Warren is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in the remote north central region of the U.S. state of

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

, near the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.

Geography

Located within the Payette National Forest in southern Idaho County, Warren is northeast of McCall, approximately by vehicle and about by air. South of the Salmon River, the

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Warren has a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

Dfc).

History

Miners from the previous

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

strikes in Pierce and

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

fanned out to the south and discovered gold in the Warren Creek area in August 1862. It led to the formation of the settlement, then in

Washington Territory The Washington Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from the ...

, making it one of the oldest settlements in present-day Idaho. With a gold mining boom in multiple regions during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, the Idaho Territory was established in 1863. Shortly after the gold discovery by Lewiston's James Warren, the Warren's Camp population swelled to over 2,000; the southerners called their area of the camp "Richmond" and northerners called theirs "Washington." Washington was established as the seat of Idaho County from June 1, 1869 until voters in the June 1875 election selected Mount Idaho over Slate Creek and Washington. After the initial boom ended in 1875, Warren was known for its significant Chinese population. The boom-town population plummeted when mining declined, but enjoyed a brief renaissance in the 1930s with the introduction of

dredge Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing ...

mining in the area.Warren Idaho Walking Tour
/ref> During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, gold mining was shut down by the U.S. government in 1942. Following the war, interest in Warren was high for

rare-earth metal The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or rare earths, and sometimes the lanthanides or lanthanoids (although scandium and yttrium, which do not belong to this series, are usually included as rare earths), are a set of ...

s in its by-product monazite. A modest gold mining industry remains in the area. The town has been threatened several times by

forest fires A forest fire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire ( in Au ...

, most recently in 1989, 2000, and 2007. Recent fires have made the Warren area a haven for morel mushroom

hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

. Warren currently has a full-time population of 12 to 16.Warren Idaho
/ref>

Population history

* 1864 census: 521 (509 men, 10 women, 2 children) * 1863 census: 660

References

Additional sources