Hells Canyon: A Historical Glimpse

The time a man is short in these mountains. When a permanent resident has the landscape watchful and silent yet people left their mark here recording a personal notch in time reflecting their trials are yet other faces etched in the rock. Still the years have a way of changing things. In the mountains man and landscape yielder past begrudgingly. Historians attempt to learn what happened here. So we can find out where we've been and where we're going. But what does history tell us. Native Americans were among the first humans to see these yawning valleys and Rocky sentinels. One Indian legend tells of a young brave pursued by devils in the canyon.

Just who is immortal stride tread giant steps upon these rocky ledges. The seven devils mountains of Idaho somehow got their name. To the west. The mountains of Oregon share the skyline. Parting the two mountain ranges is a turbulent river. Cutting a huge Gorge in its path. The snake not my name and way. Commemorate pre-standard made it a lot of the same name. The river tossed into this great green trench censuses to than ever been. It still attempts to

flee fighting. This land and standing on an end. It's called Hell's Canyon. Nothing stops for long here. Not even history. The first people in Hell's Canyon didn't know this rock was shaped like a cowboy hat. Early man long the.

Still. Whereas clues to early man's existence. Petraglia rock carvings mirror the light. These early people. We can't tell exactly what these figures mean. One of the ways to make this art. Is to distinguish some known item like a horse. A positive identification is difficult. Where these early people came from when they arrived here are question marks at the north canyon evidence suggest that an established culture is just about 11000 years ago and the Kenyan is experience sometimes type continuous use use from $8000 a

girl go to the press the press and no one no one knows Access says petrochem. Pictographs. Archaeologists are trying to find quaint creatures that are just as large of trail trails rapid Rapids and fishing the shrimping site the oldest evidence the people living in the Hell's Canyon. It's found out wrong. And Cain case remains a house house. It exists today. Which were the foundation dwellings that disappeared long long ago. We know that the man man had clothing of making a commitment to the bow and arrow and trees trees twenty five was years ago. Early man the man was salmon salmon and hunted from his. And out early man made some mystery. We may never know who he was he used to but his question was about the life life of first of all people in hell's cattle's guy. Hey hey hey hey

hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey. The earliest inhabitants in the gorge were ancestors of the Indians. But what tribes are direct descendants of these early in the evidence is unknown. Several Indian tribes lived in the vicinity of Hell's Canyon. One tribe called itself the people which means real people. Legends say they were created near the canyon and had always lived there. French-Canadian fur hunters call them the name pro-se or Nez Perce which means Pierce knows only a few more nos ornaments by the late 1800s that custom had died. The Naspers

homeland stretched into Washington Oregon and Idaho and the canyon six villages existed along the river from Pittsburgh Landing to the mouth of the salmon. They were a proud people. Their names designate some of our cities and towns. The Nez Perce were largely peaceful culturally advanced and had their own religions. Most important they learned to live in closer harmony with nature than people of today and they had leaders among the Nez Perce. He was known as Chief Joseph after his father. Of all the headman of the Nez Perce he used the best known Chief Joseph gain his reputation as a man of peace eloquence and diplomacy not as a buffalo hunter and warrior but he too was a symbol of Indian resistance and protest he did it with other Indians. The unjust settlements given them by white men over lands lands owned by the

Indians. Such land squabbles resulted in the Nez Perce war of 1877 in that conflict. He played a secondary role as military strategist. He played a major role in the confrontation with Hell's Canyon. The war had not yet begun to avoid conflict. Joseph and his followers left for the reservation and their way was Hell's Canyon. Doug Barr was the scene in late spring of 1877. The snake was swollen bank to bank. The Indians crossed anyway. All of them safely. The crossing was a spectacular feat not accomplished before or ever again by such a large group. Later many Nez Perce went to war against the white man. General Howard of the U.S. Army and Joseph were on opposite sides. Then the war saw the Nez Perce attempt seventeen hundred mile

flight to Canada. Most of them never made it. Joseph and four hundred tribesmen were overtaken in Montana and surrendered. They heard Joseph was sent to Oklahoma bar from his beloved Valhalla Valley in eastern Oregon. He said I love that land more than all the rest of the world. Indians knew about the canyon its river. The first white men didn't. Early white explorers found the gorge a very. Impassable. One Frenchman called the snake. That. The curse of. Mad River. The first white men view Hell's Canyon We're from the Lewis and Clark expedition

while camp near what is now Kemy Idaho. The two famous explorers Meriwether Lewis William Clark sent three men to obtain salmon from Indians as bird guides took the man across chemist prairie to the confluence of the snake and salmon rivers in the spring of 18:6 exploration of Hell's Canyon was left to others. Like the dawn this new day it was short in coming. A giant of a man named Donald McKenzie first experienced the canyon.

