There’s Silver in Them Thar Hills!

Jacquie Rogers here again!  I thought I’d talk a little about location, location, location.

Many of my western historical romances are set in the Silver City area of Idaho Territory, in Owyhee County (a large county in southwest Idaho with area about the same as New Jersey, but with one person per square mile).  This was a wild and wooly area of the West. 

You have to take after these after rules low price levitra to evade any unfriendly impacts: avoid the every day utilization of Kamagra tablets on the off chance that you are not arranging sexual movement do not utilize it in the event that you are experiencing persistent pain in keens and legs, it is better to see a doctor immediately, or you may consult our experts online directly. Such problem makes man feel emotionally weaker prices for cialis and lose the interest in the sexual life. The typical purchasing this free sample of cialis treatments include: –Avoiding sun exposure –Use of sunscreen –Treating the underlying inflammatory conditions –Preventing scratching, rubbing, picking –Stopping medications such as tetracyclines, which can intensify hyperpigmentation –Putting on topical agents such as chemicals, perfumes, and synthetics. Fortunately, I quickly realized with ALS, behaviors deteriorate progressively, not sporadically, as mine levitra properien http://deeprootsmag.org/2013/04/16/exploring-celestial-harmony/ were doing.

The gold and silver strike sent prospectors, gamblers, painted ladies, merchants, Chinese miners and merchants, bankers, and newspapermen to Ruby City.  Problem is, the creek liked to flood there so the residents packed up the town, buildings and all and moved them to the Silver City site, where it still stands.
So let’s take a tour.  On the right is the sign that tells you how to get there.  I’d advise not to miss the sign.  Oh, wait, there’s only one road.  I’d advise you to stay on that road.  If you get lost, you have to pay Owhyee County to hunt for you.  They had to implement this because so many city people got themselves into fixes they couldn’t get themselves out of.  It got costly, and the budget just didn’t have room for people’s errors in judgment.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that all these pictures were taken by my daughter, Mercedes Christesen.  Special thanks to her husband, Rodney, for using his day off to chase after pictures for his mother-in-law.  Yes, you get points for that.  Okay, back to the tour.
Drug Store
Here’s the Drug Store.  Mercedes wasn’t able to get any history on it, but it was either called the Knapp Drug Store or the Model Pharmacy.  Or maybe it was one and then the other.  I think it’s just called the Drug Store now.  It’s not open for business anymore.  It’s a residence now, as so many formerly commercial buildings are. 
There’s an open house the weekend after Labor Day every year.  I’ve been there–great fun!
Silver Slipper Saloon
To the right is the Silver Slipper Saloon.  This is a 20th Century saloon, open from 1918 to the early 1940s but it still looks cool so I included it.  Silver City had many, many saloons and of course also had cribs and a street called Virgin Alley where ladies of ill-repute plied their trade.  On Ghosttowns.com, you can see an older photo of this saloon and the drug store above.

Silver City Trivia:

Houses at its peak, 400: now, 67.  Businesses at its peak, 125: now, 2.  Working mines at its peak, 250: now, 1.  This informaton comes from a sign on the menu at the Idaho Hotel.  The building was constructed in Ruby City and moved to Idaho City in 1866.
Even though Silver City had telephone service by 1880, the telegraph business was thriving for longer distances.

Silver City, Idaho Territory, never did have rail service, but the train service was within a stage ride.  Here’s a Union Pacific train ticket:

May 10th. 1869
GREAT EVENT
Rail Road from the Atlantic to the Pacific
GRAND OPENING
of the
Union Pacific Rail Road
Platte Valley Route
Passenger trains leave
OMAHA
on the arrival of trains from the East
THROUGH TO SAN FRANCISCO
In Less than Four Days, avoiding the Dangers of the Sea!
Travelers for Pleasure, Health or Business
Life was hard in the Old West, especially when you’re a couple hundred miles off the beaten path, at over 6,000 feet in elevation.  But this wasn’t empty country. A long-standing population of Native Americans from the Bannock and Paiutes were not all that happy about Europeans coming in and ruining their livelihood and cultures.  The next photo is the gravestone of Oliver Hazard Purdy, born September 12, 1824, and killed during the Bannock Indian War in 1879.
Sometimes bad things happen but instead of dying, the perpetrators were put in jail.  It looks as if this jail wouldn’t be too secure these days, but it was formidible in its time.
For more cool photos and accompanying descriptions, I highly recommend EdnaPurviance.org and GhostTowns.com.  You can see the school and the church, too, where services are still held.  The Masonic Lodge is still in good condition and is in use as well.
I’ll leave you with the coolest hotel ever.  I mean EVER.  This is the Idaho Hotel that I talked about above (menu board trivia).  Yes, you can still stay there–they have 13 rooms in service.  Go to the hotel’s website for more cool history about Silver City.

