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The Village of Craigmont records

 Collection
Identifier: MG 102

Content Description

The three boxes of papers in this group span the years 1927 to 1974, with the decades of the 1950's and 60's being the best represented. They include such items as audit reports, monthly and yearly financial reports, traffic citations, abstracts of court cases, bids for sewer and water projects, applications for building permits, liquor and beer licenses, and slot machine licenses, employee work sheets, minutes of the planning commission meetings and newspaper clippings of official notices.

Each series in this collection is described in detail in the following Description of Series.

Dates

  • Creation: 1921-1969

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Biographical / Historical

The Village of Craigmont, located in Lewis County in the center of the Camas Prairie wheat section, is a major wheat shipping point in the state of Idaho. It is on the main Federal-State north and south highway (U.S. 95), approximately 45 miles south and east of Lewiston, Idaho. It is served by the Camas Prairie Railroad. In 1955 the population of Craigmont was about six hundred; by 1965 it had grown to around seven hundred.

This small town has an interesting history. On November 18, 1895 the Nez Perce Indian Reservation was opened for settlement; by 1898 there were 60 lots in a little townsite called Chicago. The first building was a general store which changed hands several times during its first year of existence, and was eventually bought by O.W. Leggett who established the first permanent business in the new town. From 1898 to 1902 the town grew rapidly and new businesses were established. The United States Post Office often confused Chicago, Idaho with Chicago, Illinois, and mail for one was frequently sent to the other; often these mix-ups caused delay in receipt of much needed replacement parts for farm machinery required by the Idaho farmers. In 1902 or 1903 Leggett, who was a notary in Chicago, had the town renamed for his older daughter, Ilo, thus ending the confusion.

In 1904 a fire destroyed most of the town, but residents soon had it rebuilt. From 1907 to 1909 the Camas Prairie Railroad extended its tracks south from Lewiston, but the tracks were a mile from the Ilo townsite. To remedy this situation the residents moved the entire town to the south side of the tracks, the present location of the town of Craigmont.

At the same time John Vollmer, a Lewiston businessman, built a townsite named for himself on the opposite side of the tracks. Thus there were two towns, each with its own church, bank, newspaper, school, post office, business and residential districts existing side by side in complete disharmony, each town trying to out do the other.

This state of affairs continued until the two towns were finally consolidated on June 17, 1920. At the annual picnic on June 18 a mock wedding was performed and "Miss Ilo" and "Mr. Vollmer" were united and pronounced CRAIGMONT, the new town being named after Colonel William Craig, the first permanent white settler in Idaho.

Extent

5.5 linear feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Ordinances, financial records, minutes, public works projects reports, applications for building permits, and other records.

Title
Guide to The Village of Craigmont records
Status
Completed
Author
Finding aid prepared by Judith Nielsen; updated by Sara Szobody.
Date
1980, 2021
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Repository Details

Part of the University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives Repository