Last year we attempted to visit Historic Idaho City, but we were turned back by a forest fire; so on this trip we decided to take a slight detour and include it on the way home.
First stop was the visitor center to pick up a walking tour map of the town and some information on the old buildings. The visitor center was surrounded with chainsaw art and various pieces of old mining equipment.
The historic district is only a few blocks long, so it is easy to just park the car and stroll up and down the streets.
St. Joseph's Catholic Church and the Oddfellows Hall are located on East Hill above the City Center, and worth the hike up the steep grade. The original Catholic Church was constructed in 1863, but it burned to the ground and was rebuilt in 1867. Most of the original settlers in Idaho City were Irish Catholics, so the Church has always been an important religious and social center in Idaho City.
The Independent Order of Oddfellows Pioneer Lodge No. 1 is the oldest Oddfellow Lodge in Idaho. It was instituted in 1864 when Idaho was still a territory.
Traveling north on Main Street is Boise Basin Mercantile that has been used continuously as a store since 1865. It still has iron-shuttered windows and massive iron doors, which were installed to protect the building from fire.
The Idaho World building was originally constructed as a Chinese Store. It survived the 1865 fire and for many years it was used for The Idaho World, a weekly newspaper.
During the mining boom, the Wells Fargo building, with its thick brick walls and iron shuttered doors and windows, was one of the most prominent buildings in Idaho City. However, after Wells Cargo no longer had a need for the building it was used as a store and a bar. Then, in 1952, the foundation crumbled and the back walls caved in, so the building was bulldozed into the basement and the ground was leveled. Today, there is just a building facade marking the Wells Cargo site.
This Pon Wam building was originally designed for a newspaper office, restaurant, and grocery store. It was one of the "fireproof" double-walled brick buildings that were constructed after the 1865 fire. In addition to the double-walled brick construction, there were metal doors and shutters, and reinforced attic floors protected by a layer of sod to keep the contents of the building from burning in the event of a fire.
By 1873, Chinese immigrants accounted for nearly half of the City's population of four thousand people, so the Wong Chong Company purchased the building for a Chinese mercantile. The Pon Yam Store is the last Chinese owned and occupied building in Idaho City and it is now being renovated to be used as a Chinese museum.
At the north end of Main Street (before reaching the elementary school) there is an interesting antique store, but it was closed the day we were in town.
The Territorial Penitentiary was built in 1864 and was used jointly by Idaho Territory and Boise County. There were 14 cells and the yard was enclosed within a heavy barricade.
The most notorious prisoner was Ferd Patterson, a popular gambler who shot and killed Sumner Pinkham, the first US Marshal in Idaho City. Ferd fled on horseback, but was caught by Sheriff Jack Gorman and put in the jail. After a six-day "melodramatic trial," Ferd was set free and immediately left town, only to be killed in Walla Walla two weeks later.
The Masonic Temple, built in 1865, is the oldest Masonic Temple in Idaho, and "reputedly the oldest Temple west of the Mississippi, still in use...This Masonic Temple is believed to be the only standing lodge in which a 'Grand Lodge' was formed in the United States, still in use today."
The City Hall building was built in 1891 to replace the Old Basin School. The building is still in use today.
Diamond Lil's Restaurant & Saloon has a "World Famous Money Bar" where you can leave your hard earned currency (gold dust accepted). (The paper currency laminated on the bar top is fake, but the money hanging from the ceiling is real.)
The Idaho City Hotel has been refurbished and is still in business
Scattered around town there are various other historic buildings and old equipment, including a horse-drawn hay baler!
After crossing the state line into Utah, I pulled off Interstate 84 at Snowville to get gas. (Snowville is an interesting place - there are more dead than living people in Snowville. The current population of Snowville is 167 and the cemetery contains 540 graves.)
After filling the SUV with gas, I noticed a bell on a monument in a small park adjacent to the gas station. A plaque explained that the bell had hung in the belfry of an old rock building that was constructed on this site in 1877. The building was demolished a number of years ago, but for about 80 years it was used for both a church and a school. The bell was used to call children to school.
Directly across the street from the park there were a number of new buildings that really looked out of place in this older community. On the outside of the building were the letters "OSI." My curiosity got the best of me, so I knocked on the office door to find out what type of business "OSI" was running in this small community.
The office door was locked and no one was in the office, but a worker from a adjacent building told me that OSI was an acronym for "Ocean Star International," a world leader in tropical fish food for aquarium fish. I asked if I could get a tour of the facility, but the worker said that the manager would have to authorize it and he was off-site and would not be back for several hours. Since I could not arrange for a tour, I asked the worker why they were located in Snowville, Utah. He went on to explain that OSI produces a wide range of high quality fish foods using larval shrimp that are harvested from from the Great Salt Lake; thus, the Snowville location.
The OSI owner also likes exotic wild animals; so adjacent to the buildings I was not surprised to see two zebras; which made me wonder, are zebras black with white strips or white with black stripes?
When we were in Salt Lake City we stopped by the University of Utah, the site of the 2002 Winter Olympic. The opening and closing ceremonies were held in the stadium. We then went over to the Natural History Museum of Utah to see a special exhibit "Vikings - Beyond the Legend."
While at the museum, we also toured the the extensive dinosaur exhibit and other parts of the museum - and no one was bitten by the Tarantula!
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