The Rathdrum Tribune

HISTORY OF OLD FORT BOISE

Although so much has already been said and written about the famous old Fort Boise, the following written by Calvin C. Thompson for the Sunday Oregon Journal, will be interesting to the pioneers of Idaho:

The forts of the department of the Columbia were established during three distinct periods. First, during the early Indian war prior to 1860; secondly, during the civil war, and, thirdly, during the Spanish-American war excitement, when the country suddenly found itself face to face on a war basis with a nation whose navy was equal to that of its own. Other small posts were established from time to time for Indian defense purposes, but these have all been abandoned. Since the sudden leap to the front rank of the ancient yet youthful empire of Japan, and the American fear of trouble from that source, a new impulse has been given to the public demand for better coast defenses and army organization.

Not only is the war department planning and recommending a series of mines and other lines of defenses along the Pacific coast, but reorganization of the army in several vital points is being urged. Instead of many little garrisons hundreds of miles apart, army men are recommending concentration of troops in larger posts, located near railroad centers, and the maintaining of the army units at full war strength.

Now that the spirit of change, expansion and improvement of the Pacific coast defenses is in the air, a brief sketch of the widely scattered military posts of the Pacific northwest will be of interest. In all of this vast empire, extending from the east of the Rocky mountains on the east to the Pacific on the west, and from California on the south to the Arctic ocean on the north, there are but 17 forts with 253 officers and 5265 men.

No fort in the department is richer in historical interest than is Fort Boise, located two miles from the capital of Idaho. To offset the influence of the Columbia River Fishing and Trading company's post at Fort Hall (now Pocatello, Idaho), established by Nathaniel J. Wyeth, that company's rival, the Hudson Bay company, in 1834, built a miserable fort 100 square feet at the mouth of the Boise river, and named it Fort Boise, meaning in French 'wooded.' Wyeth's company failed to make good in the western fur trade and sold out to the Hudson Bay company in 1837. Old Fort Boise fell down that year and was rebuilt of adobe, was wrecked by the flood of the Snake river in 1853 and was abandoned in 1854.

Military orders issued in 1860 directed an exploration of southern Idaho with a view to selecting the best location for an army post. The breaking out of the civil war caused this order to be neglected. The gold excitement of 1861 caused a stampede of miners and settlers into Boise valley. Orders were issued in 1863 for the establishment of a post in the mining regions. The strategic location of old Fort Boise was early recognized. Major Pinckney Lugenbell with a company of Washington territory infantry and a detachment of Oregon cavalry, encamped near the site of Boise barracks, June 28, 1863. At the suggestion of John Hailey, who operated a train of pack horses to and from the mines north of Boise mountains, the present site of the post was selected and permanent improvements begun.

From its establishment until the close of the Bannock war, which ended with the famous 2000 mile chase after Chief Buffalo Horn in 1878, Fort Boise was the hot bed of Indian troubles. Buffalo Horn ended his flight and his life among the Umatilla Indians near Pendleton, Oregon, where he failed to enlist their aid in his ravaging fight and was beheaded by them. The long chase after the Bannock band was led by Captain F. F. Bernard, until General O. O. Howard joined the party in Malheur county, Oregon. Another famous campaign in which the troops from Boise barracks were called to participate was that against the Nez Perces in 1877, in which Joseph, 'The Napoleon of the Nez Perces,' was captured after a 1500-mile retreat to Bear Paw mountains in Montana. -Weiser Signal.