Down the Salmon River, by S.E. Crie
Chapter Five
1886 — Hell Was Just Over the Hill
“As we go to press we learn that a shooting scrape took place at Dynamo and that a man named McKee was dangerously wounded. Some twenty shots were fired. Cale Davis a resident of this city, was shot in the back by a stray shot. Dr. Kenney has gone to the scene of the battle to attend the wounded. Deputy Sheriff Young has also gone over to Dynamo to make arrests. No further particulars.”—Idaho Recorder, November 13, 1886
If Annie Crie Callahan were alive to speak to us today . . .
Speaking plainly about those early days downriver—if you asked me what really happened up at Dynamo—I’d start by telling you that it wasn’t just one man’s quarrel gone bloody. It was a whole powder keg, struck alight by greed and lawlessness.
By the time the RECORDER ran its November 27th edition, Mr. Booth, the editor, confessed he’d been stopped at gunpoint and warned off the story entirely. The Dynamo Mining Company had a reputation for strong-arm tactics and they were leaning hard on the men who held claims along Big Creek[1]—trying to force sales, attempting to take over every inch around Camp Dynamo. It was the kind of pressure that doesn’t stop at conversation.
Forty-three years later, I wrote it all down—the blood, the threats, the silence that followed. Jimmy and I had barely stepped off the freight boat when it happened. The editor who printed my recollections said I’d been living at Camp Dynamo when it happened. If Jimmy Callahan and I were there in November of 1886, it wasn’t for long. Gold made men reckless.
Idaho Recorder, November 12, 1926
Camp Dynamo of '86
Just above the confluence of Big and Clear Creeks on a sloping elevation, stands a commodious farm house, the ranch home of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Boyle.[2] This is a stock ranch and the stock corrals are located a short distance below and parallel with the course of Clear Creek, once the site of the placer mining camp of Dynamo. This name was given in token of the first electric lighting plant installed in Lemhi county.
The Dynamo Placer Mining company was financed by a syndicate of bankers and operated by Col. Root,[3] general manager and Caleb Davis assistant manager.[4]
Freight was shipped in over the mountains via Leesburg by slashing the way through standing and fallen timber to Beaver creek, thence down this creek, passing its mouth to Dynamo on the opposite side of Big creek. On Beaver creek was located the sawmill and electric lighting plant. All dwellings, offices and saloons characterizing a mining camp of the day, were centered at Dynamo.
Hydraulic equipment was in constant operation. Booming whistles signaled the hours of changing shifts. Every angle of space occupied was studded with electric globes and their glow at midnight rivaled the sun at noon day.
On a mid November day, 1886, a man in the saddle forded the Salmon river near Shoup, went on his way to Dynamo, going via Pine creek and the Big creek hot springs over the mountains. Henry Myers,[5] a well known protector, meeting him on the hill greeted him saying, "Hello Chips, where are you going?”
“I am going straight to hell."
This response leads to a description of the man called Chips. Fair complexion, medium stature, robust figure, perfect physique, of a youth in the flush of maturing manhood. The neck of a black bottle protruded from each pocket and a sheathed revolver hung from his belt. In a sullen and quarrelsome mood he arrived at Dynamo in the early evening, and was met by two of his pals, James Vincent[6] and Tom McKenney. Time has not revealed whether this meeting was by prearrangement or otherwise. A game of poker was next in order and Chips, Vincent and McKenney were seated in the saloon owned by James McKee,[7] who by request joined them. It soon developed that McKee was the target of Chip's displeasure. Thinking this to be only momentary ill to humor McKee went out and into the Billy Raylins[8] saloon, leaving a man by the name of Lyons,[9] who was visiting him, to tend bar in his absence.
The miner's bunk house stood between the two saloons. When, after several minutes McKee did not return. Chips and his two companions went out saying they would bring him back. A small crowd was standing in front of the bunkhouse and as the trio approached, a shot was heard and Caleb Davis fell to the ground, a bullet lodging in his shoulder.
He believed it was a death wound but called to the crowd, "You have shot the wrong man."
A second shot immediately followed and McKee fell, the bullet passing through his bowels from side to side. Chips, McKenney and Vincent started back to McKee's saloon, openly declaring that the third shot would "get" Lyons. At this point the miners intervened, barring and guarding the entrance and for the time being Lyons escaped unharmed.
When the doctor and an officer arrived from Salmon McKee was nearing the portal of eternity. Davis was not seriously hurt.
The county sheriff at this time was Egbert Nasholds. His deputy, Sam Young, was sent to Dynamo. Producing a warrant he served it on Lyons had cuffed him, led him in mute dismay from the bedside of his dying friend, McKee. In the saddle his feet were tied to the stirrups, then strong cords were crossed under the horse and the feet more tightly secured.
Those who had witnessed the trend of the affair, feared that Lyons' life was in jeopardy and offered to accompany the officer with his prisoner to Salmon but their aid was rejected.
