The tragedy of Lizzie King is one of the more well known stories in the history of the Sawtooths. The story goes that in the days when Bonanza and Custer were thriving, a woman named Agnes Elizabeth King was slain in either a murder, or murder-suicide, depending on which source you believe.
Photo Credit: “A Double Tragedy. Robert Hawthorne Takes the Life of Himself and Wife.” (1880). Idaho Semi-Weekly World .
The case was never solved and no official suspects were named. Lizzie King was entombed in a three plot grave outside of the Bonanza cemetery between her first love, Richard King, and her last love, Robert Hawthorne. A lengthy inscription was originally engraved on her tombstone, which was said to be beautiful and poetic in its own right; unfortunately, it has since eroded away and been lost to time. What remains today are three wooden headstones carved in the traditional style, without the original inscription.
Lizzie King lived in a time of hardship. People were largely exhausted and scraping by. One popular means of survival was the harvesting of gold from the earth. This practice put food on the table for many of the residents of the Sawtooths, but it was not without consequences: hillsides were eroded; land was torn up; rivers were polluted, dammed and extracted from. The natural wonder that spread out below the vantage of Lizzie King’s final resting place came to be marred.
Years after Lizzie King’s death, a poet by the name of Clarence E. Eddy came across her grave site and was moved by the beauty of the scenery. Additionally, he was heartbroken by the tragedy of her demise and by man’s exploitation of the land. He found a poetic parallel in the fate of the woman and the country she inhabited, which inspired the following poem.
“By a lonely western valley, on the hill lies Lizzie King
While the years with silent footsteps steal away –
She had fallen by the wayside, her of whom I now would sing,
But she died upon a long, long vanished day.
Through the lovely, lonely valley, far below her grave,
Winds a river, once like crystal, pure and clear,
But relentless man had marred it, and polluted its fair wave,
Seeking gold besides its waters many a year.
Like the life of her now lying in the grave upon the hill,
The stream might still be sparkling pure and fair,
But the whiles of man have marred it, marred the pure sweet mountain rill,
And marred the life of her who slumbers there.
She had fallen by the wayside, sweet, unhappy Lizzie King,
And was buried there oh many years ago,
But the pathos of her story never poet’s song may sing,
Peace, let it be, perhaps tis better so.
Still adown the winding valley, singing to that grave above,
Runs the river over its rugged rock-strewn way,
And may the angels aye have mercy on her, lost to earthly love,
Who there so long ago was laid away.”
Throughout Eddy’s musings over the grave site, he talks about our relationship to the land and how our misuse and exploitation of the land mirrors the tragic life of Lizzie King. She was a woman mistreated and misused, and today, her hillside grave, just outside the old Bonanza cemetery, overlooks a valley and a winding river; and just like the young girl who was once filled with promise and optimism, the river once ran clear and full of healthy wildlife before human impacts, like mining.
Photo Credit: “B1678-100-27” by kirstenstrough is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.
The moral is rather clear and succinct. How we treat each other and the land have lasting impacts. It takes respect, consideration, and love for the world we inhabit, and those we share it with to thrive and without it we all degrade. History is still in progress and Eddy urges us to make a more compassionate and considerate world for those that come after us so that our relationships and nature’s beauty may flourish and benefit those that come for generations.
Resources:
Yarber, E. (1988). Land of the Yankee Fork. Publishers Press.
Isaac Falen is a 2025 historic specialist with SIHA. He is attending the University of Idaho and hopes to work in maritime archaeology after completing his degree.