The 25th Annual Swan Valley Old Timers Reunion (1987)

 

Stump Creek Salt Works

When I started to look into the Stump Creek Salt Works, I immediately saw how important salt is to humans. Salt has played a central role in human history, from its use as a food preservative to a valuable trade item to a symbol of permanence and loyalty. Salt was a highly sought-after commodity from the beginning of civilization until about 100 years ago. It was used to cure meat and fish, and soldiers were sometimes paid in salt. The word "salary" comes from this practice, as does the expression "worth his salt". In the Bible, salt is a metaphor for permanence, loyalty, and purification. It can also represent usefulness, value, and fidelity.

 The U.S. salt market size was valued at $4.12 billion in 2023. Salt is a mineral found in seas and has various industrial uses, including de-icing, water treatment, and chemical manufacturing. In chemical manufacturing, it is essential for producing soda ash, chlorine, and other chemicals. Additionally, salt is widely used for de-icing roads in colder U.S. regions during winter, contributing to market growth. The steady demand for salt in the food industry also supports overall market expansion. Lithium is also extracted from salt mines and has seen an increase in demand with the growth of the battery industry.

Salt was a vital resource for pioneers, particularly during westward expansion in the 19th century. Its need was crucial for several reasons: preserving food, health benefits, trade and economy. Salt was a valuable commodity. It was traded by pioneers and played a role in the economy of the frontier. The scarcity of salt in some regions led to salt mines or trading posts becoming important centers of commerce. 

In 1869, B. F. White and J. H. Stump began operating commercial salt works at the head of Salt River, northeast of Soda Springs. Salt was purchased locally and in nearby towns like Fort Hall and Soda Springs, but salt was needed for more than just food preservation. Mines needed salt in far larger quantities than the pioneers. The nearby gold rush town of Caribou City needed salt and for some years, most of the salt used in Montana smelters was furnished from the Oneida Salt Works. J. H. Stump ran the salt works on the creek in Star Valley that carries his surname. The mine produced as much as 1.5 million pounds of salt in the late 1800's. B. F. White traveled around southeastern Idaho and southwestern Montana, managing a bank in Caldwell, selling salt and proliferating his business and political interests across Idaho and Montana. In 1876, he was living in Montana territory and by 1880 he had co-founded the town of Dillon, Montana. He also started a canal company in eastern Idaho in 1879, one of the first to do so in the area. There's little doubt that his reputation as an entrepreneur made him President Benjamin Harrison's pick to be the last Montana territorial governor, inevitably a short term meant to help Montana transition from a territory to a state. His success can be directly tied to the salt mine in Star Valley.

 

Harve Kennington later homesteaded the land where the Stump Creek Salt Works operated. There are pictures of Harve hauling salt in pack strings but not much to indicate he operated the salt works commercially. The Kenningtons' were some of the earliest settlers in Star Valley and continue to farm and ranch there today.  Harve Kennington was a dedicated cowboy, working cows on his ranch until he was nearly 90 years old. 

The story of the salt mine disappears at the turn of the 20th century. I searched through 'Our Turn in Paradise' and the Star Valley Historical Society's archives, as well as the sources listed below and others, but didn't find anything about the operation after B. F. White left in 1879. If you have information to add or correct, please email me at svoldtimers@gmail.com. Thanks - Audi

Picture of Harve Kennington and his horses.

Rick Just: The Oneida Salt Works 

US Salt Market Value

The Snake River Valley: Reminiscences of the early days

 

The 24th Annual Swan Valley Old Timers Reunion (1986)

 

Law Comes to the West: Miners Moonshiners and Outlaws

 

In the mid- 19th century, the western United States was often portrayed as a lawless frontier, a vast expanse of rugged wilderness where justice was as unpredictable as the landscape. With the rapid expansion of settlers, miners, cowboys, and enterprising folks alike, there was need for justice. Most of Wyoming was in the Louisiana Purchase. Idaho however, was west of the Louisiana Purchase boundaries, occupied by native Americans and was sparsely distributed with French and British fur trappers, some Spaniards from the south and some Asian and Russian explorers. The Corp of Discovery Expedition set up forts in territories west of the Louisiana Purchase's boundary and sent US Army soldiers to assist the settlers with law and order. John Jacob Astor commissioned westward explorations and used the forts to set up commerce trading sites for the American and Pacific Fur Companies. By the Civil War, there were nearly 7 million Americans living west of the Appalachians. 