Near Leesburg a clatter of galloping hoofs announced the coming of Chips, McKenney and Vincent. Lyons begged of Young to "unshackle his hand and give him his gun and he would protect himself." But Young was deaf to his appeal and they went merrily on. Two of the trio covered Young with guns and ordered him to throw up his hands, while the third shot Lyons in the mouth, the bullet lodging in the roof of the mouth. His head dropped, not a muscle moved. Instant death, bullet in the brain, was the verdict.
In ribald glee they cut the body loose, threw it to the ground on his face when one of the trio coarsely remarked, "Turn the d-s -b- on his face to make a better looking corpse."
As Lyons later expressed himself, these were the most gladsome words that ever fell on mortal ears. In this position unseen by his captors, he could move his tongue to expel the blood that was filling his throat to strangulation.
Leaving their victim for dead on the trail, they went on to Salmon with Deputy Sheriff Young, who evidently preferred their company to those he had rejected at Dynamo.
Furthermore Young did not report to his superior, Nasholds, the holdup and loss of his prisoner.
On the same day three employees at Dynamo called for their time and left for Salmon. In the vicinity of Leesburg they found Lyons staggering aimlessly around in a dazed condition. They took him to a miner's cabin, rendered aid that soon revived him and arranged to take him to Salmon the next day.
On starting they threw as blanket over Lyon's head and he was instructed to ride in advance. If danger threatened he was to make good his getaway while his companion engaged the enemy. At the old Mountain House hotel, on the top of Leesburg hill, they met Chips, McKenney and Vincent returning to Dynamo.
They viewed the hooded figure very attentively as they passed, then asked of the riders in the rear, "Who is that with the blanket over his head? It ain't that d-m Lyons come to life again, is it?"
"No, that's Gaines, the blacksmith from Dynamo. A mule kicked him and his arm is broken."
At this juncture the bottle was passed around and suspicion was washed away with the flow of the ardent. Again the day was saved for Lyons.
A short distance further on they met Dan Keough, a miner, carrying a pick and shovel. He said he was "going to Leesburg to find the body of Lyons and bury it." He did not state by whom he was given this order, neither was he informed that he had just met the object of his mission.
Deputy Sheriff Young immediately recognized his "dead" prisoner when Lyons arrived in Salmon and promptly jailed him.
Two or three days later a warrant was sworn to before Judge Elder charging Chips, McKenney and Vincent with the murder of McKee. At the hearing the three were held guilty as charged and Lyons was turned loose. Chips and Vincent were jailed awaiting the action of the district court. Tom McKenney was released on bail which he speedily exchanged for "leg bail" and has never been heard of from that day to this. Col. Shoup signed his bond for $2,000, but through a technical error was released from payment. As a result of the trial Chips was given a life sentence and Vincent 17 years.
After serving several years, Chips was pardoned. Later he was shot in Buffalo Hump. He later was acquitted on a plea of self defense. As far as present information is available it is not known whether Lyons lived or died. He did not return to Salmon and Sam Young was permitted to die a natural death.
On the east bank of Clear creek, overlooking the once tragic scene of his death, is the lone grave of James McKee. A brief inscription records all that exists of a fast fading tradition of Camp Dynamo of ’86.[10]
Notes
[1] Big Creek came to be called Panther Creek around the turn of the century. Napias Creek of today was called Clear Creek in Annie's day.
[2] Thomas Wallace and Arvilla “Della” (Frary) Boyle. Thomas was born in Ireland in Cappamore, Limerick, Ireland 1867. Thomas’ father, Thomas Boyle Sr. was in Lemhi County by 1880. “Tommy” and “Della” ran a hotel in Shoup and by1888 went on to ranching.
[3] Probably William C. Root, 1880 Census, Salmon, Lemhi County, Idaho
[4] Also known as Cale Davis, born in Missouri 1837, he was a placer miner in Leesburg, Idaho by 1870. In 1880 he owned a saw mill and married to twenty-one year old Anna.
[5] Henry Myers, born 1843, Pennsylvania. Residing in Lemhi County by 1880 and died in Shoup 7 Jun 1913
[6] His name was James Vinson.
[7] John Booth, the newspaper editor calls him McKee. Annie calls him James McKee. Later accounts would say the man’s name was Red Magee, a saloon keeper who teamed up with Edward Lyons working a claim and unwilling to sell out to the Dynamo Mining Company. There is an A.M. MacKey with a hotel in the Loon District near Leesburg in 1870 census and is probably the rightful name of the man in Annie’s story.
[8] Probably William C Rawlins.
[9] Edward Lyons
[10] For more information about the Dynamo affair, the back and fore story, a six part series was published over six weeks in the Recorder Herald in 1987, titled Bloodlust: Spawn of Raw Gold and written by Ethel Kimball, a historian of Lemhi County. Though no attribution is given other than the photograph of Lyons, and an interview with the Judge’s daughter, she may have based her story on recollections passed down to Frank and Ethel Rood, who passed them on to Kimball. The series can be viewed from the Salmon Library’s Community Archive:Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Conclusion