Explanatory Foreward

Thousands of books and stories have been written about the old mining camps of the Far West, some purely historical, some fictional, and many a combination of both. To any devotee of far western mining camp lore, all are interesting, entertaining and intriguing. Many of the stories revolve about the discoverers of the mines, some center their attention on the moguls who developed the mines and the towns, and others pin their interest on outstanding characters who stood above the crowd in the historical communities. Seldom has much attention been paid to the vicissitudes, the triumphs and the agonies of the purely business ventures in the booming and fading little cities. This is an attempt to trace the history of one such little business enterprise.

Most historians and students seem to agree that, generally speaking, the peak of the rich mining discoveries of the West, with their resulting booms, excitements and town constructions had been reached or passed by the 1850's. However, some important discoveries and many "gold rushes" were occurring in the late 1890's and early 1900's. The quartz gold discoveries in the Elk City district were among the later ones, but, due to its isolation, its lack of communication and transportation, the characteristics of the little region were probably as primitive as had been those of similar camps of a generation before.

Some of the western towns, like the morning glory, budded quickly, bloomed brilliantly, and then over night were ready to disappear. In such cases the business venturer either made his pile and moved on, or he lost his stake and got out in plenty of time to start again some where else. In other instances the communities, like a wild rose, budded slowly, bloomed modestly and then faded gradually, losing petals one by one, sometimes even leaving colorful seed pods which seemed to give promise of more blossoms to come. In such instances the business venturer was led on, hopefully if hesitantly, becoming totally involved, and still confident that, come spring, more blossoms would appear in the same spot. The latter instance roughly describes the quartz excitement history of the little village of Elk City, Idaho.

This effort is obviously an autobiography, and not an especially unusual or exciting one at that. But it is intended and hoped that along this autobiographical thread, the fabric of the story of an old hotel may be woven in such manner as to recreate a bit of the feeling, the atmosphere, the nature of an old isolated camp. Many of the short narratives, situations and characters are dealt with in considerable detail, not so much for their own intrinsic interest, but to paint an over-all picture of life and living as it existed at the time.