From the Idaho
City Chamber of Commerce :
The year was 1862. In the eastern United States, brother fought brother in
the bloody battles of the Civil War. But in the Idaho Territory, men had
something different on their minds.
Gold had just been discovered in the Boise Basin. Drawn by the lure of
instant wealth, prospectors poured into the area by the thousands. Towns sprang
up everywhere, like mushrooms. The development of the State of Idaho was
underway.
Almost overnight Idaho City became the largest town in the territory. It
was a beehive of commercial activity. In its heyday the city boasted more than
250 businesses, including such amenities as opera and theater houses, music
stores, tailors, breweries, bowling alleys, barber shops and bakeries, pool
halls and drug stores. And, of course, numerous saloons.
It was a bawdy, lusty town where whiskey was cheaper than water. Life was
cheap, too. Men went armed at all times and were quick to defend themselves.
Winners in disputes often spent time in the stout log jail. Losers were carted
off to Pioneer Cemetery.
Despite the atmosphere of lawlessness, Idaho City flourished. Within three
years of its founding, the city had surpassed Portland, Oregon, as the most
populous in the Northwest. And no wonder: during the gold rush more than
$250,000,000.00 worth of the precious yellow metal was taken from the Boise
Basin.
From the Sierra
Nevada Virtual Museum:
Hydraulic mining was a variation on ground sluicing where the water
delivered to the site would be shot through a nozzle at high pressure onto the
face of the cliff, thereby washing away tons of boulders, gravel, dirt, and
ounces of gold. The first use of this method is credited to Edward
Mattison in 1853 who supplied the water through a rawhide hose to a nozzle he
carved out of wood. Later miners upgraded their hoses to metal or the more
desirable canvas, and the nozzle soon became iron. Technological advances
made the hose and nozzle connections more flexible and allowed greater movement.
Lavish attention was paid to the design and specifications of the nozzle and
companies began producing their competing appliances. The product names
were various -- Hoskin’s Dictator and Hoskin’s Little Giant are examples.
But the name that stuck was the product name of the Craig Company -- the
Monitor.