At the end of the Civil War in 1865, another migration of various peoples came from the east and across the Mississippi River into the American frontier. The eastern United States was battered from the war and everyone wanted a new start. The Homestead Act of 1862 promised 160 acres of land to every man and married woman willing to 'proof up' on the property. In addition to legislation designed to facilitate western settlement, the U.S. government assumed an active role on the ground, building numerous forts throughout the West to protect and assist settlers during their migration. The US Army was the law of the land before, during, and after the Civil War. 

Idaho and Wyoming were granted statehood in 1890. Local governments were fledgling and still relied heavily on Army rangers to uphold the law. Neighboring Utah did not become a state until 1896 and the boundaries between the 2 states and a territory were disorderly.  

PBS American Experience: The Path to Utah's Statehood

Law and order came to the land over time. Vigilante justice was offered a civilized alternative through a system of local courts. Towns were building courthouses, appointing judges and sheriffs, and the federal government was still there to back them up, especially helpful in the rural outreaches of the jurisdictions. The US Forest Service had rangers upholding the law as soon as the Caribou National Forest was designated in 1907.

 

Grand Valley and the Caribou mountains were quite lawless until the rangers started to pass through the mining towns, sheep camps, and little homesteads. Mining towns were notoriously rough places. Bars made up the bulk of businesses in mining boom towns like Caribou City but were condemned by prohibition and it was the task of the US Forest Ranger to hold these operations accountable to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The stories of moonshine operations being found in the hills, and drunk sheepherders stretched across Grand Valley were told by these rangers. Watch for those stories in future posts.

  

 

The 23rd Annual Swan Valley Old Timers Reunion (1985)

 

This story below was submitted by Jordan Higham.  He is the son of Charles W. Higham, the storyteller. Charles parents were Joseph Lawrence Higham and Katherine 'Katie' Marie Goettsche Higham. Joseph Lawrence was born in Conant Valley in 1891. Katie was born in Oklahoma in 1894.  They were married in 1916.

Joseph Lawrence Higham and 

Katherine 'Katie' Marie Goettsche Higham

 Below is a picture of the Higham brothers homestead in Conant Valley.

Joseph Lawrence's father was Joseph William Higham. He and his brother, Charles Richard (Dick) homesteaded in Conant Valley in 1876.  They came to Conant Valley with their father, also named Charles Higham, as young adult men.

Joseph William and Margaret Jones Higham

 

If you have a story or photos to share about Swan Valley, Grand Valley, Pine Creek Bench, Conant Valley, or the surrounding area, send us an email at svoldtimers@gmail.com.  Thanks- Audi

Horse Thieves in Conant Valley 

Told by: Charles W. Higham 

My great grandfather, Charles W, had two sons, Joseph and Richard(Dick) Higham. They did a lot of moving and homesteading. Homesteading means that the government would allow you to move onto some vacant land. If you built a home, a couple of corrals, a barn, took good care of the property and stayed long enough then eventually it became yours for free. Joseph(my grandfather) and uncle Dick went up to Conant Valley and decided it would be a great place to homestead. They built a log cabin, barn and whatever else they needed to do to make homesteading a sure thing for them. That's where this story begins. My dad, Joseph L Higham, was given the assignment to watch after the ranch up in Conant Valley. He was a young man about 18 or 19 years old. One day he was sitting on the porch of the little cabin they had up there. As he was sitting there, he saw some riders coming down the Stagecoach Trail into Conant Valley. There were 3 guys on horses and they were pushing the horses as hard as they could go. As he watched them he could tell they had about used up their horses because they were having a hard time running. When the riders stopped at the cabin the horses were completely tired out with their tongues hanging out in dire need of water. The riders asked him which was the way they needed to go, to go to Jackson, Wyoming. My dad pointed the way up the trail they were going on and said just keep going the way you're going. They got back on their horses and headed down the trail. About an hour after they left, a second group of about 15 horsemen came down the trail. This was the sheriff and his posse. A posse is a group of men the sheriff rounds up to try and help him catch someone who has done something wrong. The sheriff told my dad they were chasing some horse thieves and asked my dad if he had seen 3 riders come by here. He replied that he had and said they went that way towards Jackson. The posse left the cabin and took up on the trail after the 3 guys on horses and my dad never heard from them again. One day about a week after all that happened, he went for a ride to check on their cattle. A ways up Pritchard Creek he came across the horse thieves again. They were all there together in a row hanging from a big limb on a big tree. The posse had caught them and that's what they did to the horse thieves in those days. If they caught them they didn't give them a trial, they just hung them. He didn’t have a shovel with him so he went back to the cabin and got a shovel, took it back up there, dug a grave for them and put them in there. I really wish I knew where that was and if those men are still there.

