Kinney Point -Helena Traditional Geocache
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Size: 
(regular)
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This is the third in the Seven Devils Mining Series. The cache is located at Kinney Point along the Idaho side of Hell's Canyon and affords a good view of Hell's Canyon and the snake river.
The first permanent community began to take shape in the Seven Devil’s Mining District. It was named for Helena Smith, the first white baby born in the area. Eventually, the town featured three mercantile stores, two assay offices, a brewery, six saloons, and two sawmills. Helena's post office was established Sept. 29, 1890.
Helena's residents spent the summer of 1887 digging tunnels and sorting rock. Ore assaying at less than twenty percent was thrown into the dump. In 1888, the richer ore was sewn into thirty inch bags, loaded onto seventeen mules and packed 100 miles to the nearest shipping point in Weiser. The route took them around the east side of Cuddy Mountain, across the Weiser River to Salubria (now a ghost town near Cambridge) before angling into Weiser.
The Kleinschmidts were encouraged with the results sent back from the Anaconda smelter in Montana. Assay tests revealed the ore contained up to seventy percent copper and each ton yielded fifty dollars in gold. The copper was sold at a premium in Europe, where it was used for flux in smelters.
The operation had one major obstacle: transportation. A route change helped pick up the pace. Packstrings went as far as the present-day Bear guard station where they transferred their loads to freight wagons bound for the railhead in Weiser by way of Council.
The town was home to copper mines called Helena, the White Monument and the Peacock, so named for the beautiful blue coloration in the copper ore. The miners spent a million dollars in 1900 building portions of a rail road grade to transport the ore; however, the rail line was never constructed.
The old town site of Helena is located a half mile away from the cache(unfortunately it burned to the ground in the Deep Creek fire).
For you history buffs the Kleinschmidt grade was constructed to haul ore to the snake river for transport down the snake river on a steam ship to Lewiston. The steam ship was constructed in 1891 on the Idaho side of the river at Bridgeport for $35,000. It made the trip only once and navigation of the snake was abandoned.
Extra credit ...what was the name of the ship?
The cache has a 1907 American "V" nickel and the usual stuff.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Lbh znl arrq gb fgvpx lbhe urnq va vg.