Pottsville and Shoshone Park: Part 2
Potsville ca. 1892 with Jack’s Saloon at center left and a Tunnel City Hotel Sign above and beyond the white tent. on the far left are additional buildings.
Washington State Historical Society and Butch Jacobson Collection
A year after Pottsville, Idaho was established, the Spokane Falls Weekly Review reported on October 9, 1890: “The scene of so many bloody tragedies is one of the quietest, most peaceful-looking little places in the world. Four miles beyond Mullan, Pottsville stands in a little clearing chopped out of dense forest of cedar, at the foot of the mountain up and over which the Northern Pacific is building its road to Missoula.
“Pottsville consists of one short street, with four saloons on one side and five on the other. They are unpainted, rough-board affairs, but every night and on pay-days they do a flourishing business.”
The same paper on October16 described the town: “The engineers’ tents are located a few rods from the old Mullan road. On either side of this road have been erected a few “shacks,” composed of logs, lumber and some canvas, from which is dispensed vile whisky and viler cigars.”
Pottsville gained a reputation as a rough-and-tumble railroad town. The REVIEW in the October 9 article reported this assessment of Pottsville. “It was in the very zenith of its career as a wild and woolly Western town about a month ago, when the graders’ camp was right at Pottsville. The two murders and the beating and stabbing affrays, which have from time to time been published in the REVIEW gave the town a very unsavory reputation, and have acted as a soothing influence on the border ruffianism.
“The saloon men … wait for shades of evening and the crowd of workingmen and roughs of all nationalities to come down from the grade. By 8 o’clock Pottsville is in its glory. The fateful whirr of the big wheel of fortune is heard on every side, and about forty sure-thing gamblers ply their nefarious trade in different saloons. The men get drunk, lose their money and then the bad blood comes out. Fierce fights, resulting more or less dangerously are an every night occurrence.
“A stranger, should one by any evil chance happen along, is sure of being held up or sand-bagged.”
Pottsville had its women of the evening who may have been the “ladies” who previously christened the town. The REVIEW harshly reports that: “Pottsville had its women in its palmy days, and “one-eyed Liz,” a most repulsive-looking cyprian was the leader of eighteen others, only one remove less ugly and repulsive.”
The REVIEW also reported the following three stories about Pottsville’s lack of hospitality.
A showman named Professor Murtry came to Pottsville with trained dogs and an educated pig. “The crowd went wild with excitement. Some of the drunken roughs caught the educated pig, had a barbecue, and ate him, and turned the dogs loose in the woods, while the professor escaped with his life by taking to the woods also.”
An Italian organ-grinder came to entertain the Pottsville clientele another time. The next day found his organ scattered in a hundred pieces in the street. The Pottsville roughs had been playing football with it.
A well-known surgeon from Wallace, Dr. Simms was called one night to care for a man who had been badly cut in a fight. Arriving at 11 o’clock at night, his horse floundered on a short piece of corduroy and two men caught the bridle and demanded money from the doctor. A powerful man, the doctor struck out with a heavy riding whip and broke away from his assailants. A little later, while tending to the cut man, one of the observers said with a laugh, “You are the fellow we tried to hold up a minute ago, ain’t you?” The doctor let the comment pass with another laugh.
With the grade of the railroad getting further up the mountain, fewer men came to Pottsville. “The walk proved to be too long even when the amount of fun to be had was taken into consideration.”
The Spokane Review dated May 12, 1892 reported the demise of Pottsville. “En route the depopulated town of Pottsville is passed. Several of the buildings of this berg have been torn down and the lumber moved to Mullan, while the major part of them have been crushed by the heavy snowfall of last winter, and present a dilapidated appearance indeed.”
How Pottsville and Shoshone Park became associated and the park development will be explored in Part 3.