STORY BY JOHN W. LUNDIN

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE COMMUNITY LIBRARY AND JOHN W. LUNDIN

Horses were critical to life in the Wood River Valley in its early days.  After galena ore-- an amalgam of silver, lead and zinc--was discovered in the Wood River Valley in 1880, prospectors flooded in to seek their fortune.

Most arrived by horse-drawn stagecoaches, and freight was transported in and out of the Valley on wagons drawn by oxen or horses.

Stage coaches made somewhat perilous journeys to the Wood River Valley.

Travel was by Concord coach, named for its place of manufacture in Concord, N.H. These coaches were closed vehicles with passengers facing each other inside the cab, which was typically drawn by six horses.  Concord stages could carry seven passengers, mail, and feed for the horses.  The driver sat on a seat below the roof, which had a luggage rack.

Between 1881 and 1884, the Oregon Short Line, a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad, built its Northwest connection from Granger, Wyo., through Idaho’s Snake River Plain to Portland, Ore.  Its Wood River Branch from Shoshone to Hailey was completed in 1883 to service the Valley’s booming mining industry.  

In 1884, the line was extended to reach the Philadelphia Smelter at the head of Warm Springs Canyon, one mile north of Ketchum’s city limits. There, ore from the Valley and surrounding mining districts was smelted.

 Even after the arrival of the railroad, travel up and down the Valley, and from the Valley to outlying mining settlements, was done by stagecoach.  Farmers worked their land with horses.

A stagecoach arrives in the Wood River Valley.

Given the dependance on horse power, it is not surprising that horses were important parts of recreation and entertainment in the Wood River Valley.  During the height of the Wood River Valley Silver Boom that begun in 1880, until mining was virtually ended by the silver crash of 1893, both Bellevue and Hailey had formal race tracks that offered spirited races and gambling for Valley residents.

Local residents prided themselves on the speed of their horses, and the race tracks gave them a place to test their mounts against those owned by their neighbors.  The tracks soon became so successful that they attracted horses bred and raised to race from outside the Valley, and serious betting followed.

The Bellevue race track was built by several wealthy Bellevue businessmen. One was Henry Miller, owner of the Minnie Moore Mine in Galena Gulch west of town. Another was the author’s great-grandfather, Matt McFall, owner of Bellevue’s International Hotel, a high-end facility and “famed resting place,” according to historian George A. McLeod.  

In early 1881, Henry Miller purchased one-half interest in the Minnie Moore mine for $10,000.  It turned out to be one of the most productive mines in the Valley, yielding about $8 1/2 million over the life of the mine.  This and other investments made Miller one of Bellevue’s wealthiest residents.

Matt McFall lived in Eureka, Nev., in the late 1870s. It was the most productive silver producing area of the decade.  He was the assistant manager of the Eureka & Palisade Railroad that carried silver processed in Eureka to Palisade, a stop on the country’s first transcontinental railroad, for transportation to national markets.

Matt moved his family to Bellevue in 1881, built a boarding house in Broadford, and built the International Hotel in Bellevue on Main and Oak in 1882.

The Bellevue race track was located south of town on what was later identified as the Henry Miller Ranch.  Its location can be determined by Lookout Mountain that appears in the background of its picture.

An article in a 1968 Times News article said Bellevue had “one of the largest race tracks and racing stables of Idaho...where horses were brought from California and other states for the entertainment of the Millers and other residents of the area.”

The article said the track was located on what is now a ranch where the historic Henry Miller house was moved in the early 1900s, west of highway 75.  

The Bellevue and Hailey race tracks were in competition with each other to be called “the valley’s best.”   Both tracks had stands for spectators, judges’ platforms and areas for horses. They were enclosed by fences.

McLeod said Bellevue had “one of the best race tracks in Idaho,” with a mile-long round track that could still be seen from the air when he published his first book in 1931: “Good purses were awarded and horsemen from Montana and elsewhere brought their best horses to participate in the races.”

Race horses, owners and spectators came from all over to the Bellevue race track.  Historian Clark Spence, in his book, For Wood River or Bust: Idaho’s Silver Boom of the 1880s, said “under the drive of Henry Miller, Bellevue was a strong competitor; in time, they boasted one of the finest mile tracks in Idaho where races sometimes drew entrants from as far away as Europe.”

The Bellevue race track offered entertainment and recreation for valley residents, along with serious gambling that has always been a big part of horse racing, according to local newspaper accounts of the early days of Bellevue.

The crying need of recreation being apparent, H.E. Miller and associates, at an estimated cost of $20,000, cleared the ground and put into operation the finest track in the Northwest.  Noted followers of the ponies from all over the United States participated in the opening and retrospection claims that close to a million dollars changed hands, as a result of the races.    

Mary McGonigal, the daughter of one of the Brown brothers who were early settlers in the valley, described Bellevue’s race track in her book, Spring of Gladness:

Henry Miller along with many Bellevue residents built the best race track this side of the Mississippi River in Bellevue’s southwestern section of the city limits.  It was padded with layers of sawdust and soil.  A layer of sawdust was covered with a layer of soil and this procedure was continued until the track was padded enough to be safe for the horses.

The horse races were the best and most widely known and patronized in the west.  Horses were brought from England, France, and Spain for the races.  Fortunes were bet on those races.  I’d heard my father and mother tell about it many times and that it was the best thing Wood River Valley ever had.

The Bellevue race track was the source of numerous stories.  Harry George Merrick, in his book, The Wrights: A Pioneer Family, describes the actions of “Uncle Arthur,” the “free spirit” of the family, at the track:

“Racing was an important activity and gambling a way of life.  I mentioned before the cork track on the outskirts of Bellevue--the only cork track in the United States....My Uncle Arthur, my father’s younger brother, was a gambler and sportsman and very good looking.  

“He would often take Beryl for rides, and one time they just happened to wind up at the track.  When mother and father arrived, there was Beryl, a little four-year old, sitting on top of the buggy in her little ruffled dress and long curls holding a fistfull of money and urging on the betting.

Jack Davies was a Bellevue native who described the city’s race track in his oral history at the Center for Regional History at The Community Library: “The race track was advertised as the fastest track west of the Mississippi...They had the best horses here and the best facilities.  There was enough volume of people here that would attend these races.  And it became a very popular place.

“A number of local horses competed there, and a well-known jockey by the name of Fator lived in Bellevue who had competed at the Kentucky Derby in his younger days.”

But horse racing was not to last. Learn why in next week’s installment looking at the early history of Bellevue, Idaho.