Eye of Idaho.com  

By 1863, A. Chapman, the first white settler to the area, had installed a ferry service across the Salmon River. In 1891, 14 years after the famous Nez Perce War here, Fenn’s stage station and hotel seeded a new town near the river, up White Bird Creek. A day's ride from both Riggins and Grangeville, it was a natural stopover. Soon White Bird flourished. At least two hotels and a rooming house rested weary travelers, and many other businesses served an eventual population surely exceeding 500.

The intervening century witnessed a tornado that sucked fish from the creek, floods, fires and a gradual decline in White Bird activity, due in part to the rerouting of both highway and economy. Communities like White Bird, which depend on extractive industries, often operate at subsistence levels. They can, as a result, experience a net outflow of young people seeking opportunity.

Having gone through an apparent “bottom,” White Bird seems again poised for change. We feel economic and social stirrings from both inside and outside the area. The new library, refurbished solely by volunteer labor and donations, is an example. It even offers free Internet access for anyone. Outside the area, the cities seem aboil with discontent. That doesn't stop people from continuing to stream into them, but many are also moving out--and some are attracted to more remote areas like White Bird.

At the same time the rural economic standbys--timber and ranch-related businesses--are in transition. Market and resource shifts in these sectors have seriously hurt some individuals, yet they create opportunity for others. As timber resources decline and recreational use of the forest gains momentum, loggers lose jobs while trail builders gain work. And the resource gets used in different ways. When the same thing happened in Oregon 20 years ago many more people suffered. Some retrained, some moved on. Today Oregon’s economy has never been better. Technology was a big factor and it offers new possibilities for outlying communities like White Bird as well. Telephone, fax and the Internet allow certain people to work anywhere they choose. Some choose White Bird.

When the U.S. economy is as good as it is right now, people travel more and buy more things--like Salmon River land. About 250 Twin River Ranch property owners are beginning to drift in. Even if only a third of them actually live here, the population of White Bird could double. Some White Bird residents welcome the change and the newcomers, some shun them. There will be good and bad with the change, as there was good and bad about the way things were. Both sets of people will likely benefit, though, newcomers gaining insight from the locals and vice versa. The people aren’t different, they have just lived in different ways. Hopefully we can assimilate some advantages of both ways.

This area will never become a thriving center for anything but outdoor adventures and good living. The economic base is simply not here. Most locals, and even the newcomers, would have it no other way. The growth that we do see coming will likely be healthy, not oppressive. One thing is sure--there’s no stopping it.