It was back in 1908 that the united states congress established the Humboldt National Forest in northern nevada. This area was long known as being an evil place by local natives. According to Shoshone legend, a giant cannibal roamed the canyon looking for unsuspecting souls to devour. Then in 1909, prospector Dave Bourne happened to find gold in the area and started claiming that more than $27 million worth of gold was visible in an area now known as Jarbidge Canyon. By the end of that year it is said there were around 50 other miners in the area out looking for gold. News of this discovery went out over the winter and by the spring of the following year, there was about 1500 people that had moved into the area. Of course there was little here so most men lived in tents and articles written state that there were over 500 tents lined up over a 3 mile stretch in the valley.
However by early summer the following year, it didn't take long for miners to find out that the gold values were overly exaggerated and the rush was over almost a fast as it started. Dissapointment set in real quick and a lot of the miners left and by mid summer there were only a few hundred men out left out of the 1500 or so that had arrived just a few months earlier. During this time however there were over 500 claims that were staked and registered.
Some prospectors didn't give up and before winter set in a couple of other discoveries were found and by next spring there was a second rush of almost 1000 men in the town. Mining here could only be done during the summer months because of the remoteness of the camp and with higher elevations, the winters were quite harsh so a lot of men would go leaving only a handfull of regular folks in the town. It was also during this second boom that the town started to actually grow and wooden buildings were replacing tents. Being as this land was within a forest reserve, people weren't allowed to legally put up buildings because they didn't own the land. Then in 1911, president William Taft excluded an area around Jarbidge to allow private land ownership.
Mining for the next few years was mostly done by individual miners and on a small scale but then in 1918 the Elkoro Mining Company came into town and bought up most of the quality claims and consolidated them. The company then built a mill and brought in electricity and Jarbidge then became a noteable gold camp. However because the company owned all the claims of value now, only a few hundred people were required to work the mine so once again a lot of people left. At the time this mine was one of the largest mines in the state and it is said that from 1918 until the early thirties, the mined extracted around $10 million dollars worth of gold.
Like a lot of the old mine camps we read about, in 1919 a barrel of whisky blew up in one of the saloons and burned down about 20 other buildings in the town including several cabins, the telegraph office and the dance hall. Some folks said this fire could have been avoided had the mining comapny allowed town people to connect their homes and shops to the power line that company had run into town instead of using oil and fuel lanterns all the time.
Jarbidge would also go down into history as being the place of the last American stage robbery. In 1916, the mail stage running into Jarbidge was held up and the stage driver was attacked and killed. The killer was a man by the name of Ben Kuhl, and a couple of other men Ed Beck and Billy McGraw, made off with several thousand dollars, but were apprehended and quickly tried. In the process of the murder and robbery, Kuhl left a bloody handprint on a piece of mail, which, was “the first time a palm or fingerprint had ever been admitted as evidence in a court trial.”
You can still go to the small town of Jarbidge today. From what I read there are still around 50 to 100 people who live there. There is good camping and suppose to be great fishing and hunting in the area also.
