Unusual greeter was featured attraction

Two Gun Willie was a featured attraction at Silver City, Idaho.

The old mining town had seen better days, and so had “two gun.”

Willie was born William James Hawes in 1876, right in the town, that in its heyday had some 2,500 residents.

Willie became the guardian of the ghost town after mining diminished and the houses wore out and slowly tumbled to the ground.

Silver City is 75 miles from Boise, the final 23 miles from Murphy on a dirt-and-clay road that you want to stay away from when it’s been raining.

Murphy is the county seat of Owyhee County and is frequented by people who drive there to put a nickel in its lone parking meter, right outside of the courthouse.

Willie had the moniker of “two gun,” even though he wore but a single gun on a gun belt that rested low on his leg. He never gave the reason for the “two gun” nickname.

He was quick to meet up with you when you went there. I guess you could say he was Silver City’s official greeter.

Everyone wanted to have their picture taken with Willie, and I suppose many people have stories to tell even today when looking through their photo albums.

There wasn’t much left of the town back in the 1950-60s. The old Idaho Hotel was still standing, as was a church and a handful of houses. It was popular at that time to buy one of the failing structures and fix it up so you could go up to Silver City for the weekend.

Silver City was at the 8,000-foot level of the Owyhee Mountains.

On weekends, there was always a steady stream of cars going up the dirt road to the ghost town.

After a rainstorm, the road would be filled with ruts and became a discouragement to those less inclined to dangerous driving conditions.

But the one constant thing at the time was “Two Gun Willie,” known far and wide, good for a greeting and a story or two about the old times when there were some 250 mines working for silver and gold.

Some $60 million was taken from the area. I don’t know what that would be in today’s terms, but a lot more.

At its peak, there were 75 businesses in Silver City and it was known for having the first telegraph in the Idaho Territory, and the first daily newspaper, The Owyhee Avalanche.

The area later attracted the Idaho Cattlemen’s Association for its annual meeting, and probably still does.

The mines worked the hills nearby from 1860 to about 1900, the time that everything was changing in the west.

Silver City is still popular today.

The road, I am told, is not much improved and there’s still a clamor to purchase property there.

But “Two Gun Willie” is long gone, born there and passed on there.

The area is still a huge draw for tourism. The land is high up in the mountains, where scrub junipers dot the landscape. Occasionally, on the road up, outstanding vistas open up and you can see for a long way.