Murray, Idaho & Molly B'Damn
Murray, 1906. [Western Mining History]
  Murray is a small town located 25 miles north of Wallace, Idaho in the Silver Valley. It is fairly remote, but had a huge gold mining boom in the 1880s and became one of the largest mining camps in Idaho. In 1883, Murray's population was around 2,000 people and jumped to about 10,000 by 1885. The post office was established in 1884.Â
Murray, Idaho looking east. 1890s
  Today, only a handful of the original buildings remain-one most notably now known as The Sprag Pole. The Sprag Pole was founded in 1933 by Walt Almquist, who purchased this former stagecoach stop. He would open it as the "Sprag Pole Inn", a bar and restaurant. It wouldn't be long before The Sprag Pole expanded into the museum that is currently adjacent to the bar. It all started with the gift of an old whiskey bottle and Walt began collecting every type of collectible object he could find - mining artifacts, machinery, historical items, memorabilia... just about anything you could imagine. The museum even has a display that is said to be the bedroom of their beloved citizen and town madame "Molly B'Damn". It is definitely worth a stop here for some great food and a walk through one of the most unique museums you will find.
  According to legend (and the internet)"Molly" was born Margaret "Maggie" Hall on December 26, 1853 in Dublin, Ireland. One source on Ancestry suggests that Maggie was born on November 26, 1851 in England to Irish parents Thomas & Margaret (nee Darcy) Hall. The claim is that she was raised Catholic and was well-educated. At age 20, she is said to have moved to New York and worked as a barmaid, where she met and married a man by the name of Burdan. After some financial difficulties, Burdan coerced Maggie into prostitution. After 4 years of marriage and financial struggles, Molly, as she had come to be known, left to go where the money was - out West to the mining towns.Â
  It is uncertain if Molly ended up in California, then moved about the west through Oregon and Nevada, or if she had ended up in the Dakotas, where she is alleged to have known Calamity Jane. She did very well for herself, accumulating the finer things. When news of the gold strikes in the Coeur d'Alenes reached her, she packed up and set course for Idaho.
  Molly arrived with a pack train in Idaho in the spring of 1884, after a treacherous journey, where she went to work setting up a brothel. She was a great businesswoman and treated her girls well. She was charming as well as educated. The May 11, 1959 issue of Life Magazine quoted a miner who knew Molly in Murray describing her as "an uncommonly ravishing personality. Her face gave no evidence of dissipation, her clothes no hint of her profession. About her, at times, was an atmosphere of refinement and culture. She quoted with apparent understanding from Shakespeare, from Milton, from Dante." He also told of how her girls had qualities that were alluring and admirable to the men who would visit her house and how Molly had no shame in taking a miner's entire earnings for a single evening of entertaining, but would always drop everything when miners would come down with illnesses. She wouldn't bat an eye to tend to them and nurse them back to health, even when she only had whiskey and quinine on hand. She was highly regarded and beloved as a kind and generous soul, always willing to help. During a smallpox epidemic in 1886, Molly rallied the whole town to care for the ill. The epidemic would soon be under control and come to pass. Sadly, two years later, caring for the sick would be the means to her end.Â
  On January 17, 1888, Molly succumbed to the ravishes of tuberculosis. The women of the town cared for her around the clock until her passing. On the day of her funeral, the miners came down from the hills and the entire town of Murray closed down. Hundreds followed in procession to pay their respects to the woman who they regarded so highly for her kind and generous spirit.
©2019, 2023 E. Deasy unless otherwise noted.