Marjorie Ramey Nelson started out looking for her grandfather and ended up trekking through a good part of Idaho's early history.
After 15 years of following her grandfather's trail, Nelson has published "Footprints On Mountain Trails."Although John S. Ramey, the first elected sheriff of Idaho and Lemhi Counties, is the thread that holds her story together, Nelson's 400-page book includes highlights of Idaho history that helped shape Ramey's life. Nelson wrote the book more or less by accident. Her grandchildren kept asking her about "the olden days."
"At first, all I came up with was mostly names, dates and places that weren't very interesting," she said. "When I started to check these things, all kinds of other things came flooding out."
Beginning with old family letters and news clippings, Nelson was soon frequenting libraries, bookstores, and the Idaho Historical Society for more details that would breathe life into the grandfather she never knew.
As the years passed, the mountain of information about John S. Ramey and Idaho grew.
"I wore out two typewriters on this book," she said. "It got so humongous that there was a time when I thought I'd never get it organized."
Until the sixth and final writing, she worked without a computer.
Throughout her book, Nelson creates a picture of life and death in mining camps and Indian villages, women and Chinese, criminals and their victims, the rich and the poor.
Ramey, who became Idaho County sheriff in 1863, and Lemhi County sheriff in 1869, rode into the middle of it all. Whether it was carrying gold from Florence to Leesburg or tracking fugitives, Ramey was the man called on to settle the most difficult problems.
Now 79 and living in Pocatello, Nelson grew up in Salmon and rode the trails of the Lemhi Valley throughout her childhood. She says her trip through Idaho history has given her a yearning to follow other trails used by those who went before her.
"I wish heartily I were 30 years younger," she said. "I'd hike the trail from Orofino to Yellow Pine to Burgdorf to Warren."