around the western
United States.
From California, Nevada,
Colorado, Washington, Oregon,
and from most corners of Idaho,
they'll be converging to take part
in a festival that began in 1990
when Bill Roberts had an idea.
Roberts, a Yellow Pine
property owner and member of
the Yellow Pine Village Council,
wanted to organize a celebration
that would honor the contribu-
tion the harmonica made to the
many miners' camps in the pio-
neer west. It also happened to co-
incide with Idaho's Centennial
Celebration.
He contacted the various
harmonica manufacturing com-
panies and the Society for the
Preservation and Advancement
of the Harmonica (SPAR). An
audience of about 300 attended
the first year's event, a number
that swelled to about 1,500 over
the two- and -a -half day event last
year.
Returning this year to judge
the contest are Eddie Gordon, of
Fresno, Calif., and Don Allen, of
Minneapolis, Minn.
Gordon, 51, has played pro-
fessionally since he was 9, an age
when he was discovered by the
"Harmonica Rascals." He be-
came a member of the "Harmon -
icats," and has appeared on about
30 Texaco Star Theatre produc-
tions with Milton Berle, and
roughly 50 Ed Sullivan Shows
with acts like Elvis Presley, Dean
Martin and Jerry Lewis, and Fred
Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Gordon has also played on
various other television shows
such as "Your Show of Shows,"
"Kraft Music Hall," and "F
Troop."
He also did the theme songs
for "Petticoat Junction," "My
Three Sons," "The Rockford
Files," "Sanford and Son," and
for the films "The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly," "Looking for Mr.
Goodbar," "Midnight Cowboy,"
"Goodbye Mr. Chips," and "Pop -
eye." He also worked on the
composition for the Sesame
Street theme.
Allen is now retired and
plays "to have fun," but he also
tries to play a couple of shows
each year. He has played with
professional groups on televi-
sion, radio, commercials, and
recorded since the 1950s. In the
early 1980s he began teaching at
harmonica seminars in Detroit
and Akron, Ohio.
Boisean Lin Vanskike, a
regular at the contest, will ac-
company the judges when they
do their ever - popular judges'
concert. Danny Wilson, who
works for the Lee Oskar Har-
monica Company has judged in
past years, but is unable to attend
this year.
SPAH has members from
all over the world, and that
group's 1991 convention in De-
troit drew contestants from all
over, including hundreds from
the United States and Canada.
The harmonica has a particularly
strong following Japan and Eu-
rope.
The youngest and oldest
competitors are coming to the
event from Washington state.
Randy Rutherford, 16, will make
the trip from Spokane, and Eu-
gene Born, 85, is from Sequim.
Patrick Harren, of McCall,
is a three -time winner of the dia-
tonic division of the contest, but
won't be able to return this year.
However, McCall resident-Kei-
th Darling will show up to repre-
sent Valley County.
Also scheduled to return
this year are past crowd favorites
Arthur and Luella Babbitt, of
Amagosa Valley, Calif.
The Mountain States Legal
Foundation will receive all net
proceeds from the event, which
is being privately funded this
year after a vote by community
members last fall determined
that the community would not be
the official host. The non -profit
foundation represented Yellow
Pine in court last fall in a battle
with the U.S. Forest Service
over whether the South Fork
Road would be plowed in the
winter to provide access.
Those attending should be
prepared for hot days and cool
evenings, for cooking some of
their own meals, and for camp-
ing out, as the few hotel rooms
and houses available have long
since been rented.
/i
the Ad vocd'�e ug day 1493
Harmonica festival
draws 1,500 to
Yellow Pine
YELLOW PINE — Despite
some inclement weather, a crowd
estimated at 1,500 traveled here
last weekend to take in the
Fourth Annual Yellow Pine Har-
monica Festival.
And winners of the various
parts of the competition came
from all over North America.
Fred Crabtree, who finished
second in the diatonic harmonica
division in 1992, took advantage
of the absence of Patrick Harren
of McCall. Harren, who has had
a lock on that division since the
event's inception, couldn't attend
this year's event and Crabtree
took first place in that division.
Finishing second in that di-
vision was Leland Smith, of
Reno, Nev., and in third place
was Boisean Mike Corbett.
In the chromatic division, an
unexpected entrant traveled from
the midwest to waltz away with
first place. Darrell Williams. of
Wichita, Kan., was not listed
among the entrants prior to the
event.
The second -place finisher in
that division was a returning
player from Shelton, Wash.,
Vern Morgus. He organizes the
Harmonica Jamboree in Tacoma,
Wash., each year, and sells har-
monicas and gives lessons.
Ed Sigmier, of Poncha
Springs, Colo., is another first -
time entrant who made the trip
into Idaho's backcountry a
worthwhile ordeal, as he finished
third in the chromatic division.
And, winning the group di-
vision was a couple who also
traveled a long way to give the
event an international flavor. Vi
and Ken Elliston, from Lake -
field, Ontario, Canada, heard
about the event from some
friends of theirs who had attend-
ed previously, and decided to
make the festival this year.
7-ne .Sfa►- NeW5 5�2r 16,1917 3
Photo courtesy Heda Mining Co.
Eric Jones examines a seedling at Hecla's reclamation project.
e
cla awarded
for recla ation
at Yellow Pine
Hecla Mining Company has re-
ceived Idaho's top environmental
award for Excellence in Annual Op-
erations of Large Hard Rock Mines.
The award is for reclamation work
completed during 1992 at the
company's Yellow Pine gold mine
near McCall, which was closed last
year after producing nearly 100,000
ounces of gold.
Gov. Cecil Andrus and the state
board of land commissioners pre-
sented the award to Eric Jones, Yel-
low Pine project superintendent, at an
awards ceremony held recently in
Boise.
Hecla has consistently exceeded
its reclamation plan requirements, and
has taken reclamation responsibility
for 40 acres of historic mine impacts
at the Yellow Pine mine, according to
the award.
Hecla has implemented special-
ized grading, water management, and
planting and seeding on application
acres of the mine, according to the
award.
Hecla has consistently used Best
Management Practices throughout the
mine and process sites, according to
the award. These practices have led to
water quality standards being main-
tained or exceeded throughout the life
of the mine.
Hecla pioneered the use of native
bacteria in the process of bio- neutral-
ization to decommission and neutral-
ize cyanide in the mine's processed
ore pile. Cyanide - eating bacteria were
grown on -site and applied to the pile
in 1992.
This method has been successful
and will help establish a more natural,
biologically balanced ecosystem when
final reclamation is completed, com-
pany officials said.
This is the third environmental
award earned by the Yellow Pine unit.
In October 1992 the Pacific North-
west Pollution Control Association
awarded Yellow Pine the 1991 Indus-
trial Pollution Control Award for
Idaho.
This award was in recognition of
Hecla's initiative and ingenuity asso-
ciated with the final reclamation and
bio -neutralization process.
Yellow Pine also received Idaho's
Top Reclamation Award for Excel -
lenceAnnualOperations during 1990.
s
yYV1GL7
Harmonica felt starts
Friday in Yellow Pine
By Karen Bossick
The Idaho Statesman
YELLOW PINE — Most times
it plays second fiddle to the sax-
ophone. Even the tuba.
But the usually overlooked
harmonica will_ be the star at-
traction at the 6th Annual Yel-
low Pine Harmonica Contest
Friday through Sunday.
The event, one of the North-
west's most unique, attracts con-
testants and spectators from
throughout the nation to this
tiny hamlet east of McCall.
Three of the country's finest
harmonica players. — Don Al-
len, Eddie Gordon and Danny
Wilson — will judge the contest
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
They will also perform at 7 p.m.
Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Ad-
/mission to the contest costs $2;
admission to the judges' con-
cert, $5.
Jam sessions will be begin at 7
p.m. Friday and Saturday; a gos-
pel music fest starts at 11 a.m.
Sunday. Contestants will teach
free harmonica lessons from 3 to
5 p.m. Saturday in the shop
across from the town's recrea-
tion hall.
A potluck dinner at 5 p.m.
Friday, barbecue dinner from 5
to 7 p.m. Satur-
day and break-
fast from 7 to 9
a.m. Sunday
will round out
the weekend.
The barbecue
costs $5; break-
fast, $3.
There are no
Red Lion Hotels
or Ramada Inns
in this tiny
town, popula-
tion 35. But you
can park your tent or trailer in
one of the nearby national forest
campgrounds.
To get to Yellow Pine, turn
east on the Warm Lake High-
way at Cascade. Turn north on
the newly paved South Fork of
the Salmon River road at Warm
Lake.
If you prefer, you can stay on
the Warm Lake Highway a few
miles farther, turning off in-
stead on the dirt - and - gravel
Johnson Creek Road. This route
offers a nice view of Warm Lake.
Or, you can go through Mc-
Call to the Lick Creek Road,
which starts on the east side of
Payette Lake. Though a rough
dirt- and - gravel road, it's consid-
ered the prettiest by the locals.
ZIT'S A 31 -MILE SKATING RINK'
Troy Maben /The Idaho Statesman
A group of women from Yellow Pine rides down the main street of the small mountain town after an impromptu horse race through the center of town.
No one likes road to Yellow Pine
Story by Art Lawler * Photos by Troy Maben
The Idaho Statesman
% �i lG�Gl�rG vf�tT�s'n ?avr -
Paving the span
hasn't improved
safety or helped
the environment
John Heggen was going 25
miles per hour when he left the
roadway.
His red pickup hit the black
ice on an outsloping curve that
night, and his right wheel skid-
ded over the edge of the soft
shoulder.
The truck rolled over and hit a
tree. Fortunately for Heggen,
the truck bed caught on the
tree, perhaps saving his life.
Heggen, a Yellow Pine resi-
dent and senior conservation of-
South Fork
Yellow Pine Road
ficer for Idaho Fish and Game,
kicked the door open, fell 5 feet
to the ground, then rolled an-
other 20 feet.
"When I looked up, my pickup
was. hanging precariously above
me," he said. "I guess it wasn't
my time to go."
It was, instead, his introduc-
tion to South Fork Salmon Riv-
er road, a winding route that the
Forest Service almost closed
twice — once to protect wolves
from traffic and once to protect
salmon from sediment flowing
down from the soft moun-
tainside.
But the road wasn't closed. It
was paved, with money from an
$8 million congressional appro-
priation that turned a 31 -mile
stretch into the "two -way" as-
phalt adventure that Heggen
survived.
That amounts to about
$160,000 for each of the 50 or so
people it serves -- the winter
population of Yellow Pine. A
250 -acre patch of private land
surrounded by two national for-
ests, the community of red-
goofed rustic buildings with
horses tied in front of the local
tavern has the feel of 19th cen-
tury Idaho.
The locals are less than
thrilled by their new link with
the outside world, even though
it's the only way in and out
luring winter. Many would
gather see it torn up and re-
glaced with gravel, to slow mo-
torists and give them better
tD7action than the ice -slick
asphalt.
"It's a 31 -mile skating rink,"
said Dave Imel, a retired school
Coacher who escaped Boise six
years ago.
"Deputy Dave, as they call
Dave McClintock of the Valley
County Sheriff's Department,
puts the road's 14 -foot width
into quick perspective: "My
pickup up over there, with the
mirrors, is eight feet wide."
A compromise
The Forest Service attempted
to close off 19 miles of the old
1-irt road in the mid -80s be-
cause the sediment was de-
3troying spawning grounds of
, almon in the South Fork of
the Salmon River.
But Yellow Pine got help of
then U.S. Senator Jim Mc-
Clure, who pushed through the
'Rppropriation bill in 1988 in
opes the paved road would
4hore up the mountain, answer -
Crig the concerns of both envi-
onmentalists and the people of
Yellow Pine.
