A Hot and Hairy Adventure to The Queen of Idaho Ghost Towns

"High Noon," "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," and the HBO series "Deadwood" were some of the movies that crossed our minds while touring the old mining town of Silver City, Idaho. "Blazing Saddles" was another movie that crossed my mind. "Where is Clint (Eastwood)?" Mom wondered as we hiked through Silver City on this hot July day. Dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the unrestored buildings, wooden sidewalks, and dirt roads reminded me of scenes from "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." That's when I whistled the theme from "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," earning a laugh from Mom.

1. The ride up the steep mountain road to Silver City was a highlight all by itself. Mom and I turned off of SR78 to get to Silver City. We were talking about our favorite subject, the Boston Red Sox, when the paved road suddenly turned to a gravel road. I had to slam on my brakes to slow down to 25 mph to maneuver the hairpin turns and steep mountain terrain, through places called Striker Creek Basin Gulch and Scotch Bob Creek. As Mom and I got closer to Silver City, the road got a little bit rocky. Suffering from muscle spasms in my back, I really felt these bumps. When we arrived at Silver City, I thought for a minute that I wouldn't be able to get my Kia Sephia up the little hill to the town. "Sh@%#!", I cursed out loud thinking we came all this way and would have to go back to Boise! But undeterred, I backed the car up and gunned it up the hill. A couple in a Wisconsin car was coming from the opposite direction, and the husband said in an accent from the movie "Fargo," "Good job!" Mom and I had to keep ourselves from laughing out loud.

2. The old and mostly unrestored buildings, such as the Silver City Hotel and Our Lady of Tears Catholic Church, are not to be missed.

3. The cemetery at the outskirts of Silver City is worth the mile-long hike from the center of town and has grave sites dating from Silver City's heyday as a silver mining town, from the 1860s to the Depression.

Quick Tips:

The only time to take a trip to Silver City is from June to October. The city is buried under a ton of snow come wintertime and is only accessible by snowmobile. The road to Silver City is open by May, but the roads are wet and can be treacherous.

There is a restaurant in the Silver City Hotel, but I advise you to bring a picnic lunch and tons of water. We were over a mile above sea level, but it was still very hot, and the water cooled us off. Also, the only public bathrooms are two outhouses about 2/10 mile from the town center and at the church. We were disappointed not to see a bathroom at the hotel.

We saw a lot of people driving around the sights of Silver City. I recommend walking, because you miss a lot driving, and Mom and I thought these people were lazy. The town is small enough to walk -- just be in good shape and wear good shoes.

Many of Silver City's old historic buildings are now private summer homes, so don't walk into any of these places unless you are invited.

Best Way To Get Around:

The trip to Silver City takes about two hours (75 miles) from Boise or Meridian, so leave early enough to take the mountain road so you are not driving it at night.

The only way to get to Silver City is by car. I advise one with 4-wheel drive, and the next time I go to Silver City, I am borrowing someone's car with 4WD.

The best way to get to Silver City is to take I-84 West to Exit 38 (Nampa/Garrity Road Exit). Take a left at the end of the on-ramp, and you will be on Highway 45. Travel about 20 miles, until you reach SR78 at Murphy, and take a right. About five miles south of Murphy, you will see the sign for the road to Silver City and take a right. The dirt road to Silver City is a scenic and hairy 23-mile ride, but it is worth a trip once in your lifetime.

After lunch and seeing Our Lady of Tears Catholic Church, the school house, and other sights in Silver City, Mom and I hiked down the hill through town towards the Freemasons Cemetery.

Located about 1 mile outside of town, the Freemasons Cemetery is a refreshing hike down a dirt road lined with a creek and old houses. With me leading the way, Mom and I arrived at the cemetery, climbed up the hills, and spent about 30 minutes exploring the final resting place of many of Silver City's esteemed citizens.

