Just east of the Oregon Idaho border where highway 95 crosses from Oregon into Idaho from the Jordan Valley is the road to DeLamar. A sailing ship captain, Joseph R. DeLamar, who decided to leave the sea for mining country, founded the town. He did so in 1888 by acquiring various mining claims in the Jordan Canyon and naming the town after himself. He built a mill, hotel, stores, a school and other facilities including a red light district. During its lifetime, it is estimated the town produced about $8 million in silver. When in the area, don't miss the chance to visit DeLamar. Submitted by Henry Chenowith.

Four Little Girls: Louie and Lottie and Ho and Hazel were playmates. Louie and Lottie's parents were Mr. and Mrs. Davey. Mr. Davey was Superintendent of the Gold Mine and their house was near the mine and the four little girls could play around the mine in the workshop. Where the machinery and buzz saws were. We played around the big logs and climbed on top of the high lumber piles. It's a wonder we didn't get hurt! Sometimes we peeked into the blacksmith shop where the Smithy blew his charcoal fire with a bellows. He made shoes for the mules. The mules pulled long iron trains of ore out of the tunnels. Lots of times we four girls would go way into the tunnel until we could hear the mule train coming. Then we would run out quick or we would have been run over. We used to climb into the big bins where they dumped the ore. It was about as big as a service station. They would release the ore and it would go down into the tram way below which took it to the town. The ore they didn't want was dumped out in hills right near our front yard. They were very pretty yellow and blue and gold color. We had lots of fun playing in the ore. Once Mr. Davey brought home a beautiful little fawn. It was so cute until it started to grow horns. Then it ran after us and butted us with his horns. One time when I was very little about four years old the Mine caught fire and I hung on my Mommie's skirt and cried it was awful to see all the shops burn up. We all had horses. One day Louie and Lottie and Ho and Hazel all climbed on Pompadour, my Mommies old horse and we went over to Cyclamen Swamp for a ride. It was so pretty, beautiful little cyclamens growing all over. Well we were riding along and all of a sudden Pompadour jumped sideways and stopped suddenly. We all flew off and over his head into the mud. What had scared Pomp was the Chinese laundry man. He was carrying a big white bundle of laundry on his back. Lots of times we would go for a ride to Soda Pop Springs. We had been riding there running our horses and jumping them over sagebrush and then drinking all the soda pop we wanted. It was the only kind of water there even the horses and cows drank it . One day Ho and Hazel's brother , Happy was out hunting and brought home two little baby owls. They were so cute about three inches high. Brown and gray and such bright eyes. They can turn their heads all the way around. They sat on top of Mommies piano. But sad to say one day they fell into the water bucket and were drowned. You know they can't see in the daytime and another day Happy brought home a large Horned Owl and he had to catch live mice to feed it. The owl would just open his mouth and in one gulp swallow the whole mouse. One day when Happy was out hunting horses his horse stepped in a gopher hole and Happy was thrown off and his leg broken. When Mom heard the news she was so scared she said, "Tell him to come home and bring his broken leg with him!" My brother Bruce had a dancing horse and one day he was riding him in the yard and his horse danced right up on top of a cord of wood. It sure looked queer! My sister Ho, her name was Idaho, but we called her Ho for short. She had a black horse that was mean when it didn't want to go. It would rear up on it's hind legs and then throw himself over backwards and try and crush you. But Ho was a very good rider and always managed to slide out of the saddle in time. I had a nice little, brown mare that didn't like men or boys. If they tried to ride her she would turn her head around and bite them. Then I had a baldface horse. That's one with a wide white stripe in his face. His favorite trick was to step on your foot and he wouldn't get off and gee whiz did it hurt! Happy had a horse ranch in Idaho and sometimes at the Holidays we would enter some of our horses in the races and was it exciting! We used to fight with the other kids about which horse would win. And Some times Ho would ride her horse, Jim, in the races and she rode with out a saddle. Mom had a great big, gray and white cat called Jock. He would sit on top of the piano and if a dog came in he just jumped on the dog and rode him out the door. The dogs were so scared they howled with fright. There were lots of animals around our yard. Sometimes there would be about thirty horses running around. Besides two dogs, a flock of chickens, two cows and some turkeys besides pigs there were seven of us kids....four boys and three girls. Poor Mom was nearly always cooking or washing clothes. -- Hazel Sothern Carlson