It didn't work. But the Forest
gervice is still trying.
"The soil material out there
is real sandy and highly eroda-
ble," said Dennis Gordon, hy-
arologist with the Payette Na-
Oonal Forest.
. The solution, he said, is to
r'evegetate the mountains -- a
time consuming process that
Often doesn't take.
.+ Then there's the problem of
road maintenance.
, "They plow the road and end
tip getting a snow floor built up
on the road," Gordon said.
`
"Then with the traffic and
the thawing, it turns into ice,
Ind there's a period of time
when the road is pretty icy."
In the short term, construc-
tion added to the problem —
gome 1,300 cubic yards of sed-
iMent.
To offset the problem, the
forest Service is dredging the
river.
'Three years after the road
has opened, the service still
Paq,. A4 Z of 5 Paq�r
Howard Buettgenbach walks along a portion
of the 31 -mile paved road to Yellow Pine.
has 200 cubic yards to remove
this summer.
Life of freedom
Yellow Pine is leaving the
tough answers to the Forest
Service for now.
But as they've shown in the
past, they're not afraid to chal-
lenge the government.
In 1988, citing safety and en-
vironmental reasons, Payette
National Forest Supervisor
Sonny LaSalle ordered the
road padlocked for the winter
— with Yellow Pine residents
trapped inside.
"It still bothers me that in
the same year the Berlin Wall
came down our Forest Service
saw fit to lock up a town," said
part -time Yellow Pine resident
Lois Vanhoover.
"They lost a lot of locks dur-
ing that time," said Imel, who
admits to using a hacksaw on
one himself.
Still, local citizens seem will-
ing to put up with all kinds of
hardships for the scenic beauty
of the surrounding mountains.
Imel, who recently retired as
the teacher at Yellow Pine's
one -room schoolhouse, first
drove through on a hunting
trip.
He had the driver stop and
let him out.
"I told him `This is where I'm
going to be buried,' " he said.
A happier man would be hard
to find.
Howard Buettgenbac6
stands on the road
along the banks of the
South Fork of the '
Salmon River where a
washout of the cut
bank above the road
pitched sediment and
trees, covering the
road. Buettgenbach
worries that sediment
problems from numer-
ous causes, including
the Salmon River
Road, are destroying =
the habitat in the river
for the few remaining
� chinook salmon that
return from the ocean
to spawn each year.
Photos by
sk :.'�. Troy Maben
S It The Idaho statesman
WIN
` ",
�t
V,�, Pager
Not even Howard Buettgen-
bach, a part -time resident and
environmentalist, can hurt his
disposition for long.
Buettgenbach — pronounced
Bit -zen -bach, except by some
weary locals who call him "Bit -
chin -bach" — also taught at
the school for a year.
Both men love the freedom of
life in Yellow Pine.
There are apparently no
smoking ordinances. At least
none anybody worries about.
It's a village where residents
feel free to to stay inside and
smoke, or go to go outside and
drink.
Small town life
Four horses were parked in
front of the Yellow Pine Tav-
ern on Thursday morning.
The four young riders — Tra-
cy Jo Boyd, Virginia Barthob-
new, Rhonda McLenna, and
Connie Cox — stood alongside,
smoking and drinking a beer.
Then they hopped on their
horses and raced them down
main street.
The sign on the door at the
Yellow Pine Tavern says dogs
and horses are prohibited, but
Imel said the rule is only spo-
radically enforced.
"Where else could you walk
down the street like this with-
out being harassed," said E.W.
"Catfish" White, a beer in one
hand as he strides down main.
The waitress inside, Kay
Hammons announces to new-
comers they can pour them-
selves a cup of coffee over by
the wall.
A large, woodburning stove
warms the room.
The waitress, just to spice
things up, adds, "We serve fat
lips at no extra charge."
Gladys Smith and Dave's
wife, Lynn Imel, arrive later to
spread out a new quilt across
the pool table for everyone to
see.
And in the evening, the youn-
ger women gather in a booth
for a lingerie party while the
men drift into evening conver-
sation, praising Rush Lim -
baugh and ripping the presi-
dent for what they see as his
big government addiction.
Everybody seems to be in
town except Buettgenbach,
who is two miles away, clean-
ing out his one -room shack,
drinking water from a spring,
and stoking his wood - burning
room schoolhouse, rides his four - wheeler through Yellow Pine. Most
ebsidents have snowmobiles or four - wheelers to pet around in winter.
stove. a Matlock enjoys a cold beer on the steps of the town tavern on
_ horse. The sign on the door at the Yellow Pine Tavern says dogs
and horses are prohibited; the rule is only sporadically enforced.
)ennis Gordon
National Forest hydrologist
wn environmentalist
uettgenbach worries that
iment problems from numer.
causes, including the Salm-
River Road, are destroying
habitat in the river for the
remaining chinook salmon
L return from the ocean to
wn each year.
e knows most of the citi-
i of Yellow Pine consider
an environmental extrem-
even though he says he has
problem with responsible
-%llEr /cLrc6ro ��smar -�
;Paj'P AS G7- s' Pages
wnicn nas nm) GICtU —i.y
"He's wrong," he said.
"Those fish are smart enough
to know where to spawn."
Even if they're not, he
doesn't worry about the extinc-
tion of one salmon species.
"Did you know they had a
record salmon harvest in Alas-
ka last yearT he asked.
"I'm not going to put a fish
ahead of people."
Eroding away
outislopes and tender cutbanks.
I% the worst sections, part of
the asphalt paving has
cracked, sunken and small
chunks have even disappeared.
Landslides are daily occur -
re ces. Motorists have to
dodge falling rocks and trees
th t sometimes cover the
le �Ihey're gth of the road.
getting used to it.
Arid the problem is melting
away as winter gives way to
ften described as one long
ii "I know we have to
have wood, and we
have to have minerals.
But there's a right way
and a wrong way to go
about it. .93F
Howard Buettgenbach
part-time Yellow Pine resident
But both men are vocal crit- spring.
ics of the South Fork Salmon But they wonder, before the
River road. snow falls again, whether
As late as last Frida 19 dif- they'll see results from the For-
ferent sections of the road est Service's efforts to make its "Someone's going to have to
could be counted with erosion $8 million road a safe one. die out there before anything
cerani .. Imel is skeptical. gets done."
Lcq Vl //e y
Road trip to Yellow Pine - valley county's infamous
back country town offers glimpse of the past
Visitors to central Idaho won't want to miss a
drive to the backcountry community of Yellow
Pine, which lies in the midst of millions of acres of
backcountry.
The community has gained fame in the past as
a town without telephones. But that could be
changing soon as a local telephone utility has
received permission to bring phone service to
Yellow Pine, which boasts a year -round population
of 50.
One of the major highlights on Yellow Pine's
schedule of community events is the annual
Harmonica Festival, held each year, the first week-
end in August. For three days, some of the best har-
monica players in the nation gather for competi-
tion, jam sessions and concerts.
The event is billed as a tribute to a musical
instrument that helped build the west. And, as you
sit on Yellow Pine's graveled main street on an
August evening, listening to wail of a harmonica,
you feel very much as if you are in the old west.
There are several ways to drive to Yellow Pine,
all of them scenic.
Perhaps the easiest is to drive east from Cascade
on the Warm Lake Highway to the South Fork
Salmon River Road. That recently paved road fol-
lows the famous South Fork down to its confluence
with the East Fork of the South Fork. Then, turn
right and follow the the East Fork upstream to
Yellow Pine. That stretch along the East Fork is
graveled and can be washboarded at times, but
drive slow and enjoy the scenery.
Another route in involves staying on the Warm
Lake Highway and continuing past Warm Lake,
and up over Warm Lake Summit to Landmark, a
Forest Service outpost. At Landmark, turn north on
the Johnson Creek Road, and follow that route all
the way in to Yellow Pine.
Yet a third route, and possibly the most scenic,
is also probably the toughest on a vehicle. A pickup
or sport utility vehicle is adviseable, however, some-
one driving slowly can also take an automobile in
via the Lick Creek Road. That route is accessible
from downtown McCall by heading east toward the
McCall Golf Course and Ponderosa State Park.
Turn east off of Davis Ave. and prepare for a
view from the top of Lick Creek Summit — it actu-
ally gets better as you descend the other side into
the Secesh River drainage — that rivals that of
Yosemite National Park.
Once down the Secesh drainage, you'll pick up
the South Fork, and turn upstream again where
you'll find the intersection with the East Fork.
Follow it on in to Yellow Pine.
Three ways in, three ways out. A round -trip
making a loop will take the better part of a day,
including a few hours' worth of stops for picture
taking, picnicking and rest breaks. But it makes for
a terrific automobile tour of some of Idaho's most
scenic country.
T/ Z • //
Photo for The Star -News by Shari Hambleton
Harmonicas ring out in Y.P.
A competitor in the Yellow Pine Smith, Reno, Nev. Chromatic - 1.
Harmonica Contest entertains the Ken Couch, Cheney, Wash. 2.
audience that gathered in the back- Conrad Hystrom, Portland, Ore. 3.
country hamlet east of McCall for a Charlie Henderson, South Caro -
weekend of music, food and fun. lina. Group -1. Harmonicans, West -
Top finishers in the contest were: ern Washington. 2. The Boys From
Diatonic -1. Adam Smith, Elk City. Boise, Boise. 3. Couch Duo, Cheney,
2. Mark Gonyier, Alaska. 3. Leland Wash.
I
Yellow Pine plays host
to Harmonica Contest
Thirty -five residents welcome thousands
of music - appreciating folks at annual event
By Karen Bossick
The Idaho Statesman
ellow Pine may be a dot
representing 35 people on
the map. But the town's
seventh annual Harmonica
Contest and Music Festival
goes international this year.
Tay Keng Seng, of Malaysia,
will join a lineup of about 30
tin - blowing contestants that
hail from Idaho, Oregon,
Washington, Nevada, Utah
and Arizona.
The contest will be held Aug.
1 through 3 in the tiny burg of
Yellow Pine, a former gold -
mining town in the mountains
east of McCall.
The town, which just got
telephone service, has spon-
sored the harmonica festival
since 1990. About 300 people
turned out for the first festival;
2,500 turned out for last year's
three -day run.
This contest is unique in that
contestants are allowed to play
any type of music they wish
rather than just one song or
one type of music..
The judges, who include a
former member of the Harmon-
icats that appeared on the "Ed
Sullivan Show," hail from Elk
River, Minn., Schererville,
Ind., and Santa Clarita, Calif.
Free lessons will be offered to
amateur harmonica players.
Musicians of any ilk are also'
invited to take part in free jam
sessions and compete for the
Crowd Pleaser Award.
Last year's "Crowd Pleaser"
was not a harmonica player but
a genuine guitar - playing duo.
If you plan to attend, don't
bother making reservations with
the Ramada Inn or saving your
lunch money for a Big Mac.
You'll find neither in Yellow
Pine, where the main dirt street
is lined by two bars, a hotel and
a grocery store with a sign that
said, "Closed due to retirement."
Plan on bringing your own
trailer, motor home or tent.
The Yellow Pine Enhancement
Society, Inc. (YES), a non - profit
corporation made up of Yellow
Pine residents, is sponsoring a
Friday night potluck, which
costs $3. Saturday night's barbe-
cue costs $5 and Sunday's pan-
cake breakfast costs $3. You
should bring your own food for
other meals.
Proceeds from the harmonica
contest go toward graveling and
repairing the streets, assisting
the fire department, maintain
ing the community hall and hi-
ing legal representation to keep.
the South Fork of the Salmon
Road open.
