"History" Wickahoney Stage Stop, Owyhee County, Idaho

[kd7ost]

This is a remake of a thread I started on the AP Forum. I’m redoing it to fit the post requirements. I took some Desert Pictures of the “Wickahoney Stage Stop” in the Southern part of Idaho. These are from May 20, 2006. The discussion thread can be found here.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=688186#post7484238

The original thread can be found here. Since I'm only bringing over posts that are important to the topic, it might seem a little disjointed.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=520330

This Stage Stop served the needs of travelers and Wagon masters on a north/south route between Central Nevada to Idaho City and Boise City and return. Likely to Owyhee City and Elko, Nevada. The place is in ruins but is a pretty obscure place. That helps protect it. It’s on Public land but is hard to get to and not many people know it’s even there.

The first two pictures show the Stage stop as it looked today.

The third one shows my plane, my vehicle, the stage stop and the distant hills. There is a Cairn on top of the hill but is far enough away that it can’t be seen in the scaled down picture by zooming in.

The Fourth and Fifth pictures show an aerial of the Wickahoney Stage Stop and the grounds with some of the surrounding area. I have identified some features on the second picture. Note the light colored ground where the cattle graze. They’ve eaten most of the green grasses and other edible vegetation.

Dan

[kd7ost]

The next two pictures show the only two inhabitants I found that would stay still long enough to talk to. Neither was doing any talking though.

The final picture shows a more recent and permanent grave marker. It says, “Joshua Dunning, 1842-1909. Margaret Dunning, 1868-1913. Baby Dunning, 1894, Unknown Miner, 1910.

Dan

[kd7ost]

Are the tracks on the opposite side of the river part of the stage road, too?... Maybe a river crossing area?... I wonder if the river was more free flowing (no reservoir) and wider back then?... Possible bridge or ferry?...Kevin

I should have taken more ground pictures. I think the scale and lack of very many recognizable shapes, coupled with other picture sizing and etc makes them look from very high with huge features. These are not real big features though. The reservoir is more like a holding pond. You can find places where the banks are steep enough and just step across the creek. No bridges or ferry here. These little creeks aren't too big. I think the current two track coming in to the place is very likely the same access used back in the old days by wagon. I forded the creeks in my vehicle without having to lock it into 4x4. I think the creek would dry up at various times depending on snow level through the winter. I should keep an eye on it this year tough. Maybe it stays wet all year. I don't think so though. It might have been different 150 years ago but it's hard to tell. I'm certain the current reservoir was put in with a front loader and is to capture water for the grazing cattle lower down the hill. It was likely added to retain the runoff for later as the source dries up.

The building looks as if it may have been 2-stories or at least a generous loft area - you think maybe?...Kevin

Here's a few more pictures from inside the stage stop. You can see it used to have plaster on the walls and it's falling off. I didn't see any evidence of a second story but there could have been a small loft. Most of the rock is still in place where it fell. There are only little scraps of wood around in the rocks. There is a fire pit made up of rocks that fell off the walls outside one wall. I presume after the stop was abandoned, the wood was scavenged for other uses. It's pretty rare out here. Maybe it was hauled off for other use. Maybe it was just burned to heat the coffee and beans and scare off the coyotes.

I see those skulls around from time to time. I have a few at home but I don't even pick them up anymore. That way my dogs don't fight over the new ones when I bring them home. :D I got a scotty that claims all bones as his. He can't carry them too far though since they're bigger than him. :D They are the only thing I lug out though.

One of them was a little too fresh. Coyotes got it picked pretty clean but the ants aren't done cleaning the insides out. :p

Dan

[kd7ost]

I went back out to the Stage Stop today so I could spend more time digging a little closer. I wanted to take more time and look at details I missed when I hurried through last week. You had asked if I thought the Stage Stop had a loft or second story and I replied I didn't think so. I was wrong. Here is a picture that clearly shows a rock ledge built around the interior walls at about 7 feet off the ground. The floor is dirt. I put a light blue line about 6 inches or so below the ledge to outline where it is. You can also see there are two windows up next to the Chimney with a hole for a stove pipe up there too. Might have been pretty cozy on a frozen snowy night with a wood burning stove up there. Finally, you can see there is some plastering on the wall indicating it was a finished room up there. Not shown in this picture are a very few remaining wood scraps on that ledge where I imagine joists of timber spaned across between the walls. I would think during cold months they put travelers up for the night before changing out for fresh horses, fixing broken wheel's or whatever they had to do before sending the loaded wagons on their way.

Dan

[kd7ost]

The cairns were high on a nearby hill as markers. Travelers from many miles away could see the small square or rectangle shape against the distant skyline to show them the way to sanctuary. This could have been a Shepherds camp and grazing area, water springs, or in this case the Stage stop itself.

The first picture shows the two cairns up on the hill. I had to zoom in to show them. They're visible to the naked eye from a long way off out here, but the wide angle digital cameras don't show them very well unless you're close to them.

The second two pictures show the cairns themselves. I have no sense for which one was first, but I can tell by the lichen growth and stains, neither of them are recent vintage.

The last picture shows the Stage stop from the cairns. I zoomed in on this one too. You can see some radical color changes on the ground off in the distance. This was caused by fire. During dry seasons, lightning strikes start fires in the dry sage brush. The sage is a pretty slow growing plant and takes up the local desert moisture preventing many other plants from growing. Once the sage is burned off, newer grasses take over and they take up the moisture preventing the sage brush from regaining a foothold. The grasses here are yellow and the sage is green. The grass area's become places for cattle grazing on public lands. There are quite a few head of Blank Angus out here. This tends to help spread the grasses to new area's as the cows, uh, dispense the hardy seeds in new locations.

Dan

[kd7ost]

Finally, here is the suspected Wagon trail. I identified on my aerial picture about where I was standing when I took the pictures.

The first one shows the trail facing north.

The second one shows the trail facing South and you can see the Stage stop in the background. It's lined up with the road in this picture.

Dan

[kd7ost]

Hey, look what was found.

Dan

[kd7ost]

Here are a few more pictures from the area.

First is a screen capture from Topozone. The yellow area shows where the two Cairns sit on the higher elevation to the west of the stop.

The second picture is a little closer shot of the overall grounds from about halfway down the hill from the Cairns. I have identified the row of fruit trees. They are old and I don't know what they are. These would have been a source of food, and later as firewood. You can see the outline of the grounds where the greener grass grows after the sage brush had been grubbed out. This would allow for roaming and feeding for stock animals as well as Horses.

Dan