The Old Toll Road

The road began as the Army's. Soldiers from Fort Boise cut a road in 1863 high above Cottonwood Gulch and across McRay's Gap to their sawmill, and it gave the new town beside the fort a more direct way to the Basin than the Highland Valley route, which won a legislative franchise on January 29, 1864. Both soon charged tolls. A traveler in October 1864 found the climb to the gap badly in need of work. The last tollgate on the Idaho City end came down in 1907, after the county bought it for $4,250.

What the plaque says

The Old Toll Road To Idaho City crossed the ridge from Boise through the lowest point you can see, in the skyline across the valley. Climbing the More's creek canyon wall, it crossed this highway about here and swung north. The road was built and stage service began in 1864 when Idaho City was the largest town in the Pacific Northwest. Even though the road was shorter than today's highway, it was a long, hard day's trip from Boise to Idaho City. A stage from this run is in the State Museum in Boise. 266 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Idaho Penitentiary — 8.9 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 — 11 mi
  Walls hauled from the prison quarry, heat pumped from 3,000 feet down, and its newest rooms built underground.
• Basque Block — 11 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 — 15 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

• More's Creek — 2.5 mi
• Arrowrock Dam — 2.5 mi
• Grimes' Creek — 7.1 mi
• Beaver Dick's Ferry — 7.6 mi