It takes about 41 /z hours to ga
from Boise to Yellow Pine. Tape
Idaho 55 north from Boise tko-
Cascade. Turn right on the
Warm Lake Highway. At the top
of Landmark hill, turn left off
the paved road onto a winding,
gravel -dirt Johnson Creek Road.
It's 25 miles from here to Yellow
Pine.
Questions: Call 382 -4336 anid.
ask for Dave or Lynn Imel at
BSC -32.
71P L�nq 1/a ll <�Y �%vo P i/�11, 7
Blowin' up a storm
Don Allen, left, one of the regularly returning judges at the annual Yellow
Pine Harmonica Contest and Music Festival, gets with it, along with
"Harmonica Bob," who hails from the Puget Sound area of Washington.
Their impromptu performance came while the three contest judges were
doing a little teaser concert for the crowd of more than 500 gathered
on the main drag in the remote mountain hamlet Saturday evening.
r� &aho cS
1 LAST
J
ELIVERY
Fa 9 P,�, IAt- z /`Wfos
At the Yellow
Pine General
Store, former
owner Bernice
Parks, left, won't
let departing mail
stage carrier
Elaine Battles
leave without a
goodbye hug.
Katherine Jones / The Idaho Statesman
Elaine Battles has been delivering mail on the Yellow Pine mail stage route for 21 years. Today is her last day. Residents and colleagues
called her departure the end of an era.
Yellow Pine says goodbye to Elaine Battles as she leaves her mail stage route
By Tim Woodward
The Idaho Statesman
ELLOW PINE — Lafe Cox
isn't one for public displays
of emotion, but even he
couldn't keep from hugging the
woman who has delivered his mail
for 21 years.
"You're gonna have to go a long
way before you can beat this one,"
he said to her replacement.
Turning to Elaine Battles, he
said "I appreciate what you do."
For Cox, who toiled from sunup
to sundown for half a century run-
ning a backcountry ranch, this
was high praise.
Battles, 53, is trading her mail
stage route to carry the mail on a
highway, Idaho 55 from Cascade
to Smiths Ferry. Her last day serv-
ing Yellow Pine is today.
The stage route — over roads
that would make a mountain goat
nervous — is one of the last in the
country to include freight service.
The years of rough roads and
heavy lifting have taken a physical
toll.
A backcountry institution, Bat-
tles has delivered mail and freight
longer than most on her route can
remember. Isolated ranchers and
residents of Yellow Pine, Big
Creek, Krassel and other remote
communities have relied on her for
mail, groceries, medicine, news
and conversation.
She has been their link to the
world beyond the mountains.
In Yellow Pine, population 50,
two men and a dalmatian waited
for her outside the post office
Wednesday.
"lf I'm late, people are waiting,"
she said. "There's not a lot to do in
Yellow Pine."
A pink flier on a wall of the post
office, in Dave and Paula McClin-
tock's garage, invited the town to
Battles' going -away brunch at the
Shady Nook Cafe.
At the Yellow Pine General
Store, where you can buy anything
from pie filling to butane to Old Crow
bourbon, former owner Bernice Parks
greeted her longtime mail carrier and
friend with a going -away hug.
"You remember what Dave said to
me my first day ?" Battles asked her,
laughing. "He said I'd never last."
Dave McClintock, in addition to
laving the post office in his garage and
►eing married to the postmaster, is the
leputy sheriff. Yellow Pine is the place
vhere workers wear two or more hats,
verybody knows everybody and peo-
►le count on one another in ways city
olks have trouble understanding.
i reliable friend
Over lunch at the Stumble Inn,
cross the dirt Main Street from the
3ack.Country Saloon, Battles recalled
he time a Yellow Pine businessman
landed her a sackful of bills and
►sked her to deposit them in Cascade.
"It was nearly $8,000. And that was
ny first year," she said. "He'd never
aid eyes on me before."
People rely on Battles because they
snow they can. Nancy Richter, co-
►wner of the general store since April,
laid that without the postal carrier,
he wouldn't have made it the first
ime she drove over 7,300 -foot Land -
nark Pass in the winter.
"It was snowing like mad, and I was
errified. Elaine let me follow her, and
he baby -sat me the whole way....
"She helps people in medical emer-
,encies, goes out of her way to pick up
)irthday cards and prescriptions, she
given shops for people's groceries. It's
iot part of her job, but she's always
here for us. At this point, she's a piece
)f Idaho history."
Postal patron Robert Dendy said
limply that "her shoes aren't Tillable."
For Mike Ozmer, her re-
)lacement, Battles' dedi-
The red ai
Dodge pic
Elaine Ba
drives is a
iar sight tc
residents
low Pine,
she delive
more than
groceries,
cine, new.,
conversat
Katheri
The Idaho
�/y19� Fagg �L Z of
Battles worked three days a week in
winter, six in summer. On good days,
the route could take eight hours, in-
cluding lunch. If the weather was bad
or she ran into trouble, it could be 12 or
13. Her pay has been a percentage of
the freight. This year, she figures she'll
make $15,000.
Her workday has begun at 8 a.m.,
when she arrived at the Cascade Post
Office to load mail and freight into Ray
Arnold,s red -and -gray Dodge pickup,
the Thunder Mountain Express. Bat-
tles works for Arnold, an institution as
a backcountry pilot and the one who
ration and popularity
ire intimidating.
"You wonder New
Meadows
low long it will Rayette
:ake before people sae
'eel that way about_' Mccau
you," he said. "If
giver." Doi
People trust her Resenroer
with cash, checks, 5s
,harge accounts. o N io
"I buy things in c
"ascade for Wapiti
Meadow (a dude
ranch) and charge it on
their account," Battles said. "If people
don't have accounts, I pay for it my-
self. I've never had anybody not pay
me back. People give me blank,
signed checks and ask me to buy
things for them. We don't have that
kind of trust many places anymore."
Endangered species
ascade
There aren't many mail carriers like
Battles, either. Cascade Postmaster
Dan Tanner estimated that the num-
ber of backcountry mail routes in Ida-
ho is less than a dozen.
"In Elaine's case, it's the end of an
era," he said. "If something's wrong,
she's the first one people call. They call
her before the Forest Service... or any-
body. She knows the country better
than anyone because she's there every
ay.
Yellow
Lake
It takes an hour and half to go from
Warm Lake to Yellow Pine, on a road`.
punctuated with washouts and dizzy -'
ing dropoffs.
"Isn't this beautiful!" she said as"
workers cleared a rockslide on a tow -'
ering switchback. "I've taken pictures,
but they don't show the depth or ho*,
spectacular it is. 1. -1
"This isn't plowed in the winter, ".
she continued for Ozmer's benefit.
Ozmer, 38, takes over the route on_.
Tuesday. He was along for training.
"It's up to your judgment how long
you want to try to go over it before it.'
closes. Going up isn't bad, but going'
down can be terrifying. You just slide,,
until you hit the snow berm."
She laughed, briefly, about the time'
she stopped with her back wheels dan'-"
gling over a cliff. Another time, a tree;;
fell on the truck, smashing its hood
and windshield. She drove it that way
for three weeks.
She's had a$„
many as five flat
tires in a day.
She was carry-
ing two spares
has the contract with the U.S. Postal and had others,
Service to run the mail route. stashed on the
The route is 135 tortuous miles, 185
with trips to Big Creek on Tuesdays
and Fridays. The Thunder Mountain
Express is 6 years old, with more than
200,000 bone - jarring miles on it.
It took an hour to load the mail, beer,,
150 bags of ice and other freight. Bat-
tles has delivered dogs, cats, a dead
cougar. "I did refuge to haul three
goats once," she said "I was worried
about the residue."
Making mail drops
The first of 11 mail drops is at Warm
Lake, where lodge co -owner June
Lopez Cadenhead waited for 800_,
pounds of ice, a week's supply.
"Elaine has delivered most of our'
supplies for as long as we've been'
here," she said. "I feel terrible. Every-'
one on the route feels terrible."
route. ".'.
In 21 years, she's" .
had three accidents.
One was her fault.
She hugged the'
mountainside on a"
blind turn and coI - ;,'
lided with a deputy
sheriff.
"People ask me if it gets bor-
ing driving the same roads every day. I
tell them I've had all the excitement i
can stand. When you've had your
wheels hanging over a cliff and three
people run into you and another 300
try to run into you, you don't mind be•',
mg bored at all....
"You have to like yourself to do this'-
job because you're alone a lot. You
have to be sociable, because even.
though you're not with them very long,
you see the same people every day.
And you have to be self - reliant. If you`
break down in a storm on a mountain
pass, there's nobody around to help,
YOU."
She learned self - reliance growing
up on in Alaska, where her father was'
a trapper, outfitter and guide. She and
her husband, Gene, moved to Idaho in-,
1972. He manages an oil company in •
Cascade. Elaine was working as a
waitress when Arnold offered her the
mail route. "
"For some reason, I was always
spilling on him. He had to give me the
mail job to keep from having coffee.'
dumped on him. I was a terrible wait-
ress."
With more than 600,000 miles of
backcountry driving, she's looking for
ward to smooth roads and light loads. '
"But I won't have time to get bored.
The new route has 320 boxes. And
compared with Highway 55 traffic, the'
backcountry's easy."
It will be easy to miss as well, after
two decades of daily encounters with,
wildlife, mountain characters and
heart- stopping scenery.
"I've seen moose, mountain lions,
mountain goats, osprey, bald eagles....
I love the country, and I love the peoL
ple. For me, it's been like a working va-
cation. I'm lucky. I've gotten to do ex-
actly what I wanted to do and get paid
for it."
i17e • %lair d 5 aC M,s, -nq kI _ g�4/11/G/
M ike Mego of Nampa works out a spine - tingling rendi-
tion of "Amazing Grace" on his harmonica Friday af-
ternoon while sitting around camp, which took over
what's known as the Yellow Pine golf course.
1�7e fd/ oi_ S pa,-7e- s
`Oh,
that
play
mountain
music ...'
Basil Cannada of Boise concentrates on his keyboard while jamming with friends Friday at his campsite at the 12th Annual Yellow Pine Harmonica Contest
Fest. They said it couldn't be done, but Cannada figured out a way to plug in his Yamaha keyboard to a generator. The four -year veteran of the Fest says he en
joys the playing and the people. "The congeniality of the folks is what makes it," Cannada said.
Toe-tappin knee-slappin'fun at
Yellow Pine's harmonica festival
here's a sign when you head up the Warm Lake Road
near Cascade: "Yellow Pine Harmonica Contest and
Fest" with a big arrow so you don't miss the road. It
was there so thousands of musicians and their fans could
have a foot- stompin' good time this weekend in a town where
normally just 80 people hang their hats in the summer.
Whew, it was a crowd - pleasing Crowd Pleaser contest on the Yellow Pine stage Friday night.
Entertainment included harmonicas, cowboy poetry and singing; one man even performed
on a saw. Yep. The kind you use to cut down trees. Ken Sorrel Is and Laura Agana, both of
Kuna, summed it up: " It'sthe mountains; it'sthe music; it'sthe people."
Rollin' Joe Jordan of Spokane strolls up Yellow Pine Av
enue before getting sidetracked by a yard sale. Jordan E
formed later that evening by singing song about his fa
teeth. "My teeth are like the stars in a Western sky," Jor
said. "They always come out."
A photo essay by Kim Hughes,
Idaho Statesman photographer
As the sun sinks lower, the
crowd gets louder. Lea Yer-
gler, left, and Alvin Albert,
both from St. Maries, clap
and holler as John Edwards
of Ontario, Ore., performs.
"I guarantee my audience
pleasure when I play," Ed-
wards said before starting.