December 18 11 saw McKenzie and his men struggling into the south end. While. Seeking a route to the Columbia River. Blocked by the steep gorge. They found a way across the southern devils. Mackenzie kept no diary his exact course will remain forever unknown. It is known they had little to eat and suffered incredible hardship. Their aim was to survive. The party traveling through the area of rapid river into the valley of the little salmon. Their trip turned into an epic tale of struggle and determination. They proceeded into northern Idaho. And reached the Oregon coast in January of

1812. McKenzies party was the first to travel the length of the Hells Canyon seven devils country. Later another explorer would explain. Mountain appears as if piled on mountain. And. After ascending for half a day you seem as if no nearer the attainment of the object in view. Than at the outset. Explorers and Furman's led the way into the Hells Canyon but Protestant missionaries laid the foundations for white settlement nearby.

Rev. Henry Spalding and his wife settled east of Lewiston Idaho. He skirted the Hells Canyon Country on his way to the Willamette Valley. He visited Willow lake. Named it for himself. And Spalding was an inflexible missionary. Many Nez Perce Hedman came to dislike him. Others explored Hells Canyon. Mary Dorian was strong and tall. She outlived 3 husbands and accompanied the early explorers to the canyon. She was a self-sacrificing mother. No piece of geography bears her name. Captain Benjamin Bonneville took leave from the U.S. Army in 1832 for the purpose of exploring the true situation and resources of the Oregon country. You found a road near the Oregon side of the canyon but that trail never became well traveled by white men.

The first movement of white men to Hell's Canyon was like curling. Crest. Later a large wave like a sudden spring fall and go off the north west in the 1860s. Into Hell's Canyon was swept Rocky undercurrents sediment. And cinnamon. They would have a long standing effect on the canyon. The sediment was gone. The sentiment. Was opportunity. Venture. Greed and restlessness. Most gold mines were made in the canyon in the 1870s and 1880s.

Those who saw only gold failed find and he suffered doubly. For some prospectors that gold turned out to be copper. Western historian Ray Allen Billington observed the miners didn't live fertile valleys of rich farmland. That occupied the unattractive portions of the West steep mountainsides arid Highlands miners met a severe test in Hell's Canyon. One miner who met the test was Jack Hastings. His cabin remains as a testimonial to his colorful character. He lived above the canyon in the seven devils he was once asked whether he had any trouble with the Apaches when he was in the Southwest.

He replied he never did but he helped bury a lot of people who did settlements and small towns arose from mining activity in 1861. Lewiston was born Yuriko bar was another place today. Only the stairstep foundations for the concentrating mill are left. At its peak. Two hundred people boast of an office building a spacious hotel store saloon blacksmith shop. Several mining rooms and properties in this area. The mountain chief mine belong to the Fargo mining group. Six hundred foot long tunnel extends through a ridge dividing the snake and the

river. Tracks for our card still remain. But Eureka bar lives a short life. The mines never produce large amounts of gold or copper. In late nineteenth century a shipwreck sealed the fate of the mining camp steamboat Anakim up river carrying equipment for the mill. She never reached Eureka. Mountain Sheep rabbit saw that. Your. Was dashed to pieces around cougar bar. Passengers and crew escaped but down to the river's bottom when the valuable

mill machinery. Sunk to. Was Ubaydi Gabbar. It became a ghost town in 19:5. Copperfield today looks nothing like Copperfield a. Located near the current site of Oxbow dam. Copperfield was referred to as the Gomorrha of the snake. Tom was created by a group of Baker Oregon businessmen. It took only six months. Copperfield's became a hellhole. Whiskey was its lifeblood. Ladies of the evening were everywhere. There was no law no jail. Oregon's temperance governor Oswald West got wind of the situation and declared martial law from the time.

He sent his secretary to serve the order. She was five foot to weighed 100 pounds. Bernie Hobbs was her name. If she had any trouble. He was pleasantly surprised. She goes down the town without any violence. Of course five big strong Oregon National Guardsman with. Copperfield shrank from 1000. To 15. Overnight. The ladies of the evening left to spend their evenings elsewhere. Nothing remains today of old Copperfield. Burned to the ground in 1950. Among those seekers were people of many nationalities and races

Chinese included. Thousands left their oriental homeland for mining areas of the West. They were enterprising and brave. They had to be Chinese that they were subjected to general hostility. White prospectors labeled them the only foreigners Indians once massacred a group of Chinese in south western Idaho coined in the Goldfields was the phrase Chinaman's chance. The odds were great against a person saddled with those words in the 1880s widespread sentiment against Chinese was high. The Lewiston teller newspaper concluded that no violence would be used against the Chinese. However violent outbreaks occurred across the west. Even Hells Canyon was not spared. During the peak of the hostilities. Several parties of Chinese entered the canyon in search of gold. Some of the morgues in the vicinity of Deep Creek and Robinson

Gulch. I thought they had these places to themselves. A group of men and lonely isolated spots along the river. They weren't remote enough. But may 25th 1887 a small group of white men attacked the Chinese camps. One camp a Chinese miner I realized is desperate. Plight. Why don't I go. I don't

know. What. Are they. Why didn't you. I wonder.

