Springtown Gold Mining Camp Site Snake River Canyon ca. 1870-1883

Snake River Canyon near Twin Falls, where an extensive multi-year archaeological survey is underway to “adequately record, for future preservation and protection, each cultural resource’s geographic position, physical characteristics, and scientific, historic, archeological, architectural, traditional, education, conservation, and interpretative values.”

The project is led by the Twin Falls County Historic Preservation Commission (TFCHPC), Idaho State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), and Cannon Heritage Consultants (CHC), with the goal of documenting and nominating the area as an Archaeological Mining Historic District to the National Register based on its significance in illustrating the contributions of southern Idaho’s Chinese immigrant community.

The Chinese were among the earliest non-indigenous people to settle in what is now the Magic Valley of south-central Idaho. Chinese workers were instrumental in the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, as well as many other vital regional rail lines throughout the West. Chinese immigrants, like many of their enterprising compatriots, were drawn by the siren song of the California Gold Rush. When gold was discovered in the Snake River Canyon in 1870, it was no surprise that Chinese miners took to the treacherous terrain to seek their fortune. In fact, following California, Idaho’s Chinese community was the second largest in the West.

The population of the community peaked at approximately 4,000 people in the 1870s, then declined to 2,000 people in the 1890s, likely due anti-Chinese sentiment during this time period. A newspaper clipping from April 1905 in the Twin Falls Weekly News tells of a Chinese visitor who is taken to dinner by a group from the local community and subsequently stranded on a vessel in the middle of the Snake River for the night. In the morning, he was taken to the north bank of the river, asked to leave, and to tell other people from the Chinese community that they were not welcome in Twin Falls.

Despite the rampant anti-Chinese sentiment, as many as 500 Chinese worked mining claims in the Snake River Canyon from 1871 to the early 1880s, and there is significant evidence of agriculture and transportation infrastructure built by other Chinese settlers to help support the mining concerns. These elements were foundational not only for the Chinese workers, but also allowed Twin Falls and the broader region to support a growing population.

The center of the community was Springtown, the largest and most important mining camp in the region, which became known as “the metropolis of the river” between 1870 and 1883. The rise of Springtown coincided with the transition from a Euro-American workforce to Chinese immigrants, which led to the exclusion of Springtown and its predominantly Chinese population from contemporary journals and newspapers.

With the lack of contemporary sources, we must rely on archaeological efforts such as this to enhance our understanding of the Springtown site and its representation of the immigrant experience. Initially surveyed and recorded in 1990, CHC will build upon previous work with the help of modern LiDAR and drones to further extend and define National Register-eligible sites of significance. This technology is especially important, as Springtown remains rugged and remote – accessible only by the same trail used by the miners during the 1870s. The site’s features have been subject to the natural elements of time and weather and are often covered by dense brush and vines. In addition, the Idaho Transportation Department has stated a need to widen the Hansen Bridge sometime in the future. Any bridge construction could have adverse, even destructive, impacts on vulnerable site features of the site, so it is imperative to establish the site with the National Register to ensure the ongoing integrity of the underexplored site.

In the Spring of 2024, with funding from an IHT Heritage Grant, CHC conducted a survey of previously recorded Mon-Tung site, which was initially excavated in 1989. In addition to updating data on known points of interest, five new mining areas with evidence of Chinese and Depression-era mining activities were discovered and documented.

In 2025, TFCHPC was awarded another Heritage Grant to help fund a survey to extend the boundaries of the existing mining district to include Springtown and the surrounding Chinese mining sites. We are pleased to report that the survey is underway as of June 2026. Dr. Kenneth Cannon, President of CHC with 35 years of archaeological experience in the Intermountain West, continues to lead this phase of the project, and it is thanks to him you get a peek at the photos we share today.

For more information please contact the Twin Falls County Historic Preservation Commission and visit their website at https://www.tfid.org/121/Historic-Preservation-Commission