"They'll either have plea -
sure while I'm playing or
pleasure after I quit play-
ing."
On what maybe the world's biggest harmonica (or maybe not, we don't know), Marvin Monroe, from Ohio, jams with the Buckeye State Harmonica Band. The
weather was hot, but Marvin and the guyswere hotter, drawing harmonica - loving people to the main stage. "A buckeye is a nut that grows on a tree," fellow band
member Jack Ely said. "That's us."
Doug Sonderstrom, a psychology instructor at a junior college in Wharton, Texas,
practices playing outside the Yellow Pine Community Hall on Saturday morning
While contests head inside. Sonderstrom has been playing the harmonica for 40
years, but this was his first trip to the Yellow Pine festival. "It's beautiful. If you
play the harmonica, you never get a chance to be around other harmonica players,
because, let's be realistic, to be a harmonica player is to be kind of an oddball,"
Sonderstrom said. "If you getup here and you're surrounded by hundreds of other
harmonica players, you suddenly become normal."
Logan Kerr belts out "You Are My Sunshine" during
the Crowd Pleaser. The 82- year -old man's voice
quivered as he sang "Hey, good lookin', whatcha got
cookin' ...." With a grin and a flirt, he pointed atthe
ladies and sang, "How'bout cookin' something up
with me ?" Whoopin' and hollerin', theygave Kerra
standing ovation.
Wash -day
power blues
Housewives all
over Idaho wel-
comed the arrival of
the magic of electric-
ity when it came to
their communities.
But it wasn't always
the last answer, as
Nancy Sumner and
Jane Keating learned
inYellowPine,
where the power
lines were not in-
stalled until the un-
usually late date of
July4,1963.
Nancy had her
washing machine
going full tilt one
morning when sud-
denly everything
electric in the whole
house stopped. Jane
Keating, who lived in
the next cabin upriv-
er, reported her
power was off, too.
They knew that an
Idaho Power man
was staying nearby,
so they drove to his
campsite and
learned, oh happy
day, that he was a
power- company
troubleshooter. He
checked the trans-
former pole at Nan-
cy's cabin and noted
the line also ran only
to Jane's cabin.
When he asked the
two women what
they'dbeendoing
the moment the elec-
tricity quit, they both
said, "The washing."
He shookhis head.
"You blew the trans-
former. You can't
bothwashthe same
ay.
—,,Idaho Women
in History"
byBettyPenson-
Ward
Traffic woes won't stop this weekend's harmonica Pest
By Susan Whaley
The Idaho Statesman
Organizers of the Yellow Pine
Harmonica Contest hope fans
won't let a jet -fuel spill on Ida-
ho 55 keep them away from the
music this weekend.
Road crews re- opened a sin-
gle lane on Idaho 55 to traffic late
Thursday, but delays are ex-
pected. Drivers who are planning
to attend the festival, which be-
gins today and runs through Sun-
day, may want to take an alter-
nate route north, such as U.S. 95
to McCall or Idaho 21 to Low-
man.
"People just need to be patient
and get through the delays, and
everything's going to be fine,"
said Vicki Martineau, owner of
Yellow Pine's Corner Bar. "We're
definitely ready."
This is the 15th year that some
of the nation's top amateur play-
ers will compete in the teeny -
tiny town east of McCall.
Dawn Brown, owner of the
Yellow Pine General Store, ex-
pects the usual crowd of up to
3,000 musicians and fans.
That's a lot of music.
The dirt road running through
town is the site of "Crowd
Pleaser" concerts Friday and Sat-
urday.
Judges award cash prizes to
New Yellow
Meadows
Pine
i JMcCall
Lake J Donnelly
Cascade`
Warm
f"t Lake
cascade
A6
N
top players at formal contests in
the Community Hall. Competi-
tors are coming from as far away
as Tampa, Fla.; Albuquerque,
N.M.; and Las Vegas, Martineau
said.
Day and night, jam sessions
tend to spring up wherever at
least two people with harmoni-
cas, guitars or fiddles gather.
To offer story ideas or comments,
contact reporter Susan Whaley at
swhaley @idahostatesman.com or
377 -6431.
At IdahoStatesman.com
Link to Yel low Pine Harmonica
Festival R
Your checklist
Mike Mego of
Nampa works
out a spine -tin-
gling rendition
of "Amazing
Grace" on his
harmonica.
Statesman file
photo
HOW TOGETTHERE: Take Idaho 55 north 75 milesto Cascade
and fill up the gas tank. Expect delays on 55, which is reduced to one
lane. Alternate routes include U.S. 95to New Meadowsand Idaho
55 to McCall, or Idaho 21 to Lowman and the Banks - Lowman High -
wayto Idaho 55. From McCall take the Lick Creek Road (a windy, 50-
mile dirt road). From Cascade, turn east on Warm Lake Road on the
north end of town and continue tothe South Fork Salmon River Road
(paved but curvy) or Johnson Creek Road (a good dirt- gravel road).
Expect at least a four -hour drive, dependingon routes and delays.
WHERE TO STAY: The limited lodging available is full, so bring
your RV or tent and sleeping bag. There are unlimited free camp-
sites close to town.
FOOD: Bring your own but plan to eat there, too. Dinner on Fri-
day and Saturday and breakfast on Saturday and Sunday is served
at the Community Hall, $5 -$7. Proceeds benefit community im-
provement projects. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are available at
the Si Iver Dol lar Cafe and Yel low Pine Tavern and Cafe. The Cor-
ner Bar serves pizza. Also, food from vendors and the Yel low Pine
General Store.
INFORMATION: (208) 633 -3300.
-3) /es
Historic
�_
... _ .
Just in time for Valentine's Day, long gone."
here are some offbeat Idaho love
stories:
• • •
Boisean Emma Bryant wrote a
column in the Yellow Pine
Gazette called "Looking Back "She
told quite a few stories about her
female contemporaries.
"One concerned a bachelor
miner named Lem Hansen, who
advertised for a wife in a lonely
hearts magazine and corre-
sponded with a Detroit woman.
... When he went to meet her at
the train in Cascade, she didn't
know him because he had sent
her a picture of a handsome young
man instead of himself.
"They decided to go out to din-
ner anyway, and then they de-
cided to get married anyway....
He gave her a splendid diamond
ring, which she carefully sewed
into the lining of a coat. After she
died "in poverty" in Boise, rela-
tives who hunted for the gem
found her things had been given
to the Salvation Army and were
,Z / / 2OO 2
Yet another love story that did-
n't end up quite so happily -ever-
after concerns a nightclub enter-
tainer who had a room in Boise's
Idanha Hotel.
She was a belly dancer, snake
charmer and whatnot, and she de-
veloped quite a crush of male ad-
mirers. One particularly persis-
tent fellow — whom she'd re-
peatedly turned down — found
out where she lived and came call-
ing at her hotel room very late
one night.
She opened the door a few
inches, but didn't ask him in.
Not that she needed to. He was
already halfway down the hall,
squealing like a stuck pig. Behind
him, in hot pursuit, wriggled her
"bodyguard," an 8- foot -long
python that was part of her act.
Source: `Idaho Women in
Big &Little Biographies and Other
Gender Stories, "by BettyPenson
Ward
Photo by Dwight Utz
BIG BRIDGE - A 90 -foot long "railcar" bridge is shown arriving at its new home along Johnson Creek Road about
eight miles south of Yellow Pine. The bridge replaced the previous access bridge to Wapiti Meadows Ranch. The massive
structure was made in Lebanon. Ore- and its installation was supervised by Boulder Creek Engineering of Donnelly.
Yellow Pine Post Office
on USPS list for closure
Remote office only
generates $5,000
per year
The post office in the
backcountry community of
Yellow Pine east of McCall
is being studied for possible
closure under a plan issued
last week by the U.S. Postal
Service.
The Yellow Pine post
office is one of 3,700 retail
officesof the USPS across the
nation that are to be studied
for possible closure over the
next four months, a news
release said.
Residents of the town are
still pondering the report
as they prepare for Yellow
Pine's annual harmonica
contest this weekend.
"We are still waiting to
see if some of our questions
will be answered," said Steve
Holloway, who owns Yellow
Pine General Store and Sil-
ver Dollar Grill.
One question is whether
Yellow Pine will still get mail
even if it is only through post
office boxes, Holloway said.
The Yellow Pine post of-
fice has lost about 20 percent
of its postage revenue in
the past three years, Robert
Vunder, the USPS district
manager of marketing for
Utah and Idaho, told msnbc.
com. .
Vunder said the office's
revenue for 2010 was $5,000.
"If you look at $5,000 rev-
enue in a year, and we're open
303 days, you can see that's a
losing proposition," Vunder
told msnbc.com.
The post office says the
closures are needed nation-
wide as more people choose
to conduct their postal busi-
ness inways otherthan going
to the post office.
"Today, more than 35 per-
cent of the Postal Service's
retail revenue comes from
expanded access locations
such as grocery stores, drug
stores, office supply stores,
retail chains, self - service
kiosks; ATMs and usps.com,
open 24/7," Postmaster Gen-
eral Patrick Donahoe said in
a news release.
"Our customers' habits
have made it clear that they
no longer require a physical
post office to conduct most
of their postal business,"
Donahoe said.
The postal service has
introduced the Village Post
Office as a potential replace-
ment for post offices on the
closure study list, the USPS
news release said.
A Village Post Office
would be operated by local
businesses, such as pharma-
cies and grocery stores, and
would offer popular postal
products and services such
as stamps and flat -rate pack-
aging, the release said.
47305
Sri Y �4 g r��y��et,,ep��,,
s ; ctober. 19'IP 96
CHARLIE cI BE
4.�
IS DEAD
x � m
TRtM MST
frantier Timed
i OLD WEST,
. TWO FUNERALS FOR tl HENN Y * KITTY LEROY r QUEIEN Of THE HOOFERS
^x.'�x• �.�w. i.. �a kM.� .. i; ... :.?.: -?t t� �wz' ': <: -: ;. � ,. :� :.. � .:.. s. .�ti;i • .. :�:. .. r ..:,j,.,_; �.
Unless angels have a lot of patience they must
have been very relieved when AI's first rites
turned out to be a false alarm and they wouldn't
have to cope with the man from Yellow Pine for
another fifty years!
BY ERNEST OBERBILLIG
Photos Courtesy Author
THE Weiser Idaho American news-
paper of September 10, 1956 pub- 1`
lished this obituary:
Albert Hennessy, eighty, died last y{ y
Monday, September 3, in Norton's * w I
Convalescent home of natural causes.„_. f
Hennessy was a long time resident
of Yellow Pine Hotel and born in *�.r
New York State, December 28, 1875. �� t
Mrs. Guy Herbert, Pioche, Nevada,
a niece is the only known relative. t t,
Funeral services were held at North-
ern-Jones chapel Saturday. Burial` t'
was in Riverside Cemetery on the ' ' v * 't ` z � = t
Oregon side. ,� { •�, •
This obituary was not unusual; similar
ones appeared in most of the larger news- a
papers in Idaho a few years back. What
then makes it significant? The remark- , v •�
able thing about the death notice was .w" IN
that it recorded the second funeral for
j
this man —the two occasions separated
by more than half a century. The life and
achievements for Albert Hennessy in the ,..
years between his two funeral services
makes this story worth telling, and here
are the circumstances of his first funeral.
Al Hennessy came from a large family < ��`�','� P +'. ' r "
of boys who moved from New York State
to Butte, Montana in the early 1890s. An x
enterprising older one of the He
boys established a dray and ore haulage
business, which was soon expanded, with � ,,✓ 11
all the Hennessy brothers occupied. All
except Al, that is. Al was always heading ►.` I
back into the hills with the rifle and a
prospecting outfit.
