![]() Newspaper reports from the time illustrate what this frontier city was like during the first couple of years. It is estimated that Idaho City had over 7,000 residents by 1864, making it the largest city of any type in a vast region dominated by wilderness. Placerville emerged as the largest settlement in the first few months of the Boise Basin rush, but Idaho City outgrew Placerville by the Summer of 1863 and became the center of the Boise Basin mining scene. We cannot work much, but we find plenty of pine trees for fuel, and plenty to eat and drink. The snow at present is about four feet deep, and keeps acoming. I think there is about 2,000 men on Granite Creek or near here, and thousands more will find good diggins here in the Spring. You could not buy any of our claims for $3,000 down, and as for mine, I would not sell for any price, as I think all the money I want is in the claim. Miner William Pollock reported the following during January of 1863: Reports from the Fall of 1862 put the average value at $18 a pan, with some lucky miners taking as much as $80 per pan out of their claims. The placers of the Boise Basin region were often extremely rich. The Boise Basin rush was the largest since the California Gold Rush of 1849, and by 1864 Idaho City would become the largest city in the Pacific Northwest, eclipsing even Portland, Oregon. ![]() Originally known as “Bannock”, Idaho City was settled in December of 1862, early in the gold rush to the Boise Basin region of southern Idaho.
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