Editing Camas County, Idaho (section)

==History==
Native presence on the Camas Prairie dates back over 11,000 years ago. The Shoshoni, Northern Piute, and Nez Perce migrated annually to the Camas Prairie to gather camas and yampa for their winter food storage. Explorer, Donald Mackenzie discovered the Camas Prairie by 1820 and the area slowly grew in importance as a travel route. Military escorts for wagon trains headed to Oregon started using the route through the Camas Prairie in 1852. The route was later named Goodale Cutoff, for Timothy Goodale who first brought migrants through the Camas Prairie in 1862. When the cavalry was stationed at [[Fort Boise]] the southern portion of the Camas Prairie was an important feeding ground for their horses. In 1869, a treaty ratified by the US Senate provided a portion of the "Kansas Prairie" instead of the "Camas Prairie" to be retained by the [[Bannock Indians]]. The error may have made by the person who transcribed the treaty. Since there was no "Kansas Prairie" in Idaho, the treaty rights of the Bannocks were ignored. When they found a few settlers were allowing their hogs to feed on the Bannocks' traditional food source, the camas root, they objected (without results), which was a major cause of the [[Bannock War]] of 1878.<ref>{{Cite web |title=idahohistory.net |url=http://www.idahohistory.net/Reference%20Series/0474.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071108025352/http://www.idahohistory.net/Reference%20Series/0474.pdf |archive-date=November 8, 2007 |access-date=April 4, 2018 |website=www.idahohistory.net |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Camas Prairie (Camas County) |url=https://history.idaho.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/reference-series/0312.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170210171633/https://history.idaho.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/reference-series/0312.pdf |archive-date=February 10, 2017 |access-date=February 5, 2017 |website=Idaho State Historical Society |publisher=Idaho State Historical Society}}</ref>

The Camas Prairie was initially entirely within Alturas County when initial settlement started following the Bannock War. While the Lava mining district near Fairfield was active in the 1880s, Camas County's settlements were primarily agricultural.<ref>*{{Cite book |last=Fisher |first=Vardis |author-link=Vardis Fisher |title=Idaho Encyclopedia |last2=Federal Writers' Project |author-link2=Federal Writers' Project |publisher=Caxton Printers, Ltd |year=1938 |location=[[Caldwell, Idaho]] |pages=249–251 |oclc=962624}}</ref> By the fall of 1881, over 60 farming operations were in existence. Town settlements at Crichton and Soldier occurred almost simultaneously in 1884. Corral was settled no later than 1886.<ref>{{Cite web |title=McCarter Family History |url=http://www.mccarterfamily.com/mccarterpage/stories/mccarter_family_history/1into.htm |access-date=February 5, 2017 |website=McCarter Family History}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Maps of Camas Prairie and Corral Creek |url=http://www.mccarterfamily.com/mccarterpage/stories/idaho_cowboy/maps_camas.htm |access-date=February 5, 2017 |website=McCarter Family History}}</ref> The Camas Prairie became part of Logan County when it was formed in 1889 with the mountainous area north of the prairie remaining within Alturas County. At the 1890 Census, Alturas County contained the Little Smoky precinct with 95 residents while Logan County contained the Corral, Crichton, Soldier, and Spring Creek precincts with a combined population of 805. In 1891, the Idaho Legislature attempted to transfer all five Camas precincts to a new county named Alta. The Idaho Supreme Court found the act unconstitutional. Blaine County included all five Camas precincts when it was organized in 1895. The settlement at Crichton was abandoned in 1896. The decline at Crichton, led to a slight decline to 836 residents within the five Camas precincts at the 1890 census. By 1910, the precincts more than doubled to reach a population of 1,804 residents. A railroad reached the Camas Prairie in 1911 and ran through what is now Fairfield. The railroad's arrival led the majority of settlement in Soldier to locate to what became known as Fairfield.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Idaho Atlas of Historical County Boundaries |date=2010 |publisher=The Newberry Library |location=Chicago |pages=10–11, 12, 17, 36, 65, 137}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/reportonpopulati00unit |title=Report on Population of the United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890 |date=1895 |publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington |pages=[https://archive.org/details/reportonpopulati00unit/page/99 99]–100}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Census Reports Volume I: Twelfth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1900 |date=1901 |publisher=United States Census Office |location=Washington |page=111}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Thirteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1910: Volume II |date=1913 |publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington |page=414}}</ref>