Pierce Courthouse

Before 1862 Shoshone County had no building of its own. The commissioners met and court sat in rented rooms, and private citizens were paid to feed and house prisoners, until that May the commissioners authorized a courthouse and jail. It went up two stories of hewn logs. After 1885 it was a family home, and the National Register nomination records a daughter born in the old jail. Pierce long claimed to be Idaho's oldest town as well, until research showed Franklin was settled months earlier. The state historical society keeps it with Pierce's logging museum.

What the plaque says

Pierce Courthouse Shoshone County's original courthouse--and Idaho's earliest public building--still stands in Pierce, where it was built in 1862. Although Pierce gained a large population for a year after gold was discovered here in 1860, most miners soon moved on to other camps. By 1880, Shoshone County had only 469 people left, of whom 296 were Chinese. When a new gold rush 80 miles farther north led to removal of county government to Murray in 1885, Pierce's courthouse became a private home. Eventually preserved by Mrs. Henry Spencer Lawson, it now is a component of Nez Perce National Historical Park. 346 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Weippe Prairie — 11 mi
  Where the Nimiipuu decided what to do with Clark's starving men, and fed them camas until they were sick.
• Heart of the Monster — 22 mi
  Where the Nimiipuu say their story begins: Coyote, a monster, and the heart he tore loose, still on the Clearwater's bank.

More markers nearby

• Canal Gulch — steps away
• Oro Fino City — 1.0 mi
• Chinese Hanging — 1.7 mi
• Lewis and Clark — 11 mi