Families donate land in Boulder Basin

KETCHUM, Idaho – The Forest Service has taken ownership of a 50-acre parcel in historic Boulder Basin in central Idaho’s Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

The tract contains the remains of the Boulder City mining site dating back to the late 1880s.

The Wes Wills family, which owns businesses in Twin Falls and ranch properties in Western Montana, and a memorial foundation donated the land in memory of Sarah Pearson Campbell.

Campbell was the daughter of Doug and Mary Campbell of Lincoln, Neb. She was killed in an avalanche in December 2000 while backcountry skiing near Dead Horse Pass in Teton County, Wyo.

During college, she worked for the Forest Service in Idaho and Wyoming.

The site in the Boulder Mountains 15 miles northwest of Ketchum includes a mill, four cabins and other structures as well as three patented mining claims.

While 17 other patented claims remain in private hands, the government’s control of the three in the basin essentially precludes mining on any of the others, Intermountain Region Mining Engineer Jeff Gabardi said.