Dr. Ellis Kackley, a well known physician in Caribou County, is still remembered by some residents, even though he died in 1943. He was the county’s first licensed physician. Wayan writer Ellen Carney recorded the highlights of Kackley’s life in a book, “ Ellis Kackley, Best Damn Doctor in the West”. A couple of stories that follow were taken from the book and tell about the notoriously hard winters Kackley and his wife, Idah experienced.
Ellis’ horses were good snow horses. They could feel the packing of the snow on the road under their feet, but one day when he was coming home from out by the Blackfoot River in a nasty, cold blizzard, they started falling off the road. During the winter the settlers cut the fence lines, and made the roads the shortest distance possible. They were staked with willows, and drivers would hold their buggy whip out as they drove along. If it hit the willows, they knew they were on the road.
Ellis stopped, got out and checked the horses to see what was wrong. They had gotten so cold, their eyelids were frosted down, and they seemed to be relying solely on horse sense, or their animal instinct, to stay on the road. Ellis leaned against the side of each horse;s head until he had the animal warmed up enough to get its eyes open, and finally made it home.
One horse had frozen the whole side of its head, and in a few days all the hair started falling out of that side. It was a hard winter that year, and Ellis and Ida would both be glad when spring came. (picture of Ellis Kackley)
One January afternoon in 1907, Ida picked up the local newspaper, The Idaho Chieftain. “Listen to this, Ellis , she said, reading from its pages. “ Sunday’s snowstorm caused many problems. People walking home over well-known routes were obliged to follow. fences, etc. in order to keep their course and at times it was impossible to see at all…”
“That’s for sure”, agreed Ellis. “ It was the worst storm I’ve ever seen”. Dr. Kackley was out in most of the storms and had a rather hard time of it…”That’s putting it mildly, Ellis said , walking behind his chair and looking over her shoulder.
“ While trying to get home from the Valley, he was blown out of his rig twice, at one time landing against a fence with such force that his big fur coat was all that prevented a broken arm. He spent over an hour finding the bridge across Bear River at Grace and about the same time finding a crossing at Soda Creek. His team was blown down once and was so exhausted that they lay still for some time before attempting to get on their feet. The Doctor finally made his way home, exhausted in both mind and body.”
“The second time I was blown out of the sled, I almost didn’t make it, “ noted Ellis. “ I was lucky I was near that huge culvert under the railroad by Davisville and could crawl into it until I recovered enough from the chill of the wind to find the horses and get them back on the road and to crawl back into the sled. I’ve had some mighty close calls, but that’s the closest Iever came to freezing to death except maybe that time I got lost out by Henry.” He paused a moment , lost in his own reflections, then continued: “ Ashler and his cronies won’t have to worry about me if I get into many storms like that.”
The sled was a double bob, open sled, and offered no protection from the terrible blizzard. . When Ida, who was waiting up for him, had heard the sleigh bells, she had run out to the barn to help him unhitch the horses.
“When that team came home, I thought they had come without you,” she said. “Then I found you lying there in the sled bottom, the lines clasped in stiff hands, and you were barely conscious.” She paused then continued earnestly, “ Oh Ellis, I worry so much about you when you’re out on a call and a bad storm comes up. It seems to me like every time the weather gets bad, that’s when people get sick or hurt.”
“ Don’t worry, Ida, the Good Lord always guides me home, one way or another”
“ Well, let’s not press our luck,” said Ida.
When winter snows blanketed the earth again, Ellis got a call from Grays Lake saying he was needed by a miner from Carriboo who was wintering in the hotel at Herman. Mining had declined at the Carriboo mines to where only a few people were still engaged in trying to make their fortune on the mountain. The once-busy Carriboo City, which for a short time had competed with Eagle Rock for being the larget city in Southeastern Idaho, had been destroyed by fire, and all that remained was the Greenhouse Hotel, and a few other buildings, including the powder house, a whorehouse and a small summer tent city. Keenan City on the other side of the mountain had also become a ghost town. (picture of the old Kackley residence from a 1908 photo and a picture of the Newlyweds Ellis and Ida Kackley, 1885.)
