Hiking | Spanish Town is just one of those places in Idaho you must visit.

How to get there?

We had been planning on hiking into Spanish Town for several years. It was one of those trips you just had to do once in your lifetime.  So on September 4th, 2016 we packed up all of our goodies, loaded up the dog, threw in our backpacks in the pickup and headed for Featherville Idaho.

A few years earlier my father-in-law had given me a copy of the Diary of Jules Defoe.  It was a short read, but wow did it make me think.  Ever since reading that diary I have devoured every bit of knowledge that I could find about Spanish town.

Finding the trail

As my wife and I left Featherville we continued to travel up the Boise river over the feather river bridge.  We turned left by the dredge ponds and the gravel pits, then we headed up Cayuse creek road north (also known as forest service road 135).  We continued to follow forest service road 135 up Cayuse creek to the switch-back.  When we hit the switch-back the forest service road number changed to 132 (however, I don’t believe there is a sign to designate this).  We then followed forest service road 132 to the end.  There was a small area to park at the end of the road.

At the Trail Head

After we parked at the end of the road we found the trail marker for trail 200.  That is where the Spanish Town trail starts.  As we pulled up we could see the marker from the parking area.  The first section of the trail on the way down is a little steep.  However, if a 46-year-old guy like me can muster the energy to traverse the trail, just about anyone can.  As we approached the bottom of the hill we got our first look at Alta creek.

We love Idaho Outdoors

The area around the trail is beautiful.  There was a fire that went through this country a few years ago.  The tree canopies are wide open with lush green vegetation below.  The trail is very well maintained.  I would recommend this hike to anyone.  Take a look at some of the pictures I took.  Hopefully, you will be as impressed by this area as my wife and I was.

We had to cross Alta creek 3 times.  After the third time, we started back up another hill.  The path the trail took was very gradual.  We had no problems traveling up the ridge and then down into Elk Creek on the other side.  While we traveled into the canyon where Elk Creek is located, the canyon gradually gets wider.  As the canyon was getting wider we were finding old items and structures.

Spanish Town Antiques!

One of the best examples of old items is the camshaft in the image at the top of the page.  This camshaft was used in a stamp mill. Stamp mills were used in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s to crush or mill quartz ore into a powder.  This allowed them to run the crushed ore through a sluice box to recover gold.  The steel portions of the camshaft are still intact.  However, the wood portions of the camshaft have long since deteriorated.  

What makes this so interesting is: According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago Fraser and Chalmers (the manufacturer of the camshaft) merged with Edward P. Allis & Co. of Milwaukee in 1901 to form Allis-Chalmers Co.  So this camshaft has to be over 100 years old.

On The Trail

As we passed two log lean-to structures on the right we approached the east fork of Elk Creek.  After crossing the creek we continued up the canyon and eventually crossed Elk Creek.

Please note: if you hike into Spanish Town.  When you get to the main fork of Elk Creek which is much larger than all the surrounding creeks.  You have gone too far.  

We continued up the canyon until it started back up the hill towards James creek road to Atlanta.  After a short discussion, I figured we must have walked right by Spanish Town.  So we turned back and crossed Elk creek headed downstream.  As we were getting close to the east fork of Elk Creek we figured we would never find Spanish Town.  We were still 25 yards from the creek and my wife says “where does that trail lead”.  Well, I didn’t know, so we took a turn to the left.  There sitting right below the ridge approximately 45 yards from where Elk Creek and the East fork of Elk creek meet sat Spanish Town.

Spanish Town

I am not sure what I was expecting.  Maybe a few buildings, an old sluice maybe an old octagon bottle discolored from age.  We found none of those items.   Spanish Town is a collection of rock foundations, old siding, and roofing that has had the buildings fall down around them.  Even though there are no buildings left standing Spanish Town is still a great place to visit.  The GPS coordinates are 43.710180, -115.254206.  I hope they help the next adventurer find the Spanish Townsite.

One Last thing: Just a little note to self.  If there is a 20% chance of rain when you are out for a hike, you will spend a good portion of your hike in a torrential downpour.  

After we finally found Spanish town our entire hike back to the pickup was in a downpour.  None of that matters though.  We had a great day!

Our Motivation to Visit Spanish town

After I read the Diary of Jules Defoe.  I found an article from the Idaho Avalanche newspaper that could date right around December 1895 to January 1896 time frame.  Both of the documents (Diary of Jules Defoe “1789”) (Avalanche News Paper Article “1895 to 1896”) were talking about arrastras that are found in Idaho around the Rocky Bar / Boise basin area with no apparent settlements to explain them prior to the 1860’s.  An arrastra is an industrial-sized grinder or mortar and pestle used to crush quartz ore for gold mining.

We did not find an old arrastra when we visited Spanish Town.  We did find a steel base that could have been used for an arrastra.  However, I do not believe that an arrastra from either 1866 or 1789 would have been built with a steel base.

Take all of this information, link it to the remote location that Spanish Town is located in, and even the most UN-inquisitive person would wonder just what happened at that location in the past 250 years.  We consider our hike into Spanish Town one of the best trips of our lives.

Evaluating What We Know (Or Don’t Know)

We may never know!  As far as I know, there is no real hard evidence as to where the Diary of Jules Defoe came from.  No discoveries of Spanish prospecting tools, copper helmets, or muskets have been linked to any of these locations.  As far as we know the stories, as fantastic as they are, and as much as we would like to believe they are just that stories.

It is however very interesting that the library of Congress has an entry for Jules Defoe. Also, there are arrastras located in Idaho’s Boise basin in several locations, who is to say how old they really are?  According to The Book Southern Idaho Ghost Towns, there were 53 arrastras operating in the Boise basin in 1864.  All the mystery surrounding the Boise Basin just makes Spanish Town a more interesting place to go hiking.

According to the Idaho Historical Society Rocky Bar Spanish Legend publication, they believe it is “fantastic” to even consider anyone of Spanish speaking origin to have inhabited this area prior to 1866.

I believe that “fantastic” is a really strong word to use in this reference.  According to Wikipedia the first Spanish speaking settlement was established in Mexico in February, 1519.  Is it really such a fantastic story to believe that the Spanish explored North Western America prior to the United States settling the area.  I dont believe that this is so far fetched.

Research Sources

Research sources for this article include Rocky Bar Idaho Community on Facebook.  A special thanks to Wayne Spaerling for the use of his Cam Shaft photo.  A special thank you to Idahomojo.com for allowing us to link to their Diary of Jules Defoe and Idaho Avalanche Newspaper article.  Wikipedia, The Idaho Historical Society, the book Southern Idaho Ghost Towns <– Click on the link to get your copy today, the Encyclopedia of Chicago, and the Great Idaho Outdoors.