THE MACKAY MINER A
NEWSPAPER FOR ALL CENTRAL IDAHO
MID SUMMER EDITION 1908
Special Industrial Edition, Issued by the Lost River
Development Company of Mackay Idaho
1908 Bird's-Eye View of Mackay, Showing Lost River Range Of Mountains In The Distance
This is busy, bustling, go-ahead Mackay, the business center
of Vast, Rich, Active Central Idaho, as it appears today. It is the home of a
population of happy, industrious people who are as up-to-date as any city
between the oceans. The varied resources of the large district tributary insure
a continuation of happiness, thrift and progress. It is soon to be electrically
lighted; it has the purest water in its water system in the West. Its banks,
stores and business institutions are of a high order and its homes are models
of neatness and comfort. It is growing with a steadiness born of a substantial,
industrial environment. The climate is the equal of any and its mountain
breezes bear healing on their wings. The supply point of an empire, the
clearing house of a district made rich through mining, metal refineries,
farming, stock raising and the kindred industries. This is Mackay of today.
What will it be when the mining and smelting and milling industries are fully
developed, when the immense irrigation projects reclaiming every acre of
tillable land in its valleys are carried out, when the merchantable timber is
made use of, when the cattle, horse and sheep industries are developed to the
fullest capacity of the grassy hills, even the blindest can see – a city of ten
thousand inhabitants.
The town is beautifully situated in a well watered valley,
with jagged, lofty mountain peaks piercing the heavens on either side. School
and churches are maintained that are the peer of any in the “Gem of the
Mountains” state. The citizenship is of a high order – a western town whose
chief characteristics are energy, fair play and kindliness.
Opportunity, as surely as the gold-filled mountains await
the beckon of the miner; as surely as the arid land thirsts for the redeeming
stream of the irrigator; as surely as the grass covered hills call forth to the
flocks and herds, has been the summons that has peopled with enterprising,
hardy pioneers the hills and valleys of Central Idaho. A great inland nation of
many resources, independent of yet drawing continually upon the outside world
for men to wrest its riches from its bosom, it has advanced with wonderful
strides during the six years that have passed. The miner has beckoned and gold
pours into his lap; the irrigator has turned the melted snow upon the deserts
and they blossom and bear fruit; the stockman has herded his cattle and sheep
upon its hills and has waxed prosperous, Central Idaho has come into its own.
Since the beginning, American has had its “boundless west.”
The prairies were settled by the first comers. Others, undaunted by dangers and
hardships pushed on across the great mountain ranges to the Pacific coast,
there to establish an empire of wealth and culture. Cities sprang up and
sky-scrapers replaced the Indian’s tepee. Prosperity dawned for the whole
country and with added vigor and determination, the sons and daughters of
pioneers left the beaten trails to follow the prospector and trapper into the
richer districts. To Central Idaho, to Lost River and the Salmon River and to
Mackay came these people, and the homes and treasures that they sought have
been theirs.
A great trio – a trinity of natural wealth – has made this
section possible. Mining combines with farming, and farming with stock-raising,
to bring success. The three industries rely jointly upon one another and
therein has lain the advantage. Mining has been made profitable and easy by the
close proximity of a food supple base for men and horses. In turn, the farms
have prospered because of this ready market offered by the mining camps. The
theorem and its converse hold true in the same manner with regard to the stock
ranches. The magic touch of King Midas transforms all.
Mackay is the heart of this natural treasure-trove with its
energetic, busy souls. Half a decade ago there were no more than half of five
thousand residents; a decade ago less than half of twenty-five hundred. The
district has been peopled by steady, earnest home seekers of good stock and its
future is more brilliant than its present and immediate past. Railroad
extension, mine development and a new reservoir and canal project that will
bring under cultivation thousand of acres of land, make this assured.
Millions have been expended in bringing to the surface the
gold and silver, as well as the lead and copper of Center Idaho, and millions in profits have
justrified the investments of the sanguine operators. There are today a number
of mines and smelters in operation in the district and all are fulfilling the
expectation of the owners. Back in the ore-bearing hills, lie more of the
precious metals and new claims with startling prospects still thrill the
people.
In the early days, when the lone prospector looked down upon
the valley stretching southeast and northwest from what is now Mackay, a great
waste of sage and sand greeted his eye. In the center ran a shining flood of
melted snow and spring water, coursing turbulently along its bed and dropping
some miles below into the pits of the lower desert. This river was named Lost
River and for many years it was truly “lost” as far as concerned man.
But today, “Lost” River is a misnomer. Instead of lost , it
branches out in numberless canals and ditches to irrigate and bring to life
hundreds of acres of the parched land that had been awaiting this process. The
sand and brush gave way to waving fields of hay and grain. Roses bloom instead
of cacti and the wealth of the earth is extracted as surely as by the miner’s hand.
Every drop of water that is diverted from the main stream serves its separate
purpose and the prosperous farms are the visible result.
Farming is carried on by irrigation, a system which insures
a good crop each and every year.
The future of farming by irrigation offers wonderful
possibilities and opportunities. Three miles above Mackay, a mammoth dam is now
in course of construction; a gigantic mass of masonry that will back up water
enough to bring under cultivation all the land in the Lost Rier valley – a
project that in itself insures a population of many thousands more people.
Tributary to the Lost River valley are numerous other
valleys, just as fertile, just as prosperous, with just as brilliant a future.
