In its early days, Idaho was a crazy place with a multitude of ways to strike it rich … some legitimate, some not. Bank robberies and bandits, stagecoach heists and holdups, and stories about missing loot still waiting to be rediscovered echo through Gem State lore.
“Everything that people watched in movies with cowboys and Indians, stagecoach robberies—those things happened here. It was a crazy place in the 1860s to be in southern and eastern Idaho,” says historian Justin Smith.
Idaho’s Lost Treasures (airing Thursday, May 30, at 8:30 PM and Sunday, June 2, at 7:30 PM on Idaho Public Television) dives into tales of sunken silver ore in Lake Coeur d’Alene, Butch Cassidy’s legendary heist in Montpelier, and a crooked sheriff’s daring robbery of a stagecoach in Bannock County.
Historian Jeff Wade tells us, “Robbing the stagecoach was a big risk. But think about $75,000 back then. [That’s] about four million dollars today.”
And then there’s the mysterious Chief Bigfoot, a man as legendary as his mythical counterpart, who supposedly stashed loot in the Owyhees. “They would find these large footprints up to 17 and a half inches long, about seven inches wide,” says Wade.
While these stories live on, is there actually treasure hidden in Idaho’s deserts and lakes? Find out on Idaho Experience. Idaho’s Lost Treasures airs Thursday, May 30, at 8:30 PM and Sunday, June 2, at 7:30 PM. It will be available for streaming at video.idahoptv.org beginning May 30.
Idaho Experience is made possible with funding from the James and Barbara Cimino Foundation, Anne Voillequé and Louise Nelson, Judy and Steve Meyer, the Friends of Idaho Public Television, the Idaho Public Television Endowment, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.