Not one Chinese miners survived the attack. Thirty one men were murdered. Some were mutilated. Their bodies were tossed in the river. Three men had done the killing. Four others served as accomplices. The investigation was conducted by the Chinese consulate in San Francisco. The killers had been after. They found little if any. But the killers proved to be as slippery as the gold they sought. No one was ever convicted and punished by law for the murders of 31 men. There was a dark day for Hell's Canyon and Willow County. Rumors of a cover up by local officials still persist in Waller County.

Bachmann appeared close on the heels of Pioneer miners in Hell's Canyon. Cattlemen developed herds from domestic cattle wild Indian stock. Spring and Fall ranges for ranching extended up steep slopes near the river. The summer rain was on top. Gold Coast grassland near the river was needed for winter grazing hay could be gone there too it was the critical season on the snake. The acreage of a cattleman's winter range the amount of hay available determines the size of his. Cattle and horse breeding generally preceded sheep grazing and Hell's Canyon. But everyone had the same right to use grasslands. Differences did arise between stockmen. Some

violence occurred. But conflict only arose when separate individuals owned sheep and cattle. One Stockman owned both. It wasn't difficult to coordinate grazing in Hell's Canyon. It was much more common for early cattlemen to switch from cattle to sheep because of marketing changes of a condition. Soon after the turn of the century the worst conflicts between cattlemen and sheepmen ended. Other difficulties were on the horizon homesteaders next appeared in Hell's Canyon. They were encouraged by the Homestead Act of 19:6. Homesteaders could select a one hundred sixty acre tract of ground matching the boundaries the lay of the land. Fraud and deception regarding the act created chaos. By a desperate struggle for available lands and so many homesteaders were forced to leave the canyon. It wasn't an easy life anyway. Most homesteaders

did anything they could to get by. Many didn't make it and sold out to large concerns. In 1936 two hundred fifty people lived in the vicinity of Hell's Canyon. The day exist about 25. The present like the past reveals that ranchers are devoted to cattle and sheep grazing. The president also reveals that some homesteading structures are in use. But many are not. They survive as monuments to man's optimism and the. Path. Homestead.

It was Martin Hibbs seen here with his family his life involved a tragic end surrounded in mystery. MARTIN Hibbs was a longtime resident of Hell's Canyon in 1934. He was found shot to death outside his burned cabin. In the cabins ashes were found the remains of another person identified as Joe. Anderson a prospector from Arizona when the incident occurred it was labeled a murder suicide by some people but was a third party involved. Why was Martin Hipps murdered and who was this mystery man identified as Joe Anderson. These

questions remain unanswered today. Solving the crime or crimes may now be impossible. Clues to the incident are held by the canyon in such secrets are kept well. Also known only to the candidate is the person who built this rock wall. Local legend tells of a bachelor who got tired of the single life. So he sought a wife through her Chicago matrimonial bureau. A lady agreed to marry him but she refused to come here until he had built a house and fenced the place. The Bachelor toiled long and hard at long last. The homestead was ready but his bride never came. The Bachelor remains single

so single in fact that he never spoke to a woman for the rest of his life. The life of an Oregon resident Ferman Warnock has spanned many years on the Amnon snake river. During that time he never got lost. However one time he was detained for two weeks while looking for a Christmas tree. We went to get the Christmas tree in moonshiner out here on the Hill. He got up there and got the Christmas tree and we didn't get the Christmas tree. I first got to go with get on and that was too bad. First night back on the project Jobson and in 1870 Saami camp right across the river made a duck out there and he got awful cold. I wonder you know is anyone around out in the valley called either the Amish County came through from Boise.

Come down this river and he said in his diary he wrote in there to tell degrees below zero. He said he wasn't a man going to school because only one summer in the valley and it froze up. He didn't know there's anyone out in the valley here. You see. The drug people matched the land the harsh country poses many problems even with the hardiest individual. One big problem was transportation. How did people get around. Human travel varied widely. Early man used to foot travel and those birds and horses and canoes. The first white man adopted Indian modes of travel. Later they turned to the Backstreet free train. It became the cheap transportation and Hells Canyon well into the 20th century.

