Lecture presented by John Lundin at The Community Library on January 30, 2019 in collaboration with Florence Blanchard. Robert Strahorn was a Union Pacific Railroad promoter.

1. ROBERT & CARRIE ADELL STRAHORN
U.P. PUBLICIST, DEVELOPERS OF RAILROAD TOWNS, WRITERS
OF THE WEST
The Couple Who Brought the Railroad to the Wood River Valley
Presentation to the Community Library
January 20, 2019
John W. Lundin & Florence K. Blanchard

2. Matt & Isabelle
McFall (Lundin’s
great-grandparents)
moved to Bellevue in
1881. They built the
International Hotel
on Main Street
(above right), which
became the premier
place to stay in the
Wood River Valley. It
burned down in
1909. The McFalls
moved to Shoshone
in 1893, where they
built the McFall
Hotel (bottom right).
Photos from Lundin collection,, &
the Community Library.

3. Two Men Without Whom Sun Valley Would
Not Have Been Developed. One you know,
one you don’t.
Robert Strahorn who helped locate the route used by
Union Pacific to build the Oregon Short Line to Portland, and
convinced U.P. to build the Wood River Branch to Hailey in
1882.
W. Averell Harriman who convinced UP to build Sun
Valley as a destination ski resort in 1936 to stimulate
passenger traffic and provide publicity.
In 1911, the New York Times said “few people had a more
active or important if less prominent part in the building of
the West than Robert Strahorn,” and that Carrie Adell

4. Sign on the
Valley’s
recreation trail
in Hailey at
the site of
Hailey’s old
OSL depot,
south of Croy
St., discussing
the impact of
the Oregon
Short Line on
the Wood
River Valley.

5. Sign at Hailey’s old OSL depot about Robert Stahorn and his role bringing the train
into the Wood River Valley. This sign and Della Mountain are about the only
remaining evidende of the role the Strahorns played in developing the Wood River
Valley.

6. SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE STRAHORNS
Robert wrote 12 books in all, including 7 between 1877 and 1882,
immigrant travel guides about attractions and economic potential for settlers and
tourists. Carrie Adell Strahorn’s book 15,000 Miles by Stage was published in 1911,
and remains one of the best descriptions of life and travel in the West in the 1870s
and 1880s. Robert wrote his unpublished autobiography, 90 Years of Boyhood, in
1940. The Amazing Strahorns, Literary Pioneers of the West, by John Casey and Rae
Anna Victor was published in 2013. Everything She Didn’t Say, by Jane Kirkpatrick
was published in 2018.
Articles about the Strahorns include: “Robert E. Strahorn, Propagandist for
the West,” by Oliver Knight; “Carrie Adell Strahorn, Selling the Rocky Mountain
Region,” and “Carrie Adell Green: Forging a New Path,” by Debra Boucher; “Carrie
Adell Strahorn, Mother of the West,” by Florence K. Blanchard for Sun Valley
Magazine, Summer 2001; Robert E. Strahorn, Railroad Promoter in Washington and
the Northwest, HistoryLink.org, essay 10159.

7. Robert Strahorn (1852-1944) was born in
Pennsylvania. His father was a millwright. He was a
sickly child (TB), age 14 became an apprentice
typesetter. In 1870, moved to Denver because of health,
worked for newspapers as typesetter, circulation
manager for Rocky Mtn. News (largest between Chicago
& SF), then “stringer” or traveling reporter touring Utah
& New Mexico, and ran his own newspaper.
In 1874, he met Lettie Dean from Illinois, fell in
love. She became sick, returned home to live with her
family, and he met her friend from U. Michigan, Carrie
Adell Green, beginning a long distance romance.
1876- turning point in his life. He became a
war correspondent for 3 newspapers, traveling with
Gen. George Crook’s expedition to force Sioux into
reservations in violation of 1868 Treaty of Ft. Laramie.
Reporters often were embedded with US Army troops.Picture from historylink.org

8. In 1868, Treaty of Ft. Laramie gave the
Sioux much of Dakota Territory including
the Black Hills, and guaranteed protection
from white intrusions. Gold was found in
the Black Hills in 1874, starting a gold rush.
In 1875, US decided to take back the
Black Hills & force the Sioux into
reservations, led by Gen. George Crook.
He attacked at dawn, slaughtering women
& children. Strahorn rode into battles with
the troops and wrote accounts that made
his reputation Custer was killed in June
1876, & the Sioux led by Sitting Bull were
defeated in fall 1876, Crazy Horse in winter
1877.
In 1877, Strahorn wrote the Handbook
of Wyoming & Black Hills & Big Horn
Regions for Citizen, Emigrant Tourist, and
was offered a job as Sec. of Wyoming
Territory
Sitting Bull & Gen. George Crook

9. Carrie Adell “Dell” Green Strahorn (1854-1925), born in Marengo,
Ill. to a wealthy family. Graduated from U. Michigan, one of first to
admit women & non-whites. Politically liberal, promoted women’s
suffrage. She was well read and cultured.
Met Robert through friend Lettie Dean who died soon thereafter.
Long distance relationship – she was excited by his work with the US
Calvary during Sioux War. She married Pard in September 1877
intending to move to Laramie.
On his way to the wedding, Strahorn met George Kimball, General
Passenger Agent for UP, and gave him copy of Handbook of Wyoming
& Black Hills & Big Horn Regions. Kimball worked for Jay Gould,
financier for UP who was planning a new route to Portland. One week
after his wedding, Gould hired Strahorn as Head of UP’s Literary
Bureau and sent him west to publicize the area to develop a market for
UP before the line was built. UP objected to taking his new wife – no
place for a cultured woman. The new couple insisted and both got
railroad passes, beginning a life on the road that lasted until 1883.
Their mission - generate publicity for UP & scout for routes.

