In 1855, the Latter Day Saints church attempted to establish a mission near present day Salmon. For a variety of reason, this attempt failed. In 1858, the settlement was abandoned and the pioneers returned to Utah. This rare early Idaho Mormon song was written at the mission by Israel Justice Clark, one of the original pioneers. It is one of the earliest known songs written in Idaho Territory. Lyrics (but no melody) are in Clark's autobiography and diary (MS 1219) in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. We are grateful to BYU archivists Russ Taylor and Kristi Young for making the lyrics available. Marv Quinton imagined that he was in Fort Limhi on a long, cold winter night and wrote a melody to match the scene and the lyrics. His rendition is given here, with his guitar accompanying his voice.

The authoritative study of early Idaho mining songs was performed by Rob McIntyre during his masters thesis work (University of Idaho, 1993). Among the numerous fiddle tunes that Rob evaluated is Sanburn Schottische, most likely written by Jay Rand Sanburn near Florence in 1862. Sanburn Schottische is one of the earliest songs written within present day Idaho that can clearly be attributed to a specific writer. The rendition here is a field recording of Boise fiddler Aaron Fewkes with guitar accompaniment by Gary Eller.