The Freemasons Cemetery was founded in 1876 and contains the remains of many veterans of the Bannock War of the late 19th century, silver miners who died young due to the horrible conditions in the mines outside of Silver City, and of wives and children of these people. It was sad seeing the graves of the children who died so young, and Mom and I wondered out loud, "How did these people live in a town high in the mountains with limited transportation and isolation in the winter?"

The most interesting grave was of one veteran who was killed in the Bannock War between the white settlers and Bannock Indian tribe in the 1870s and 1880s. He was in his 60s, but he must have been a soldier to the end. Talk about "dying with his boots on."

After Mom and I visited the Catholic church, we continued a short distance down the road to the old schoolhouse. The school house is a two-story white building that was built in 1892, and the date of its opening is prominent on the gables of the building and can be seen as you arrive in the town. Mom and I couldn't believe how big the school house was and wondered how many students attended this school during Silver City's 75-year existence. It couldn't have been many students, but the size of the school reminded us of the old junior high that was converted to the public library in our hometown of Riverside, Rhode Island.

When Mom and I visited the old school house, it was closed. However, there is an Open House in August where you pay $10 to tour all of Silver City's old buildings for a few days. The funds go towards preserving Silver City. When Open House is not going on, admission is free to see the old school house.

The old school house's paint is chipping, and many windows are boarded up, but its charm and history are prevalent.

Before tackling the climb up to Our Lady of Tears Catholic Church, Mom and I decided to eat lunch at the Silver City Hotel so we would have some needed energy.

Our Lady of Tears Catholic Church was founded in the 1860's by Catholic missions who traveled through the Idaho Territory setting up churches and schools throughout the area. Mom was surprised that a Catholic Church was in the middle of nowhere and 6,170 above sea level in a little place like Silver City. Idaho is a dominantly Mormon and Protestant State, and Catholicism is not as dominant as it is in the Eastern USA. But Mom and I are Catholics, and we were interested in seeing Our Lady of Tears.

The church has been destroyed by fires and weather and has gone under many reconstructions and rebuildings. The first church building was built in 1869; the second church was built in 1882 from a building that was bought for $750. The second church collapsed under the weight of snow. The church that is standing there today was built in 1933 and is of Gothic Revival architecture. Unlike several of Silver City's buildings that are worn and dilapidated, the church has been taken care of and recently had been given a fresh coat of white paint.

To get to OLOT Church, you must climb up a rocky ramp. Be very careful and hold onto the railing to keep from slipping and falling. One girl went flying down the hill in flip flops, and she was lucky she didn't fall and hurt herself.

According to Mom, a Catholic church is very ornate and has three doors to distinguish its denomination, but OLOT was tiny, not ornate, and had one door, which was locked preventing us from going inside to see what it looked like. BUMMER! So, Mom and I were resigned to walk around the outside of the church and tried to look inside the painted over windows that were made to look like stained glass to no avail. But our climb was well-rewarded by beautiful mountain scenery and the sound of free range cattle mooing across the road.

Our Lady of Tears Church is still a working parish and holds mass once a month during the summer. A bishop from the Boise Diocese comes up to Silver City to hold mass for the summer residents and BLM workers who are staying there during forest fire season. It is free to tour the church and grounds.

When Mom and I arrived in Silver City, we first stopped at the Silver City Hotel to use their bathroom. We were sadly disappointed to find that there is no public bathroom at the moment, because it is under construction. So Mom and I had to hike about 2/10 mile to an outhouse near the campground.

After the bathroom break and eating lunch elsewhere, Mom and I toured the Silver City Hotel. Upon walking inside, you are transported to a time of cowboys, bordellos, and silver mining. The hotel was built in the 1860's and with its 50 rooms, it was considered "one of the finest hotels in the Territory." It is an unrestored gem and living museum. Its original furnishings and fixtures are still intact and in use.

