Gibbonsville

The town is named for Colonel John Gibbon, and the year is the point. In August 1877 his soldiers attacked a sleeping Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) camp at the Big Hole, about thirty miles away across the divide, and many of the dead were women, children and old people. That same year miners struck the lode here, and when the settlement formally became a town, it took his name. Gibtown, as it was called, grew to about 600 miners and more than a hundred buildings. About a hundred people live here still; the post office closed in 2024.

What the plaque says

Gibbonsville British investment in a large Gibbonsville mine after 1880 made this an important gold camp until 1899. Discovery of a major lode here in 1877 and construction of a good wagon road to a Utah and Northern Railway terminal in Montana brought prosperity when mining was not suspended because of litigation. With close to 100 buildings, two saw mills, a roller mill, five stamp mills, a newspaper, and six to eight saloons, Gibbonsville produced about $2,000,000 in gold. 243 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Nez Perce Trail — 4.7 mi
• Lewis and Clark — 8.4 mi
• Lewis and Clark — 10 mi
• Fort Bonneville — 21 mi