Owyhee County

            Field  Trips

Come explore Owyhee County history with us! The museum hosts exciting field trips throughout the county and surrounding areas May through September.

Upcoming Trips

 Check out the 2025 Field Trips below! We have a great line up this year. We hope you can join us for one of these trips.

The trips are always free and donations are appreciated. Most times we will have our mobile restroom trailer with us. We also do a potluck lunch that everyone can pitch in on.

April 19th: Cleo Swayne Ferry Museum and Nature Walk

Time: 10:00 AM

  • Meet at the Swayne Museum Parking lot below Dan’s Ferry Service. 

    Jim Hyslop has arranged a guided tour of the grounds and buildings that Cleo and Dr Swanye developed over the years. Afterward, Paul Schild will lead a hike looking for birds and plants in the area. A potluck on the grounds will follow. Jim and Paul are grandsons of Dr Swayne. 

 

 

May 24th: Ward Massacre Site

time: 10:30 AM

  • 8730 Lincoln Rd, Caldwell, ID 83605

  • Shirley Burrows will talk about her family’s history, Native American presence and pioneer life in the area with stories and artifacts from her property and surrounding area. Then we’ll visit the Ward Massacre Park to learn more about this tragic incident. Potluck lunch will be at the park.

 

June 14th: Integra DeLamar Mine Tour. 

time: 10 AM

  • Meet at the Lions Community Hall, Hwy 95, in Jordan Valley.

    Tara Echave, Public Education Director for Integra will speak on a bus tour of the DeLamar Mine operation and the historic DeLamar Mine site. A potluck lunch will follow in the Mine conference room. There is a limit of 35 people for this tour. You must register to go on the tour. The registration will be available soon.

 

July 9th: Tour of the Owyhee Dam museum and facilities

time: 10 AM

  • Meet at noon at Owyhee Dam Park for potluck lunch first and tour will begin at 1pm. We’ll meet our guide, the Dam Tender, to visit the museum, hear stories of the building of the dam, and see some of the facilities.

 

August 16th: Swan Falls Powerline, tour of the Dewey and DeLamar Substations

time 9 AM

Meet at 9am in Ruby City at public outhouse just before Silver City. Director Eriks Garsvo has done extensive research into Idaho’s first high voltage power line. Eriks will give us a history of the line into the town of Dewey. We will see the old substation and other remnants of the town of Dewey before heading for DeLamar to get an up-close look of the second oldest substation in Idaho and what is being done to save it.  

Sept. 13th: Auto tour of sites along the “Silver Road”.  

time: 10 AM

We’ll meet in Kuna . Steve Bennett, local historian, will guide us near the wagon road that went from Boise’s Military Reserve to Silver City, telling stories along its path and showing evidence of the road, it’s tracks and waystations. In Kuna, we will meet with Eriks where Steve and Eriks will give information about the 15-mile stage stop and Eriks will share his knowledge of the town history and of course the railroad. Once we get to Walter’s Ferry and the River crossing we’ll meet with Jerry Hoagland, a ranch owner along Reynolds Creek who will tell us more about the road as it made its way up to Democrat. We will have a potluck lunch along the way.

 

Oct. 18th: Tour of the Flint Townsite and Mine Ruins

time: 10 AM

  • Meet at the Jordan Valley City Park, Hwy 95. 

    We’ll drive to Flint, where historian Sherry Wright will talk about her research on PJ Flint, founder of Flint. Then we’ll hear stories and get a tour of some of the buildings from Darrin Reed, great-grandson of an early mining family in Flint, who’s parents still own the property. We’ll have a potluck on the property.