Pioneerville was also known as Pioneer City and Hogem. A mining
town that was here and gone in handful of time. Pioneerville is
located north of Boise off of Highway 21 near Grimes Pass, and
still has a few standing buildings. The miners had to endure ore
shortages and frequent raids by Indian warriors which led to
it’s downfall. Pioneerville was one of the first places to be
claimed up in the old days and because there was no room for the
hoards of miners who came looking for riches, they moved down
Grimes Creek to form another mining town called Centerville (see
below). In it’s Hey-Day Pioneerville had a population of over
two thousand and had the first post office in the Boise Basin.
The Grimes Pass area produced roughly 25,000 ounces of gold.
Notable gold mines in the area included the Golden Age Mine, the
Mammoth Mine, and the largest producer in the area: the Comeback
Mine, which produced 50/50 gold and silver. Centerville once
boasted a population of around three thousand people. Once the
white miners