Bannock County

Closely associated with the Indians in the minds of many people, especially in the east, are the cowboys. The prevalent idea in the eastern states about the far west is much the same today as it was fifty years ago an illusion that the moving pictures help to keep alive. And yet, prosaic as it may be compared with the stirring times of yore, there is still a charm and freedom in western life unequalled in any other part of the United States. That western people are fully alive to the romance and adventure connected with the settlement of the […]

Previous to 1863 there was no regular line of transportation through Bannock County, the mails being carried by pony express, which made the postage on letters cost from fifty cents to one dollar each, and the few people whose business called them across southern Idaho traveled singly or in groups, in the saddle, or by wagon, as suited their convenience end opportunity. But, however they traveled, they all followed the line of the old Oregon Trail. In 1863, Oliver and Conover stocked a road from Virginia City, Montana, to Salt Lake City, the impetus given to transportation in these parts

It occurs to few men, as they glide smoothly across the Snake River in a vestibule train, and watch the seething waters toss and tumble below the substantial iron bridge, to think of the problem the passage of this same stream afforded the traveler of fifty years ago. In his “Ventures and Adventures,” Ezra Meeker tells of how he crossed the Snake in 1852. Mr. Meeker and his party had crossed the plains from Iowa, on their way to Oregon, and by the time they reached Idaho their funds were almost exhausted. Ferries were scarce and where one was found,

In the days when Bannock was a part of Oneida County, the Nez Perce Indians went on the warpath. The trouble started in Oregon and ended a thousand miles away at Bear Paw, Montana. Several accounts of this outbreak have been published, some of them going into much detail, but no one, to our knowledge, has told the story of the rapid flight of a band of Chief Joseph’s followers across Oneida County. To fill the gap and because the history of Bannock County up to 1889 is identical with that of the county of which she formed a part,

Nature is the greatest of all historians. She is alike the most accurate and interesting. Her pen is the impress of time, and in characters more durable than the most lasting creations of man, she has written the story of the ages as they rolled slowly by. Impartial, unprejudiced, and in this respect omniscient, she has patiently and unerringly recorded a history more ancient than that of primeval man, more valuable than that of the proudest monarchy. And so, having in the previous chapter traced Bannock County from an unlocated spot in an unexplored desert to a settled and civilized

There are twenty-three counties in the state of Idaho, of which sixteen have a smaller and six a larger population than Bannock, while twelve counties have a smaller area and ten a larger. Therefore, Bannock is one of the larger counties of the state. This position she has creditably maintained in both the number and the quality of her public men, of whom several were mentioned in the last chapter. Others who deserve mention here are former State Senators Ruel Rounds, George C. Parkinson, Louis S. Keller, John B. Thatcher, George H. Fisher and W. H. Mendenhall, our present senator,

Some years ago, when life was young and all the world one luring and beckoning field of adventure, the writer of this modest history spent five dollars to hear Dan Beard, Ernest Seton Thompson and others, lecture on “Woodcraft and Indians.” They spoke of the “noble red man,” and pictured a romantic and heroic being of high ideals and chivalrous life, whose adventures were clean and admirable, whose domestic life was happy and blameless. At least one member of the audience went home from those lectures and shed bitter tears of remorse and shame because it was his sad lot

The city of Pocatello, so named in memory of an Indian chief, stands at the western entrance to the Portneuf canyon, and for that reason is appropriately known as the “Gate City.” Its site marks the junction of the Montana and Idaho divisions of the Oregon Short Line railroad, and the tremendous volume of traffic that passes through its yards, together with the many departments maintained here, is rapidly developing a large and prosperous city. Twenty-five years ago the town was a mere hamlet; in 1910 the United States Census returns gave a population of 9,100, and in 1914 Polk’s

There are many historical spots in the United States unmarked by a monument, but there are probably few cases on record of a monument searching for a vanished site. Such is the case of the stone pillar purchased by subscription to mark the original site of Fort Hall. In 1906 Ezra Meeker traveled along the old Oregon Trail and raised money with which to mark the historical points along the route. One monument stands in the High School grounds at Pocatello. Another was purchased for erection on the Fort Hall site. A teamster was directed to carry it to its