The Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railroad

The Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railroad was a 29.55-mile line from Nampa to Murphy commissioned by Colonel William H. Dewey in the late 1800s to carry gold and silver from Silver City to Nampa. The railway also was used to haul livestock out of the Owyhee County and to haul supplies into the Owyhee Mountains.  

Construction of the Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railway began in 1896. By February 1897 tracks extended from the main depot in Nampa to the Snake River.  Construction of the railroad involved 100 teams of horses and 400 men when the rail reached the river.

The town of Guffey, north of the river, was the first terminus on the Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railway until the Guffey Bridge was completed.  The Guffey railroad bridge was named after an investor from Pittsburgh, the Honorable J.M Guffey.  Guffey had a financial interest in Colonel William H.  Dewey’s Florida Mountain Mining Company, and he provided financial backing for the bridge and the Boise, Nampa, and Owyhee Railway.  Guffey later became one of the founders of Gulf Oil Corporation.  It is not known whether Guffey ever visited the bridge named in his honor.

The first train crossed the Guffey Bridge on September 27, 1897, carrying two carloads of lumber from Caldwell. The Guffey Bridge was the only Parker-through-truss bridge in Idaho, and it was the first bridge to connect Canyon and Owyhee Counties. The bridge was built with 450 tons of steel from Pennsylvania and cost $76,943 in 1897.  The bridge piers were the highest of their kind in the country at the time.  The bridge spans 500 feet over the river.  Height from the river to the top of bridge is 97 feet, and distance from rail to water was 50 feet. 

The first train pulled into Murphy on July 10, 1899. The town of Murphy, the final terminus of the line, was named after Cornelius (Con) Murphy, a mining engineer, the boss of the railroad construction crew, and a personal friend of Colonel Dewey’s.  Murphy was the end of the line, and a wye track was constructed north of Murphy to facilitate turning of the train so it could return to Nampa.  The well that was used for the steam engines is still used for part of Murphy’s water supply.

The train running on the Boise, Nampa & Owyhee line became known as “Sagebrush Annie.”  The steam locomotive pulled up to 10 stock, freight, and passenger cars.  The train left Nampa each morning, made several stops on the way to Murphy, had a short lay-over in Murphy, and then returned to Nampa. Locals could tell the time of day from the passing train. The train was not very fast.  The speed limit for freight trains on the lightweight rails was 20 mph.  It was said every time the locomotive blew its whistle it had to stop and build up more steam to continue!

Colonel William H. Dewey’s original plan was for the Boise, Nampa & Owyhee railroad to continue from Murphy up to the towns of Silver City, Dewey, and De Lamar in the Owyhee Mountains. From there he hoped to run the rail line along the backside of the Owyhee range to Jordan Valley and connect with the Southern Pacific line in Winnemucca Nevada.  By the time the line reached Murphy, the mines were in decline, and it would not have been profitable to construct the railroad all the way up the mountain. So the tracks ended in Murphy.

After the mining boom, railroad cars shifted from hauling ore to hauling livestock and other agricultural goods like sugar beets.  The first shipment of cattle left shortly after the line was completed to Murphy in 1899.  By 1914 the Murphy Stockyards became the largest shipping point for livestock in the Pacific Northwest. In that year alone there were 462 cars of stock shipped; 279 of sheep, 179 of cattle, and 4 of horses.

On 29 July 1912 Locomotive #611 left Murphy pulling 9 double-deck stock cars carrying 1,800 sheep. The engineer, E.M. Jacobs, was experienced, but this was his first trip on the downhill grade to Guffey. The train was going too fast on the “S” turn near the Snake River.  The locomotive jumped the track and fell on its side, with cars piling up behind it.   Brakeman L.V. Evans was killed; Jacobs and 3 other men were seriously injured.  Many of the sheep died on the scene.

The Boise, Nampa & Owyhee railroad was absorbed by Idaho Northern in 1907.  The 1912 sheep wreck caused significant financial damage so it was taken over by the Oregon Short Line in 1913, after which it became known as the Murphy Branch line. 

Daily passenger service to Murphy was discontinued in 1942.  By 1947, shipping animals out of Murphy was no longer profitable for the railroad. The Murphy portion of the line was abandoned in 1947.  In the 1950s, trucks and highways became the dominant mode of transportation.  The last train left Melba in 1994, and all rails were torn out in that same year.  

One of the last trains into Murphy brought stock cars full of elk to be released into the Owyhee Mountains to replenish the herds. Once the elk were unloaded, ranchers drove them out of town and up into the hills. It was the last big hurrah for the railroad in Murphy.

After the section of railroad south of the river was abandoned, Guffey Bridge was sold to Owyhee County for $1 in 1948.  Owyhee County sold it to the Idaho Historical Society in the 1970s.  Canyon County purchased the bridge in 1989 to include it in what later became Celebration Park.  The bridge has been refurbished so that pedestrians, equestrians, and bicyclists can use it to cross the Snake River.  The Guffey Bridge is the state’s largest historic artifact and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.