After starving out on a poor prospect, �,, «^^ .• �� '+ , { °
Al would dejectedly come back to Butte
to work awhile until he could scrape to-
gether another grubstake and head for
the hills again. ,
One fall Al headed back to his usual �� ;r
v
diggings where he was drivin p p �'"
g a ros ect
' r
drift or tunnel on a vein of ore. Al had
whooped it up on his last night in town {'" � � � :' ' „��t -� `�► ,`,,
• 4
and had managed to get thrown in jail.
,�� . `„� 4 t�' o...,�r„• ,�`� �,st ' \ tom, . �. �t I
6 True West i
A
Left: Al Hennessy in 1921 at his ranch (now
Bryant Ranch). Above: The mountain vil-
lage of Yellow Pine in 1930. Below: Al
standing beside Henry Bryant's Ford (one
of the first cars on the Hennessy Ranch).
..p
R ?�
a
His brothers bailed him out with the
agreement to "get him out of town," and
they added to his meager grubstake so
it would last all winter.
With a well- stocked larder and mining
supplies it was not surprising S::at his
brothers heard nothing from him, as he
was not much of a letter writer, and no
concern was felt until the following
spring.
When Al failed to return by early May,
one of the Hennessy brothers was sent
to look for him. This brother made in-
quiries in the mining district where Al
had been working. Several prospectors
recalled seeing him at work on his tunnel
late in the fall but hadn't seen him for
most of the winter and spring.
Fearing the worst, the brother arrived
at Al's cabin and found it vacant. To add
to the brother's alarm, he found the
kitchen well- stocked with groceries, and
a made -up bed in one corner of the cabin.
A rifle was resting in a deer horn rack,
and clothes were hanging from nails
along one wall. Despite the clutter and
shambles of small objects left by pack
rats on the floor, tables and chairs, the
cabin obviously had been occupied and
neat several months earlier.
Al's brother walked up the trail to
the mine and found a short candle in the
blacksmith shop at the mouth of the tun-
nel. When he lit the candle and entered
he was shocked to see human bones
scattered about. Closer examination of
the face of the tunnel indicated that a
premature explosion had killed Al while
he was loading dynamite in a drill hole.
Several empty drill holes in the tunnel
face had not yet been loaded but were
all ready to be. He concluded that after
the blast, coyotes, wolves or bobcats had
entered the tunnel during the winter and,
with their food scarce, had ripped Al's
body to pieces.
Sadly the brother gathered Al's bones
in a sack and carried them back to Butte
for burial. A doctor friend examined the
remains and confirmed the family's fears
—the skeleton bones were of a size ex-
actly matching Al's dimensions. There
was now no doubt that Al had met a
violent death and that wild beasts had
left only a few scattered bones along
the drift to tell the story.
With sadness in their hearts, the Hen-
nessy brothers had a rousing Irish wake,
followed by a proper Catholic funeral
service in the church the next day. They
then went back to work as usual, filling
the busy days with haulage contracts,
yet occasionally recalling with sorrowful
thoughts the lonely demise of Brother Al.
ONE EVENING about a year later, a
Hennessy brother was relaxing over
a drink in a Butte saloon when the bar-
tender handed him a little newspaper
called the Thunder Mountain News —a
paper printed in a new mining camp in
Central Ohio. One item caught his eye:
"Al Hennessy, our relief mail carrier,
came into Roosevelt on his skis with a
forty -pound pack of mail and express."
Could this be his brother or was it
someone of the same name? George Hen-
nessy rushed to show the newspaper to
his brothers and they agreed he should
immediately travel to Thunder Mountain
to investigate.
After a long, hard horseback trip of
ten days, George finally arrived at the
remote little settlement of Yellow Pine
Basin. Response to his inquiry was im-
mediate: "Yeah, Al Hennessy is on his
ranch four miles up Johnson Creek at
the mouth of Riordan Creek."
George finished the last segment of
his long journey scarcely noticing the
beautiful timber and clear sparkling
Johnson Creek —more a river than creek
in size. His thoughts were still on his
strange journey and the disappointment
it might bring. Crossing Johnson Creek,
though it was swollen by the spring run-
off, was no problem because a good
strong horse bridge had been built over
it.
When George rode up to the house,
he found Al Hennessy —his brother —
splitting stove wood.
"Well, George, what brings you here —
not bad news I hope ?" he asked calmly.
"No. But, Al, we thought you were
dead — killed in a blast in your tunnel!
All I found was a few human bones that
animals had left behind so we buried
F A R AL H E N S
September - October, 1.976
r-
.d&A
The start of the open pit on Hennessy's "Homestake" claims. This pit produced $50
million in gold. silver, antimony and tungsten between 1937 and 1952.
them thinking they was yours!" George
explained.
"That had to be Alex Johnson's bones.
I sold him my diggin's and asked John
Blake to tell you I headed for Thunder
Mountain. When you never wrote, I
thought everybody was still mad at me
for the fracas I caused on my last visit
to Butte."
"Hell, no, we weren't mad! And we
sure gave you a nice funeral and wake,
but I'm happy it was not you we buried!"
George said with a grin.
So it was that Al Hennessy had his first
funeral in 1902 at Butte, Montana, and it
wasn't until 1956 that he had his second.
What happened between those years kept
Al Hennessy mighty busy.
IN HIS long and interesting life Al
owned and developed nearly every val-
uable mine, and one of the most valuable
ranches, in the Yellow Pine area. While
accomplishing these things, however, Al
still drank more moonshine than any
other two men in the district. He was
the best skier for miles around and
could even outshine his Scandinavian
friends in this department —a fine feather
in the hat of an Irishman.
Al Hennessy started acquiring prop-
erty in Central Idaho by filing for a
homestead ranch of 160 acres in August
1903. He had lived on the place for a
year or two earlier but the first record
of his ranch (which is the present Bryant
ranch) was his application for patent
in 1903. (Part of this acreage in the last
decade has become the best Idaho Aero-
nautics Department Airstrip in Central
Idaho. This grass field, nearly a mile
long and called Johnson Creek Airstrip,
adjoins the Bryant ranch.)
Al's development of his property was
noted in the Idaho City Idaho World
newspaper on September 10, 1906: "Al
Hennessy of Morrison had constructed
this summer three miles of road between
Morrison and the Johnson Creek bridge.
He had also built a good bath house at
the Hot Springs near Morrison."
Al's ranching endeavors included a hay
press at a spot called Hennessy Meadows
on Riordan Creek about three miles east
of his Morrison Ranch. Here Al harvested
the wild hay or Timothy for winter feed
for his horses, and packed it down to the
ranch about 1,500 feet lower on Johnson
Creek. Parts of Al's hay press can still
be seen today in the meadows.
From 1903 until about 1916 Al Hen-
nessy led an agricultural life with only
short forays into the mining area of
nearby Thunder Mountain. However, he
kept his eyes open and indexed and cata-
logued all the likely prospects and mines.
When World War I commenced, the mer-
cury and antimony mines in the Yellow
Pine district were reopened and prospect-
ing for these metals developed into a
mining boom. Many of the district's pros-
pects of these metals had been found a
decade or so earlier but were not devel-
oped until the war created a need and a
rise in price. Prospecting really reached
a fever pitch after the United States be-
came involved in 1917.
During those war years Al Hennessy
located several antimony and mercury
prospects near the Pringle Smith mer-
cury mine on Cinnebar Creek about fif-
teen miles east of his Morrison ranch.
Though most of these scattered claims
were not very important and did not de-
velop into producing mines —the Meadow
Creek.prospect was a different story. It
was located about three miles south of the
junction of Sugar Creek and the East
Fork of the South Fork on a small tribu-
tary of the East Fork called Meadow
Meadow Creek mine and mill in December 1931.
iedx...: eix-;J
8 True West
It
ry �\
t
o,
An
Ah
r-
.d&A
The start of the open pit on Hennessy's "Homestake" claims. This pit produced $50
million in gold. silver, antimony and tungsten between 1937 and 1952.
them thinking they was yours!" George
explained.
"That had to be Alex Johnson's bones.
I sold him my diggin's and asked John
Blake to tell you I headed for Thunder
Mountain. When you never wrote, I
thought everybody was still mad at me
for the fracas I caused on my last visit
to Butte."
"Hell, no, we weren't mad! And we
sure gave you a nice funeral and wake,
but I'm happy it was not you we buried!"
George said with a grin.
So it was that Al Hennessy had his first
funeral in 1902 at Butte, Montana, and it
wasn't until 1956 that he had his second.
What happened between those years kept
Al Hennessy mighty busy.
IN HIS long and interesting life Al
owned and developed nearly every val-
uable mine, and one of the most valuable
ranches, in the Yellow Pine area. While
accomplishing these things, however, Al
still drank more moonshine than any
other two men in the district. He was
the best skier for miles around and
could even outshine his Scandinavian
friends in this department —a fine feather
in the hat of an Irishman.
Al Hennessy started acquiring prop-
erty in Central Idaho by filing for a
homestead ranch of 160 acres in August
1903. He had lived on the place for a
year or two earlier but the first record
of his ranch (which is the present Bryant
ranch) was his application for patent
in 1903. (Part of this acreage in the last
decade has become the best Idaho Aero-
nautics Department Airstrip in Central
Idaho. This grass field, nearly a mile
long and called Johnson Creek Airstrip,
adjoins the Bryant ranch.)
Al's development of his property was
noted in the Idaho City Idaho World
newspaper on September 10, 1906: "Al
Hennessy of Morrison had constructed
this summer three miles of road between
Morrison and the Johnson Creek bridge.
He had also built a good bath house at
the Hot Springs near Morrison."
Al's ranching endeavors included a hay
press at a spot called Hennessy Meadows
on Riordan Creek about three miles east
of his Morrison Ranch. Here Al harvested
the wild hay or Timothy for winter feed
for his horses, and packed it down to the
ranch about 1,500 feet lower on Johnson
Creek. Parts of Al's hay press can still
be seen today in the meadows.
From 1903 until about 1916 Al Hen-
nessy led an agricultural life with only
short forays into the mining area of
nearby Thunder Mountain. However, he
kept his eyes open and indexed and cata-
logued all the likely prospects and mines.
When World War I commenced, the mer-
cury and antimony mines in the Yellow
Pine district were reopened and prospect-
ing for these metals developed into a
mining boom. Many of the district's pros-
pects of these metals had been found a
decade or so earlier but were not devel-
oped until the war created a need and a
rise in price. Prospecting really reached
a fever pitch after the United States be-
came involved in 1917.
During those war years Al Hennessy
located several antimony and mercury
prospects near the Pringle Smith mer-
cury mine on Cinnebar Creek about fif-
teen miles east of his Morrison ranch.
Though most of these scattered claims
were not very important and did not de-
velop into producing mines —the Meadow
Creek.prospect was a different story. It
was located about three miles south of the
junction of Sugar Creek and the East
Fork of the South Fork on a small tribu-
tary of the East Fork called Meadow
Meadow Creek mine and mill in December 1931.
iedx...: eix-;J
8 True West
:4 � �� �� �� k • 7,� .. � *'qY � �y.:. ;(
+ a�
..ti 1 s� • . r,.., _ ` �ar:wea. -. swiNb �.._ , .. _ .... ' "�. � � "!
Meadow Creek camp in 1925.
Creek and was an old Thunder Mountain
gold prospect which Al had studied ten
or twelve years earlier.
The first work noted on the Meadow
Creek prospect was in 1902 when J. C.
McFarnahan filed for a water right on
Meadow Creek for milling water for the
Meadow Creek mine. This was much too
early to work this mine because the
stamp mills used then could not mill its
complex gold and antimony ore mixture.
