Just as settlers moved into the Payette River Valley in the 1860s the Wilkerson Brothers, Abernathy Brothers and James Colson journeyed farther north to the upper Weiser Valley. They were followed by Pete Olsen, Nelson and Thomas Buhl and E. S. Jewell who started a freight line to Boise with pack animals.
Flour and lumber had to be hauled from the nearest sawmill and flour mill in the Payette River Valley. John Cuddy arrived in the early 1870s and staked a claim on 160 acres on what would become known as Cuddy's Mountain. He set up a sawmill and a grist mill to supply the needs of area ranchers. After exhausting the nearby timber supply, he moved his operations down into the valley. Further south, Frank Hitt built a sawmill in 1873 on what became known as Hitt’s Mountain.
John Cuddy, with neighbors, celebrated the Fourth of July at his mill site in a big way. People from around the area, including Indian Valley, could gather to hear important speakers and have a good time enjoying sports events, such as horse racing. Dancing commenced in the afternoon and went well into the night. Eats and drinks were served at midnight. At sunrise they all went home pleased and happy.
There was lots of wheat chaff going to waste at Cuddy's grist mill, so he bought a bunch of hogs to fatten. This attracted bears. One morning, after discovering a half eaten carcass, a plan was devised by Cuddy, he hired Jim Sutton and John Wade, to catch Mr. Bear. Wade volunteered to put his bedroll and pillow on a haystack adjacent to the hog pen. One end of the rope would be tied around his feather pillow and the other end attached to the half eaten hog carcass. When the bear grabbed the carcass it would jerk Wade's pillow, awakening him. He had his gun ready to shoot the bear. Jim Sutton would sleep nearby, with lantern and gun to assist. During the middle of the night, the bear came into the yard, grabbed the carcass jerking Wade's pillow, tearing it open and scattering chicken feathers off into the brush. Wade grabbed his gun just as Jim came to help. Both stood there peering off into the darkness, guns in hand. They could see nothing but a trail of feathers. Jim remarked that it looked more like a fox had been in the hen house than a bear in the hog pen. Days later a six-foot high rail fence was constructed around the hog pen but that didn't stop the bear from climbing over and having a feast.
Wheat has been raised in the Upper Valley since 1871. It was cut by a hand scythe stacked up until dry and then hauled into the yard. There was no threshing machine to separate the wheat from the stocks. A hard floor was prepared and wheat bundles laid around it. The grain was threshed by someone riding a horse and leading another. They traveled round and round in a circle for hours tramping the wheat out of the bundles. Then more bundles were spread out as the horses went round and round. The wheat and chaff were gathered up and run through a fanning mill turned by hand, fanning out the chaff and leaving the wheat. The wheat was then sent on to a grist mill to grind into flour, which supplied the needs of area ranchers as well as miners at Warren and Florence.
Mail came in twice a month from Falk's Store and Post Office on the Payette River. It was simply addressed to someone in "The Upper Valley." Residents decided they needed a post office and a name. Edward S. Jewells suggested the name "Salubria," because the area had a salubrious climate. The name was submitted to the postal department and it was accepted. As more settlers moved in, daily mail service was inaugurated.
In the wake of Indian uprisings in the late 1870s a fort was built in Salubria. It was constructed of log walls set on a rock foundation - just a little northeast of the townsite. To serve the settlers down the valley, a small fort was erected on Mann's Creek on the old Galloway place. Many Indians roamed the area, stealing horses and frightening the settlers. A posse was formed by Billy Mandy, Jake Grosscloss, Tom Haley, and S. S. Smith to try to retrieve their stolen horses. The trail led east through the mountains. The posse was ambushed, near what is now Cascade. All were killed with the exception of S. S. Smith, who, although shot through the arm and leg, managed to crawl away and out into the nearby Payette River, hiding in a clump of bushes. When the Indians left, he came ashore and, with the help of a passing mail carrier, made it to a settler’s home where his wounds were dressed. After resting he returned home to relate his experiences. The bodies of his partners were retrieved.
Grass in the valley was plentiful and livestock thrived, but the price of cattle was low. Buyers would come in, buying hundreds of cattle and trail them cross-country to a Nebraska rail head and markets. The price for yearlings and older cattle was $10 per head. If a cow had a calf it was included in the cow’s price. Many steers were three to five years old but still sold for $10 a head. The year of 1879 saw thousands of cattle trailed across Idaho and Wyoming to Nebraska. The Searight Brothers & Company annually drove east about 15 herds, consisting of 1500 to 2000 had per herd. Long and Ryan also trailed large herds. A covered wagon was home for the herders for months. When it rained, the bedding would get wet but the herds had to be kept moving.
In 1884 the Oregon Short Line Railroad came through Weiser. Freight lines and stagecoaches were in business to go to the upper valley. Stages left Weiser in the early morning, stopped at Thorn Springs to change horses, and if the road was dry, you could be in Salubria by noon. In bad weather you could stay overnight at Thorn Springs, where food and lodging was available. Jim Parkes and Frank Ross were in charge at the station. The stage made a stop at the Salubria Hotel which had 17 bedrooms on the upper floor.
Across the street was Mart’s Saloon which was built in 1885. Out it’s backdoor was a well house which supplied residents with drinking water. A bucket had to be lowered by rope to retrieve the water. Also out in back was an icehouse with thick walls that stored sawdust-covered ice for summertime use.
The Post Office had a new building in 1885 with Edward S. Jewell as postmaster. It functioned until 1916.
A new school was built in 1889, two stories high. The first four grades were taught downstairs and fifth through eighth grades were schooled upstairs. This school term was three months long in summer and six months long in winter. Teacher salaries were paid by subscription from students and parents sometimes in farm produce, money or room and board for teachers.
The first store building was erected in 1884 by P. Hickey for his business.
Salubria's first newspaper was "The Idaho Citizen" printed in 1889. A fire destroyed the building. But it was rebuilt and the name was changed to "The Salubria Citizen." In 1900 the paper under editor Thomas Nelson, opened shop in Cambridge and the name was changed to "The Cambridge News."
Inmate 1899, the Pacific and Idaho Northern Railroad, the PIN, was built through the valley on the south side of the river, bypassing Salubria by miles. Cambridge had a railroad station and the town grew from business owners leaving Salubria. The last store was Smith's which closed its doors in 1920. This school closed, after 50 years of use and the students as well as those from Indian Valley and Cove Community, went to Cambridge foreign education.
Area dentist U.M. Oven moved to Cambridge in 1900 to practice but, twice a year returned to his patients in Salubria where his dentist chair was set up in a corner of Mart Hannan’s Saloon.
Map makers don't show the community of Salubria on their maps anymore, but stories of the experiences of those early settlers are found in history books and told around campfires by descendents of pioneer families.