The Nez Perce Gold Rush Begins
Vivid reports from Walla Walla suggest a major new gold strike is underway in the Nez Perce country, drawing hundreds of prospectors despite brutal winter conditions.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Walla Walla, March 11, 1861. The Nez Perce mines are all the rage here. I am informed upon good authority that those mines will pay from eight to twenty dollars per day, and that ground has already been prospected sufficient to employ 1,000 men. Thus far, there has not been a conflicting report, and every man who has been out there has invariably returned to the mines again. I look upon this as one of the best proofs of the existence of good mines. There were about sixty men who wintered there, making preparations for mining the coming season. A portion of them have returned and are now on their way back with provisions. The belief seems to be firmly established here that the Nez Perce mines will exceed in extent and richness anything yet discovered north of California. I am informed there are about 200 men on the road to the mines, the majority of them having started from this place. The snow on the Bitter Root mountains, which has to be crossed, is from four to six feet deep.
“The Nez Perce mines will exceed in extent and richness anything yet discovered north of California.”
The 1861 Nez Perce gold rush transformed the regional economy and accelerated the encroachment of settlers onto Indigenous lands, foreshadowing the violent conflicts of the following decade. Today, the Bitterroot Range remains a symbol of the vast, rugged terrain that defined early territorial expansion.
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