Miners who still persisted in trying to get the elusive treasure of the mountain came in the early spring as soon as the ice melted in the streams. Then water was available to use the hydraulic water guns, with which they washed away at the mountainside, reducing it to a pile of gravel and dirt, which was washed through sluice boxes to collect the precious metal They left in the late summer, when the water in streams was too low to continue the placer mining, some just going a few miles down the mountain to the settlements of Herman and Eagle Creek to winter in the hotels there, and return early in the spring to pursue their dream of striking it rich.
Ellis headed north, though the snow was swirling and a cold wind was blowing into his face. He stopped at Winschell’s Store, warmed himself, and had a sandwich and some hot coffee. “It’s a helluva day to go out there,” said Bill, looking concerned.
“Accidents and illness never pick a convenient time to strike,” said Ellis. “If I’m needed, I’ll get there in spite of the weather. I haven’t been in so much trouble since you taught me how to dress for the cold when I was a greenhorn. You saved my life that time. God knows I would have frozen to death if it hadn’t been for your hospitality.”
He stopped talking and his mouth twisted into a wry grin as he continued, “ I wondered what in the hell was coming off when you told me to go in that back room and take all my clothes off.”
Bill laughed heartily, “Well, I’ll fix you up with a fresh team, but be careful. People who have been here a helluva lot longer that you have frozen to death out there. You’ve probably heard what happened to Tom Crane and his wife a few years back. He had a store and saloon at Keenan City, on the western slope of Carriboo mountain. They were returning from spending most of the winter out of the area, and got lost in a storm. She froze solid and he ended up having to have both feet amputated. You have to look out for yourself. A dead Doctor isn’t worth much.”
Ellis made it to Herman and treated an old miner, who paid him with three $20 gold pieces. He stayed overnight in the hotel, and started back for town early the next morning. He might have been tempted to start, and try to get at least part way that night, but the horses were exhausted, and he remembered Bill’s story about the Crane family.
The early-morning air the next day was cold and breezy, and Ellis hadn’t gone far before he was in a blizzard, which became increasingly worse as he neared Henry.
He was anxious to get back to his office, and his growing practice. “You can’t go anywhere in this storm,” Bill advised, “You’d better just settle down and enjoy yourself until it clears off. I’ve got an empty room you can have ‘till you can get out of here.”” Bill said, shaking his head.
“I’ve got to get back to town, I have patients there who need to be taken care of, “ insisted Ellis. “ Do you have a pair of snowshoes around the place somewhere?”
Bill shook his head again, and went for the snowshoes. He hated to see the doctor out on a road like that, but he’d have a better chance of making it on snowshoes than with the horses. He brought back the best pair ha had and reluctantly handed them over. “Be careful, doc,” he urged.
Ellis started toward town, and as he trudged along, he found himself becoming more and more exhausted. He found the three $20 gold pieces in his pocket irritated him, and the longer he traveled, the heavier they seemed. “ What good is gold anyway? He asked himself. “ It’s good to buy food and shelter, but it doesn’t help much to have more money than what you can use for basic needs.”
Money had lost a lot of its value since he had enough to live a little more comfortably on. “ It has no effect on life and death to have more than one needs,” he thought, as the gold pieces rubbed against, and galled his groin.
A lone fencepost came into view near the Blackfoot River Bridge. Some fellow had tried to fence this area off once but went broke, and all that remained of the effort was a fencepost here and there. As he approached it, he reached into his pocket and removed the three gold, inert pieces of money, and put them on top of the post. He couldn’t believe how much better he felt, as he continued on with empty pockets. He would check to see if it was still there when he went by the next time. He continued on home, and seemed to go much easier without the added weight.”
Ida met him at the door, and hurried him inside to change his wet clothing. She rubbed his hands and feet until they regained their normal body warmth. I got paid with three $20 gold pieces, but I left them on a fence post out by the Blackfoot River. I just couldn’t make it another step with all the weight in my pocket,” he explained.
Ida wondered how three $20 gold pieces could weigh enough to make much difference, but Ellis was home, and that was what was really important. “ What good is gold anyway?” , thought Ida. “ You can’t take it with you.”
The next spring, Ellis stopped and picked up the money. “ Money isn’t that important,” he said, “You wouldn’t believe how many men have died of exhaustion because they wouldn’t give up their gold. As I’ve said many times before, money is only useful to protect oneself from the elements, to provide for one’s old age, and to use in helping your fellow men.”