10. Transcontinental
Railroad from
Omaha to San
Francisco. UP
had 1 M acres of
land for sale
along its tracks.
Even before the
railroad was
finished in 1869,
UP began
planning a route
to Portland along
the Oregon Trail
through Idaho.
Map from UP Museum

11. Jason “Jay” Gould (1836 – 1892),
railroad developer and speculator, the
archetypical robber baron who used
“outrageous financial manipulations
“ including fraudulent stock and bribes.
He obtained control of UP and Kansas
Pacific in 1874. He promoted UP’s
expansion into mineral regions, and
favored building a NW connection.
Gould saw a market for copper for the
upcoming electrical age. In 1878, UP
bought the Mormon owned Utah
Northern out of bankruptcy, a narrow
gauge Mormon line from Ogden to
Franklin, Idaho. U.P. extended the tracks
to Butte by Dec. 1881, to access its copper
mines, a total of 466 miles. In 1884, the
U&N made a junction with N.P. at
Garrison, Mt.

12. GOULD DECIDES TO BUILD A NW CONNECTION
In the late 1870s, the Northern Pacific was being built to Puget Sound. To prevent NP
from having a monopoly on NW trade, Gould decided to build a rail connection from its main
line to Portland to access Willamette Valley products and the growing trade with the Orient.
In 1877, Gould sent Robert & Dell west to publicize the region’s economic potential,
encourage settlement, and locate possible routes and towns for the railroad. Gould wanted to
create a market for the railroad before it was actually built. They traveled by stage and train,
sharing the hardships and adventures. Strahorn accompanied survey parties, and said he
served as Gould’s personal representative negotiating with Territorial governments and other
railroads, and “engaged in a confidential capacity in inspection and analysis of traffic resources
and suitable railway routes in all territory tributary to the Union and Southern Pacific...in
almost every county of every state and territory west of the Mississippi River.”
Robert wrote 12 books, including 7 between 1877 and 1882 - immigrant travel guides
about attractions and economic potential for settlers and tourists for Montana & Yellowstone;
Gunnison in SW Colorado; Travel in the West by UP; Resources & Attractions of Idaho, 1881;
Oregon, 1882. Dell wrote articles for women’s magazines and the Omaha Republic (45 were
published in one year). In 1911, she compiled her articles into a book, Fifteen Thousand Miles

13. STRAHORNS’ WRITINGS
Robert’s guidebooks were filled with economic projections, mining
statistics and tillable acres. Dell wrote “more in a humorous vein, showing a search
for romantic history, social status, pastimes and conditions of the people already in
the new land, weaving together the ludicrous and amusing episodes,” to reassure
women they could survive and thrive in the West.
Her stories & book described their travels and adventures between 1877
and 1898 all over the west. She told of inspecting mine tunnels, traveling in the
middle of the Bannock War expecting to be attacked at any moment, sleeping on the
floors of isolated stage stops with crowds of men who snored all night.
Strahorn was called a “propagandist for UP,” a “booster, boomer and con
man” who painted an unrealistically rosy picture of areas to be served by the
railroad. He had a capacity for seeing what wasn’t there and “the passionate sense
of the potential.” One reader said, “there wasn’t a gol darned lie” in his book, but
the writer had the “darndest way of telling the truth of any man you ever saw.”

14. STRAHORN WAS GOULD’S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE IN THE WEST
Gould used Strahorn as his personal representative to handle other aspects of his
plan to expand his rail empire into the West. Gould sent Strahorn to negotiate with the
Montana Legislature to obtain the same tax free status there as was offered to the Northern
Pacific, which was being built in the 1870s. Henry Villard, who controlled the NP at the time,
convinced the Legislature not to provide the relief Gould wanted.
Stahorn negotiated a critical agreement with Villard, who controlled the Oregon
Navigation & Railroad Company that was building a line from Portland east. An agreement
was reached for a jointly operated rail line from Huntington, Oregon, (where the OSL would
join the ONRC tracks, to Portland), eliminating the need for the OSL to build a parallel line.
Strahorn and the chief U.P engineer decided to have the OSL tracks bypass Boise,
which was well below the grade of the line being built, making Caldwell the main freight point
of the area. Strahorn earned enmity from the citizens of Boise.
Gould reached an agreement with the Southern Pacific RR to coordinate control of
Pacific Coast and Pacific Ocean transportation. Strahorn traveled wrote about the country
from Alaska to British Columbia to Mexico, the Orient and Hawaii to increase traffic, and
“prepare the country tributary to the Union and Southern Pacific” for development.

15. SILVER RUSH TO WRV BEGINS IN 1880
In fall 1879, silver was discovered in the Wood River Valley. A major silver
rush began in spring of 1880, the year of the “Wood River Boom.” Tens of thousands
hopefuls from all over the world poured into the WRV in 1880 and 1881, to seek
their fortunes. The Idaho Spokesman ran a tongue-in-cheek ad in 1880, saying
“Wanted, the man, woman or child who does not want to go to the Wood River
country in the spring.” Carrie Adell said that the hunger for gold or silver “is a
disease more contagious than measles, and once in the blood it is seldom, if ever,
eradicated.”
Claims were staked, mines were opened, and towns were formed in the
WRV and surrounding areas. A publication said the WRV’s silver belt was “one of
the richest as well as one of the most extensive in the world…The Bullion belt and
district is the richest yet discovered.” 15,000 people were expected by 1882.

16. The Wood River Valley was
remote, difficult and hard to
reach shown by the map of
Alturas County, early 1880s.
Ore and goods had to be
shipped by wagon to and from
railheads at Blackfoot, Idaho,
on the Utah & Northern line
(135 miles from the WRV), and
Kelton, Utah, on the
transcontinental line (a 160
mile trip taking 7 days).
The orange shows the
WRV’s wagon road
connections to railroad stops at
Blackfoot, Idaho & Kelton.Map from the Community Library

17. Stages & freight
wagons
transported
passengers and
goods in and out
of the WRV before
the arrival of the
railroad. In 1881,
John Hailey’s
Stage Line began
operations from
Kelton Utah, to the
WRV, & Alexander
Topance’s stage
line from Blackfoot
ID to the WRV. PhotosfromISHS,73-221-1040&Larry
Eldridge

18. In 1881, Strahorn
wrote The Resources
& Attractions of
Idaho Territory,
Facts Regarding
Climate, Soil,
Agriculture and
Grazing Lands, Forests,
Scenery, Game and
Fish, and Reliable
Information on other
Topics Applicable to the
Wants of the
Homeseeker, Capitalist
& Tourist.Reprint, U. of Idaho Press, 1990

