Orofino, Idaho — Gold-Rush Name That Found a Second Town

The first Oro Fino disappeared.

A mining settlement carrying the name burned in 1867 and was not rebuilt. The gold rush that created it had already brought thousands of newcomers into Nimiipuu country and intensified pressure that helped produce the drastically reduced Nez Perce Reservation of 1863.

The name survived.

A new Orofino developed later along the Clearwater River, gained railroad connections and became the seat of Clearwater County in 1911. Timber joined transportation and government as major parts of the economy.

Then engineers transformed the North Fork Clearwater nearby.

Dworshak Dam, completed in the early 1970s, rises more than 700 feet from its foundation and backs a reservoir roughly fifty miles into mountain country. The project brought flood control and hydropower while fundamentally altering fish habitat and the river system.

Orofino accumulated other state and county institutions as well, making it far more durable than a mining camp.

The borrowed name is strangely appropriate. Oro Fino vanished. Orofino kept finding new reasons not to.