There is the Little Lost river valley, the Pahsimari, the Salmon river and
leading into these there are smaller valleys that furnish farm land for scores
of land tillers and cattle and sheep men. While the land along the Salmon river
is not abundant yet there is enough to maintain several health little towns,
but what the Salmon river country tributary to Mackay lacks in land it makes up
for in the precious metals that have ever lured the American westward.
Covering the hillsides that surround the valleys of this
empire is an abundance of timber for fuel and for building and fencing
purposes. The farmer makes good use of this commodity, which is his for the
trouble of cutting and hauling, thus the fuel is a cheap article, as is also
fence building. Several lumber mills are operated in the district and their
product finds a ready market, the mines making a great demand upon this feature
of our commercial life.
Good roads are a country’s best investment and here, where
the commerce of the country is transacted largely over it public thoroughfares,
they are one of the important factors. The road of Central Idaho are a great
advertisement. There is but one railroad, tapping the district, which
terminates at Mackay, leaving an enormous tonnage to be handled by freight
teams over the wagon roads. To a man in the prairie states where railroads
traverse the country every ten miles, where every spring and fall the farm
product is delayed in marketing by reason of mud, Central Idaho would be a
dream of paradise. Here roads are built at a small cost and maintained at a
trivial expense. When it is considered that in the neighborhood of five hundred
head of horses are engaged in hauling freight from Mackay to interior points it
follows that the roads must be in good shape.
“Cattle on a thousand hill.” This is the situation in
Central Idaho. Unlimited feed has attracted called and sheep men with thousands
of head of stock and the ready markets have caused them to maintain their
flocks and herds in this section. The cattle industry is one of the greatest in
this district, as it is elsewhere, and in the days to come, when irrigation has
converted all the desert into farm land, the raising of stock will still be a
profitable adjunct to the farmer on account of the grass covered hills that
surround him.
WATER SUPPLY
Situated in a beautiful canyon at the foot of White Knob
mountain, about six miles from Mackay, is a beautiful, clear, cool, crystal
spring; secluded from all other streams, making it impossible for the water to
become polluted, or come in contact with anything impure. This spring is called
“White Knob Spring” and is about two thousand feet above the town of Mackay.
Without going further, the reader would know what
enterprising people would do with such a spring as this. But not to leave it
open for conjecture, will say that this water is sent speeding down the
mountain side through a powerful steel pipe to furnish water to our city. A
complete water system is installed, having fire plugs on every corner of town
with sufficient water power to hurl the water over the highest building, and
furnish an abundance of water for sprinkling lawns and household use. There is a common saying that if
you get one drink of this water, you will live and die in Mackay.
A VERITABLE SANITORIUM
A prominent practicing physician of Custer county is
authority for the statement that the death rate in the county during the past
three years, the period of his residence therein, is less than ten person per
thousand per year, in other words, just one-half the death rate in other parts
of the United States. Such fatal diseases as diphtheria, tuberculosis and
scarlet fever, seen so abundantly elsewhere through the country, are never
encountered in this county. The doctor attributes this exceedingly healthful
condition to the pure mountain water, the bracing and enervating air, the
abundance of nature’s provender – fish and game of all descriptions – and the
unremitting vigilance of the county health authorizes in protecting the
community from infectious and contagious diseases.
The statement has oft been truly made that there are more
aged persons resident in Central Idaho, to the square inch than in any other
community in the world. Coming to the country when youths, they are reluctant to
leave the healthiest place in existence and consequently are with us yet – old,
yet as active as athletes – devout worshippers at the shrine of Hygeia and
Panacea, situated in the broad and fertile valleys of our county.
This fountain of health flows free for all; the productive
fields await you; the never-ending mountains gorged to gluttony with precious
metals are calling upon you for relief; the fish and game in overabundance are
pleading for a prominent place on your table. Are you willing to pass up the
boundless gifts of Nature so free to you all?
OUR PARK
When Mackay was first laid out, the promoters of the town
were farseeing men and to add to the beauty of the coming Copper City of the
West, they placed in the center a park. This park has been sown to lawn grass,
and rowed out in different directions with all varieties of trees, and will
soon make a shay nook where all desiring recreation after their day’s work is
over will find a lovely spot to while away the time among the trees in the
center of our beautiful village.
Along with other harmonious things, this makes our town
better.
SUMMING IT UP
With large tracts of farming and grazing land uncultivated,
with a list of taxable property annually lengthened with giant strides, with
increasing revenue and deceasing taxation, with railroad building, with good
schools and churches and little crime, with stock ranges of luxurious
vegetation, with an admirable climate favorable to health, with a fertile soil
rich in fruitful products and with a vast mineral wealth in gold, silver,
copper, lead, iron and the precious metals – Custer county is blessed with
natural gifts and advantages that will prove tis brief though vigorous
existence to have been but a puny part of its progressive career.
Custer county embraces in irregular outline about 5000
square miles, and it is as large as the state of Connecticut, and larger than
Delaware and Rhode Island together. You cannot find a more inviting place for
investment.
“THE NEW WESTERNER”
The new westerner is as proud of the plains as were the pioneers;
as valiant in their defense; as eager in their eulogy – but he exaggerates less
and qualifies more. The west is being pictured as it is, and in dealing thus in
candor and frankness its children are establishing their fortunes on surer
foundations.
1908 Mackay City Council Frank M Leland, Charles F. Baker, C.V. Hansen, Dr. Francis H. Poole, and William T Brennan
