Salmon River Kid Read online

  Also in this series by Joseph Dorris

  SHEEPEATER: TO CRY FOR A VISION

  SOJOURNER OF WARREN’S CAMP

  KATRINE: HIGH VALLEY HOME

  Salmon River Kid

  Joseph Dorris

  Copyright © 2017 Joseph Dorris.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Certain characters in this work are historical figures, and certain events portrayed did take place. However, this is a work of fiction. All of the other characters, names, and events as well as all places, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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  ISBN: 978-1-5320-2092-6 (sc)

  ISBN: 978-1-5320-2290-6 (hc)

  ISBN: 978-1-5320-2093-3 (e)

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2014901027

  iUniverse rev. date: 05/03/2017

  To the memory of Chuck Borland,

  a friend who gave so much to others

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Author’s Notes

  Wintering

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Slate Creek

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Return To Warren’s Camp

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  First Pack Train

  Comes To Town

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Slate Creek, Independence Day 1872

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Hardrock Mining

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Bradshaw Mill

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Story Of The Grave

  Chapter 42

  Chinese Gold

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  River Run

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Homeward Bound

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Acknowledgments

  MANY PEOPLE have inspired and encouraged me to write, and each has had a part in this book as in my others. A special thanks goes to my family—to my wife, Susan, who has always supported my many interests, including my writing, and who offered insight on the foods, dress, and culture of the times; to my sons, Scott and Tim, who accompanied me on numerous backpacking trips, including several to the Idaho Salmon River country; and to my daughter, Krystle, who always encouraged me to continue writing and helps as my assistant. Nothing would have been possible without my family.

  As a boy, I grew up in McCall, Idaho, and wrote down the stories some of the pioneers of the region shared with me. Among these individuals were Sam and Jesse (Tim) Williams, Carmel Parks, Ray Beseker, and Dave Spielman. My father, William Dorris, a game warden and bush pilot, took me hunting in this country and related his stories, especially about the Sheepeater Indians. My brothers, George, Mike, Pat, and Bill, who are also bush pilots, have all shared their knowledge of the Salmon River wilderness and accompanied me on many trips as youngsters. My sister, Linda, read the manuscript, giving me valuable suggestions. Montana ranchers Jane Wertheimer and Jim Raths reviewed information on ranching.

  Published sources included Johnny Carrey and Cort Conley’s River of No Return; Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn’s two volumes, Pioneer Days in Idaho County; Bill Gulick’s Chief Joseph Country: Land of the Nez Perce; Cheryl Helmers’s Warren Times, a compilation of news articles of the Warren region; and Dr. Liping Zhu’s A Chinaman’s Chance. I also used various articles on the Chinese of Warren from part of the Payette National Forest Heritage Program written by Lawrence Kingsbury, Kathleen Prouty, and Sheila Reddy. Technical mining information was based on Leonard S. Austin’s The Fire Assay, Ronald C. Brown’s Hard-Rock Miners: The Intermountain West, Frank Crampton’s Deep Enough, Will Meyerriecks’s Drills and Mills, Otis E. Young’s Western Mining, and the General Mining Act of 1872.

  The cover is from my oil painting titled Snow Whiskers, and the line drawings are my pen-and-ink sketches.

  Author’s Notes

  AS A YOUNG TEENAGER, while I was looking for a quartz ledge near Warren’s camp (Warren, Idaho), Tim Williams, a longtime prospector, pointed out to me a scarcely visible cabin, nearly crushed by fallen timber. “That’s where some of the Chinese lived that placered this hillside.” I could see the distinctive cobbles lining the gulch behind the cabin. “Last time I was in that cabin, the dishes were still on the table. I don’t know what happened to the Chinese, though.” That experience and others sparked within me a longing to learn more about these and the other inhabitants of Warren’s camp and the Salmon River country. Salmon River Kid is based on some of these long-ago inhabitants’ stories.

  In 1871, a teenage white boy and a teenage Chinese boy resided in Washington (Warren), Idaho Territory. Among other historical people were Frederick, Susan, and their son, George Shearer, at their ferry (now the Howard Ranch); Fred Burgdorf at his hot springs; Warren Hunt; Charlie and Polly Bemis; Sheriff Sinclair; Dr. C. A. Sears; and R. McLane. Historical vignettes involving these people are accurate, and readers will recognize other historical individuals used in context. The ways in which the fictionalized versions of these individuals interact with Samuel Chambers and his father have, of course, been invented. Life at Warren’s camp and along the Salmon River, as represented here, is based on historical accounts of the time.

