Pierce Gold Rush

Pierce Gold Rush. . A few weeks later, a larger group of men and horses made a second journey to Pierce. The group passed near several Nez Perce Indian encampments, which had not seen many white men since Lewis and Clark passed through almost fifty years prior. The Indians seemed friendly and caused no difficulty, but an Indian agent, A.J. Cain, was less cooperative. As the area was the Nez Perce Reservation, he attempted to stop the miners from reaching their destination. First, he tried to persuade the Indian ferry not to transport them across the river. When that failed, he sent 100 United States dragoons with orders to stop the miners, which also failed due to bad weather. Without incident, the group reached Canal Gulch ten days later, and began setting up camp. Eight rustic cabins were quickly built, which were the first buildings in what was to become Pierce City. The mining started on February 28, 1861, when the Boston Company, which included W.F. Basset and John W. Parks, started shoveling pay gravel into their sluices. Because of freezing temperatures, mining was difficult, but the prospectors could see the fine gold through the ice. Each day they struggled to move some more; sometimes several feet of snow had to be shoveled first. By March 1861, enough gold had been mined that J.C. Smith snow-shoed to Walla Walla, where the $800 in gold caused a great deal of excitement. The rush to the Pierce mines was on. , Text adapted from Layne Gellner Spencer's "And Five Were Hanged", c 1971.)