The Empire Saloon now serves as the visitors’ center and park headquarters at Custer. Eventually, the building will be restored as a historic saloon.
THE GHOST TOWNS OF IDAHO BEGIN LESS THAN 175 MILES NORTHWEST OF PIEDMONT, Wyoming, the last site featured in chapter 4 (see pages 136–139). In fact, the first site featured in this chapter, Chesterfield, is the last place mentioned in this book that was a part of the Oregon Trail, which we followed throughout chapter 4.
This chapter will take you to ten ghost towns, all but the first related to mining. Gold was originally discovered in 1862 near what became idaho City, and gold fever spread throughout the idaho Territory, although it was later strikes of silver that made idaho’s fortune. Incidentally, the nickname the Gem State initially had nothing to do with minerals or precious stones: “idaho” was a made-up word coined by those who for political reasons wanted an idaho Territory proclaimed by Congress. They claimed idaho was an indian word meaning “gem of the mountains.” The name stuck, the nickname survived, and only much later did mineral wealth make the nickname a fact.
Note: Two sites in Idaho’s Panhandle, Wallace and Burke, are not included in this chapter but rather in chapter 6 (see pages 216–225), on Montana ghost towns, because they are much closer in distance to the last site in that state than to the others in Idaho.
In 1879, Mormons Chester Call and his nephew, Christian Nelson, came to southern Idaho with three hundred grazing horses because land in northern Utah was becoming scarce. They were joined by other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and within two years the community of Chesterfield (named either for cofounder Chester Call or because it reminded a Mormon official of Chesterfield, England) was thriving, eventually reaching a population of more than four hundred. The selection of property lots was originally by lottery. In addition to agriculture, the town served as a supply point along the Oregon Trail, which was still in limited use in the 1870s.
The town’s prosperity lasted for only a couple of generations. For one thing, the site was isolated, with a railroad and major roads bypassing it, making the winters difficult. For another, large-scale farming techniques doomed hundreds of rural communities across America by the end of World War II, and Chesterfield was one of them. The town’s last business, the Holbrook Mercantile, somehow hung on until 1956. But unlike many villages that simply disappeared as huge farming conglomerates engulfed them, Chesterfield has survived.
The meeting house in Chesterfield was constructed between 1887 and 1892 of local brick crafted by hand.
Originally built by nathan Barlow and Judson Tolman in about 1903, Chesterfield’s Holbrook Mercantile closed in 1956 with Chester Holbrook as owner.
WALKING AND DRIVING AROUND CHESTERFIELD
Chesterfield today contains almost two dozen historic buildings, fifteen of which are being or have been restored. Farm fields extend both north and south from the town boundaries.
The Tolman-Loveland home in Chesterfield, like the meetinghouse, was constructed of homemade brick. Note the second-story wooden balcony.
As you enter the community, listed since 1980 on the National Register of Historic Places, you’ll see several austere brick or log residences and the brick Call-Higginson-Muir Store (the bricks of Chesterfield were crafted locally). Another building of note is that last business in town, the brick Holbrook Mercantile, built about 1903 (and featuring two old gas pumps of different eras). On the northern fringe, as you head out of town down a short hill, stand two deserted log cabins and outbuildings.
But there’s much more: The 1892 Meeting House (or church), now a museum, stands on a hill on the west edge of town, where you can obtain a brochure for further explorations. Next door is a 2003 reconstruction of the 1895 Amusement Hall, a community center. A roofless brick shell east of the hall is the remains of the 1922 schoolhouse, which burned in 2000 after being struck by lightning. South of the Meeting House .7 of a mile is the town’s well-tended cemetery, still in use, which includes the graves of many founding families of Chesterfield.
East of the Meeting House area is a second group of homes, including a few that are often open for visitation with volunteer docents. One pleasant residence is the Tolman-Loveland house, built by Bishop Judson A. Tolman in 1896 and purchased by Bishop Carlos Loveland in 1898. A small, wooden balcony projects from the second story. Across the street stands the tiny, two-room, brick tithing office, where financial matters of church members were settled.
One place easily overlooked is the Higginson-Holbrook property, because all that is visible of it from most of town is its windmill. When you take a dirt road that climbs a hill and passes in front of that windmill, you’ll see a seven-gabled, two-story home, built about 1903. The rest of the buildings in Chesterfield are sturdy and solid— but staid. This alone has a stylish grace. One wonders if any Chesterfield residents considered it a bit “showy.”
WHEN YOU GO
Evanston, Wyoming, is west of Piedmont, the last entry in the previous chapter (see pages 136–139). From Evanston, drive 93 miles northwest to Montpelier, Idaho, via Wyoming Highway 89 (which becomes Utah Highway 16 in Utah) north to Utah Highway 30 and then northwest to U.S. Highway 89, which goes north and then east into Montpelier. From Montpelier, take U.S. Highway 30 northwest for 29 miles to Soda Springs. Stay on U.S. 30 for 7 miles beyond Soda Springs until you come to a junction with Idaho Highway 30. Turn northwest on Idaho Highway 30 and go to Bancroft, a distance of 10 miles. From Bancroft, cross the railroad tracks and drive north 9.4 miles on Chesterfield Road to Chesterfield.