My family recently returned from a pretty amazing river trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the Idaho wilderness. One of the campsites along this river is called “Whitie Cox,” named after the man who was buried here. His story is pretty amazing.
Whitie Cox was a WWII army veteran who was placer mining in the streams and river. He died during a rockfall in 1954, and it was weeks later before his body was found. He was buried right in the area where he lived and mined. A large pile of sun-bleached animal bones and a military headstone mark the burial site.
Today the Middle Fork of the Salmon lies within the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. However, this area was not disgnated as wilderness until 1980. There are still signs of life that pre-date the wilderness act, and the Whitie Cox burial site is one of them. As a genealogist, I loved being in a small area where two of my life-loves intersected. It’s not often that I get to enjoy some genealogy and “cemeteries” at the same time I’m out in the wild with my family.
