Cariboo Mountain

The name came south with the prospectors. Jesse Fairchild, John Keenan and their partners had worked the Cariboo diggings in British Columbia, and Fairchild's yarns about that country earned him the nickname that went onto this mountain, Caribou City beside Keenan City, and later a county and a national forest, most of them in the more common spelling. Chinese miners worked claims beside white miners here for most of the camp's life. Fairchild is buried in the Fairview Cemetery at Soda Springs, where a memorial to him was dedicated in 1996.

What the plaque says

Cariboo Mountain Rising to an elevation of more than 9,800 feet Cariboo Mountain--visible north of here--has two of Idaho's highest gold camps. Jesse "Cariboo Jack" Fairchild discovered gold high on Cariboo Mountain in August, 1870, and a mining rush from Utah followed in September. Production continued for two decades before the gold ran out. Millions of dollars worth of gold were taken from the gravels during that long period of successful mining. 433 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Soda Springs Geyser — 25 mi
  Drillers looking for hot water for a swimming pool hit cold soda water under pressure. The town put the geyser on a timer.

More markers nearby

• John Grey — steps away
• Hooper Spring — 25 mi
• Camp Connor — 25 mi
• Soda Springs — 25 mi