In 1919 Al Hennessy formed Mead-
ow Creek Silver Mines Company with
J. L. Niday, a Boise lawyer, and
J. J. Oberbillig, a Boise assayer and
mining engineer. Other than annual as-
sessment work on the five original min-
ing claims and six new corporate claims
located at Meadow Creek, nothing much
was done on it until after it was sold
�" 'a
September- Oetober,19; 6
to United Mercury Mines Company
formed by J. J. Oberbillig to purchase
and explore both Pringle Smith's Hermes
mercury mine and the Hennessy Meadow
Creek mine as well. United Mercury was
incorporated January 22, 1921 and funds
were raised for the purchase and ex-
ploration work of the two mines.
In the years of 1921 -1925, Fred Franz,
George Brewer, and George Kennedy
worked at Meadow Creek and drove hun-
dreds of feet of tunnel into the Meadow
Creek ore body, opening up a half million
tons of antimony- silver -gold ore.
On November 4, 1922 the United Mer-
cury balance sheet showed they purchased
the Meadow Creek Silver Mining Com-
pany for $100,000 worth of stock. For the
Pringle Smith mercury claims, $251000
worth of Liberty Bonds were paid.
In 1.925 the Homestake mine, the larg-
est U. S. gold mine, sent its mining
geologist, Lawrence Wright, to examine
Meadow Creek mine. He liked the mine
but IIomestake's metallurgists turned it
down because they couldn't treat the com-
plex gold - antimony ore.
Then on May 17, 1927 the UMM Com-
pany optioned the Meadow Creek and
Cinnebar mines to F. W. Bradley for
$1.5 million. F. W. Bradley -was a San
Francisco mining engineer with a large
interest in Alaska's Juneau gold mines
and the Bunker Hill lead - silver mine in
North Idaho. Bradley had also been . the
managing engineer of the productive
Alaska - Treadwell mine.
From 1921 until the summer of 1923
Al Hennessy lived by selling United
Mercury Mines Company stock he had
received for his Meadow Creek Silver
Mines Company, and he kept up his
residence at his ranch on Johnson Creek
and worked the mining claims he held on
the west side of Johnson Creek just
northwest of his ranch. Ile had received
a patent to the ranch in 1919 from
the U. S. Government and thus it became
a proved -up homestead and real property
in his own name.
RANCHING was not really Al's cup of
tea so in 1923 he located Hennessy 1,
2 and 3 lode claims on the Stibnite pit
area and formed the Great Northern
Mines Company with J. L. Niday, his
former Meadow Creek Silver Mines Com-
pany associate. Niday deposited $800 in
the bank in the name of the corporation
and gave Al the check book. Niday was
allowed $200 more credit for expenses
incorporating the company, and for this
$1,000 he was to receive half the stock
in the company. Thus, at this point the
three most valuable claims in this part
of Idaho (as they were to prove later)
were acquired for a cash outlay of $1,000
plus labor.
Apparently Al thought Niday was to
help with more money and when he didn't
contribute additional funds to the bank
account, Al located several adjoining
claims, some individually and some with
his friend, Fred Franz. Because At did
not deed these claims to the Great North-
ern Mines Company, he and Niday got
into an argument and were soon in court.
Finally the Idaho Supreme Court affirmed
the District Court and Al was ordered
to turn in all adjoining claims to the
Corporation and for this he was to re-
ceive $50,001 in stock and Niday $49,999.
After the court order to split the stock
and include all the claims in the company
there was no way Niday and Hennessy
could work together and even do the
minimal annual assessment work on the
claims amicably.
It was fortunate that at this time F. W.
Bradley was already working the Meadow
Creek and Cinnebar mines so in 1928
Niday and Hennessy gave Bradley an
option on the Great Northern claims for
$500,000 to be paid out of half the net
proceeds, and Bradley did work on the
claims each year.
For several years Bradley's Yellow
Pine Mining Company did some geolog-
ical work on these claims; but in 1931 lie
turned them back to Hennessy and Niday
after his Superintendents White, Hamp-
den, and Worthington and Geologist Her-
shey reported no ore on them.
Meanwhile, Hennessy. and Niday had
received $5,000 cash for an easement over
the Great Northern claims for a road,
pipeline and transmission line with tun-
nel sites so the early deal was not all
a loss.
In 1933, J. J. Oberbillig purchased the
Great Northern claims — giving $7,500
each to Hennessy and Niday. Hennessy
was paid out at $250 per month from
November 1933 until May 1936. For
$15,000 this group of eleven claims was
bought, but with still no proven ore.
In early 1937 a penstock pipeline walk-
er, when examining a redwood pipeline
leak, found.that water had washed the
dirt off the hillside on the claims and
the ore was now open on the east side
of the pit. Bradley was soon milling 500
tons per day of gold ore from this mine.
(In 1939 the U. S. Bureau of Mines start-
ed drilling for startegic antimony there
and in the winter of 1940 -1941 the drills
cut high -grade tungsten ore associated
with antimony. During World War II this
pit was the largest U.S. producer of
antimony and tungsten —about $25,000,-
000 worth in four years.)
RETURNING to Hennessy's original
Meadow Creek Silver Mines Company
claims sold to UMM Co. in 1920, which
Bradley had optioned from United Mer-
cury Mines Company in 1927, we find
that with the aggressive characteristic
of any Bradley operation, they moved in
FJ
.sr
l`pr- " u Jam "ong�
:. ron Wr4 ! ( £{lralmn �rerk �ilurr amines (Lntnpany
%AT L!i'e s � . PI-
ftira01111 lurk #dkirr fl(uiru Qnmpmnl
t7&
* `
Stock Certificate for 25.000 shares of the Meadow Creek Silver Mine Company.
and proved up the ore body and developed
it for mining, and built a road ten miles
to Profile Creek where it connected with
the Yellow Pine road already built by the
U. S. Forest Service. They built camps at
Meadow Creek and at the North Tunnel
and the lower Haulage Tunnel. They also
started a mill in 1931 which was finished
by Christmas, and milled ore from Mead-
ow Creek from 1932 until 1937.
During those early 1930 years the
Meadow Creek mine produced about
$200,000 per year and kept an average of
fifty men working year round. This mine
was the only bright spot in the economy
of Valley County during those dark De-
pression years and the camp started look-
ing even brighter after the Great North-
ern claims were stripped for open pit
mining in 1937. Then in 1939 the rum-
blings of World War II promised the need
for antimony as a war metal and, of
course, the tungsten discovery in 1940-
1.941 followed. And we must credit Al
Hennessy with being the original owner
and promoter of the two biggest mines
in that mining district.
But let's backtrack and see what Al
had been doing on his ranch on Johnson
Creek in the early 1920s. Al got the
idea that fox farming would suit him
just fine and would make a paying propo-
sition of his 160 -acre homestead. So he
built some kennels, runs, and pens,
brought in some foxes, and started on his
way to building up a fox fur empire. He
interested Henry Bryant, a Ford dealer in
Boise who was Henry Ford's brother -in-
law, and sold Bryant half his ranch in
1921.
The fox business was not very great so
in the winter of 1926 Bryant snowshoed
in'from Cascade and pelted out the entire
farm — breeding stock and all. The wags
of Yellow Pine remarked that Bryant
should have pelted Hennessy at the same
time for getting him into the fox business
in the first place.
Al Hennessy left his mark permanently
on Johnson Creek by dynamiting the deep
holes near the Hanson Ranch and catch-
ing the stunned white fish in nets on a
riffle below. He blasted these holes to
twice their original depth, but he (lid keep
his foxes fed with white fish.
Al sold the remaining half of his ranch
to H. H. Bryant on November 17, 1924
but I found a confusing deed dated March
28, 1927 to T. L. Reedy from Al Hennessy
for half the ranch, when he had already
deeded it all to I3ryant. Perhaps Al was
drinking and made out the deed to Reedy
to give Bryant some trouble.
IN September 193:3 Al sold his ten Ana-
conda claims to Idaho Minerals Com-
pany, another venture incorporated by
his old friend, J. J. Oberbillig. These were
located just northwest of Al's ranch along
the steep slope of the canyon west of
.Johnson Creek and contained some anti-
mony, gold and silver prospects. Al had
(Continued on page 38)
La£e Cox and Al on the way to Al's ill -fated Buck Creek camp, This was the last of Al's mining endeavors,
rt
10 True .West
Two Funerals for Al Hennessy
(Continued front page 10)
been working these claims with Bob
Beattie and they lived in some small
cabins on the west side of the creek across
from the Cascade - Yellow Pine Forest
Highway.
While Al and Bob were working the
Anaconda Claims between 1929 and 1933
several incidents took place to contribute
to the amusement of all their neighbors
along the creek and in the village of
Yellow Pine three miles downstream.
Al was always out at night talking
and singing to the stars and this habit
was disturbing to anyone camping with
him. One time Bob Beattie got an idea
so he accosted Al as follows: "Al, your
insomnia is caused by too much electricity
in your body and if we can ground it out
you will probably be able to sleep. To-
night we will wire you up so you can
sleep."
They took four pieces of four -foot drill
steel and pounded them through the floor
and into the ground —two on each side of
the head of Al's bed and two at each side
of the foot of the bed. (Beattie, no doubt,
got the idea for "grounding -out" Al be-
cause in those days battery radios needed
a ground to work well and, of course, the
single wire phones required a ground
connection.)
When Al was ready for bed, Bob wired
his wrists to the head steel posts and
then wired his ankles to the two at the
foot of the bed.
The next morning when unwiring Al,
Bob asked: "How did you sleep, AI ?"
"Fine, never slept better. You sure did
know what was wrong with me. Let's do
this every time I have trouble sleeping."
One of Al's favorite tricks was to pal
up with some guy who had a winter's
stake or had already bought his winter
grub supply and get him to move in with
him with the grub. After a few weeks Al
would get drunk and get his gun and run
I. J. Oberbillig. Al Hennessy's mining as-
sociate who bought most of At's mining
properties in the winter of 1924 -25.
the "pal" off. Al would thus be left with
the grub and supplies for winter with no
effort.
In fact, Al was always threatening to
shoot someone with his old .30 -30 rifle
and it was a wonder to all of us that
someone didn't shoot back. Yellow Pine
had several tough characters who would
not hesitate to shoot back under these
circumstances, and had been known to do
it. It could be that Al was selective in
making his threats and was careful to
leave certain men alone. For one, Ray
Call didn't respond to Al's bluff one time
and for a while it looked like black cur-
tains for Mr. Hennessy, and from then on
At left Ray strictly alone.
Idaho Minerals Bridge and Camp during the summer of '35. Al's old cabin is just off
the large cookhouse - bunkhouse building.
After selling his Anaconda claims to
J. J. Oberbillig in 1933, Al moved across
Johnson Creek and built two log cabins
on the east side of the creek and along-
side the road. This was his headquarters
for the next ten to twelve years and it
will be recalled that from 1933 until mid -
1936 Al was receiving $250 per month
for his half of the Great Northern claims.
At this same time Al also received about
$3,000 cash from Idaho Minerals Company
for his Anaconda claims. During this
deepest part of the Depression, At thus
took in over a period of four years more
than $10,000 from his mining claim sales.
With Al receiving about $300 per
month during the days when a really
good job paid only about $100, you can
see that he was the prey for every boot-
legger and card sharp in Yellow Pine.
Every spring for several years Al would
come out of the winter with a bad case
of DTs and his lower eyelids would be
turned inside out and look like two half -
moons of raw beefsteak. Winter invari-
ably left him, too, with an empty checking
account.