Idaho Hotel, in Silver City, Idaho

Much Ado About Marshals takes place in Oreana, Idaho Territory, but the pre-story takes place right here in Silver City.  Stay tuned because the second book in the Much Ado series, Much Ado About Madams,  will be set in Silver, and you can bet these buildings will have a strong say-so in how the story goes. 🙂  The third book (not sure of the title yet) is set in the surrounding area with only a few scenes in town.
Jacquie Rogers writes western historical and fantasy romance.  Her latest release, MUCH ADO ABOUT MARSHALS, debuted #1 in Western Romance at Smashwords, and #2 in Humor. Available also are her contemporary western, DOWN HOME EVER LOVIN’ MULE BLUES, a multi-era faery story, FAERY SPECIAL ROMANCES, and a Christmas story, FAERY MERRY CHRISTMAS. She’s co-founder of 1st Turning Point, a pay-it-forward website where authors teach, share and learn promotion and marketing.

Comments

  1. Hi, Jacquie. Good to “see” you again after the Menage A Blog event. Thanks for the cool tour. I love that kind of stuff! When I was in grade school we used to on class trips to upstate NY where we would go through an olde village with the actual old stuff and newer building, etc. for recreating the town. It was fun.
    Take care,
    Mara
    marajbrandon AT earthlink DOT net

  2. Great photos and history of your books! Very interesting!

    books4me67 at ymail.com

  3. Hi Jacquie, Much Ado About Marshals is totally awesome!! I’m half way through it and hate to go to work when I could be reading..lol

    Love the history of Silver City and all the historic buildings, jails,etc.

    Thank you for the wonderful views from the past.

    nblack at twcny dot rr dot com

  4. Awesome post and pictures. I love Western historicals. Good luck!

  5. Very interesting!

    Robin D
    robindpdx (at) yahoo (dot) com

  6. Your son-in-law gets brownie points for helping get those pictures for you. Thanks for the tour. It was really interesting.

    User1123 AT comcast DOT net

  7. Mara, wasn’t Menage-a-Blog just awesome! And thanks for visiting Romancing The West. I’m glad your own memories of the olde village were so fun. That’s real history–not just dates of wars and such. How and where people lived fascinate me.

  8. Hi, books4me! Love your handle, BTW. 🙂 Thanks, I should have mentioned that my daughter’s car didn’t like the Silver City road at all. As in AT ALL.

  9. rojo13864, you’re definitely my new bff. I’m glad you’re enjoying Much Ado About Marshals on Kindle. I love writing fun books, just as much as I love giving people a few hours to laugh and escape from the daily grind. I’ll tell my daughter that you enjoyed her photos.

  10. Tanya, thanks for stopping by! I hope you’ll give Much Ado About Marshals on Kindle a try. The world needs more western historical romance lovers!

  11. Robin, thanks!

  12. Stacie, yes, my son-in-law gets special treatment. He and the familiy are visiting me this week (we live 520 miles apart) so we’ve had an wonderful few days together. And I’m very happy with my daughter’s choice in men.

  13. I am a visual person and I happen to love history so these pictures are a treat. It’s amazing to see how much things have changed or even stayed the same. I spend a lot of time googling old houses and castles because they are simply fascinating and I would love to visit a historical site one day. Thank you for sharing.

  14. JJ, How do you do this? You are so talented…and industrious. It’s all I can do to put a few words on the page. This is a super blog!

    And we both know that T. Selleck is mine…alllllll mine….tee hee

    Best,
    Diane

  15. great post. love the pictures.
    larriane@hotmail.com

Leave a Reply to Robin Cancel reply

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.