  The raft trip down a portion of the Salmon River is based on the actual river
rapids in the sections above Lucile Bar. The Chinese somehow managed to navigate the Salmon on rafts when carrying gold to Lewiston. One account cites several Chinese being held up by highwaymen, but rather than lose their gold to the highwaymen, they cut the straps and allowed the bags of gold to drop into the river.

  During the time period of this novel, miners wintered on the bars along the Salmon River and managed to recover enough gold to pay for grub until they were able to return to their richer placers and quartz mines in the mountains. Several of the original families of Warren’s left their claims and businesses to homestead on the river at a lower elevation, where they raised gardens and stock.

  Ranch life at Slate Creek is based on historical descriptions of the town and accounts of the lives of settlers, some of whom purchased land from the Nez Perce and built businesses to support and supply the mining camps that were scattered throughout the Idaho wilderness.

  All geography—the rivers, canyons, lakes, and mountains—is described as it is. Although some of the trails are lost, the routes and ferry crossings described are accurate. What was Elk Creek in 1872 is now named Elkhorn Creek. Meadow Creek is now named Warren Creek. The mines and mills that are depicted and the events surrounding them are historically correct. Bradshaw’s mill is based on the first mill to refine silver ores. The Sweet Mary and the O’Riley are fictional but based on similar mines. Most of Warren’s buildings have disappeared, but they included the businesses depicted, except for some names like Ma Reynolds’s boardinghouse and Hinley’s assay building. Little evidence of the Chinese structures remains. The hand-washed windrows of cobbles mark the Chinese placers. The Chinese cemetery remains. The Chinese terrace gardens remain, now overgrown and returning to the land.

  Chinese continued moving into Idaho Territory during this novel’s setting, eventually widely outnumbering the white miners. Many reworked the old placers. Others supported their countrymen as merchants, packers, saloon keepers, gardeners, and doctors. They brought China with them, including their opium, gambling, and religion. Most never returned to China but drifted away from Warren as the placers became depleted. Ah Kan, the last Chinese person to inhabit Warren, died in 1934.

  Polly Bemis, at nineteen years old, is depicted arriving by pack train in the summer of 1872. Kan Dick is based on Ah Kan and Lee Dick, two Chinese doctors who resided in Warren. Sang Yune depicts Ah Toy, a gardener and merchant who tended the Celedon Chinese gardens on the slopes above the South Fork of the Salmon River.

  This region is on the western edge of Sheepeater country, and the Sheepeater Indians depicted relate to characters in my first novel, Sheepeater: To Cry for a Vision. A forthcoming novel will bring the characters from the three novels together in depiction of the Sheepeater War of 1879.

  I have tried to describe the life and times in Warren, Idaho, and along the Salmon River in the early 1870s as it was. Where possible, I have used the language, customs, dress, and practices of the times. For example, the term Chinaman simply referred to a person from China and was the proper and acceptable term of the day. Similarly, Indian was the common term used to describe Native Americans. The Chinese referred to the whites as “foreign devils” or the “white devil.” I have generally avoided derogatory terms, but where used, they are intended to capture the reality of those times and are not used with malice or intent to offend.

  I recognize that there may be errors in this depiction of the times of the 1870s and the historical events portrayed. In some cases, available sources are in conflict. Where I could determine the more accurate description, I have done so. However, I accept responsibility for any factual errors and welcome any corrections.

  WINTERING

  Chapter 1

  SAMUEL CHAMBERS CLUCKED to Spooky, his four-year-old black gelding, encouraging him on in the heavily falling snow. The mule, Molly, trudged behind, carrying most of Samuel’s and his father’s gear. They were leaving Warren’s camp and the high country and heading for lower elevation to winter on the Salmon River.

  Samuel pulled his short tan frock coat more tightly about himself. He watched ahead to where his father concentrated on keeping his mahogany bay horse, Buster, on the trail, now blanketed in the snow that continued quickly to pile. Their animals were probably the last to be leaving the gold camp. He thought about the hardrock miners who remained behind and would work throughout the winter, and he reflected on the handful of townspeople who would keep Washington’s saloons, boardinghouses, and mercantile stores open to support them. Soon the camp would be utterly snowbound—except by snowshoe—for at least six months, isolated from the nearest homestead by about forty-five miles. “At the end of the world,” folks often told him.

  They had topped Steamboat Summit above Warren’s camp and were dropping toward the Secesh River and beyond, toward Fred Burgdorf’s hot springs. The thought warmed Samuel. This past spring, his father and he had first visited Burgdorf during a similar snowstorm on their journey in.