Memories by Hazel Sothern Carlson: We loved to ski. My oldest brother Happy made the skis. He would put two long, narrow, pointed pieces of lumber in the wash boiler and steam them. Then curve the points and then put a weight on them until they hardened. Then he would wax them. The first time I tried to ride my skis I went on top of one of the hills in front of our house. I put the skis on and started down okay. Then I went faster and faster and didn’t know how to stop and went right into a cabin door and knocked over a man that was sitting there smoking. He was so mad he swore at me. The snow came clear up to the roof and we had to shovel out the doors and windows. Sometimes my sis and I sneaked out the window and went skiing when we were supposed to be asleep. We lived in a gold-mining town and everyone knew everyone else. If there was a party or wedding every one went. We had dances once a week and on holidays. But my sis and I always had to be home by twelve o’clock. Once we stayed later and mom wouldn’t let us go to another dance for a month of Sundays. You figure out how many days that is? When I was little everyone went to the parties there was no age limits...babies and grandmas all had fun- My sister and I and two girl friends - Ho and Hazel -Lu and Lottie - went to a wedding and we played around while the grown ups danced. Then we went out in the kitchen and sampled all the lovely foods. Homemade cakes and roast chickens and turkeys. They even had a lot of bottles of wine and whiskey and beer. So we were thirsty and decided to make a drink for ourselves. So we mixed some of every kind of drink together. Boy what a mixture! Then we went into the big hall to watch the dances. Pretty soon our eyes got so heavy, we crawled under the chairs and went to sleep. And we slept and slept and never woke up for a long time and no one could understand how we could sleep so soundly. If they only knew about that drink we’d had! At that same party May, that was my brothers girlfriend asked us to recite and we did Old King with gestures and to the accompaniment of music and where it said slap it up against the wall, I slapped the wall with a broom. I don’t know why but they all laughed. I was ten years old then. I was very fond of all kinds of animals and birds and got mad if anyone was cruel to them. My folks had a Hotel and at that time we had 150 steady guests. One of the men went hunting and brought home some pheasants and was skinning them in the backyard. I felt so sorry for the poor birds, I leaned out the window and doused him with a big bucket of water. The man had his work clothes on and was ready to go to work. I sure got a spanking. When my sister started to go with her first boy friend my chum an I always tagged along. She was 2 years older than we were. When we went to our first dance in Silver City the boys took us to a restaurant after the dance and Ho and I ordered chicken. We heard the chickens squawk when they killed them and when the boys went out we ran away cause we couldn’t bear to eat those poor chickens. Weren’t we the tender hearted ones? Then when I was going to High School in Boise Idaho an old friend of the family, Judge Long, invited me to go to the inaugural ball and reception. I was very shy and it was an awful ordeal to shake hands with all those dignitaries! After the grand march went dancing with some kids and home with them. I forgot all about the Judge. I often wonder if he told on me…..

Canary, Mrs. Toy and the Chinaman, by Hazel Sothern Carlson: Once way up high in the Rocky Mountains Hazels Mommie told her she could over to Mrs. Toy's ranch for a visit. I could ride out with old Mr. Lee the farmer that brought the vegetables and fruit to Mommie Sothern for the winter. So little Hazel packed her clothes in a sack and her Mommy gave her a pretty little yellow canary in a cage to take to Mrs. Toy. They had to ride a long, long way up and up onto the high mountains. The roads were narrow and steep and it was pretty rough riding. When they got to the ranch the little girl opened the cage to feed the bird and give it some water but , oh oh it flew away up in a tall poplar tree. Hazel didn't know what to do, so she cried because she was afraid her Mommie would spank her! But what do you think? In the morning the little bird came back in the cage! They had all kinds of good things to eat at the farm. Cookies and cake and fried ham and chicken. Yum! yum! The water in the creek was luke warm and was so nice to wade in. After breakfast next morning, Hazel went fishing down by the pond and the first time she cast her line out she caught a (what do you think?) a frog on the hook right in it's tongue! She was afraid to touch the frog so she ran away and left the fishline, frog and all! Mrs. Toy had a Chinaman for a cook. He wore his long black hair in a braid hanging down his back. He wore Chinese shoes and liked to wear ladies' long silk stockings to keep his legs warm. Some ponds on the ranch were so hot you could cook your fish in them. The warm water made the fruit grow twice as fast and a big as the other ranchers did.