19. Resources and Attractions of Idaho Territory
Robert’s guidebooks followed a pattern. Idaho’s described its history, natural features
and climate; included information for settlers about mining, agriculture, fruit culture and stock
raising; and discussed wages, prices, altitudes, assessed valuation by county, stage fares and
distances. Mining was the largest industry and information was given about size of the loads
and production of leading mines. The Territorial Legislature gave Strahorn $300 in exchange for
6,000 copies for its use and 14,000 for Union Pacific who would use them to advertise the
Territory. Although it was a UP product, it was published by the Territorial Legislature.
Strahorn said the Wood River Valley was a “great silver-bearing region… the center of one
of the most extensive belts of heavy galena ores in the world…and may now be regarded as
the most promising mining section in Idaho if not in the entire West.” The Utah & Northern
RR opened a new era in quartz mining and the rapid extension of the Oregon Short Line
Railroad will make the valley “more easily accessible within one year than was Leadville in its
most prosperous years…” He discussed many of the valley’s mines, saying the Minnie Moore
outside Bellevue is “one of the great mines of Wood River.” He listed the production of the
valley’s mines saying “at least 1,000 tons more ore would have been shipped but for lack of
wagon transportation.

20. In 1881, the Philadelphia smelter was
built for $500,000 on a 160 acre bench
where Warm Springs Creek enters the Big
Wood River. The location “was probably
the very best that could be had in this
region.” Ore was brought to the smelter by
wagons from the west over Dollarhide
Summit from the Little Smoky Mining
District; from the north over Galena
summit from the Sawtooth mines; and
eventually from the east over Trail Creek
from the mines around Challis.
By 1882, outside investors had poured
$1.5 M into the Wood River Valley. Wood
river mines produced over $1M in ore,
which was processed at the Philadelphia
smelter and sent out of the valley by
wagon.

21. The Philadelphia smelter had two 40 ton
smelting furnaces and 20 kilns to produce
60,000 bushels of charcoal per month for its
furnaces. Water from the creek was used to
float wood to the smelter and to propel its
machinery.
The 1883 Alturas Mining Reporter said the
Philadelphia Company “did more toward the
development of the Wood River Country than
any of the other five mining companies on the
river. With… a few companies as the
Philadelphia… this country would loom up
among the bullion producing regions on the
Pacific Coast.”
Processed ore was hauled by wagon to
railheads at Blackfoot or Kelton.

22. 1881 – 1884: OREGON SHORT LINE IS BUILT TO PORTLAND
In 1880, Union Pacific selected a route from Granger, Wyoming, to Portland after Central
Pacific refused to let UP begin its line at Kelton, Utah. Since the its original charter did not
permit branch lines, in April 1881, UP incorporated a subsidiary called the Oregon Short Line,
to build a standard gauge railroad on “the shortest line to Oregon.” The route would “follow
the path of those who plodded westward along the historic Oregon Trail.” Strahorn said he
helped to convince Gould to build the Oregon connection.
UP decided to have the OSL connect with a railroad being built from Portland along the
Columbia River by Henry Villard’s Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company in eastern Oregon,
rather than building its own line, as a result of a series of back-room negotiations. Strahorn
said he negotiated an agreement with Villard.
Work began in May 1881. OSL tracks were built through SE Idaho to Montpelier, then the
the Utah & Northern narrow gauge tracks to Pocatello were used by installing a third rail for
standard gauge trains. New tracks were built west from Pocatello along the Snake River
following the Oregon Trail. Tracks reached American Falls in summer 1882, where a large
bridge was built across the Snake River and American Falls served as the OSL terminus in the
summer of 1882. Rails reached Shoshone by February 1883.

23. Idaho & Oregon Land Improvement Co.
In 1881, Robert Strahorn & investors associated with UP formed a company to buy land
in advance of the construction of the OSL, where there would be rail stops. Other owners
included Kansas Senator Caldwell (president of Kansas Pacific) and Andrew Mellon. Since
Strahorn helped UP determine the OSL route, he knew where the tracks would go. Gould
approved – it would aid in the development of the country and generate business for UP. The
Company provided free land to OSL for stations, facilities and rights of way, and built irrigation
works. UP had no financial interest in it, but railroad officials could invest.
Trading on “inside information,” they bought worthless desert land, platted and
developed townsites, constructed irrigation and water systems, sold lots and made fortunes.
The company bought the townsites of Shoshone and Hailey, and developed Mountain Home,
Caldwell, Payette, Weiser, Ontario, Oregon and others. “It was on Mr. Strahorn’s advice that
the railroad located scores of towns, and many cities look on him as their father.” Bever,
Magic Circle.

24. Strahorn Convinces UP to Build Wood River Branch
Robert & Dell visited the Wood River Valley several times between 1879 and 1881, and
fell in love with its beauty and economic potential that he promoted in his 1881 pamphlet on
Idaho. They were wined and dined by residents who realized the railroad was key to its
economic future. Dell said Pard was instrumental in convincing UP to build a branch into the
Wood River Valley. “We spent some weeks on Wood River gathering statistics which Pard
wove into an entertaining narrative, clothing it in attractive garb that it might coquette with
restless spirits in the Far East who were waiting for an enchantress to lure them to the vast
mysterious west.”
It turned out local officials promised Strahorn a lot in Hailey if the railroad came there.
Strahorn “piqued his company’s interests” in the Valley, incestuous ties that were criticized.
Clark Spence in Wood River or Bust said “Union Pacific and its publicist were so involved in
boosting the merits of the Wood River Valley and its mining potential, that the Denver
Republican called it the ‘much-lauded Wood River Country…the biggest mining fraud of the
age…a mining boom inaugurated by a railroad corporation.”

