Sawtooth City History

Early History

For thousands of years the Northern Shoshone or Mountain Sheepeaters wintered at warm springs and summered in valleys of the Salmon River. Families lived under headman Wongowutavi until the Sheepeater War of 1879 forced them to reservations. Fur trader Alexander Ross explored Sawtooth Valley after “discovering” Galena Summit descending a trail along Horse Creek in 1824.

In the mid-1870s, the Sawtooth Valley was mainly used as a spot to camp on the journey between Custer and Ketchum. In 1878, a chance discovery of minerals on a creek bank brought settlers to the southern part of the Valley. Two men, Levi Smiley and T.B. Mulkey, panned for gold in present-day Smiley Creek, a tributary of the Salmon River. After some exploration, they found a lode of quartz at the headwaters of the creek.

By 1879, several new mining companies emerged to invest in the burgeoning camps of Sawtooth City, on Beaver Creek, and Vienna which was located on the upper end Smiley Creek.

Sawtooth City was the smaller of these twin cities with a population of 600 during its peak in 1882. The town had 25 substantial homes, three restaurants, four saloons, two hotels, a laundry, a blacksmith shop, a post office, an assay office and a general merchandising store.

The Columbia and Beaver Mining Company began extensive development in the area by erecting two mills in Sawtooth City and constructing the Galena Toll Road from Sawtooth City to Ketchum as early as 1879.

Miners carved into the bedrock and worked the land until one disaster after another led to the suspension of work. The original Sawtooth City was officially organized in 1879 and deserted by 1888.

Sheep and cattle ranchers were the next to move to the valley after the miners left. Many filed for homesteads along Valley Road, the first settlement road in the Sawtooth Valley.

The roadway over the pass was improved over time with gravel and crushed rock, and oiled in some parts, but most of the highway north, past Ketchum through the Galena Summit, remained graded earth through the 1940s.The roadway through Galena Summit was finally paved in 1955-1956.

When the main highway moved from Valley Road to its present location, it cut through the Vader family” ranch property along the Salmon River, originally owned by Leroy and Ona Vader. Their daughters, Alice and Louise, along with their husbands, Frank Henslee and Maurice Bevins inherited the land.

The Bevins built Smiley Creek lodge along the new main highway to serve growing tourism. On the roof of the sawmill across the street, "SMILEY CREEK" was painted in giant yellow letters visible from miles away.

Alice and Frank bought out Louise and Maurice’s remaining share of the Salmon Falls Sheep Company and decided to subdivide about 112 acres of land to the west of the highway, beginning with the treed hill behind the lodge since it was deemed to be the least desirable area for sheep grazing.

Four more subdivisions followed. In August of 1970 approximately 30 houses stood on the 5 subdivisions that made up the Smiley Creek community. In that year, fearing possible condemnations with a proposed joint Sawtooth National Park and Recreation Area, a majority of land holders in Smiley Creek Subdivisions 1-2-3-4-5 signed a petition proclaiming and declaring that the the community shall henceforth be known as "Sawtooth City" after the historic mining camp that once stood a mile and a half away.

Eventually, with the hiring of a lawyer to lobby congress, Sawtooth City was accepted into the Sawtooth National Recreation Area development plan, joining Stanley and Lower Stanley as a "designated community”.

In establishing the city boundary,13 lots immediately adjacent to the west side of the highway and 6 lots in the Airport Subdivision east of the highway were excluded from the community and reclassified as Agricultural to protect the scenics of the area.

-Provided by David Keiski