~Owyhee County News~

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The Elmore County Press is very pleased to offer this link to the Owyhee Avalanche which provides news of and throughout Owyhee County (southwest corner of Idaho). 

Owyhee County News: http://www.owyheepublishing.com/ Owyhee Avalanche

History of Owyhee County

    The first white men in the Owyhee country were fur trappers. They were part of the Donald McKenzie expedition of 1818. In fact, it is this expedition that gave the area its name. Three Hawaiian Islanders accompanying the party disappeared while exploring the Owyhee River. Afterwards both the river and the entire region became known as “Owyhee”, a variation of the word Hawaii. Early fur traders also named another river in this high desert. The name Bruneau River comes from the French trappers phrase “le brun eau” or the brown water.

   The trappers were few in number and they didn’t stay long. It was the discovery of gold that brought many more people to the Owyhees. Idaho was already a mecca for gold seekers by the early 1860s. As prospectors fanned out throughout the state they eventually found their way into the Owyhee Mountains. It was a worthwhile trip for the group that discovered gold there in 1883. The small stream that yielded the treasure was named Jordan Creek after the leader of the party. Other miners quickly poured in to seek their fortune and towns like Booneville, Ruby City and Silver City were born.

   The strikes were rich and Silver City and other mining towns thrived. Before long entrepreneurial ranchers saw an opportunity in feeding the throngs of miners. Eventually ranchers established large herds of cattle on the sage covered plateaus and along the canyons carved by the Owyhee and Bruneau rivers. But life in the harsh desert terrain wasn’t easy for those early pioneers. Rough-hewn log cabins miles from nowhere stand as a testament to their challenge of the desert.

   The Owyhee Canyonlands are a vestige of the great American west. The sparsely populated high desert located in southwestern Idaho, northern Nevada, and eastern Oregon may be the most remote area in the lower forty-eight. It is a vast and rugged landscape of about six million acres. The topography of the region includes rolling sagebrush steppe, plateaus of volcanic rock, juniper covered mountains and sheer walled canyons. Most of the area is public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.