 In the picture below, you can see the stagecoach trail cut across the hillside in Conant Valley.

Outlaws of Grand Valley

Miners and mountain men, horse rustlers, train robbers, and outlaws were prevalent in the area between 1850-1930.  Jackson Hole was a notorious hangout of outlaws. Grand Valley and Swan Valley were great places for outlaws to hide out as well. Horse rustlers and bank robbers alike found the area suitable to pass through. They could hide in the draws to rebrand horses far from the detection of homesteaders. They found relief and sympathy from some, yet were feared enough that most respectable people didn’t want anything to do with them. The likes of Butch Cassidy and Al Hainer, Lum Nickerson and Ed Harrington, Hugh and Charles Whitney, Matt Warner, and Tom McCarthy were hopscotching from Jackson’s Hole to Pierre’s Hole, over Pine Creek Pass and down the Rainey Creek drainage; slipping through the hills to Grand Valley, across the river, either fording it or using one of the river ferries; heading over the Caribou foothills to Pocatello or Fort Hall; heading south to Salt Lake City or down through the Salt River valley, slipping past Salt Lake City to southern Utah; or heading north to Montana. There was a steady flow of stolen horses being rebranded, as evidenced in nearby Horsethief Canyon, at the upstream end of the Grand Canyon of the Snake River, and then relocated to be sold. Horses stolen in Cokeville would be ‘laundered’ by way of rebranding and then taken to Virginia City or Bannock, Montana. They would then steal horses on the way back to their operational headquarters and hide them in the uninhabited draws. Eventually they would deliver these newly acquired horses to unsuspecting folks in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming and the cycle would start over. 

 

 

Grand Valley's location at the junction of Idaho, Wyoming and Utah made it a strategic place for outlaws to dance around jurisdictions. Idaho and Wyoming became states in 1890 but Utah was still a territory until 1896. The laws of the new states were just being made and could hardly be enforced. State lines weren't defined. Butch Cassidy and Al Hainer were among the outlaws who hid out in the upper reaches of the Snake River. After rustling horses, they wintered at the Davis Ranch in Star Valley in 1893, just inside of Utah territory. They were discovered in the spring when their mail was flagged by the postmaster. The sheriff went looking for them and in 1894 Butch Cassidy was sentenced to 2 years in prison in Wyoming. He was pardoned by the governor before he served his full sentence and returned to the area to continue to do what he did best.

 

 

Ed Harrington, pictured at right with his family, and Lum Nickerson were well known to frequent the area. Not as notorious as Butch Cassidy, but just as troublesome they were. They were both residing in Teton Valley, Idaho and made their own community their favorite place to rob. What started out as petty theft grew their appetites for more brazen endeavors. They started out rustling horses, but went on to frequently rob the local mercantiles of the area. Ed Harrington, for a time held a respectable job as a mail carrier. I suspect his wandering eye was always looking at other peoples property on his mail route to steal from in the night, a respectable job and his faithful wife always providing him an alibi. They were also train robbers, holding people at gunpoint to take their valuables. They were said to have robbed 19 trains in one day. They must have been feared, because they lived in relative peace by all accounts in Teton Valley, Idaho. Their neighbors, probably not so much. You can read more about Lum and Ed at Teton Valley Magazine: Teton Valley's Checkered Past

 

There were sympathizers among the Grand Valley homesteaders, including Oliver and Cy Jacobson, and Ralph Janes, who had worked on cattle ranches in Wyoming with the Whitney brothers, pictured to the left, and said they were good, honest, and hardworking men. After robbing a saloon in Monida, MT, Hugh and Charlie Whitney jumped on a train to Idaho, only to end up in a gunfight aboard the train, killing the conductor and getting away. The saga of the disappearing Whitney brothers is as good a story as can be told. Follow this link to read a 3 part story about how slippery they really were. Speaking of Idaho: Hugh Whitney Got Away The Edwards ferry near Edwards Creek (now under Palisades Reservoir) transported outlaws across the river, turning a blind eye to their warrants. Jeff Clark, a homesteader from the Ririe area, and Lydes Canary, who was supposedly Calamity Jane’s brother, were said to have gone as far as South Dakota to steal horses and bring them back to the upper Snake River for rebranding and sale (OTP pg 69-70).