Idaho's Pioneer Days

by Senator Brent Hill

This month communities from Arizona to Idaho celebrate the arrival of the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. "Pioneer Day" was an established legal holiday in Idaho for thirty years from 1912 to 1942, but was dropped during the 1943 legislative session in a wartime initiative to reduce the number of legal holidays.

For more than half a century after Lewis and Clark entered what is now Idaho at Lemhi Pass on August 12, 1805, the only white men who lived in the Idaho wilderness were a few fur traders and missionaries. Fort Henry, near St. Anthony, was established by Andrew Henry in 1810 as the first American fur post west of the Rockies.

The first expedition to enter southern Idaho was not Mormon pioneers, but a group led by fur trapper Wilson Price Hunt. In hopes of blazing a trail from St. Louis to Astoria, Oregon, the Hunt party arrived at Fort Henry on October 8, 1811. Hunt named the North Fork of the Snake and its lake headwaters for Henry. The inscription, "For Henry, 1811, by Hunt,'' was found on rocks unearthed over a century later near Egin Bench.

At Fort Henry, Hunt's party built canoes out of cottonwood trees, intending to navigate the Snake River. Local Indians warned them that the river was treacherous, but Hunt decided to let the horses run loose, and descended the river by canoe. They traveled for nine days before they hit rapids. One man was killed as the waters of the Snake River tore his canoe to pieces. The party decided to abandon the water route and continue the expedition by foot.

Thousands of emigrants crossed southern Idaho over the Oregon and California Trails in search of new farmlands or gold mines, but none of them settled in Idaho. Then, in 1860, thirteen Mormon families from Cache Valley, Utah, loaded wagons with all of their earthly possessions and settled Idaho's oldest city, Franklin. These early Mormon pioneers thought they were still in Utah Territory. It was not until a survey was conducted twelve years later that the settlers discovered they were in the southeast corner of Idaho.

Under the direction of LDS Church President Brigham Young groups of pioneers would go on to settle the majority of towns in Southeastern Idaho. Mormon settlers from Northern Utah started scouting out the Upper Snake River Valley as early as 1855. Then, during the summer of 1879, Stephen Winegar and his four sons, George, Willis, Leonard and John, put up the first log shelter in Egin, Fremont County's first settlement. They cut and stacked the wild hay in the river bottoms.

Thomas E. Ricks led a group from Logan to the present site of Rexburg in 1883. The land was surveyed and laid out in 10-acre lots and the first log cabin was constructed at the spot where the courthouse now stands.

St. Anthony, which has one of the most impressive Pioneer Day parades in the country, was not settled by Mormon pioneers. In 1890, Carlos H. Moon built a store and a home on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River and named the town St. Anthony because the area reminded him of the Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi River in Minnesota. In 1895 Carlos Moon deeded his land to Frank W. Ross, who filed the townsite plat. In 1899, St. Anthony was incorporated into a village and then a city in 1925.

In 1901, 640 acres were bought for the Ashton townsite from George Harrigfeld, R.E. McGavin and Asa Hendricks. The first train arrived there in 1906 and stage lines took passengers on to the western Yellowstone Park entrance.

Joseph Curr, first settler of Fall River, which was later named Chester, arrived in 1885. James Siddoway was Teton's first resident. He put in a water wheel and with William Naylor built the Teton Flour Mill.

The Birch brothers, Thomas, Edward, James, Dave, Robert, Jack and William, arrived from Utah in 1883 to settle in Wilford. The Parker townsite, named for Wyman W. Parker, was created in June 1883.

On August 27, 1903, a group of men from Salt Lake City, led by Joseph F. Smith, formed the Sugar City Townsite Company. Their intention was to build a $750,000 sugar beet factory. The charter stated that, "no intoxicating liquors shall ever be sold or otherwise disposed of, nor shall gambling or prostitution ever be permitted." To my knowledge, Sugar City residents still maintain that standard.

The Upper Snake River Valley was one of the last areas settled in this nation because of its severe climate. Our Founding Fathers were not only pioneers but strong and courageous leaders. May we honor them this Pioneer Day as we reflect upon the rich pioneer heritage that so strongly influenced the early development of this remarkable Idaho valley in which we are privileged to live.