![]() Despite the short placer mining season, most of the rich ground had been worked out by 1870. Placer mining throughout the Boise Basin was limited both by winter conditions and by lack of water in the summer. ![]() The Pioneer Mill, a ten stamp mill constructed at Granite Creek near Placerville, was the first stamp mill in the region. Placerville's status as largest settlement in the region would end quickly though as the nearby boom town of Idaho City became both the largest city in both the Boise Basin and the entire Northwest, eclipsing even Portland, Oregon. By summer of 1863 Placerville had around 90 houses, thirteen saloons, five blacksmith shops, seven restaurants, and five meat markets. ![]() The miners are making from $50 to $60 per day, and packing their dirt in flour sacks from 100 to 200 yards.ĭuring the first couple years of the Boise Basin rush, Placerville established itself as both a rich mining camp and the supply center for the rest of the region. There are three mining districts in this basin one is called Moore's Creek, the other Grimes, and the other Placerville they are very large camps. I have taken 200 feet in a quartz claim, and have got a good creek and gulch claim all playing well. I have been prospecting for the last two days and have got fair prospects. They are in a basin some 30 miles long, by 25 miles wide and every gulch and creek pays well - the dry gulches pay from 50 cents to $5 to the pan. These mines are going to be the richest that have been struck since '49 in fact many old Californians say they are a great deal better. I have been here some three or four days, and find things very brisk. Placerville was located on rich ground, and quickly grew to be one of the region's premier mining settlements with a peak population of several thousand by 1864.Ī letter from a Boise Basin miner sums up the excitement in the area during those early days: Placerville was one of the first camps established after rich placer deposits were discovered in the Boise Basin region in late 1862. ![]()
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