rOKEST RESERVES IN IDAHO. 87 



That I have trapped in the mountains about the St. Joe for many winters 

 and have had many mining claims in that country which, with my running a 

 paclt train for miners, prospectors, surveyors, timber locators, and Government 

 men, gives me a thorough personal knowledge of practically all the country in 

 the withdrawal of the proposed Shoshone Forest Reserve. 



Township 47 north, range 4 east, B. M., lies just south of Wallace, Idaho. The 

 northeast one-fourth of this township is drained by Placer Creek, which runs 

 northerly into the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River ; the rest of the 

 township is drained by Slate Creek and is over the divide, the waters of Slate 

 Creek running into the St. Joe River ; that part of 47 north, range 4 east, 

 drained by Placer Creek is mineral land and has lots of mining work. There 

 is also one settler on Placer Creek in this town — Frank Hord, alias Herd- 

 man — who has a house, stable, and about 2 acres of ground cleared up ; his is a 

 good hewed log hous-e and is 3^ miles from Wallace, Idaho ; Hord raises garden 

 truck and hay, and also has a small water-power sawmill, and he sells wood 

 in Wallace ; his claim has about a million feet of timber on it, and if he takes 

 four forties up and down the creek he could get about 60 acres that could be 

 farmed when the timber is off. There is about 160 acres on Placer Creek that 

 could be farmed if the timber w^as off, but it is nearly all covered by mining 

 claims. Hord located his land as mineral claims, and it is mineral land. On 

 Slate Creek and its branches in the west and south half of this township there 

 are about fifty settlement claims that I know and have seen ; these fifty are all 

 timber claims, and of them only two claimants make any showing toward resi- 

 dence on the land ; these two are Fred Uhlman, on section 36, who has a log 

 house shingled over for siding, and a smaller log house now used as store- 

 room, and has about 1 acre cleared and half of it in crop. Uhlman's place is 

 headquarters for the Slate Creek Settlers' Association, and he works for the 

 association in the open season, looking after the claims and cabins. The other 

 settler is Emil Krause, a locksmith in Wallace, who is on his claim a few days 

 every few weeks and has a good log house and about one-fourth acre cleared 

 and now in garden. Excepting the above two all the claims have no clearings 

 or improvements except a cabin in the timber, and the claimants seldom visit 

 the land. These claims in township 47 north, range 4 east, are all located where 

 the merchantable timber stands and are locally known as timber claims ; some 

 of the best timber is on small flats along the Slate Creek, and if that timber 

 were cut off this flat ground would do for farming. There is on the 50 claims, 

 maybe, IJ sections of such flat lands. 



In township 47 north, range 5 east, B. M., there are about 100 settlement 

 claims with cabins on ; none of these claimants live there ; none of these claims 

 have any clearings 'or improvements thereon. These claims are all located on 

 land having valuable saw timber, and are locally known as timber claims; the 

 cabins are from 3 to 7 feet high, and few of them have any floors and many of 

 them have brush thrown on for a roof. In this township the south 4 miles of 

 the North Fork of the St. Joe has a valley from one-fourth to one-half mile 

 wide, which could be farmed if it had the timber off ; the rest of the township is 

 steep, rocky, broken mountains, and ridges ; most of the settlement claims have 

 no farming or agricultural lands. 



In township 47 north, range 6 east, B. M., the south half is in Idaho and in 

 the withdrawal ; the fine timber in this township is in the nine sections in the 

 southwest quarter of the township and that land is drained by Frazer Creek 

 and the East Fork, which empty into the North Fork of the St. Joe ; there is no 

 agricultural land in the township in Idaho ; all the timber lands are claimed 

 by settlement claims, and none of the claimants live there ; there is no clearing ; 

 the cabins are from 3 to 7 feet high, and few of them could be lived in. 



In township 46 north, range 5 east, B. M., the divide between Slate Creek and 

 the North Fork of the St. Joe runs north and south through the center of the 

 township ; there is little or no agricultural land in this township ; no one lives 

 in the township, although there are about 25 settlers' cabins where the saw 

 timber stands. 



The snow comes in the river bottoms about December and stays about four 

 months. In the bottoms the snow gets from 4 to 5 feet deep and on the ridges 

 from 8 to 12 feet. 



Chas. E. Hoyt. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me June 27, 1905, in Uhlman's claim, town- 

 ship 47 north, range 4 east, B. M. 



II. II. Schwartz. 

 Special Agent, GoveDimeiit Land Office. 