  He had expected to be headed home to Iowa by now. Such were their dreams. They had come out looking for a lost gold strike that his father’s civil war comrade, Kevin O’Riley, had found, but O’Riley had died from a war injury before he could return to Idaho Territory in search of it. And while his father and he had not found it either, there was still a glimmer of hope. Samuel had discovered a good-looking quartz ledge, and the placer near their cabin had showed good gold before the water ran out. Each was reason enough to winter on the Salmon and to attempt another mining season. But Samuel wondered how they would survive the winter. Even if they found a place and had plentiful wild game, they had very little money for grub.

  At Burgdorf’s hot springs they paused for a swim. It was customary for the miners to do so, and one never knew the next opportunity he would have for a bath.

  The hot water quickly eased Samuel’s saddle fatigue. He recalled the first time he had bathed here. He had been embarrassingly skinny, and now that he was a couple of months shy of fifteen, people were finally not taking him for thirteen, like that old man Jenkins, who worked for Burgdorf, had. Jenkins had kidded him about girls but then laughed and said it didn’t matter because there weren’t any in the territory except one downriver at Slate Creek. Samuel’s heart caught as he recalled the man’s words. Slate Creek might not be far from where they would winter. He glanced down at himself—not as skinny as back then, but still not much of anything else either. Samuel wanted to believe he could finally see himself in his father’s appearance—tall with solid shoulders and hands, sandy blond hair, and light blue eyes, although Samuel’s eyes were more vivid.

  Later, while dining on elk steaks, gravy, and potatoes, Samuel told Fred Burgdorf of their plans to winter on the river.

  “Yah, you just spend the vinter there. Spring vill be here in no time. Maybe this year vill be your big year,” he exclaimed, his watery blue eyes shining. Burgdorf was somewhat short in stature and solidly built. He had immigrated from Germany and come to Warren’s camp in ’64 as a placer miner. He had learned of the hot springs from the Chinese and staked a claim. Since then, he had built his place into a way station where he now provided hot meals, baths, and lodging.

  Early in the morning, under a wintery blue sky, Charles and Samuel packed their mounts and said farewell.

  “Need anything on our way back through next spring?” Charles asked.

  “Yah, you just bring me some vhiskey. I’m tinkin’ I vill be needing some after all this snow.” Burgdorf snapped his suspenders and rocked forward, looking down a bit at Samuel and then back up at Charles as if to make certain neither would forget.

  Charles laughed. “Trade you for a meal, then?”

  “Yah, I vill.”

  Resuming their journey, Charles broke trail while Samuel and the mule followed. Samuel glanced around at the snow-blanketed meadows. The snow lay over a foot deep. In the grip of winter, more than eight feet would accumulate. He wondered how Fred Burgdo
rf would survive while being isolated all winter.

  As if reading his thoughts, his father spoke. “Mr. Burgdorf won’t have it so bad. He can snowshoe over to Washington for some doin’s, and Mr. Hunt will be bringing in the mail and news all winter.”

  “Just not any whiskey,” Samuel said.

  “I ’spect he has plenty,” Charles admitted. “Whether or not he has any come spring will depend on how many travelers are through and how bad the snow gets.”

  The animals pushed through the new-fallen snow, and after a few hours, they reached the freight landing, a high point above the Salmon River where packers rested their stock and transferred supplies and equipment. From there, the narrow China trail, as some referred to it, descended steeply, dropping nearly five thousand feet in elevation over fifteen miles of tortuous switchbacks.

  Samuel paused to gaze at the rugged, timber-covered mountains across the Salmon River canyon, now blanketed in white. The snow ended far below, where the timber thinned into grassy open ridges that cascaded downward before fading into purple shadows.

  The trail plunged over the ridge, and they quickly descended, traversing steeply downward. Slowly, the snow diminished until the trail emerged as a muddy ribbon clinging to the hillside. Samuel recognized the spot where a passing pack train had nearly swept him from the trail during their trip in. He shivered and gazed down the barren, grassy face toward the ravine below—over a thousand feet—to where he could make out the mule carcass he knew was there.

  By evening, they reached the Salmon River and turned downstream toward Frederick and Susan Shearer’s cabin. A couple of flickering kerosene lamps swung on the cabin porch, winking in the dark, welcoming them. On their journey in, father and son had struck up a good friendship with the Shearers and their son, George. This was especially the case with Charles, who shared the Southern Uprising as a common bond with George, although they had served on opposite sides.