Railroads Come to Southern Idaho

As the rich placer claims in the Boise Basin became depleted and the mining population decreased...

...the Valley of the Boise River continued to attract new settlers ready to file for 160 acres and prove it up.

In Boise City, 250 miles from the nearest railroad, businessmen agitated for a railroad connection. Southern Idaho could not remain isolated and survive! Freight rates were high on manufactured goods and a market was sorely needed for the valley's agricultural products.

Stockraising, cattle, sheep, horses, and mules had also entered the economy and badly needed a larger market.

Late in 1882 the Oregon Shortline Railroad began inching its way across the Territory. The next year, 1883, tracks were laid to the "Canyon of the Boise River" and...

...the town of Caldwell--to be a "center of Commerce"--was methodically laid out.

The Reverend B.F. Morrow has said that "in 1865 deer roamed over Caldwell as thick as blackbirds, but that they were so poor..."

"...that people who slaughtered them could not get one meal from the carcass, so drove the, away to the mountains."