25. In June 1882, Strahorn’s company bought the Hailey
townsite, the 2,500 acre Croy Ranch and the 8,000 Quigley
Ranch for $100,000. The Wood River Journal said it “took
the whole loaf.” Hailey was to be the terminus of the
Wood River Branch, the smelting and industrial center of
the Territory, and the “Denver of Idaho.” Problems arose
and Strahorn had to use a pistol to defend against lot
jumpers.
Water had to be provided to the land to get title, so the
company obtained 12,000 inches of water from the Big
Wood River and water from Indian Creek. A canal was
built from north of Hailey to south of Bellevue known as
the Bit Ditch, Hailey Ditch and the #22 Hiawatha Canal. A
drunken local was shot and killed trying to stop the canal
from being built.
Wood River Times

26. 1882-1884: WOOD RIVER BRANCH IS BUILT
In August 1882, UP surveyed a 69.2 mile branch line from Shoshone to
Hailey, and a right-of-way was acquired for the Wood River Branch. The tracks went
north from Shoshone to the future town of Richfield, than along the lava fields and
desert to Picabo, to Gannett, then into the WRV to Hailey, its terminus. There was a
huge demand for wood ties and 300 men in the WRV were hired to cut several
hundred thousand ties and float them down the River to the construction camps.
The Kilpatrick Brothers built the Wood River Branch with a workforce of
3,000 men and 1,000 mules, starting in Picabo and laying tracks both ways, toward
Shoshone and Hailey. This was “incredibly difficult work across lava fields, through
parching desert, and across swamps. Supplies and dynamite had to be hauled
overland by mules 130 miles from Kelton.” Crews battled smallpox coming through
the desert and the job came in well over budget. Near Picabo, willow bundles were
used to go through a swamp.
The railroad reached Hailey, its terminus, on May 7, 1883.

27. WRV WAITS FOR THE RAILROAD
Valley newspapers followed the progress of the tracks. The News-Miner said “come
quickly ye who would participate in the grand boom surrounding the completion of the
Oregon Short Line.” The UP was bringing in “men of capital” to invest in mines and real
estate, “a better class than usually pours into mining camps.” In March 1883, the OSL had
1,000 men and 500 teams building the branch into the WRV, and the “Iron Horse is Snorting
and Cavorting within 8 miles” of Hailey. The yield of the Philadelphia Smelter was expected to
increase from $1M to $3M in 1883, because of the railroad. 100 car loads of ore waited in the
WRV to be shipped out as soon as the railroad arrived.
Local newspapers warned of the unpleasant aspects of the railroad. The Wood River
Times said a car load of “opium fiends and prostitutes” riding to Shoshone threatened to
capture the train. They were dumped off in the sage-brush where they consumed their opium
and whiskey and started fighting among themselves. “Their yells could be heard for miles.” A
construction train picked them up the next day to save them from starving or freezing to
death. The paper also warned that “hundreds of gamblers and abandoned women” were
following the railroad’s progress and would soon arrive in Hailey.

28. OSL IS COMPLETED TO PORTLAND IN NOV. 1884
In 1882 & 1883, the Wood River Branch was built from Shoshone to Hailey,
as construction of the main line continued west. In November 1884, the OSL was
completed to Huntington, Oregon, where it joined tracks built from Portland by the
Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company. The OSL bypassed Boise, to the
disappointment of its residents. Boise was connected to the OSL by stagecoach, and
in 1887, by the Idaho Central Railroad.
The OSL added 1,820 miles to the UP system. Trains left Omaha Monday
evening and reached Portland by 8:00 am Friday. Connections to Puget Sound and
San Francisco were planned. The OSL was the most important undertaking of the
Union Pacific since the completion of its main line, and was so successful that by
1885, 9/10 of UP’s business was local haulage. The Utah & Northern was converted
to standard gauge in 1887, and in 1889, was merged into the OSL with other
branches to form the Oregon Short Line & Utah Northern Railway.

29. In anticipation of the
arrival of the railroad, the
Philadelphia Smelter added
two 50 ton furnaces so it
would control the entire
“Wood River country.”
Ketchum will be the “Great
Smelting Centre of the
West” which would
compete with the world. It
offered to pay cash for ore
from local mine owners,
from 200 pounds to 10,000
tons, at the Hailey
Sampling Works. The
smelter company also
bought a number of local
mines.
Ketchum Keystone, May
4 & 5, 1883

30. The Wood River Branch was completed on May 7, 1883,
with rail and telegraph services beginning that day. Its
arrival was met “with a brass band and all the enthusiasm
of a Fourth of July,” with “several kegs of beer emptied in
succession.”
The railroad transformed the Valley and provided a
huge economic boost. Passengers and goods could travel
rapidly and cheaply in and out of the Valley.
WRV residents had new mobility. Travelers could
connect with Union Pacific’s transcontinental tracks in
Utah, and travel all over the country. In 1881, it took the
Lundin’s great-grandparents, Matt & Isabelle McFall, over 2
weeks to travel from Nevada to Bellevue by wagon. After
1883, residents could travel to Shoshone in 2 hours, Boise in
3 ½ hours, and be in Portland 8 hours later. They could
reach Salt Lake in 9 hours, and New York a few days later.

31. Shoshone was a
major railroad town,
and thrived as the
“Junction” between
the main east-west
OSL line and the
Wood River Branch.
It was the economic
hub of the region.
Shoshone had a
roundhouse with 14
stalls, repair &
machine shops, and
a water tower and
coal chute.

32. Railroad Transforms Wood River Valley
The railroad ended “pick and shovel” mining, introducing industrialization and
capital intensive exploitation of the mines. “As it did everywhere, the coming of the railroad
expedited the flow of capital and the exploitation of a region’s resources.” The WRV “passed
from lusty infancy to a more orderly adolescence.” Clark Spence, For Wood River or Bust.
Capital from all over the world was invested allowing exploitation of what “is now generally
conceded to be the richest silver-lead producing country in the world.” Ore production
increased from $4 M in 1884, to over $9 M in 1887, processed at the Philadelphia Smelter and
shipped out on the OSL. Wood River mines produced $20M of ore in a decade.
In 1883, the Mayflower Mine, initially acquired for $25,000, shipped $572,000 of ore
and sold for $375,000. The St. Patrick Mine sold to Baltimore investors who had $400,000 in
capital. In 1884, British investors purchased the Idahoan Mine for $400,000, the Minnie
Moore Mine for $500,000, and the Bullion Mine for over $1 M. Thus, in two years, $2,675,000
was invested in these five mines alone, which would be worth $64,200,000 in 2013 dollars.

