Archives West Finding Aid

Earl K. Parrott (1869-1945) was known as "The Hermit of Impassable Canyon." He lived in the Salmon River country of Idaho for more than forty years, many of which were spent alone in a remote cabin high above the Middle Fork. A native of Iowa, he appears to have come to Idaho by 1900 and made his living by prospecting, hunting, and farming. His name appears in local records occasionally until the 1920s, after which he appears to have lived a life of seclusion and obscurity as a hermit.

He achieved some unwanted publicity in 1936 when Dr. R.G. Frazier of Utah came upon him while part of a boating expedition down the Salmon River. Frazier wrote of his encounter with Parrott in articles published in Field & Stream and the Salt Lake City Desert News. After that, Parrott was called upon by river rafting expeditions. His brother Allen, of Portland, Oregon, read an excerpt of Frazier's article printed in the Portland Oregonian. Out of touch with his brother for decades, and unsure if indeed the character Frazier described was his brother, he hired a packer and made the long arduous trip into the Middle Fork country and saw Earl Parrott for the first time since he had come to Idaho forty years before.

In 1942 Parrott became ill and left his mountain retreat to live with others. He died in Salmon, Idaho, in 1945. His grave marker records a birth date of 1865, and he gave conflicting figures whenever asked his age, but family records indicate Parrott was born in 1869.