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TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



on the Missouri river, about due west from 

 Chicago, and 60 miles from the Iowa line. 

 The governor to March, 1863, was "Wm. Jayne, 

 who was elected, in the autumn of 1862, dele- 

 gate to the 38th Congress. The Territorial sec- 

 retary was John Hutchinson. Both have their 

 official residence at Yankton. The white pop- 

 ulation of the Territory was too small and too 

 much scattered to permit of its furnishing any 

 contingent for the war, but at the time of the 

 Indian raid in Minnesota, some of the whites 

 in the settlements bordering on that State were 

 massacred, and all who were able volunteered 

 for the punishment of the marauders. In the 

 election for delegate to the 38th Congress, in 

 Oct., 1862, William Jayne, republican, received 

 386 votes, a majority of 151 over J. B. S. Todd, 

 democrat. On the official canvass the votes of 

 Charles Mix and Bonhomme counties were 

 thrown out for informality, and Gov. Jayne's 

 majority was thus reduced to 16. Union Terri- 

 torial officers (auditor and treasurer) were also 

 chosen by a small majority. About the 1st of 



August, 1862, John "White and D'Orsay, 



miners from Colorado, who had started for the 

 Salmon river mines in "Washington co., com- 

 menced prospecting on Grasshopper creek or 

 river (an affluent of the Yellowstone), near the 

 summit of the Wind River Mountains, a spur of 

 the Rocky Mountains, in the southwest corner 

 of Dakota near the line of Nebraska. They 

 soon found gold in great abundance, and other 

 miners making discoveries of the precious met- 

 al in the vicinity, a government was organized 

 by the miners, then about 250 in number, on 

 the 27th of August, and the region named the 

 Northwestern District. Subsequently two set- 

 tlements were established, viz., Bannock City 

 and Grasshopper Diggings, each of which, in 

 Dec. 1862, contained over 1,000 inhabitants. 

 The gold, mostly in the form of scales, proved 

 very abundant, and the earnings of the miners 

 were very large. It is supposed that gold de- 

 posits exist all along the eastern, slope of the 

 Rocky Mountains to the northern line of Da- 

 kota. Most of this region is now included in 

 the new Territory of Idaho. 



IDAHO is the name given to the new Territory 

 organized by the 37th Congress at its late ses- 

 sion. It extends from the eastern boundary of 

 Oregon to the 27th degree of longitude west 

 from Washington, and from the 42d to the 46th 

 parallel of north latitude, and will have an area 

 of about 125,000 square miles. Its capital will 

 probably be Bannock City in the new gold re- 

 gion on the eastern slope of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, as it is most centrally situated, though 

 Florence, in Idaho county, a village of 3,000 or 

 4,000 inhabitants in the Salmon river mining 

 region, is now the largest town in the Territo- 

 ry. The discovery of extensive gold deposits 

 on the Salmon and Nez Perc6 rivers (tributa- 

 ries of the Snake river) in 1861 and 1862, has 

 led to a rapid influx of population into this re- 

 gion. A good wagon road was completed in 

 August last, by the Government, under the su- 



perintendence of Lieut. Mullan, from Fort 

 Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri, 

 to Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia river ; it 

 is 624 miles in length and passes through a 

 country well watered and easily traversed. 



WASHINGTON Territory was organized in 1853. 

 Its capital is Olympia. The area was 176,141 

 square miles before Idaho was set off, and the 

 estimated population in 1861, 14,249, aside from 

 about 31,000 tribal Indians. Wm. Pickering is 

 the governor, appointed by the President, and 

 Elwood Evans secretary. The official residence 

 of both is at Olympia. The Territory has a 

 university at Seattle, for which buildings have 

 been erected at a cost of about $30,000, and 

 which has received from the General Govern- 

 ment an endowment of 46,080 acres of land. 

 The Territory was too sparsely settled and too 

 remote from the seat of war to be able to send 

 any considerable number of troops to the ar- 

 my, though some volunteers have united with 

 the contingent sent from the Pacific States. 

 Extensive gold mines were discovered in 1861 

 on the tributaries of the Upper Columbia, 

 known as the Wenatchee, O'Kanagon, Kettle 

 river, and Colville mines, and in the autumn 

 of the same year others on the Salmon and 

 Nez Perc6 rivers, now included in Idaho. It 

 was estimated that the gold sent to market 

 from the Washington mines in 1862 was about 

 $5,000,000. 



NEVADA, though now admitted into the 

 Union, was a Territory during the whole of 

 1862. It was organized March 2, 1861, and 

 has an estimated area of 80,000 square miles. 

 Its population in 1860 was 50,568, of whom 

 23,811 were Indians. Its present population 

 is said considerably to exceed 100,000. The 

 capital is Carson City. The Territorial gover- 

 nor was James W. Nye, and the Territorial sec- 

 retary Orion Clemens. The official residence of 

 both is at Carson City. 



Silver mining was the all-engrossing topic in 

 this Territory during the year 1862. In the 

 spring there was for a short period a lull in 

 the speculation in mining stocks, but the dis- 

 covery of numerous new lodes and veins, some 

 of them very rich in silver, gave it a fresh im- 

 pulse, and from August to December new com- 

 panies with capital amounting in the aggregate 

 to more than $100,000,000 were organized in 

 San Francisco and in Nevada Territory, three 

 or four being often formed in a day. The Le- 

 gislature of the Territory at its November ses- 

 sion, 1862, passed a general incorporation bill 

 requiring a 'majority of the trustees of these 

 mining companies to be residents of the Ter- 

 ritory, and protecting the stockholders and 

 creditors against frauds, &c. The yield of the 

 silver mines during the year was very large, 

 amounting to nearly $15,000,000, and would 

 have been double or triple this amount could 

 sufficient machinery and labor have been pro- 

 cured to extract the ore. The Ophir, Gould 

 and Curry, and Comstock leads have been 

 known favorably for two or three years for 