33. NEW BRANCH LINES PLANNED
FROM HAILEY.
Hailey would be the industrial
and railroad center of the
Wood River Valley with a
number of new lines planned.
The Gold Belt RR would go
from Hailey west out Croy
Canyon to Bullion, Camas
Prairie & Smoky Mining
District. Other lines would go
north over or under Galena
Summit to Stanley, Challis and
Salmon; east up the East Fork
of the Big Wood River to
Muldoon; and out Deer Creek.
None were built .Map from McGonical, Spring of Gladness

34. The Philadelphia Smelter was larger than all but
a handful of smelters in the country, and “is the
most complete smelting works in the West.” It was
the Valley’s largest employer, had its highest
payroll, and was the biggest enterprise in Idaho
Territory. It made Ketchum “the most healthy
mining town on Wood River.”
The railroad’s arrival meant the cost of
transporting goods was reduced by over $20 a ton,
so the Philadelphia smelter could import coke from
Pennsylvania and iron ore from Wyoming for use in
its operations. However, its processed ore had to be
taken from Ketchum to Hailey by wagon for
transportation out of the valley by train to national
markets.Pictures from the Community Library

35. Hopes for a Ketchum Extension
Hailey was the terminus of the Wood River Branch because Strahorn’s company
owned the townsite, but Ketchum hoped an extension would be built north. The Philadelphia
Smelter processed most of the ore from the surrounding region, which was the bulk of the
OSL’s traffic out of the WRV, and had to send its processed ore to Hailey by wagon for
transportation out of the Valley. The smelter brought pressure on Union Pacific to build an
extension to access its smelter.
In spring 1884, OSL’s Idaho manager said “the road is not going to be built to
Ketchum.” Union Pacific did not want “any more road in the snowy country north of
Shoshone” due to the high costs of keeping it open the winter. Union Pacific was in financial
difficulty because of the huge costs of building the Oregon Short Line, and its Board
considered cutting its dividend.
Union Pacific changed its mind in spring 1884, because of lobbying by the Philadelphia
smelter. The Ketchum extension was built in the spring and summer of 1884, to reach the
smelter located north of the town limits. The Wood River Times said “it is now well known”
the smelter was instrumental in causing the Ketchum extension to be built.

36. The Oregon Short Line
tracks reached the smelter in
August 1884, located north of
the Ketchum townsite. There
was no stop in Ketchum since
the extension was for the
benefit of the smelter not the
town.
In 1884, Ketchum annexed
the area around the
Philadelphia smelter by
incorporating the Rhodes
addition to the city.
Photo from the Community Library

37. 1898 Oregon
Short Line map
showing the
Wood River
Branch. There
were 8 stops
between
Shoshone and
Ketchum on the
Wood River
Branch.

38. THE RAILROAD CAUSES NEARBY AREAS TO BOOM
Areas around the WRV also boomed because of the Oregon Short Line.
The Philadelphia Company built a smelter in Muldoon, 20 miles east of the
WRV, to handle ore from its mines there, after it bought the Muldoon Mine for
$100,000. The Camas Gold Belt west of Hailey, and the Smoky Mining Districts (west
of Ketchum over Dollarhide Summit) opened new mines, and their ores were
brought to Ketchum by wagon for processing at the Philadelphia Smelter. The
Wood River Times of 1886 said the Smoky Mining Districts “contain more promising
mines” than any other area in the world “with the exception of the incomparable
Comstock and Butte districts, and the Smoky districts even promise to surpass these
in time.”
Stagecoaches connected the WRV to the outlying mining areas.

39. In 1884, H.C. Lewis built a toll
road over Trail Creek Summit.
His Lewis Fast Freight brought
ore from mines around Challis
over Trail Creek, and from
north of Galena Summit, to
the Philadelphia Smelter for
processing. He used large ore
wagons that can be seen in
Ketchum’s Labor Day parade.
This picture shows Lewis
Fast Freight in the foreground
and the Philadelphia Smelter
in the back.
Photo from the Community Library.

40. Ore wagon owned by
Lewis Fast Freight
bringing ore to the
Philadelphia Smelter in
Ketchum for processing
and shipment to
national markets on the
Oregon Short Line
Railroad. These wagons
carried up to 18,000
pounds of ore and
covered 12 to 14 miles a
day.
Photo from the Community Library.

41. Without the Ketchum Extension, Sun Valley Would
Not Have Been Built
If the OSL had not been extended north to Ketchum in 1883, Sun Valley would
not have been built. The hills around Hailey were not suited for a destination ski
resort, so in 1936, when Averell Harriman sent Count Felix Schaffgotsch to scout the
west for a site suitable for Union Pacific’s planned winter resort, he would not have
been taken to the Valley. He examined every location that was later developed as ski
resorts but rejected all of them. Almost as an afterthought, he was taken to
Ketchum since that had the most snow of any route except for the Yellowstone
branch. Schaffgotsch fell in love with the area around Ketchum. Its “alpine touring
terrain was ideal. Its rolling treeless hills evoked slopes Schaffgotsch has skied in St.
Anton. Its wooded middle elevations were similar to the forested regions around
Kitzbuhl, and its highest elevations echoed the rugged alpine contours of St. Moritz.”
We owe a debt to the Philadelphia smelter for insisting on a Ketchum extension.

42. Strahorns Develop Railroad Towns 1883 - 1888
In addition to developing Shoshone and Hailey, the Strahorns worked with the
Idaho and Oregon Land Development Co. to develop a series of new towns along the
proposed route of the Oregon Short Line, including Caldwell, Payette, Weiser,
Ontario, Oregon and others. Not only did they plat the towns, but they spent
considerable money to build infrastructure including water systems, irrigation canals,
bridges & roads. They financed interurban and street railways; started newspapers;
built lumber mills, power plants, telegraph lines and water works, “and every other
constructive work that required more than ordinary capital investment.” Union
Pacific publicized Idaho to attract immigrants to areas served by its new line. Water
and irrigation systems were required to perfect title to the land under the Desert
Land Act of 1894.
Dell in 15,000 Miles by State and Robert in his autobiography, 90 Years of
Boyhood, described the many challenges this work involved. Gun fights over water
rights, claim/lot jumping and battles for deeds were commonplace.