The most intriguing form of travel in Hell's Canyon involves Steimle significant steamboat activity occurred at the turn of the century traveled by steamboat was risky at best. The river offered many dangers. Not pictured here is one Steamboat the Shoshone which braved Rapids down the entire length the canyon on another river Shoshone wound up as part of a farmer's chicken coop in western Oregon. The measures taken to get these boats through rapids were not the least bit safe.

An iron ring was fastened to a large rock. The bolts embedded with a cable with the barrel flow was attached to the ring. Extended downstream to the foot of the rabbit. As the stern wheeler approached the Whitewater. The crew hauled the float aboard. And attached it to a capstan on the boat's Crowl. Power was applied to the capsule. The cable was wound round the cylinder holding the boat through the rapid overpowered boats were Next used on the river. Kyle McGrady and others use them to bring the mail and other supplies to residents. The canyons in the 1930s and 40s today rafting and walking the best ways to view the canyon. Some turn the jet boat transportation. Riverman Elmer Erl lives upriver from Lewiston

Ellmer has followed the course of river travel on the snake for 40 years. No one knows ribber time better than he does. I don't know where sturgeon fish and Hell's Kitchen and we ran the first boat up through there that went up through history in 1938 it was a 16 foot home built craft was 22 harsh Johnson outboard motor. Hells Canyon has always been an attraction to tourists. And the tourists up in here. Extended back quite a way. It's a. Song about 1918 so I will Killough was finished and steamboats were able to then come from Portland and the last one they ran on up the river as far as they could. Usually only up as far as wild goose Rapids which is just below the Oregon Washington border.

On those trips they would have as high as 325 people on board. And this of course happened long about the time that they enacted the vaulted act. Which was a prohibition of having liquor apparently on the federal water side it was still allowable to have but that wasn't allowable to have it on the bank of Spaceland Idaho. So on the boat they had a bar where the local Cowboys could get on and drink while the boat was here and. Then on the bike they had an officer to see if they didn't get off the boat with any other buoys along the side of. They stopped down here at the mines. Captain John Craig and bunch the boys got on there and amongst them were Jim Madden who was a huge big fellow. He got pretty well oiled up at the bar and proceeded to come out and down the gang plank with a bottle in his hand. Jim Rice was the. Federal officer and he was on the bank and.

When Madden got within three four feet of the bag he jumped off the plank into the river and stuck the bottle down in the sand. Well as the officer tried to go out and retrieve the bottle while they got on the back and gave him the big boot and. Was about to ground him when the captain finally got down and coaxed him to let the officer back on the boat and ferry proceeded to get out of there. I don't know exactly why that's the way the story went or not but like all good stories you know. They keep tell when they get better and better. So they already have the same stories that they told in the early days of the first star of the probation. River is captivating enough. The trail of man is implanted on the soil paths appear along the canyon walls. At least one trodden way will forever hold your imagination. Suicide point is that place race Jordan explains from her book home below Hell's Canyon

dick. Call now don't lean toward the wall that way. If you can't ride straight lean out lean out. I hardly dare breathe for fear of capsizing babe and Dick wanting me to lean out in anguish. I prayed if I went off this trail who would take care of my children why had I ever left them any how desperately I hoped that if I made it over the rock to safety there would be some other way to get over this hair raising. The history of Hell's Canyon continues today. It's colorful past. Splashed on a timeless canvas the canyon transcends time. Like any great painting with any superb creation history only paints part of the picture. The future must hold together its past the frame for Hell's Canyon

is no different. This is the original. There is no copy. The Canyon must be protected and its history will remain preserved. A.

Oh yeah it's to take off now look good or feel out of it. That's just the world. That you're talking

about. You know. I know somebody. Who was asked my dad. What it Olmsted was and he said well it was bigger than that bet you a hundred and sixty acres of land you couldn't live there three years without for the day. One fellow. Got tickle me a little bit below and they would go back to the ranch in there for years. One time we had boy. That was the end of the road come into play. And all. I was packing back straight from there down side of cricket. And then with voters across to Margaret. We're live in an evil side. Jack to see you. Packing up is driving and he was packing down. The ridge down to his place in

Pittsburgh always packing up there one day and the Kurdish come up there. They was watching this this one lady come over there talking to Jack and he introduced himself and she was looking all down in the canyon and she says Does anybody live down there. Jack said nor should it be crazy to live down in there. It's like a big picture of his life. I have.

A. Crush. On a. Guy. Let me. Read. A line

in. A. Family. Like that. So. Would. Be. Nice. But. I. Also. Got. My black.

Bag. And. I made. My a