The Early Years in Nez Perce County

The Early Years in Nez Perce County. . , The discovery of gold in September 1860 flooded the region with thousands of treasure seekers, who were a civil and criminal law unto themselves. On December 20, 1861, the Washington Territorial Legislature responded, creating Nez Perce County and appointing two commissioners, a sheriff and an auditor – none of whom served. , The country originally encompassed all of the Clearwater drainage south of the river and Lolo Creek eastward to the Bitterroot Mountains. After Congress formed the Idaho Territory in March 1863, Nez Perce County lost the area northwest of Lewiston. In July Governor William Wallace appointed B. C. Stevens, A. B. Brower and David Reese as the first functioning county commission, which met for the first time in Lewiston on October 5, 1863, to deal with the need for a courthouse and jail. The new courthouse was never built, forcing the county to rent office space. The territorial legislature reorganized the county on February 24, 1864, leaving the northern part of Idaho’s current panhandle as an unorganized region but attached to the county in a judicial district. , Nez Perce County underwent several boundary changes during its first 50 years, but none were more contentious than those relating to Latah County. Moscow residents tried several times to secede. In the end, Idaho’s delegate to Congress introduced legislation to carve out a new county. The bill passed, and President Grover Cleveland signed it into law on May 14, 1888. , During the 1870’s and 1880’s, Nez Perce County was the focus of several attempts to create a new territory combining northern Idaho and eastern Washington. The movement was finally defeated by an 1887 presidential pocket veto and statehood in 1890. The opening of the Nez Perce Reservation to homesteaders in November 1895 revitalized the local economy, hard-hit by national panics. By 1900 Nez Perce and Latah Counties were the most populous in Idaho. Nez Perce County assumed its present shape in March 1911. , In January 1882 the county commissioners purchased the Luna House Hotel, which sat at 3rd and Capital Streets, and used it as the courthouse until 1889, when a new structure was erected at this location. A controversial choice, many residents thought this site to be too far out of town. In 1928 architects extensively remodeled the building into its current form, with many features of the old structure left in place inside the new courthouse. The west annex was added in 1974.