43. Caldwell was the Strahorn’s Home
The Strahorns had more to do with the development of Caldwell than other new
towns, building their first home there. Robert was instrumental in convincing UP to
bypass Boise since it was off the main line and a diversion there would be expensive.
He was hated by the Boise community thereafter, but Caldwell thrived since it
became a major railroad town.
Dell hated its location – it was a field of alkali dust with no trees in sight, “a
repulsive sagebrush and greasewood flat,” although It was advertised as “a
beautiful site for a town.” She cooperated since the town was an important
economic asset. “Caldwell rose from the mysterious ash of the valley.”
The company bought an irrigation company to perfect its title to the land and
provide water to the surrounding land. Strahorn started a lumber yard, began a
newspaper, built schools, and Dell “mothered musical clubs, literary societies and
sewing circles.” The helped start the Caldwell Presbyterian missionary and that later
became the Caldwell college. The OSL made Caldwell flourish.

44. Strahorn said his company “invested several hundred thousands
in land, terminals, rights of way, and irrigating canals…It bridged the
rivers and constructed telegraph lines, electric and waterworks
plants, schoolhouses, hotels and highways to promote the general
growth and afford access to the railroad stations. It also
secured…considerable bodies of land, most of which…it could not
sell, and gave it to them free of cost. If was also helpful in other
advancements and its gifts and dedication of a park to the town of
Caldwell which – passing to the College of Idaho – was the
outstanding original contribution which figures in the creation of
that splendid institution.”
The Union Pacific Bureau of Community Publicity was
formed to publicize the settlement opportunities along its tracks
through Idaho and in the new towns developed by Strahorn’s
company. Immigrant cars were available to families moving to Idaho
- freight cars where livestock could be loaded in one end and the
family and its household goods would occupy the other end. Flat
rates were charged to encourage the settlement of Idaho.
Robert and Dell in Caldwell,
late 1880s. Picture from
Zentmyer collection.

45. Strahorn’s Investments in Hailey
In 1888, Robert left the Idaho & Oregon Land Improvement Company after
the company put hired agents in each of its towns, leaving Strahorn free to pursued
other investments. Strahorn’s company had built Hailey’s original water supply,
built the first electric-lighting plant in Idaho Territory, and rebuilt the Merchant’s
Hotel after it burned down. Della Mountain was named after Dell Strahorn.
In 1883, Strahorn and several partners began building the Alturas Hotel in
Hailey located on First Ave. and Croy Street, which opened in 1886. In 1888, Robert
E. Strahorn and a relative from Chicago named Robert Strahorn, bought Hailey Hot
Springs, along with the Lamb Ranch containing 1,000 surrounding acres. He also
bought a controlling interest in the Idaho Electric Supply Company. In 1889, the
company diverted 14,000 inches of Big Wood River water to generate electricity for
Hailey. Strahorn and his associates operated the power company until 1905, when it
was sold to the Cramer family, early Hailey residents.
Strahorn also owned the Strahorn Building in Hailey.

46. Ground was broken for the
Alturas Hotel in March 1883, and it
opened on May 25, 1886. The four-
story structure was called “the finest
hotel between Denver and the Pacific
Ocean.” It was heated by hot water
from the Hailey Hot Springs, had “all
the modern conveniences and a large
natatorium that used the same hot
water.” Carrie Adell selected the
furniture from Dewey & Stone of
Omaha. The hotel cost $35,000 to
build, the furniture cost $8,000, and
the bar and billiard room fixtures
cost $5,000. After a gala opening
party, “the Alturas was crowded
summer and winter and made
money hand over fist.”Picture from The Community Library

47. Strahorn Block & Strahorn building in Hailey
built in 1882.
Pictures from The Community Library

48. HAILEY HOT SPRINGS
Hailey Hot Springs, located two miles west of Hailey in Croy Canyon at Democrat
Gulch, were part of Perry Croy’s 1880 homestead claim. J.L.G. Smith bought the springs, and
they were used as a recreation and health center beginning in the early 1880s.
In 1882, Carrie Adell said Hailey had some “fine hot springs, which alone should
have made the town a summer resort of renown, but as yet they were unimproved except for
a rough rock wall around the hole scooped out in the rock for a plunge bath, which with all its
rudeness proved a fountain of youth, utilized by all.”
The Alturas Mining Reporter of 1883, said Hailey Hot springs “are among the few
natural sulphur springs of the U.S., and are one of the greatest curiosities as well as one of the
most attractive health resorts in the Territory.” A reliable analysis shows the waters to be
identical with celebrated hot springs of America and Europe.
“Hot springs were by far the most ubiquitous of early western tourist attractions.
Health considerations figure prominently in advertisements for the Pacific Northwest’s many
hot springs…When the OSL tracks reached the Wood River Valley in the early 1880s, Hailey Hot
Springs became Idaho’s first real summer resort.” Scwantes, Tourists in Wonderland: Early
Railroad Tourism in the Pacific Northwest.

49. Hailey Hot Springs
Resort attracted 50 –
100 guests a day, with
waters that “possess
many invigorative and
curative properties.” A
carriage ran at all hours
from Hailey. A hospital
on the grounds used the
waters for its patients.
Elliot, History of Idaho
Territory, published in
1884.
Photograph courtesy of
Community Library

50. Strahorn Develops the Hailey Hot Springs Resort
In 1888, Robert E. Strahorn and a Chicago cousin Robert Strahorn formed a
partnership to buy Hailey Hot Springs and the Lamb Ranch which had 150 head of Kentucky
cattle, “with plans to build a fine new hotel with swimming pools to please the most
fastidious.” The Strahorns built a resort with a first class hotel heated by spring water,
separate men’s and women’s plunges, a ballroom, and a bowling alley. Strahorn had “every
painter and paper hanger in town employed” at the hotel.
Dell said “No pains or money was spared in making the place attractive to people as
Jay Gould and family,” who found it a charming retreat. The UP & OSL did much to make the
resort a success. The resort “was a joy and comfort to all that country between Salt Lake and
Huntington.” A popular travel book published in 1890, said it was “a most delightful resort.”
A lawsuit between the Strahorns in 1890 showed that the Chicago cousin invested
$76,524 in the venture and Robert E. owed it $3,130. Robert E. agreed to return to Hailey to
operate the hotel and produce a profit or his cousin could purchase it. Robert E . could not
perform due to his commitments elsewhere, and Robert formed a company in 1890 to acquire
the property.

