More's Creek

He was not born with the name. The state historical society traces him to John N. Moore of Anderson County, Tennessee, who took some care to hide where he came from. The camp his party founded in 1862 was called Bannock City until the territorial legislature renamed it Idaho City in 1863. He died rich and badly: on April 1, 1868, days after the Owyhee War ended, a Golden Chariot man named Sam Lockhart shot him in a street quarrel outside the Idaho Hotel in Silver City. Masons carried him back to Idaho City for burial.

What the plaque says

More's Creek Is named for J. Marion More, leader of the party of miners who founded Idaho City, October 7, 1862. Like most of Idaho's early miners, he came originally from the South. Unlike most of them, he struck it rich. During the Idaho gold rush, he had profitable investments in many important mining camps. Hardly anyone else did as much to build Idaho during the early days. 318 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Idaho Penitentiary — 8.2 mi
  A territorial prison that ran for 101 years on conditions that barely changed, and closed the year its prisoners burned it.
• Idaho State Capitol — 10 mi
  Walls hauled from the prison quarry, heat pumped from 3,000 feet down, and its newest rooms built underground.
• Basque Block — 10 mi
  A merchant's 1864 brick house became the boardinghouse where herders from the Basque Country found beds, meals and their own language.
• World Center for Birds of Prey — 14 mi
  The hilltop where the peregrine falcon was bred back from DDT, and where condors for the Grand Canyon country still hatch.

More markers nearby

• Arrowrock Dam — steps away
• The Old Toll Road — 2.5 mi
• Beaver Dick's Ferry — 5.7 mi
• The Oregon Trail — 5.7 mi