AL decided in the spring of 1935 that he
needed to move up to a level befitting
his station of life. He needed a car. He
bought a used Dodge pick -up from J. J.
Oberbillig, and several in Yellow Pine
suggested that J. J. sold him the pick -up
hoping he would run off the road and
kill himself.
One time Al and Jakie Stem were
down in Yellow Pine whooping it up on
a spree. When they decided to return to
Al's camp, a couple of the town regulars
cautioned At that he was too drunk to
drive home. Al, of course, brushed the
caution aside and took off. He and Jakie
made it only a mile up the road when Al
drove off over the steep grade. The pick-
up came to rest with its radiator smashed
into a tree which luckily kept the car
from going on down into the river. Al
crawled out of the wreck and up to the
road and managed to get to his cabin a
couple of miles away.
The next morning Al woke up, partly
sober but with a king -sized hangover, and
began to recall the night before. He won-
dered where Jakie was. Al ambled over
to Bob Beattie's cabin just south of his
and the two of them went back to the
wreck and found Jakie still slumped in
the seat of the pick -up. His neck was
broken.
Some of the Yellow Pine regulars, par-
ticularly the two who wanted Al to
stay in town until he sobered up, were
upset over the wreck which killed poor
old Jakie. Thus, Al found himself being
avoided and treated like an outcast. Be-
ing a friendly sort of Irishman At felt
very sad to be ostracized from society,
so he put his brain to work on a plan
to get out of this predicament.
After a time he had the solution. He
circulated a story that the accident had
really been bothering him so one night
while he was talking to the stars he de-
cided to talk to Jakie and see if Jakie
was mad about the accident. By some
means he was able to tune in Jakie and
in the course of the conversation Jakie
told Al to explain to his Yellow Pine
friends that it was all right; his time was
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up anyway. Jakie said to Al, according to
the story, that they should ease up on
Al because Jakie was not mad about it
and besides he was having a ball up in
heaven.
It is immaterial if the town critics
believed this or not; the facts still stood:
the stars had told Al where to locate two
good mines and this latest conversation
with Jakie's spirit via the stars could
very well be true!
Al was also a kleptomaniac. He would
steal items from his friends and lend
them back to the rightful owners without
a care about getting them back, If Al
needed something, he took it without ask-
ing; likewise, if you needed something
from him, there was no hesitation, he was
happy to help you out —even with your
own tools.
One night Al decided he wanted some
fried chicken. The Idaho Minerals camp
across the creek kept chickens and the
cook Mattie Fuller had made pets of them.
She would go out at feeding time and
talk with them. She had names for each
one of the old hens.
Al cranked up the Dodge pick -up and
headed over to the hen house. When Mat -
tie heard the old hens squawking and
calling to her, she thumped on the floor
above her where the miners slept and
called out, "Mike! Go out and check up on
my babies. A skunk or weasel must be in
the hen house!"
Alike found a weasel by name of Al
Hennessy with three of Mattie's pets in
his hands with their necks already twisted.
He got Al in the pick -up and headed
back across the bridge and later told
Mattie it was only Al —lost on his way
home. He didn't dare tell Mattie that Al
had killed some of her hens.
The next morning she inquired of Mike
about three missing white leghorns and
he said maybe they got out when he
opened the door to check on them and
they would show up later.
About this time Al took the chickens
out in front of his cabin to pluck them,
and with white feathers flying every-
where around him, Mattie looked across
the creek; now she knew the truth. She
ran up the tunnel and found two of the
men outside and demanded to know where
they had hidden their guns. She insisted
she was going over and shoot the old
chicken thief.
They calmed her down but from that
day forward as long as Mrs. Fuller was
at the camp, Al never crossed the bridge
to the Idaho Minerals cookhouse. Mike
warned him that he'd better not come
near the place.
OUR Irish prospector Al had been work-
ing some claims up on Buck Creek
in Trapper Flat when he decided in the
fall of 1952 that he would take an outfit
and spend the winter in there driving a
tunnel alone. Since Al was then seventy -
six years old, some concern was voiced
about this, particularly since he was going
to use only a tent on a wooden floor and
frame.
Pilots flying between Boise and the
Stibnite (Meadow Creek) passed right
over this camp on Buck Creek so they
would check to see if smoke was coming
from the tent stove pipe or if snow had
been shoveled from the trail to the mine.
They would even circle for Al to come
out and wave to them that everything
was all right.
The next spring, early in March, Al's
friends at Stibnite decided that Al's win-
ter groceries must be getting pretty well
picked over by then, so they decided to
fix up a sack of groceries with some
fresh meat and other tidbits and have
one of the pilots drop the package by
parachute.
The pilot and "bombardier" did their
job well; the chute floated gently down
to the clearing beside Al's cabin. But
when rushing out the tent -cabin door Al
slipped on the icy steps and broke his
ankle. He crawled back into the cabin
and went to bed because he couldn't get
out to split wood.
A couple of days later a pilot reported
the chute and package still in the clear-
ing with no smoke coming from Al's
stove. The alarm was sounded. Philip
"Frenchy" Lequoia, and old friend of Al's,
was living at the Beattie cabin with Fred
Erickson close to Al's Johnson Creek
camp.
September - October, 1976 39
Frenchy hitched a ride up to Trapper
Creek, put on snowshoes and in about
four hours was at Al's camp. He found
Al in bad shape with the broken ankle.
Gangrene had developed. Al was also
nearly famished for lack of water and
food. Frenchy started a fire and made
coffee and opened a can of soup. He
pulled Al's bed over near the stove and
left a big pile of wood so Al could feed
the fire and keep warm.
Frenchy left then to summon help to
get Al out to the hospital. He found that
Carl Whitmore, the mail carrier, had come
into Yellow Pine with a "snow cat" so
they went right back and brought A] out
and loaded him into a pick -up for the trip
to the hospital in Cascade.
The doctor tried to get by with just
cutting off Al's toes but gangrene had
spread higher so they had to take off all
the foot and part of the lower leg.
Al came back to Yellow Pine with both
crutches and a wooden foot but when he
got thirsty he would crawl down to the
bar without either of them and hoist him-
self up on a stool. He would stay right
there until Fomeone packed him home and
dumped him in bed. This went on for
about a year.
Tadge Pickins, the storekeeper's wife,
tried to keep Al cleaned up some and feel
but the chore was too much for her so
the county moved Al out to a nursing
home in Weiser where he lived out his
remaining years. Those last few years
were dry ones for the most part except
when an old pal would sneak in a bottle
for him.
There are no more old prospectors and
mountain men left like Al Hennessy and
since I am one of the few remaining who
knew this whimsical character it seems
fitting and proper to carve out one small
notch on the history tree for him. After
all, not many of them had two big mines
to their credit —and also two funerals!
A Cattle Tracker's Lost Gold
(Continued from page SS)
rolled out on the floor. A. piece he held
close to the light had wide„ yellow seams
running through it.
Moving on, he came to an ore crusher
and a forge. He pushed down on the forge
handle and the cowhide bellows cracked
and split apart.
This mine could be a couple of hundred
years old, he thought. He knew some-
thing of the history of the area. It oc-
curred to him that this mine and smelter
could have been owned only by Spanish
padres and worked by the Indians who
were under their influence. Why had it
been abandoned, with a vast fortune
stacked under a covering of cowhides?
Had the workers been slain?
But he did know that with all this gold
at his disposal, he was now an exceedingly
rich man. His heart hammered when he
thought of all the fine things that gold
could buy: a large ranch stocked with the
finest pure -bred cattle, possibly an ocean
voyage for himself and his wife to old
Spain, the land of their forefathers.
And the gold was his and his alone.
True, the vaqueros who were with him
AO
might justifiably have a claim to some of
the gold. But hadn't he, the cattle tracker,
through his own efforts discovered it?
Yes. He would share the gold with no
man.
In a dreamy daze, Varela made his way
from the cave to the tunnel and went out-
side. His companions were standing by
the fire, drinking coffee.
"Why so long ?" exclaimed one of them.
"We were beginning to think you had
been killed by a bear!"
"Oh," replied Varela, "there's an old
cave back in there. I looked around it.
But no bears! Nothing but a lot of old
bat droppings on the floor."
The following day the storm blew itself
out. A brilliant sun broke out against a
blue sky, and the snow- covered country-
side glistened. Varela decided that with
two days and a deep snowfall between
him and the rustlers, it was best to give
up on this particular tracking assign-
ment. Besides, he was too concerned with
his discovery and all its implications to
bother much with cattle thieves. So he
and the vaqueros headed back for their
ranches.
WHEN Varela got back home, his wife
observed that he was not his usual
pleasant self. lie seemed tense and pen-
sive. She thought he was upset because
he had failed to overtake the rustlers.
With wifely solicitude, she tried to con-
sole him: "Do not worry. Surely Don Ar-
mijo knows you failed to recover his
cattle only because of the terrible bliz-
zard. Don Armijo is well aware that
you are the greatest tracker in all of
New Mexico."
Varela smiled, but did not answer. He
had problems. Like many a man who has
suddenly been made rich, he was worried
sick about how to handle his wealth and
protect it from the greed of others.
The big problem was to secretly get the
heavy gold out of the cave and trans-
ported to a large city, where he could
sell it to banks.
He wanted to confide in his wife, to
tell her everything, but he dared not. She
Nvas inclined to be talkative and gossipy.
If he told her she would probably let it
slip to her women friends, and within
a creek, people as far away as Albuquer-
Las Cruces. Now Mexico.
que and El Paso would know all about
the gold.
A few days later a couple of Varela's
friends came by and reminded him that
the three of them were due to start work
on a mining claim they had staked a
month earlier in the Sierra Blanca. Pre-
occupied with thoughts about his gold
discovery, Varela had forgotten about the
Sierra Blanca claim. He was, however,
glad to go with them. They would be
working the claim -for several weeks, and
it would give him time to decide the best
way for the removal and disposal of the
gold in the cave.
The day after they began work, fickle
Lady Luck, who had smiled so benevolent-
ly on Varela a week before, now turned
the tables and delivered a bitter, cruel
blow. He was preparing a powder charge
to blast open a rock wall when the pow-
der ignited prematurely. The explosion
drove bits of rock deep into his eyes. His
partners rushed him to a hospital in El
Paso, but doctors could not save his sight.
Varela was destined to be stone blind for
the rest of his long life.
After he was returned from the hospi-
tal to his ranch, Varela was in a state of
deep depression for many months. He
grieved over the fact that his ranching,
prospecting and cattle tracking days were
over forever. He was doomed to poke
around with a white cane and to be led
around by his wife and friends. He was
so gloomy that he rarely ever thought of
the gold in the cave.
Finally, his spirits revived and his out-
look improved. He began to think
about the gold, and decided that he would
talk to his wife about it. He swore Dona
Chonita to secrecy and told her the story
from beginning to end. She did not
believe him, although she pretended to.
She considered that the terrible accident
to his eyes had unbalanced him. More-
over, the idea of that much gold stacked
up in one pile was more than her mind
could comprehend, But she humored her
husband and listened dutifully to his
every word about the gold. She spoke
vaguely. of organizing a party of relatives
to go and search for it. But she never
did.
The years passed, and eventually word
Photo Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe
gw
roi
The Star News Public Lands Page
Bridge at Johnson Creek airstrip to be replaced this fall
The narrow, wooden -plank bridge built on a railroad car decades ago at Johnson Creek Airstrip in
Valley County just south of Yellow Pine will be replaced this fall, the Idaho Transportation Department
announced.
"The bridge provides the only access to the Johnson Creek
Airstrip, handling both recreational and commercial traffic
year - round; said Dan Gorley of the ITO bridge section.
