Gem Co. map
Reading & References
Sharon McConnel, Gem County Coordinator

Sweet

trough sign

see Ballantine Wool wagons at trough for historic view

"Historic Sweet" (sign on south side of the Syringa Club building)

"On August 15, 1876, Andrew McQuade acquired an early homestead in Squaw Creek Valley. The property eventually became the community of Sweet. The town took its name from an early postmaster, Ezekiel Sweet.

"Following a gold rush in 1902 the town began to prosper. Merchants, ranchers and farmers were able to provide food and supplies to miners in the Thunder Mountain mining region, northeast of Cascade (Valley County). The town also supplied goods to loggers at the three to four sawmills in Dry Buck, northeast of Sweet (Boise County).

"Sweet soon had a bank, stores, hotels, liveries, a newspaper, church school, two blacksmith shops, two lodge halls and three saloons.

"Major fires in 1922 and 1925 destroyed most of the older buildings in the town. Remaining structures eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places are the Methodist Church and parsonage, the William Talley barn, Williams Saloon and the McQuade homestead."

(sign erected by the Gem County Historical Preservation Commission)

Sweet Resources

postmaster history

Sweet Cemetery

Photo Album index

Off-site links: Syringa Hall at Idaho Heritage.

Nellie Ireton Mills, "All Along the River/Territorial and Pioneer Days on the Payette." Privately printed for Payette Radio Limited, 1963. Index at Payette County, idgenweb.

Boise County Sentinel at Salmon Public Library, 1912 & 1916, published at Sweet; plus other publications


(photos by Sharon McConnel)


Copyright © 2009 - Sharon McConnel. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright Notice:
All materials contained on these pages are furnished for the free use of those engaged in researching their family origins. Any commercial use or distribution, without the consent of the host/author of these pages is prohibited.