Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/111

 who was chiefly responsible for the naming of Colorado, Idaho and Montana.

The next heard of this word was when "Idahoe" was applied to a steamboat launched at Victoria, B. C., in the fall of 1860. It was built for the Yale Steamboat company to run upon the Fraser river, and was so called by one of the owners for his former home in Colorado, "Idaho Springs," which was an Indian word signifying "Gem of the Mountains," but the name of the steamboat was soon changed to "Fort Yale," and it was afterwards blown up by a boiler explosion.

The permanent settlement of Idaho territory began with the discovery of gold at Pierce City, on Oro Fino creek, in 1860. It was then a part of Washington Territory and the name "Idaho" was not known or applied at that time. The rush to these mines was made principally by the Columbia river route and so extensive did the traffic, carried on by river boats, become that a company was formed called the Oregon Steam Navigation company, of which Colonel J. S. Ruckel was a stockholder. One of the steamboats constructed by this company,, plying on the Columbia river, was called the "Idaho," and launched in 1860. Mr. George H. Himes, curator of the Oregon Historical Society, informs me that he heard Col. Ruckel tell Mr. D. C. Ireland, who was the local newsgatherer of the "Oregonian," in answer to the question as to the origin and meaning of the name "Idaho," which he had applied to this steamboat, "That it was an Indian word meaning 'Gem of the Mountains,' and that he got it from a Colorado friend who was interested with him in mining operations in that state, and he thought the name very appropriate for a steamboat that ran on a river like the Columbia which penetrated a range of mountains like the Cascades." Thus the name became transferred to the great Northwest, and as Joaquin Miller said, "The name was familiar in 5,000 men's mouths as they wallowed through the snow in '61 on their way to the Oro Fino mines."

However, the word became corrupted by these miners into