Showing posts with label Electricity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Electricity. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Blast from the Past and Remembering - Al West Obituary
Alvin West and Mamie Fox West. Al was born 6 November 1872 in Centerville, Idaho He died 30 July 1954 at Mackay, Idaho at the age of 81 years.
Alvin “Al” West and Mamie Fox West were married 7 July 1897 in Challis, Idaho
Mamie was born 5 November 1877 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She died 17 January 1965 in the Jerome Rest Home, Idaho at the age of 87 years.
Both Al and Mamie are buried in Mt. McCaleb Cemetery in Mackay,
Idaho.
They had 2 daughters: Laura Lucille West Ivie born 17 Nov 1897 at Challis, Idaho. She
married Lee Ivie in 1918. They had
one son, Lester Ivie in 1919. Laura
died December 26 Dec 1920 from complications of childbirth 9 months after the
birth of Lester Ivie in Mackay, Idaho.
Jean Lucille West born 28 February 1919 at Dickey,
Idaho and died 12 February 1920 of pneumonia. Both daughters are buried at Mt.
McCaleb Cemetery in Mackay, Idaho.
Mamie Fox West born 11 May 1877 to George and Margaret Fox. Margaret came
over to marry a man and he died. She, then, married George Fox. They settled in
Pennsylvania. Their first son died of diphtheria and is buried in Pennsylvania.
They may have had children before they came west. George Fox was a
Mason. Together Margaret Fox and George Fox had 9 children:
1 Son died of diphtheria
2 Margaret “Maggie” Fox Nickerson
(Nancy and Trudy Nickerson’s grandmother) Maggie married Frank D. Nickerson
whose mother was Jessie McClure. Frank and Maggie Nickerson had two daughters,
Trudy and Nancy Nickerson
3
Mamie Fox West
4 Arthur Fox
5 Lena Fox (Grandmother of Dene Milwarot
?)
6 Amelia Fox Brenchley (died in 1901 or
1902)
7 Frank Fox
8 Dora Fox Phillips
9 Ida Fox Wyatt born in 1891 and died
in November 1993 at 102 years of age
Al West, 81, life time resident of Idaho and
Custer County Pioneer, passed away Friday near the Rural Electric Association (REA) building just blocks from his home at 504 Elm in Mackay with a heart attack. He was watching workers put up the slab roof on the REA
building. His sudden passing came as a shock to his family and friends as he
had maintained unusual health and vigor for a man of his age.
He was born 6 November 1872 at Centerville, Idaho in
the Boise Basin, the son of William W. West and Nannie Sampson West. In 1879 he
came to Custer County with his father. His father was the first man to drive a
team and wagon into the rough Bonanza Camp which was then in the throes of a
big mining strike. In the fall of 1884, the senior Mr. William W. West moved
his family to Challis, Idaho and it was here that Al received his early
education and grew to young manhood.
Al was united in marriage to Mamie Fox in Challis on 7
July 1897.
They lived in Challis during the first year of their marriage. Here,
daughter, Laura Lucille West was born. Al ran a pack train to the Mountain King
Mine at Sea Foam. The second year after his marriage, he leased a ranch below
Challis and in April 1899 they moved to a ranch at Dickey, Idaho (Bascom’s
place). This place got its name from J.P. Dickey, who established the first
Post Office in the Thousand Spring Valley, north of Mackay, Idaho.
The land around the Post Office, when Mr. and Mrs.
West first moved was a typical sage brush scene. They took charge of the Stage
Station for the Anderson Brothers of Montana and kept the station for 20 years,
until that mode of transportation became obsolete. They also held a financial interest in the Custer Stage Company for eight years. The Mackay, Challis,
and Clayton stage along with Ike Hardman and Louis Hansen. Hansen lived where
Reed Nielson place and ran a car dealership.
In the meantime, Mr. and Mrs. Al West carried on the
work of development of the ranch which changed the sage brush into green meadows and made
their ranch one of the most prosperous in the valley.
Mamie Fox West cooked for many passengers and stage
drivers and tender through those years. And in the fall, large herds of cattle
were driven to Mackay from Challis and the Pahsimeroi via Dickey for an
overnight stop. The men and cattle were fed supper and breakfast. The cattle
either fed on pasture or were fed hay.
In 1939, the West’s moved from their Dickey ranch into
Mackay in the stone house on the corner of College and Elm. They spent the winters in San Francisco, California with Cassie and
Texas. They lived for one year in the Carr residence before buying the home on
the Elm Street and College Ave. Besides retaining ownership of the ranch, Mr.
Al West was an agent for the Texaco Company.
The greatest tragedy in their lives was the death of
their two daughters. Jean Lucille was born 28 February 1919 and died 12
February 1920 of pneumonia. Laura Lucille West Ivie died 26 December 1920. They
passed away within 10 months of each other. Jean passed away at the age of
eleven months, fifteen days and Laura, who was married to Lee Ivie and the
mother of one son, Lester Ivie – died at the age of 22 years from the effects
of Lester’s childbirth.
