Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire "Where the he11 is Jarbidge"

After living in Nv for 50+ yrs, Trud & I decided we need to see Jarbidge, one of the few places in the state we haven't been. It's an old mining town near the Id border, hailed as the remotest town in the US. Might not be our opinion, but definitely a cool place.

Not far off US93, we drove over Salmon Creek Falls Dam, wide enough for only 1 vehicle.


After we crossed, we got out to look at the backside of the dam. Lotsa leaks in the old SOB!


Some 50 miles later the Jarbidge River, huge by our standards.



Jarbidge cemetary, it snowed & rained most of that day.



The man buried here must have worked in one of the mines' refinery, the cone-shaped bucket is what the molten gold was poured into.


And then the camera battery died! We missed lots of pic opportunities after. Gonna head back there Labor Day, should be better with the leaves turning colors and elk bugling.

Gorgeous contry. I send off money every year to the State of Nevada, 072 & 074, One of these days, one of these days.....

Applying for deer or elk?

Elk

Those mountains in the background are 10,800'. It is some of the best country in the State, IMO. I used to come in from the east side by the Gilmer Ranch and hunt sagehen in the O'Neil Basin. We would hunt deer up cottonwood creek and always did well, back when licenses were over the counter.

We always made the trek over to Jarbidge, just because of the beauty of the place.

My first MIL was raised on the Twin Meadows ranch, just upstream of the Home ranch, in the O'Neil basin. Interesting country, no trees other than willows around the creeks and cottonwoods at the ranches.

I drew a bull elk tag up there this year. My son drew last year. Very cool country.

I've killed rockchucks and Beldings ground squirrels there. Seen it snow on June 1st. Great food at the local hotel and fabulous folks live there,

Fun place.

Van Zwoll didn't like much.

Blessings,

Steve

Notice the cross and the cement barricades? I know of at least 2 vehicles that have gone off there before the barricades were put in. One hung up on the rocks before it went over and the people were rescued. The other one didn't hang up, hence the cross.

They still regularly run cattle trucks over that dam as there are lots of ranches out in that country. I always have to wonder how long it will be before the feds condemn it. It waters a huge area in Twin Falls County, ID.

Many years ago, my wife spend a long night out there while I was out with a search party looking for her. Luckily, it was a very warm night. We were hiking with our boys and they'd gone off to look at some rocks. It was getting on toward dark so I told her to follow the creek we were following on down the hill and it would hit the main trail. I would go get the boys. When I got them and got down to the trail, she wasn't there. I didn't know it until that day, but she was one of those who can't deal with being along in the wild. Some people are like that and they can't help it. Instead of going down, she'd gone back up. I searched until dark then went to the nearby ranger station for help. She had a canteen and was ok when we found her the next morning at dawn.

I had an uncle that left Nebraska after WW2 and Korea. Everyone thought he dropped off the edge of the world, but he ended up in Jarbidge. When I was a kid I found an article in Outdoor Life with him in it, guiding a mountain lion hunt. Got to know him some, but I always regretted not going to Jarbige to see how he lived. Sam Bradley was his name, he lived quite a life. In later years he moved to Elco. When he died he left behind a stash of guns and stuff, but I couldn't get out there because of my mother and step-dad's failing health. A couple of girls that took care of him in his final years ended up with his stuff, I think he wanted it that way... Marty

Nice!
That country is just south of me-I need to get there more often.
Great photos.

Lucky Dogs!!

Last city in the US where a person was killed in a stage coach robbery. Spent a week there a few years back. Great place with a lot of history that Bill Cliton tried to bring to and end.

Lots of good times in the Jarbidge Canyon, had a cabin there for 35 years. There used to be some mining buildings still standing in the 70s and 80s, Elkoro Mining Co I think. Torn down because of the liability factor I suppose.

It was the location of the last stage coach holdup in the US, DEC 1916, and that robbery and killing led to the first use of finger prints(It was a bloody palm print to convict the killer, Ben Kuhl. He did 35yrs in the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.

There is a book called "Gold Fever, by Helen Wilson", that chronicles the years in a mining town of the 1910 to 1930s or so era. Lots of first hand memories and great pictures.

There is a 4th of July celebration that's worth the trip up the canyon if your close by, parade and BBQ.

Nice pix, thanks

Boy, those pictures sure make me want to go hunting.

On the way back to Idaho following a fire south of Jarbridge, we passed through Jarbridge at night . Couldn't see anything but the National Forest Road passes right through it. Nice to see the pictures.

Probably a pretty tough night for her.

That's a chunk of God's Country for sure.

Very cool pictures and story. I've flow plenty over that country, some of the times fairly low -- 500' and even down in one of the wider canyons north of Jarbidge. Always fun to yell at the new guys, "it's -bidge not -bridge, damn it!" Of course, I was one of those new guys once, too.

Hoping to get back to that area sometime soon. Will be great to be able to hike around the Owyhee Desert and Sawtooth Mountains again.