Legendary mule packer Jesus Urquides was a Boise pioneer and founder of a freighting business located on this site.
Born January 18, 1833 in Sonora, Mexico, Urquides migrated to the California gold fields in 1850 where he worked as a mule packer supplying the mining communities.
After the 1863 discovery of gold in Idaho's Boise Basin, Urquides opened supply lines to Silver City, Atlanta, Yellow Jacket, and Challis and many other sites throughout Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada.
During the 1877 Nez Perce and 1878 Bannock Wars, Urquides and company ran supplies for the U.S. Army.
His long career spanned gold rushes in four western states over a period of sixty years.
Urquides and his fellow packers formed an essential part of the frontier mining economy, using well-honed Mexican techniques to carry provisions to remote mining camps over rugged trails.
Spry and athletic, with a distinguished goatee and respectable demeanor, Urquides was highly regarded as an esteemed pioneer figure in Boise long after the era of roads and trucks had remade the mule packers trade. He died April 26, 1928 at 95 and was buried in Pioneer Cemetery east of this site.
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