Military Reserve

Tiny Cottonwood Creek was once home to a mule-driven sawmill built to support construction of Fort Boise beginning in 1863.^¹ We see no mill today, no mules, no sign of the military maneuvers that spanned some eighty years. We point our cameras instead at leaves unsettled by the wind that whispers among dark branches above.

1. Idaho State Historical Society, “Fort Boise” (No. 356): http://history.idaho.gov/…/0356.pdf

Mike, Robert and I walked here across the old grounds of Fort Boise, now a Department of Veterans Affairs campus. Most of the original fort buildings are still standing, today surrounded by large trees, well manicured lawns and signs warning elderly veterans to watch their step.

0. Idaho State Historical Society image 77-180-2B: http://idahohistory.cdmhost.com/…/1

It was the Utter Massacre and its cannibalistic conclusion along the Oregon Trail, discussed earlier this year,^¹ that inspired construction of a new military fort^² at the previously empty intersection of the Trail and busy road connecting the boom towns of Idaho City and Silver City. Boise exists, to some extent, because of what happened to the Utter party in 1860.

The massacre was the subject of dreadful fascination for decades, headlines and popular angst now all but forgotten. Doomsayer hullabaloo about global warming, gun rights and Islamism will also be shortly forgotten except to those wanting to make a quant point about civic impermanence.

1. Trail Image, “Swan Falls Dam to Wilson Creek via Murphy”: http://trailimage.com/swan-falls-dam-to-wilson-creek-via-murphy#20
2. Idaho State Historical Society, “Fort Boise” (No. 356): http://history.idaho.gov/…/0356.pdf

Robert recently moved with his family from Twin Falls to join our team in Boise, some 230 miles farther along the Oregon Trail. New employee hazing guidelines require his occasional contortions.

Leaves hang languid under the day’s slate sky.

As along many desert creeks and crevices, the damp path among protuberant colors seems to transport us, as if by magic, far from the pale hills that surround us.

The Military Reserve was space for gunnery practice and other military maneuvers from 1863 to 1944.^¹ Now it’s space for quiet reflections.

1. Ridge to Rivers, “Military Reserve”: http://ridgetorivers.org/…/military-reserve/

“Veterans of the Mexican War, Civil War, Indian Wars, and Spanish American War are interred at the reserve.”^¹ It’s easy to imagine their ghosts sitting along the creek, chewing a blade of grass, watching leaves float by.

1. City of Boise, “Military Reserve”: https://parks.cityofboise.org/…/military-reserve/

Elaborate stairs rise from the ravine to high desert above.

At the top of the stairs I look back then wait for Robert to clear the shot.

“And that’s the camera you choose?” I ask Robert incredulously as he pans across the horizon with his phone, SLR hanging at his side.

“It’s easier to shoot panoramas with it,” he explains with a smile.

From the bench above the stairs we can see the old Fort Boise officer quarters, blacksmith, clinic, dairy and more, still standing but crowded and obscured by trees and much larger buildings.

0. Late 1800s Idaho State Historical Society image 77-180-2C: http://idahohistory.cdmhost.com/…/1

We descend from the bench and begin retracing our steps, back to the future.

A couple dogs express suspicions about us as we approach the road. “You don’t have any dogs,” their lady owner explains as she calls for them to heel. Dogless humans are sinister. We joke this will have to be a violent wolf attack in the retelling.

We find a simpler, if less scenic, route along the old barracks back to our offices.

0. Albertsons Library image BUJ 012-069: http://digital.boisestate.edu/…/2

I had no idea when I sought out the site of the Utter Massacre this spring^¹ that it was connected to Boise’s founding. As I bicycle home at the end of the day, through Municipal Park to cross the river, I think also of the interesting past in this part of Boise.^² I am glad to know these bits of history. A longer perspective keeps me from getting too wrapped up in current issues, even those I argue passionately about.

1. Trail Image, “Swan Falls Dam to Wilson Creek via Murphy”: http://trailimage.com/swan-falls-dam-to-wilson-creek-via-murphy#20
2. Trail Image, “Yellow Mist”: http://trailimage.com/yellow-mist#8

From frontier outpost, established to protect those travelling farther west, this settlement grew while the several mining towns it was meant to protect dwindled. Here we have Boise.

0. Late 1800s Idaho State Historical Society image 81-48-39: http://idahohistory.cdmhost.com/…/1