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All About Idaho
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2020 • IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT PAGE 5

Popular Site Connects People

During Pandemic

THE LOST RIVER VALLEY HISTORY FACEBOOK PAGE

BY DIANNA TROYER

A Facebook group page with 1,485 mem-
bers showcases the Lost River Valley’s
vibrant history in central Idaho. The site has
had a surge in use because people are staying
at home during the Coronavirus pandemic
and posting photos and comments ranging
from vintage concert recordings to ranching
and mining.
“Posting photos is a way to stay con-
nected with people and a good way to feel
positive,” said Charlotte McKelvey, 84, a
local history buff and Mackay resident. She
and her daughter, Karen Hames, are some of
the most frequent contributors to the Lost
River Valley History Facebook page.
One of the most popular photos they
posted was published in National Geographic A famous photo of cowboys in Copper Basin was published in National Geographic. From left are Don
magazine. During the annual Copper Basin McKelvey, his father, John, and brother, Johnny. Photo courtesy Kathy NeVille.
roundup in 1951, a photographer from the
Salt Lake Tribune photographed three sil- 1800s as children. Their families worked in “The quality of the recordings is really
houetted cowboys astride their horses and ranching or mining. She married her high good,” Hames said. “My brothers, Jim and
watching over a herd of cows. school sweetheart, Don, and they celebrated Jack, were some of the high school trumpet
“They didn’t even know they were being their 65th wedding anniversary before he players on the recordings.”
photographed,” McKelvey said. died last fall. The site is the brainchild of a former
The cowboys were her husband, Don “After Don passed in October, we started resident, James Logan, who grew up near
McKelvey, shortly after he graduated going through boxes of our family photos,” Mackay and works as a territory sales man-
from high school; his father John; and his McKelvey said. “We wanted to share them, ager for Google in Salt Lake City.
brother Johnny. It was also published in thinking others would like them as much as “We have such a rich history in the val-
National Geographic. we did. Over the years, people have given me ley,” said Logan, who started it five years ago
“Some friends saw it after it was pub- their family photos when they don’t want after seeing a similar history Facebook page.
lished and recognized them and mailed us to keep them, so we’ve posted them, too.” “When people post photos and comments,
a copy of the paper,” McKelvey said. “You She has organized hundreds of photos they’re passing on history and adding to it.
could tell who it was by the way they were in notebooks. History is all about personal stories and how
sitting on their horses.” “The older you get, the more sentimen- our lives are often intertwined.”
Another popular photo shows a crew of tal you get about local history,” Hames said. He recalled the reaction to a photo he
23 cowboys who rounded up cattle in Copper “People like coming back to their roots.” posted that his mother took of him at a
Basin in 1938. Other photos that received a The Facebook page even links readers parade in Mackay in 1983.
lot of comments were a stagecoach traveling to music of the past. Mackay alum Dan “There were others who were near
from Mackay to Challis in the late 1800s, a MacLerran, a technical coordinator for me and recognized themselves and com-
wagon near Houston hauling kids to school, theatrical and musical productions at the mented,” he said. “A lot of us have family
and the Shay train locomotive, used at the College of Southern Idaho, posted a link to photos in a shoebox or stored somewhere.
mines above town. a playlist he made from recordings he had Share them. You never know how they will
McKelvey is knowledgeable about local of Mackay bands and choirs from 1975 to spark a memory for someone else.” ISI
history, because her maternal and paternal 1979 (www.tinyurl.com/MackayBands).
grandparents came to the valley in the late

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