Herbert R. McDowell was born 7 December 1915 in the Boise Valley. When he was six years old he moved with his family from Pearl, Idaho to Warren, Idaho. In 1936, he married Bessie Ellen Carpenter and they lived in Warren while Herb worked in the Rescue Gold Mine. Throughout the 1940's they lived in Bayview, Idaho, and Portland, Oregon before returning to Warren where Herb had purchased a ranch at Big Canyon. In 1951, he sold the ranch and purchased a farm at Culdesac, Idaho. He and his wife would remain in Culdesac until his death 26 January 1998.[1]
Herb had an interest in the history of his hometown Warren, which led to him interviewing residents of the area throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1997, Terry Abraham and Priscilla Wegars borrowed 15 reel-to-reel tapes from the McDowells and converted those that were relevant to Idaho history into audio cassettes.
Warren, Idaho was established in 1862 when James Warren and 17 miners discovered gold.[2] In 1869, miners in Warren voted to open the district to Chinese immigrants allowing them to buy claims or lease the rights to placer operations. Up until that point, exclusionary laws prohibited Chinese miners from owning and working claims. In the following years, around 1200 Chinese individuals moved into Warren to rework the already mined placers.[3] Between 1870 and 1900, Chinese workers and miners were the majority in the area, outnumbering other ethnic groups at a ratio of 3 to 1.[4]
This collection consists of 10 cassette tapes containing oral histories collected by Herb McDowell between 1964 and 1972, though many of the cassettes are undated. Also included are partial transcripts of the interviews created by Priscilla Wegars in 1997 when the interviews were transferred to audio cassette tapes. The oral histories were conducted with individuals who lived in the area around Warren, Idaho and Culdesac, Idaho and contain information about life in the towns and the residents that lived there. Notable subjects of interest include the Chinese population of Warren, including Polly Bemis and discussion of Native Americans in the areas. There is also discussion of everyday life and businesses of the areas.
Collection is open for research.
On 12 April 1997 Terry Abraham and Priscilla Wegars visted Herb and Bessie McDowell at their home. There Abraham and Wegars borrowed 15 reel-to-reel tapes from the McDowells; these were later augmented by an additional tape brought from Culdesac to Moscow by Hiroaki Kawamura. The McDowells described the tapes as being of interviews Herb did with various area "old-timers." The tapes were borrowed in order to copy, onto cassette tapes, any that might be relevant to Idaho history. The copying was done primarily at the University of Idaho Media Center during the summer of 1997. Wegars did the legwork and partial transcriptions, and the University of Idaho Library Special Collections paid for the blank tapes and for studio time at Washington State University to listen to seven, three-inch tapes that turned out to contain nothing. Cassette tape copies of all the reel-to-reel tapes were made for the McDowells, and the original were returned to them. The University of Idaho Library Special Collections has copies of these tapes.
[Description of Item], Herb McDowell oral histories, MG 490, Special Collections and Archives, University of Idaho Library, Moscow, ID.
Materials donated by Priscilla Wegars in 1997 (MA 1997-40).
[1] "Herbert R. McDowell, 82, Culdesac Rancher | Northwest | Lmtribune.Com." The Lewiston Tribune, 28 Jan. 1998, https://lmtribune.com/northwest/herbert-r-mcdowell-82-culdesac-rancher/article_2855b0d5-8a2d-51c3-b391-b5c8354c0a87.html.
[2] Burton, Greg. "Until the next Big Gold Strike, Warren Will Be Idaho's Inhabited Ghost Town | | Lmtribune.Com." The Lewiston Tribune, 24 July 1994, https://lmtribune.com/until-the-next-big-gold-strike-warren-will-be-idahos-inhabited-ghost-town/article_eb4cbdb7-0084-57f8-865a-590de6cc1c05.html/?&logged_out=1.
[3] National Register of Historic Places, Chinese Cemetary, Warren, Idaho County, Idaho, National Register #94000270.
[4] "Warren Idaho." Western Mining History, https://westernmininghistory.com/towns/idaho/warren_id/. Accessed 2 Sept. 2020.
Works Cited