"We are not makers of history. We are made by history." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
A white picket fence surrounds a lush green lawn. Birds chirp happily from the treetops. Rabbits scamper by and a beautiful white home stands stoically in the background. This is the Schick-Ostolasa Farmstead and it is a piece of Idaho history, frozen in time.
Phillip Schick was drawn to the wild and unknown west at an early age. He left his home in New York as a young man in search of the promise of gold. He found himself bouncing between Oregon and California, working odd jobs, all the while dreaming of more. After some time, he received word that gold was struck in Idaho. So, he packed up his belongings and followed his golden dream all the way to the Gem State.
Family lore says that Schick was chasing oxen that had veered from the group along the Boise River, causing him to stumble upon the Dry Creek Valley, where he decided to stay, making Philip Schick a historic part of settlement in the southwestern portion of the state.
“The Farmstead is a time capsule of the very first days of American settlement in SW Idaho,” shared Jay Karamales, president emeritus and board member for the Dry Creek Historical Society. He continues, “With all the development rampaging across Ada County these days, reminders of our past are becoming fewer all the time. At the Farmstead, it's easy to imagine what this area was like when it was still very much the Wild West--a land of pioneers, prospectors, cowboys, and Indians.”
Nestled in the foothills just north of Boise proper, only fifteen minutes from downtown, is this magical piece of Idaho history. The Schick-Ostolasa Farmstead is an idyllic place, protected from the passage of time. It is truly the embodiment of the American Dream.
“One of the things that I found most interesting was that when Schick and his neighbors homesteaded in Dry Creek, it was not the obscure, isolated backwater area that it was for most of the 20th Century,” said Jay. “The main road--the only road, really--between the new town of Boise and the boisterous gold boom towns of the Boise Basin ran right through the Valley, right past Schick's place. The amount and variety of traffic on that road was enormous.”
Schick sold the property to a financier, who hired the Ostolasa family to run and maintain the property. The Ostolasa family stayed there for generations until the Dry Creek Historical Society (DCHS) took over ownership. “Three generations of Ostolasas lived there--the original manager, Costan and his wife Lucy; their son Anastasio and three daughters; and Anastasio's three sons.”
The Farmstead is now a space of education and preservation. Visitors can travel back in time and experience the lives of early Idaho settlers, all just minutes from the bustling capital city of Boise.
“Without knowing where we come from, we can't know where we're going. If we allow history to be lost (or intentionally erased), we condemn ourselves to repeat all the mistakes of the past instead of learning from them and growing as a society,” Jay muses. “To a historian like myself, the value to civilization of historic preservation is obvious, in addition to the joy that comes with connecting with those people who came before. In the particular case of the Dry Creek Valley, we were handed a gift in the form of the Farmstead that is a direct line back to the very beginning of Idaho, and it's a delight and honor to be one of the caretakers of it.”
As Jay so eloquently shared, it is imperative that we remember our history and allow our past to inform our future. We must remain diligent and avid learners for all our lives. Only then are we able to truly create a space for growth, healing, and exploration. There’s an entire world of history and it’s right out your front door. Go find your wild Idaho. Learn more about the Farmstead and the important efforts of the Dry Creek Historical Society at DryCreekHistory.com.
“Without knowing where we come from, we can't know where we're going. If we allow history to be lost (or intentionally erased), we condemn ourselves to repeat all the mistakes of the past instead of learning from them and growing as a society,” Jay muses.