In 1850, at age seventeen, Jesus Urquides joined the California gold rush to Stockton and the Sierra Nevadas.
In 1860, striking out on his own, he followed the rush to Walla Walla, Lewiston, and The Dalles.
Boise Basin's 1863 gold rush lured Urquides to a supply point on the Boise River close to the mines.
As an innovative packer, Urquides became well known for managing dangerous and difficult tasks.
His reputation grew when he successfully packed an 8,400 foot long, continuous steel cable to the remote Yellow Jacket Mine.
Urquides coiled the 4,500-pound cable from one mule to another, spreading the unwieldy load over a train of 35 animals.
Urquides lived a rich and complex life.
Rising from working-class immigrant status to respectable, industrious entrepreneur, he exemplified the Mexican heritage of Idaho's ethnically diverse pioneers.
The photograph above shows Urquides, at age 93, demonstrating the proper cinching of a mule for a profile that appeared in Sunset Magazine in 1925.
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