Buffalo Pit

The giants are what kept the Elk City district alive after its first years. The 1863 season, with new ditches dug, was a poor one, but with hydraulic giants a small number of miners could work a great deal of placer ground. After 1872 Chinese miners predominated on the placers. Estimates of the district's placer gold run from ten to eighteen and a half million dollars. Buffalo Gulch, behind the pit's name, was mined again in the late twentieth century, as the Buffalo Gulch mine.

What the plaque says

Buffalo Pit An exceptionally large hydraulic pit, left by massive placer mining in this area, still can be seen 1 mile from here. Buffalo company miners using hydraulic giants--large metal hoses with nozzles that could direct a stream of water under high pressure--cut away a large hillside deposit of placer gold. Long ditches and flumes were employed to bring water in at an elevation sufficient to gain pressure enough to operate their giants. 370 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Nez Perce Trail — 2.0 mi
• Elk City — 2.0 mi