51. In 1890, Robert Strahorn formed a new
company with Hailey businessmen to raise
$150,000 to buy and improve the Resort by
selling 1500 shares at $100. $100,000
would be used to buy the Resort with the
“Finest Natural Mineral Water Baths in the
United States,” and adjoining farmland and
55 head of stock. $25,000 would be used to
erect additional buildings. A new addition
would be added to the hotel with three
stories and 65 rooms, along with a water
works to bottle spring water. The
prospectus said the Oregon Short Line was
planning to build a spur from Hailey to
within a “minute’s walk of the Hotel.”

52. Hailey township
looking west toward
Croy Canyon & Hailey
Hot Springs. The
courthouse is shown
on the left and the
Alturas Hotel on the
right foreground,
which was built by
R.E. Strahorn. From
Hailey Hot Springs
prospectus.

53. Drawing of Proposed new Hailey Hot
Springs Hotel & Resort from Prospectus.
Hailey Hot Springs Hotel. Rates, $2.50-
3.50 per day, $14 – 21 per week. “The
beautiful health resort is kept open year
around. Hotel is colonial style, three
stories, and first-class in all its
appointments, lighted by incandescent
lights.”
Famous visitors such as Jay Gould
visited the resort in 1891 and 1892,
bringing national publicity.
Photos from Community Library.

54. Hailey Hot Springs Resort.
The water is 100 degrees F.
and is “unsurpassed for the
care of rheumatism, kidney,
malarial and all diseases
humanity is subject to.”
Trout are abundant in
nearby streams, and the
hunting is unsurpassed.
The company had a herd of
150 Kentucky cattle
“forming the finest herd
west of Iowa,” which were
a major attraction.
Photo from Community Library.

55. In July 1899, the Hailey Hot
Springs Hotel burned down. All
guests escaped without injury
but the hotel was a loss. It was
never rebuilt. “The visitors to the
Springs were not the eastern
penny-pinching class of tourists.
They were very wealthy people
who demanded the best there
was to be had, expecting to pay
well for it.” The hotel had
brought in $300 to $500 a day.
The hot springs continued to be a
local attraction, but their days as
a first class resort were over. The
ad is from the Wood River Times
in 1900.

56. 1888: SILVER DEPRESSION ENDS WRV BOOM
In 1888, there was a sharp decline in silver prices which precipitated a
world-wide depression. 1893 marked the end of silver’s dominance, and the U.S.
went off the silver standard. 15,000 businesses and 642 banks failed, and 20% of the
work force was out of work. Most of the railroads in the U.S. went into bankruptcy,
including the U.P. The Panic of 1893 was a “painful end of the Gilded Age.”
In the WRV, by 1888, most of the mines closed, bust replaced boom, “and
many inhabitants left.” The Philadelphia Smelter closed in 1893. This was a
“decade of turmoil” for Idaho, and the WRV Mining District was said to be “deader
than a lime fossil.” Many WRV towns were abandoned, including Bolton, Bullion,
Gilman, Broadford, Gimlet, Galena, Doniphan, Hays and Muldoon. By 1890, Hailey’s
population had dropped from 4,000 to 1,073; Bellevue’s from 3,000 to 892; and
Ketchum’s from 2,000 to 465.

57. Strahorn’s investments in Hailey failed as a result of the
Silver Depression, and he left the Wood River Valley seeking better
times elsewhere in 1888.
Strahorn said the Alturas Hotel investment “plunged us so
deeply in a financial hole that we have never paid the mortgage held
on to by my good friend Andy Mellon.” Andrew Mellon, the
Pittsburg banker and industrialist, was one of the founders of the
Idaho & Oregon Land Improvement Company who, along with
Strahorn, and provided much of its original capital. Mellon held a
mortgage on the Alturas Hotel. In 1894, Mellon loaned the company
$40,000 secured by a mortgage on the Big Ditch and its water rights,
that the company built to provide water to Hailey. Due to the
effects of the Silver Depression, Mellon ended up owning the Alturas
Hotel and the Big Ditch and its water rights.
Mellon later ran his family’s bank in Pittsburg, Mellon
National Bank, where he financed many of the country’s industries.
He was Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932, and
Ambassador to Great Britain in 1932.

58. Strahorns Leave Idaho for Washington & Boston
The Strahorns left Idaho in 1888, moving to Fairhaven, Washington, a small
town south of Bellingham, to work as a promoter. James J. Hill was building his
Great Northern Railroad from Minnesota to Puget Sound and was negotiating with
cities to serve as its western terminus. Hill indicated he might choose Fairhaven so
Strahorn worked for the Fairhaven Land Company to develop the town and sell
property, which he called “the New York of the Pacific.”
The project ended when Seattle was chosen as GN’s terminus, and Strahorn
quickly left for Boston where he spent much of the 1890s working as an investment
banker promoting public warrants issued by governments to cover their debts. He
quit in 1898, and after vacationing in Hawaii, Mexico and Cuba, they moved to
Spokane to get back into the railroad business. Spokane was a major railroad town
with the Great Northern and Northern Pacific running through town, the Milwaukee
Road coming, and small rail lines being built by local businessmen. By 1900, railroads
were building north of the Columbia “setting off an immense tide of movements.”

59. Strahorn mansion “Strahorn Pines” in Spokane built in 1887 by J.J. Brown, sat on a
bluff above the Spokane River. The Strahorns bought it in 1900 and spent $100,000
for architect Kirtland Cutter to remodel it into a 20 room mansion with nine
bathrooms and ten fireplaces. It was the first house in Spokane to have steam heat
and had a bowling alley in the basement. The Eastern Washington Historical Society
bought it in 1970 and it was demolished in 1974 to make room for a new museum.

