420 



IDAHO. 



of whom 49 were men and 23 women. At the 

 latter date there were 48 patients 35 men and 

 13 women. The cost of maintaining the insti- 

 tution for the year was $14,827. 



There were confined in the United States 

 Penitentiary at Boise City in October, at the 

 expense of the Territory, 75 prisoners. The 

 condition of this prison is characterized by Gov. 

 Stevenson as " disgraceful." There are only 

 40 cells, into which are crowded 78 prisoners, 

 three of them being United States prisoners. 

 No provision is made for working the convicts, 

 who are confined to their cells 20 hours each 

 day, although a stone-quarry near at hand 

 would afford an excellent opportunity for 

 using their labor in enlarging the present 

 building. The Territory pays $18,000 a year 

 to the National Government for keeping its 

 convicts at this place. But the crowded con- 

 dition of the prison is likely to be soon re- 

 lieved, Congress having this year appropriated 

 $25,000 for its enlargement. 



The Governor, in his annual report for 1888, 

 says : u I wish particularly to call the atten- 

 tion of the department and Congress to the 

 great injustice of the act of Congress of 

 March 3, 1885. This act compels our Terri- 

 torial courts to take cognizance and jurisdic- 

 tion of all offenses committed by Indians 

 against the property of another Indian or 

 other persons, and of certain crimes com- 

 mitted on the Indian reservations. We have 

 now in the Penitentiary two Indians sentenced 

 for long terms, for which we are paying the 

 United States $1.50 a day, besides all the 

 expenses of their trials and convictions. 

 Others have also been sentenced who have 

 served out their terms and been discharged. 

 I can not comprehend why the General Gov- 

 ernment should compel the Territory to pay 

 for the support of a criminal class who are the 

 wards of the Government, from whom the 

 Territory derives no revenue, income, or sup- 

 port." 



Statistics. The assessed valuation of the Ter- 

 ritory, by counties, is shown in the following 

 table : 



COUNTIES. Valuation. 



Ada $8,020,000 



Alturas 3,787,532 



Bear Lake 580,023 



Binarham 2,565,1 80 



Bois6 720,949 



Cassia 919,170 



Cuater 775,392 



Idaho 843,566 



Kootenai 548,731 Total $21,288,392 



In this total are assessed 241,515 cattle, val- 

 ued at $3,036,234; 71,984 horses, valued at 

 $1,904,348; 1,603 mules, valued at $55,343; 

 and 251,634 sheep, valued at $389,988. 



The production of wheat for 1888 is esti- 

 mated at 2,986,280 bushels; oats, 1,264,590 

 bushels; barley, 394,690 bushels; hay, 528,- 

 965 tons. 



The mining product for 1887 is estimated 

 by the assayer at Boise City as follows : Gold, 

 $2,522,209; silver, $3,422^657; gold and sil- 



CODNTIES. Valuation. 



Latah $1,668.255 



Lemhi 763,998 



Nez Perce 1,080,594 



Oneida 1,013,811 



Owyhee 1,081,925 



Shosbone 1,051 1902 



Washington 917,419 



ver, $5,944,866; lead, $2,960,270; gold, sil- 

 ver, and lead, $8,905,136. 



Railroads. There were about 1,000 miles of 

 railroad in the Territory at the close of the 

 year. Construction has been going on during 

 the year upon the following lines : Spokane 

 and Palouse Eailway, Oregon Railway and 

 Navigation Company, Coeur d'Alene Railway, 

 and Spokane and Idaho Railway. 



Forests. There are about 18,000,000 acres of 

 timber and mineral land in the Territory, a 

 very large portion of which is covered with 

 timber. In some places the forests are mostly 

 black or lodge-pole pine, which grows about S 

 inches in diameter and from 60 to 100 feet 

 high, and so thick that a person can scarcely 

 pass between the trees. It is valuable for 

 fuel, mining-timbers, buildings, and fencing, 

 and is very durable. There are in other local- 

 ities immense forests of the finest white and 

 yellow pine, also spruce, fir, and cedar, suit- 

 able for manufacturing into lumber, the trees 

 being from 2 to 4 feet in diameter and 50 to 

 60 feet without a limb. The lumber now man- 

 ufactured in the Territory is only for home 

 consumption. 



Indiana The extent of the various Indian 

 agencies in the Territory and the number of 

 Indians upon them during the year were as 

 follow : Fort Hall or Shoshone and Bannocks, 

 1,700 persons, 1,202,320 acres; Lemhi, 548 

 persons, 105,960 acres; Creur d'Alene, 500 

 persons, 598,500 acres ; Western Shoshone, 

 400 persons, 131,300 acres; Nez Perce, 1,227 

 persons, 746,651 acres. No disturbances have 

 occurred during the year. There is a doubt 

 as to whether the valuable mineral lands near 

 the borders of the Coaur d'Alene reservation, 

 on which miners have made locations, are 

 within the limits of the reservation. Danger- 

 ous complications are liable to result unless 

 this doubt is soon settled by a res;irvey of the 

 region. 



Annexation. To any plan for dismembering 

 the Territory, and especially to the bill before 

 Congress creating the State of Washington out 

 of the eastern part of that Territory with the 

 four northern counties of Idaho attached, the 

 people of Idaho are almost unanimously op- 

 posed. A protest against it was passed by 

 the Territorial Legislature of last year. In 

 June, 1888, the Democratic Territorial Con- 

 vention at Boise City adopted, by a vote of 44 

 to 6, the following resolution: 



That we reiterate our opposition to any dismember- 

 ment of the Territory by annexation of any county 

 or counties to any State or Territory, and that we 

 favor at the earliest date practicable the introduction 

 of a law in Congress for the admission of Idaho, with 

 its present lines and boundaries, as a State of the 

 Union. 



Only one of the four northern counties, Nez 

 Perce (with Latah, lately a part of Nez Perce), 

 voted against the resolution. The Territorial 

 Republican Convention, in May, included in its 

 platform the following: 



