Elmore County County
Established February 7, 1889 with its county seat at Rocky Bar. Named for the Ida Elmore Mines, the area’s greatest silver and gold producer of the 1860s. The Oregon Trail crossed the Snake River at Three Island Crossing near Glenns Ferry. A station on the Overland Stage route, orginally named Rattlesnake, was moved to the railroad line and became Mountain Home. On February 4, 1891 the county seat was moved to Mountain Home.
Mapped Location
Elmore County: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.
Information
General information on Elmore County
- Feature Type: County
- County Seat: City of Mountain Home
- Established: Thursday, February 7, 1889
Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Elmore County
A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Elmore County | Official |
Origin Notes and History of Elmore County
References to Elmore County that document the origin of its place name
ELMORE.—Named for the Ida Elmore, a famous quartz mine, discovered in 1863. The county seat is Mountain Home (q.v.).
A Selected Bibliography of Elmore County, County
A compilation of essential readings detailing the history, geography, and culture of the region.
Memories of old Alturas County, Idaho by Lucille Hathaway Hall
Lucille Hathaway Hall’s Memories of Old Alturas County, Idaho chronicles the grueling pioneer colonization and frenetic mineral extraction of a massive, rugged jurisdiction carved directly out of the formidable Sawtooth Mountains and the high-desert plateaus of central Idaho. The narrative maps how the severe environmental realities of this remote alpine wilderness—defined by plunging subzero winters, impassable snowbound mountain passes, and sheer granite topography—initially paralyzed overland movement, forcing early prospectors and settlers to endure profound seasonal isolation. By detailing the explosive Wood River mining boom and the arduous construction of localized rail spurs and heavy ore-milling infrastructure, the text illustrates how extracting the region's immense subterranean wealth was strictly dictated by the urgent necessity to breach these towering continental barricades. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that deploying mechanized engineering to violently extract deep-vein silver deposits and artificially connecting this snow-choked high country to broader terrestrial transit networks were the absolute prerequisites for transforming an impenetrable mountainous frontier into a highly lucrative epicenter of inland industrial wealth.
72 pages : illustrations, map (on linging papers) ; 24 cm
Desiderata
Elmore County
- Alturas City (historical)
- Atlanta
- Castle Rocks
- Chalk Cut
- Cleft
- Dixie
- Emigrant Crossing
- Featherville
- City of Glenns Ferry
- Hammett
- King Hill
- Mayfield
- City of Mountain Home
- Paradise Hot Springs
- Pine
- Prairie
- Reclamation Village
- Reverse
- Rocky Bar
- Sebree
- Spanish Town (historical)
- Steamboat Rock
- Stout Crossing
Political Boundaries
Last updated: 2016-11-27