FROM the Bunnie (Ines) Smith Collection
Monday, January 28, 2013
Blast from the Past - And Let There Be Lights - Arco Advertiser June 10 1998
 |
| Researched and Written by Earl Lockie |
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Blast from the Past - Lost River Electric History - Ruralite May 1984
Friday, January 25, 2013
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Blast from the Past - Mackay Miner Mid Summer Edition 1908 Page 1 of 9
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
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Blast from the Past - Mackay Miner Mid Summer Edition 1908 Page 8 of 9
Freighting
You will notice by the map marked “Lucky Mackay,” that
Mackay is situated in the very center of Lost River Valley, and in the central
part of the state of Idaho. It is the terminus of the Oregon Short Line
railroad. We have at his place an institution called “Green Forwarding House,” which is safe to
say that there is as much freight handled at this place as in any part of the
west. And about five hundred head of horses are in use hauling this freight to
the different points in interior Idaho, and to the different points west of
Mackay in Lost River Valley.
At the top of the map you will notice marked, “Alto
District,” which is described in another part of this paper, to this, together
with other points on west, Loon Creek, Challis, Clayton, Stanley Basin and
other mining points. Fine mountain roads have been built, making the freighting
a very pleasant business, and the result has been that a great many teams have
been pressed into service, and more are needed at present for the purpose of
taking in coke and other supplies to the great mines of the interior.
The freighting is worked very systematically, as all teams
are loaded both ways. Teams going into the interior of the country are loaded
with supplies and other materials for mines, while teams coming back bring rich
lead, copper and gold for treatment, and the prospects are that the day is not
very far distance when other smelters will be put in at Mackay to treat this
ore, and Mackay will not only be the commercial center, but smeltering center
for all mining properties of this district.
This industry makes a market for a great deal of grain, and
hay not only for the use of the freighters, but a great deal of grain is
freighted into the different mining districts of this point, where horses play
an important part in the mining enterprises being carried on.
Herewith is presented a picture of a freight outfit which is
just leaving Mackay. There are eighty horse in this one train, hauling fifteen
large freight wagons all loaded to the brim with coke for the smelters of the
interior and supplies for the mills, mines and the men employed therein. A
caravan of teams and an army of men are given employment in the freight
industry along and a market is created for all the grain grown on Lost river.
This business is the means of the distribution of thousands of dollars annually
among the farmers and business men of the valley.
Eighty Horse Freight Outfit Leaving Mackay for the
Mackay and Central Idaho Stage Co.’s Six Horse Concord
Stage. This Company Operates One Of The Largest Stage Lines in Idaho.
WHERE THE STOCK RANGE
The United States has recently established and is
maintaining forest reserves throughout Central Idaho. The Lemhi reserve is tributary
to Mackay, embracing in the neighborhood of a million acres. Nine men are
employed by the government on this one reserve, with headquarters at Mackay.
The purpose of the forest reserve is the preservation of timber, distribute
evenly and regulate the grazing of cattle, horses, sheep and other domestic
animals and for the prevention and extinguishment of fires.
Figures from the other reserves in effect in Central Idaho
are lacking, but we find by the records that there are in this reserve some
fifty millions of feet of merchantable timber, and that the reserve is now
affording grazing, at about 25 cents per head, for 18,500 cattle and horses and
71,800 head of sheep. The reserves direct the cutting of timber, issuing free
use permits for fuel wood and other domestic purposes, and see that the forests
are not damaged by wanton cutting. The sytem insures a wood supply and grazing
for large bands of sheep and herds of cattle for all time.
Mackay is a town of romance from the view point of endeavor.
Her people are happy in many great tasks. They are making headway but they are
still inviting the easterner, the man with a little money, strength and a clear
mind to join with them in accomplishing the development of the wealth God
planted here for the benefit of the human race. Come!
POWER POSSIBLITIES
Hydro-electric power – an energy generated by nature with
the aid of man’s inventions – will some time be the force that will operate a
system of mine railways and electric plants throughout central Idaho. Dozens of
streams, with thousand’s of cubic feet of water per second, offer every
advantage in the world to the electrical engineer and capitalist and natural
reservoirs abound in the mountainous region surrounding the big mines and
connecting the cities of this district. Already there is underway a proposition
to utilize the waters of Cedar creek, a short distance above Mackay, for the
generation of light and power to be used here, and other ideas along the same
line are fast coming to a head.
The main difficulty in mining at the present time is in the
transportation of ore and the operation of smelters and stamp mils. By
conserving the water power of the hills and turning it through hydro-dynamos,
sufficient power can be produced to run electric railways down to Mackay and to
turn the mighty mills at the mines. Salmon river alone could furnish such
power, while the other streams could furnish power for any kind of mill or
manufacturing plant that may later be established in this section.
Sunshiny days, over 300 in the year, makes Central Idaho the
best place to live in the entire West.
H W Weiler's Residence 1908 (may be the house on the corner of White Knob and Main)
Mackay's Baseball Team 1908
Baseball Game at Mackay 1908
The Way Mackay Turns Out On Our Nation's Birthday 1908.
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