"The airstrip is an important community asset providing arc
access during firefighting season and is designated as a
safe zone for Yellow Pine for evacuation purposes," Gorley
said.
The new concrete bridge will be one lane, like the current
bridge, but wider. It will be located immediately downstream Maw sbo m bndge at Jotnson orea- Aurtnp
of the current one, and span 72 feet and be 18 feet wide at ftwitenedb} spnugnnnffs Mebn%eis
the bridge deck. scbeddedtobe replaced dusfall
"The bridge will also sit several feet higher in elevation than the old bridge to safely accommodate high
water or flood conditions," said Kyle Arnzen of the ITD regional design section.
The water elevation can change by six or seven feet over the course of the year depending on spring
run -off, and often runs over the top or reaches the deck of the old bridge, Amzen said.
The project is expected to start by the and of August and finish in late October Work is not anticipated
at nights or on the weekend, but is not prohibited if needed, a news release said.
No local roads will be closed, but drivers may experience delays during construction. One lane will be
maintained.
Page 1 of 1
http: / /www.mccallstamews .com/pages /public_lands—Page.php 3/22/2012
Events and Arts The StarNews Page 1 of 1
The annual music festival in the backcountry hamlet of Yellow Pine has a new name and a new
format.
The 23rd Annual Yellow Pine Music & Harmonica Festival will be held Aug. 3-5, and the focus will be
on music and fun, organizer Steve Holloway said.
There will be no harmonica contest this year, but the festival will feature great harmonica players and
other musicians in multiple concerts in the community hall, as well as in the ever-popular 'Crowd
Pleaser' competition on the outdoor stage, Holloway said
*For 22 years the community of Yellow Pine has flown in judges from all over the country to judge our
contestants,' he said_
'Unfortunately over the past 10 years we have seen the number of contestants drop dramatically,
making the costs of judges cost prohibitive in comparison to the number of contestants,' he said.
Mile the festival is still honoring prospecting pioneers who carried pocket harps into the wilderness
with them, this yearly event has also evolved to include many types of music, Horoway said.
For the latest details, go to c; ella:vrir ernuslcardharmcrir,nfe •ti ✓al.org,
hap://www.mccallstamews.com/pages/events,_arts_page.php 6/28/2012
Events and Arts The StarNews Page 1 of 1
Harmonica festival drops contest, keeps the fun
There won't be a harmonica contest anymore, but the newly named Yellow Pine Music & Harmonica
Festival will still have plenty of music and fun to be worth the drive to the backcountry hamlet east of
McCall.
The 23rd edition of the festival will be held Friday through Sunday, Aug. 3-5.
While the festival will still honor prospecting pioneers who carried pocket harps Into the wilderness
with them, this yearly event has also evolved to include many types of music.
The harmonica contest was cancelled due to lack of constestants, but well -known harmonica players
as well as other musicians will be featured in concerts in the Community Hall, as well as in the ever -
popular Crowd Pleaser competition on the outdoor stage.
There will be food and craft vendors, raffles and auctions in between and during the music.
For details, go to yellowpinemusicandharmonicafestival .org.
http: / /www.mccallstamews .com/pages /events_arts_page.php 7/26/2012
The Star News Groups Page
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.'XCOUNMY'RtN&S - Denver l \lute and Joel
S.m&val firom Base en"un the crowd dmmg
the Yellow Rue Harmonica and Mime Feshv:al on
Sahudar ereumg the weekeud event featured a
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by wmid- lass hanuomm placers
Page 1 of 1
8/8/2013
This week's front page stories
Massive slides close roads around Yellow Pine, Stibnite
13Y TOM GROTE
The Star-News
A dozen large slides of snow, rock and trees blocked roads near Yellow Pine and the Stibnite n'iining
district of Valley County last Thursday, officials said.
The slides blocked the East Fork of the South Fork River in
several places, causing flooding until crews could clear the
mess.
One large slide swallowed the road and river near
Deadman Campground about 10 miles west of Yellow Pine,
Alan Mendive, a delivery driver for Ed Staub & Sons
Propane, said he saw the massive slide come down the
mountain just in front of him about 7:30 a.m. last Thursday.
"I thought I was hallucinating," Mendive said. "I realized the
whole mountain was coming down. The whole thing broke
loose at once.
Photo by Cwti. Bsmop
He described the sound of the mass of snow, dirt and trees Dave Withawsoflihdas Cold 1w. creletimiiplxr
as "a screeching thunder." left. stands ou a wassire slide that blocked the East
Fak Road new' Yellow Ape last week
MendivP sAiri hp. had %topped a. few miniitP8 P_.ArliP_.r to Clear
rocks from the road. If he had not stopped, he believed he would have been buried by the slide.
"I'd never been close to anything like that," he said. "It was something I will never forgot seeing."
About 10 of the slides were on the Stibnite Road east of Yellow Pine, said Kyle Fend, environmental
permitting and compliance coordinator with Midas Gold Inc., which is exploring the area for gold and
other minerals.
The slides happened between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. last Thursday, blocking the road in two places and
damming the East Fork in five places, Fend said.
The largest slide was about 50 feet wide with the deepest slide rising about 60 feet above the river
channel, he said.
Midas Gold employees used the company's earth- moving equipment to clear the road. Enough of the
slides were cleared by the end of the day that workers could be moved from Stibnte to Yellow Pine,
Fend said.
Midas Gold employees worked with Valley County and Payette National Forest officials to Gear the
East Fork river of debris and get the water flowing back into its normal channel, a task that was finished
on Sunday, he said.
Page l of l
htt p:!!-,N,NNr w. mccallstarnews .com/pages /fp_stories _page.php 3/13!2014
http: / /www.mccallstarnews .com/pages /groups _page.php
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MUSIC IN THE MOUNTAINS - An estimated
r,5oo people hwveled to the back country of Valley
County last weekend to attend the 25th Yellow pine
Music and Harmonica Festival. At top, Harrison
Thomsen of Nampa performs during Friday's
Youth Crowd Pleaser performance. Above, dancers
cut up the dirt while featured band Stellar Tide play
on Friday.
Page 1 of 1
8/7/2014
This week's front page stories Page 1 of 1
Johnson Creek resident protest snow plowing cutback
Valley County pared back service to save money
"Year -round access is very important to property such as ours. " —Diana Bryant
BY DAN GALLAGHER
for The Star -News
Residents along Johnson Creek Road on Monday told Valley County commissioners that halting snow
plowing over five miles of their road would disrupt their lives and could reduce property values.
Commissioners said they were looking for ways to cut back the cost of winter maintenance in the
backcountry area of Valley County while still allowing residents to reach their homes during winter.
Road and Bridge Superintendent Curtis Bennett recently sent a letter to the Johnson Creek residents,
notifying them that plowing would be cut from Johnson Creek Airstrip to Wapiti Ranch.
That section of road is located south of Yellow Pine and is a main access road to Yellow Pine and
surrounding areas with homes.
The county's road budget is operating at $1.4 million short of needed funding while the county waits to
see if Congress approves federal payments to counties.
Those funds would help counties which previously received millions of dollars from timber cutting on
national forest lands within their boundaries.
There are six families who will be affected if plowing stops, Diana Bryant of Wapiti Meadow Ranch told
commissioners.
"If we give up the right to have the road plowed to the end of property owned by private individuals,
basically, it affects all of our property values," Bryant said. "Year -round access is very important to
property such as ours."
The road also serves the Forest Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game wolf management, Nez
Perce tribal fishery biologists, emergency vehicles and propane delivery, she said.
"How much more is five miles ?" she asked. "Why not stop at Warm Lake? Then you're talking about
saving big bucks."
The county started plowing the road in about 1983, but initially cleared it once a winter, after which it
would be shut down by snow, commission Chair Gordon Cruickshank said.
"It comes down to what are our options ?" Cruickshank said. "When there's no funding, there's no
funding."
Other county roads that could be left unplowed this winter include part of Crown Point near Cascade
and a lane off West Mountain Road, the commissioners said.
The county could save money if it does not plow the road immediately after a storm, but later, when it
is more convenient for a county plow to visit, Cruickshank said.
More money could be devoted to snowplowing in the winter if property owners agreed to less grading
of the road in the summer, Bennett said.
Commissioner Elt Hasbrouck encouraged the families to write the congressional delegation to support
federal funding and to urge the Idaho Legislature to pass higher gasoline taxes to fund road
maintenance.
http: / /www.mccallstarnews .com/pages /fp_stories _page.php 11/26/2014
THE STAR -NEWS - THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2015
- _ — - - -- Photo by Deb Filler
Yellow Pine Independence
Day Parade Grand Marshall
Donna Valdez greets well -
wishers.
. Photos for
The Star -News
by Gary Ertter
Star -News News Main News Page Page 1 of 1
San Diego man charged with battery after scuffle with deputies In Yellow Pine
BY DAN GALLAGHER
for The Star -News
A San Diego man faces four felony charges after battling with Valley County sheriffs deputies early
Sunday at the Yellow Pine Music and Harmonica Festival.
r Taylor Smith, 26, was charged with aggravated battery, three counts of battery on a
police officer and a misdemeanor count of resisting or obstructing.
y ��, The deputies had responded to reports that a suspect was involved in a fight in a Yellow
% Pine bar at about 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sheriffs Lt. Dan Smith said.
TaAor Smith
Witnesses told deputies that Smith grabbed a man he did not know and held a knife to his neck. The
officers encountered him at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Smith said.
A deputy ordered the suspect to get down on the ground, but as the officer was pulling out his stun
gun, his hand was struck.
Another deputy jumped in and the suspect was wrestled to the ground, but the suspect refused to
move his arms to be handcuffed. He fought with the officers all the way into the patrol vehicle, Smith
said.
"He kicked both deputies and threatened to kill them and their families," Smith said.
Earlier, the suspect had stabbed himself in the arm in front of children, Smith said. `He said he was
going to kill someone," Smith said.
Taylor Smith has an extensive criminal history and is wanted for parole violation. He was arraigned on
Monday in Valley County Magistrate's Court in Cascade and bond was set at $200,000.
Smith is due to return to court on Tuesday for a hearing on whether he should stand trial on the
charges.
http: / /www.mccallstamews .com/pages /fp_stories _page.php 8/6/2015
Star -News News Events Page Page 1 of 1
m— by Did Fills
S1'REKr MUSIC-Participants in the Walking Music
Parade and Jam Session stroll down Main Street in
Yellow Pine during the village's Music and
Harmonica Festival. An estimated 1,700 people
attended the weekend of live music.
h4://www.mccallstamews.com/pages/events—arts_page.php 8/6/2015
Star -News News Main News Page
SLIDE BLOCKS YELLOW PINE
ROAD
wm br �
Yellow Pine residents inspect a large rock slide o0
Monday that blocked the East Fork of the South
Fork Road about three mites wear of Yellow Pine.
The backeuuntry residents ate accustomed to such
seasonal ineonveniences and patiently waited until
Valley County caws cleated the mad at q p.m.
Tuesday.
Page 1 of 1
http:// www. mccallstamews .com/pages/fp_stories _page.php 3/17/2016
Star -News News Groups Page
re.roM warms,
MOUTH ORGAN musle -Those attending last
weekend's Yellow fte Music and Harmonica
Festiml were able to be part in the testia9tles, by
taking hamronka lessons from instructor Ew�ki
Grabber of Hater. From left ate Mike C.aatoni of
Thailand, Grabber and Carol Carnahan of Boise.
The weekend included performances by
internationally kramv harmonica players as well as
Ir"e music acts.
Page 2 of 2
http : / /www.mccallstamews.com/pages /groups page.php 8/11/2016