Mining Town

Mining towns of the 1800s generally sprang up quickly and with little planning. Boise’s founders, however, platted and planned the town prior to any serious construction allowing for a more organized city than others of the time. Therefore, maps of early Boise depict an urban area with uniform streets and equal lot sizes within the city limits. The relatively flat site, reasonably void of major natural obstacles, allowed for the standardized layout of the town in its early stages. Mining towns located in the nearby Boise Basin and Owyhee Mountains often succumbed to the will of mountains and streams when developing their city design. Mining communities located in narrow canyons, on the sides of hills, or along the banks of meandering rivers were commonplace during the gold and silver rushes of the nineteenth century. In subsequent years, other factors led to the establishment of new sections of Boise in a less ordered arrangement than in the original plat.

Many of the names appearing on the original plat of Boise City are of businesspersons hoping to take advantage of the nearby mining districts.

By 1867, Boise had grown from a modest ten city blocks to over one hundred thirty thanks in large part to the local mining industry.

Though not completely accurate, some of the names and locations of mining districts are incorrect; Wells asserts that the map “comes close to showing the land as miners understood the country.”

This map effectively depicts Boise’s advantageous central location in relation to the nearby mining districts. In 1865, all roads in southwestern Idaho seemed to lead to Boise.

This map depicts the major mining districts of southwestern Idaho. Boise grew out of necessity and opportunity in the middle of these booming gold and silver mining districts.

Boise’s central location between the mining towns of the Boise Basin and Owyhee Mountains proved advantages for the burgeoning supply town. By the time the Department of the Interior created this map, many of the mining towns in the Boise Basin had declined substantially in population.