60. Carrie Adell Strahorn at
her home in Spokane
where she “entertained
lavishly” and wrote
Fifteen Thousand Miles
by Stage. Robert spent
the next two decades
developing new train
systems in Washington
and Oregon. See,
Lundin, Robert Strahorn
– Railroad Promoter in
Washington and the
NW, HistoryLink.org
essay 10159.
Pictures from
historylink.org

61. In 1911, Dell published
Fifteen Thousand
Miles by Stage, a
Woman’s Unique
Experience During Thirty
Years of Path Finding and
Pioneering from the
Missouri to the Pacific and
from Alaska to Mexico.
The book had 177
drawings by Charles M.
Russell and others. It was
a success and went
through three printings.
Reprint, U. Nebraska Press 1988

62. New York Times Review 8/20/11
The New York Times reviewed Dell’s book in 1911, in an article “Mothering
the West,” saying “few people had a more active or important if less prominent part
in building the West than Robert E. Strahorn.” Robert was hired by Jay Gould to
“open the eyes of the East to the West,” and insisted that Carrie Adell go with him
against the strong objections of Union Pacific, who felt a woman could not stand the
life. “The West at this time was a land of rough life and of hardship.”
The Times called her book “extraordinary” in content and in the fact that
any woman could have gone through what she related. Her 15,000 miles consisted
of “going into mines, helping the settlers, building cities, camping on the open
prairie or in the woods.” Her description of the “panorama, of the incidents –
pathetic, ludicrous, inspiring, marvelous – that passed before her eyes, or in which
she was an actor” was “intensely interesting.” She recorded her experiences in
letters home and in a series of magazine articles which she wrote “to aid her
husband.”

63. Strahorn Develops the North Coast Railroad
Strahorn had a “grandiose plan” to build a new railroad connecting
Spokane with Portland through the Yakima Valley, with links to Yakima and
Lewiston and Seattle. The road would challenge James J. Hill’s plans for
the Northwest for the Great Northern and Northern Pacific which he
controlled. Harriman’s Union Pacific and Hill’s lines were engaged in “one
of the greatest transportation battles of the time for control of the
Northwest, each one blocking the other’s progress at every step.”
Strahorn convinced E.H. Harriman to invest Union Pacific funds in the
venture but Harriman’s role had to be kept secret so Hill would not learn
of it. Harriman would place “necessary funds” into Strahorn’s personal
accounts, which could not be traced, which he would spend using his
personal checks. The North Coast Railroad was incorporated in 1910 with
$60 million in capital. Harriman gave up the Yakima to Seattle link for use
of the N.P. line from Portland to Seattle for Union Pacific trains. The new
railroad was completed in September 1914, and was consolidated with
other Harriman lines.
Strahorn initially refused to disclose the source of his financing and his
silence earned him the nickname “The Sphinx.”
Strahorn as the “Sphinx”
from Zentmeyer collection

64. Strahorn convinced the Milwaukee Railroad to run its new line from Chicago to
Seattle through Spokane. The Spokesman Review said Strahorn spent $6.5 M
building Union Station as a single facility for Union Pacific, Canadian Pacific and
Milwaukee Road, which was torn down for the Spokane World’s Fair in 1974. $110
M was spent around Spokane in 5 years by railroad interests, including building the
Monroe St. bridge viaduct over the Spokane River. Strahorn was an early champion
of separating railroad lines and car traffic.

65. Other Strahorn Ventures
Strahorn also invested in power generation and irrigation facilities. He formed
Yakima Light and Power and built power plants, and purchased the Yakima Valley
Transportation System to run electric trains in the area. He developed the first reclamation act
project in Pasco, electric-light and water works in Sumpter, Oregon, and two power plants in
Idaho. His work resulted in a boom for Spokane and its tributary country. In all, $110 million
was spent in five years by railroad interests.
Strahorn spent the teens and early 1920s developing railroad systems in Oregon,
initially with Harriman and later on his own, to access agricultural areas and timber stands not
served by rail, forming the Oregon, California & Eastern Railroad. He also fought Great
Northern’s attempt to expand to San Francisco. He lost the battles and had to sell to GN.
The Strahorns moved to San Francisco where Dell died in 1925 at age 71. The NY
Times said her role was “Mothering the West.” Robert remarried in 1926 to Ruby Garland, a
younger woman. Just before 1929, he invested heavily in San Francisco real estate, borrowing
heavily. The Great Depression wiped out his fortune and he lost everything. Ruby dies in
1936. Strahorn spent a number of years getting back in the mining business in Oregon and
Idaho.

66. Strahorn & Spokane
businessmen on a North
Coast RR self-propelled gas
powered “McKeen” car
developed by Union Pacific
chief engineer William
McKeen in 1905. They had
distinctive “wind splitting”
pointed aerodynamic front
ends and rounded tails.
UP used them as commuter
cars on lines lacking
sufficient business for a
regular train, and could do
40 to 60 MPH.Photo from Zentmeyer collection.

67. Left, brothers
John C. and
Robert Strahorn
in Los Angeles
in 1924.
Right, Dell &
Robert,
Spokane, March
1925.
Pictures from
Zentmeyer
collection.

68. Robert & Ruby Garland (his second wife) in Athens on world tour,
1928. Right – Robert near Hotel Stewart in San Francisco, early 1940s.
This is the last picture of Robert. Zentmeyer collection.

69. Strahorn Library, and Dell’s plaque, College of Idaho. Robert received an honorary
LL.D degree from the college in 1924. Robert wrote 90 Years of Boyhood in the early
1940s, and gave the copyright to the College of Idaho who tried to get it published by
Caxton Press of Caldwell - it was not publishable. He died in 1944, at age 92, in
poverty, and is buried with his two wives at the Strahorn Mausoleum in Spokane.

70. Legacy of the Strahorns
Union Pacific recognized that Robert and Dell were working as a team with
the same goal – to publicize the West in a positive way on its behalf. Both their
writings “were often overly optimistic because they focused on the positive and
simply failed to mention parts they thought would be unappealing to their
audience.”
“Although instrumental in settling the west and developing its resources,
[Robert] made many costly mistakes, not only financially but in terms of people’s
lives and futures. He was one of the best at selling people something that existed
only in their dreams. Instead of swamp land, he touted farmland. Often a land so
tough that it would take three generations of stubborn farmers to finally succeed.”
Dell shaped her writings not with lies but with omissions. She “reassured anxious
women they could survive and thrive in the West, adding dimension and an
important gendered voice to his publicity of the West.”

71. Robert Stahorn’s
entry in Calif.
Who’s Who
1942, likely
written by
himself.