Owyhee County, Idaho Genealogy

Back to Idaho Portal Page►

History and Tidbits
Owyhee County, Idaho was an original county of Idaho Territory. It was formed 31 December 1863, with Ruby City as its county seat. The county seat was moved to Silver City in 1867 and then in 1934 to its current seat of government -- Murphy, located near the middle of the northern edge of the county. It is a very rural county, noted mostly for mining, ranching, and farming. It is the second largest county in land area in Idaho, but has only slightly more than 10,000 residents. Owyhee is a corruption of "Hawaii", a reference to Hawaiian fur trappers who explored the area in 1819 and 1820. Part was taken to create Canyon County 7 March 1891.

Owyhee County Courthouse in Murphy Many of the older court, land, naturalization, probate, pension, and vital records for Owyhee County have been microfilmed and are available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and at the Idaho State Historical Society's Library in Boise. Details of the county records in these respective institutions can be obtained from their online catalogs or listings. Original records of those which have been microfilmed and of more recent records are in the county courthouse in Murphy.

County Government Site

 * Owyhee County, Idaho

Cities
Grand View | Homedale | Marsing

Unincorporated Communities
Bengoechea Place | Buncel Place | Bruneau | Carothers Place | China Hat | Claytonia | Cliffs | Collier Place | Comical Turn | Cottonwood | Crill Place | Dans Place | De Lamar | Democrat | Dew Drop Place | Dewey | Dickens Place | Dickshooter | Doyle Place | Dry Fort | Empire City | Fairylawn | Flint | Four Corners | Frost Place | Givens Hot Springs | Grasmere | Guffey | Harvey Place | Hot Springs | James Place | Little Sugar Loaf | Miller Creek Settlement | Morgan Place | Murphy | Murphy Hot Springs | Oreana | Owyhee Heights | Petersons Crossing | Pleasant Valley Place | Reynolds | Rickard Crossing | Riddle | Rockville | Sands | Silver City | Sinker | Slacks Corner | South Mountain | Spiry Place | Telegraph Hill | Three Creek | Tindall | Triangle | Wickahoney | Wilson

Neighboring Counties
Ada | Canyon | Elmore | Twin Falls | Elko County, Nevada | Malheur County, Oregon.

Cemeteries
There are a number of cemeteries in Owyhee County. Those that have been identified are listed below, with their location and any links to abstracts of their records.

Directions to some of the cemeteries of Owyhee County are on the USGenWeb site for Owyhee County under Owyhee County Cemeteries.

Burials gathered by June Davies and Wilma Lewis Statham and published in a book entitled "Owyhee Gleanings" have been alphabetized together and are also avilable at the USGenWeb site for the county under "Owyhee Burials."

Newspapers
Several newspapers have been or are being published in Owyhee County. Copies of many of them are available at the Idaho State Historical Society Library in Boise.

Genealogy and History Websites

 * The Owyhee County ID GenWeb Project, a member of The IDGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project.
 * Owyhee County Historical Society and Museum

Portal:Idaho Portal:Nevada Portal:Oregon