The hotel lobby is a museum with exhibits on life in Silver City in its heyday, including one on the Chinese miners who lived in Silver City in the 19th Century. There are also old woodstoves and fixtures and a reception desk that still is in use helping guests who spend the night here.

After touring the museum/lobby, Mom and I walked into the dining room/saloon. It is still functioning as a restaurant serving firefighters and tourists hamburger and other fare from $5 and up. There is an ornate and gorgeous bar at one end and a grand piano with an old painting above it and gaslights adorning it. There were several BLM firefighters dining on the Hotel's original tables. It was an awesome trip back to the 19th century.

If you decide to stay longer than one day, the Silver City Hotel has rooms for about $55/night/per person. The rooms are in their original state and can only be toured with the owner or a guide.

As I mentioned in my Tips part of my Overview of Silver City, I advise you to bring a picnic lunch and tons of water when you visit Silver City. There is a restaurant in the hotel serving hamburgers and other sandwiches in a saloon-like atmosphere, but there is nothing better than soaking up the culture and ambience of Silver City by sitting outside on the hotel porch having a picnic lunch.

Mom and I brought turkey sandwiches and fruit from home. I was so hungry from driving up the road from hell to get to Silver City that I ate two sandwiches, along with some fruit and rice pudding. Mom and I felt right at home having our lunch on the porch, because we were joined by the hotel owner's black Labrador retriever, Coal, a happy and laid-back pooch, I must say. Coal was sleeping on the porch when Mom and I arrived, but the minute we opened our cooler and took out our lunch, Coal was right there with his nose in the cooler. We gave him handouts and were surprised that Coal wasn't as fat as a house with all of the handouts he has probably gotten in the years he has been the Silver City Hotel Mascot.

There were only a few tourists in Silver City that day, but the presence of Bureau of Land Management firefighters was dominant there. In town to have lunch in between thinning the forest around Silver City, Mom and I watched them load up their gear before heading out. We even spoke to one lady BLM firefighter about the 1994 fires outside of McCall and the present situation of forest fires in Idaho.

As Mom and I were eating lunch, a lady came in from a hike and sat at the bench opposite us. She seemed like she was going to die from heat stroke and exhaustion from the way she was panting, but after a while, she recovered and lit up a cigarette. The smoke drifted to Mom and me, and I could only curse and think, "Thank you for not smoking! I would rather die of natural causes!" There was a sign inside the hotel that made me laugh about their take on smoking. It said, "If you are smoking, we will assume you are on fire and take proper precautions!"

Silver City is located on a place called Jordan Creek and was the county seat of Owyhee County, Idaho during its heyday from 1864-1934.

In the Spring of 1863, a prospector named Michael Jordan (no relation) led 29 other prospectors up to the Jordan Creek area from Placerville, another mining village 19 miles east of Horseshoe Bend, Idaho. The prospectors set up dig sites along the creek and many other miners soon followed to seek their fortune in silver and gold mining.

By 1864, most of the area had been mined and there was more silver here than in Nevada. Silver City was one of many little mining towns established in the Jordan Creek area. Ruby City, Orofino, and De Lamar to name a few).

By 1866, Silver City was a bustling town and the Owyhee County seat. The town had six general stores, eight saloons, a hospital, and most likely a few bordellos. There was a telegraph service from Silver City to Winemucca, Nevada, and Silver City had its own newspaper, "The Idaho Avalanche."

During its heyday, Silver City and its surrounding towns were involved in wars between them and other mining establishments. The most bloody mining war was between the Golden Chariot and Elmore miners in 1868. Three miners were killed, and a deputy marshall was sent in to restore the peace along with 96 soldiers from Fort Boise.

From the 1870's until World War II, Silver City remained the queen of the mining towns. But Silver City was going downhill, and the county seat was moved to Murphy by 1934. By World War II, mining restrictions finished off Silver City, and Idaho Power cut the transmission lines from the nearby Swan Falls Dam.

Records show that the Silver City District produced about $40 million in gold and silver.