In the 1830’s Captain Bonneville spent two years exploring Southeastern Idaho, mostly the Snake River Valley.  Camped near St. Anthony he and his men floated down the river to Black Rock Canyon, where Idaho Falls is now.  His observations on this trip were summarized in the 1899 book, Illustrated History of the State of Idaho:

 

Captain Bonneville found a desolate sage-covered valley, holding out no promise of ever being more than a range where Indian cayuses might pick a precarious living on bunch grass. Not a tree as far as the eye could reach, except an occasional wind-twisted and gnarled juniper growing out of the seams in the lava rock along the banks of Snake River.[1]  

 

The vacation website TripAdvisor ranks walking the Greenbelt as the highest rated of 24 things to do in Idaho Falls.[2]  It’s hard to imagine that at one time the Greenbelt was not at all green, but just sand and rock and then, as the city grew, a garbage dump.  Remembering when she arrived in Eagle Rock in 1882, Rebecca Mitchell wrote, “Neither tree, nor grass, nor bird was to be seen on the streets, but sand, sand everywhere, and when the sandstorms raged, it was beyond description.”[3]

 

Once a seasonal campground for Indians who came to fish, what is now Freeman Park was the city dump for many decades.  All the garbage and sand along the banks of the river was covered up by several thousands of truckloads of dirt in 1957.

 

Reviewing the early history of Idaho Falls and Southeast Idaho, one finds numerous statements of how desolate this place was: 

 

“During the early nineteenth century, North America was still in the throes of the so-called 'Little Ice Age' with many of the surrounding highlands covered in snow nearly year-round. Almost without regard to the calendar, rain, hail, snow and nearly perpetual winds were routinely recorded in early trapper journals of this area.  At the time, the upper Snake River region was nearly void of game animals due to particularly harsh winters.”[4] 

 

“This is unquestionably the most barren of all mountain deserts.”[5] 

 

“[These lands] are unfeasible for any kind of cultivation…from the extreme coldness of the nights… superadded to the extreme dryness and poverty of soil.”[6]

 

"Of all the dreary forbidding areas in America, the Great Snake River basin was the most outstanding.  All early explorers, trappers, and emigrants were in accord that it would forever remain a barren waste.”[7] 

 

“In the 1840’s [Southeast Idaho] seemed a hopeless sagebrush desert to John C Fremont, whose maps helped open up the west to settlement.”[8]

 

“On that part of tour route lying between Fort Hall and the North Fork of Snake River, the country is in a great measure barren, being, for most of the distance, a sandy plain.”[9]

 

 “In all the thousands of miles of stage travel which our pioneering covered, there was none more uncomfortable and disagreeable than through the desert lands and lava beds of southern Idaho, which was still marked on the school maps as unexplored country.”[10]

 

But, as anyone who now lives in Idaho Falls can attest to, this place is not the barren, desolate, uninhabitable wasteland described by early explorers. This once desolate place has been transformed into a community - a community containing a Greenbelt, parks, gardens, trees, homes, apartments, businesses, schools and a population close to 60,000 people.[11]   We will briefly discuss how that came about in section 2.2, but here’s a preview in one word: water!  The water from irrigation ditches opened the way for life, settlement and community.  

 

Chapter 4 presents Jesus as Creator, and describes how He formed the mountains that collect the snow that keep the irrigation ditches filled throughout the growing season and supplies the Snake River that runs through town.  Jesus also formed the Snake River Plain aquifer from which this community also draws water to support its population.  But here, right at the beginning of this book, we want to use that early history of Idaho Falls  – transformation of a desolate, barren land through water into a community - to anticipate and illustrate the work of Jesus in our city - transforming barren lives through His Spirit into members of His family, His community, His body, His kingdom.  

 

Scripture describes life without Jesus not only as barren, wasted or unfulfilled but as dead.[12]  Whether evidenced by addictions that ruin health and shorten life, emptiness and brokenness revealed by life crises, or hidden by wealth and success, even religion, lives without Jesus are like the sand that once formed the banks of Snake River, or the garbage that was later thrown there.  Yet, Jesus sees value in every life, no matter how wasted. He has been and is at work to save, deliver, redeem and transform these lives into His likeness, incorporating them into His family. 

 

[1] Illustrated History of the State of Idaho, Lewis Publishing House, Chicago, 1899.

[2] https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g35489-d5569101-Reviews-Snake_River_Greenbelt-Idaho_Falls_Idaho.html , accessed 2/13/2017

[3] R. Mitchell, Glimpses from the Life of Rebecca Mitchell, published in the Idaho Falls Times, October 13, 1908.

[4] From Brian Edgerton, "A River Passage Attempted," Bicentennial Anniversary of the Wilson Price Hunt Expedition down the Upper Snake River, October 19-November 11, 1811; manuscript undated. 

[5] Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, traveling through Eastern Idaho in 1841.

[6] Nathaniel Wyeth (who founded Fort Hall in 1834 and led expeditions in the 1830’s to Oregon), 1847, quoted by H. R. Schoolcraft in Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, Part 1, collected and prepared under the direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Philadelphia, PA, 1851.

[7] Louis J. Clements, Campfire Tales of Eastern Idaho, Volume 1, Eastern Idaho Publishing, Rexburg, 1987, p. 7.

[8] Mary Jane Fritzen, Historic Bonneville County – A Centennial History, NPNbooks, 2012, p. 10.

[9] Report of N. P. Langford on the Resources of Snake River Valley, contained in F. V. Hayden, 6th Annual Report of the US Geological Survey of the Territories Embracing Portions of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah, being a report of the explorations for the year 1872, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1873.

[10] Carrie Adell Strahorn, Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage, Volume 1, 1877-1880, originally published 1911, First Bison Book, 1988, pp. 174-175.

[11] The July 1, 2015 population of Idaho Falls was 59,184 and of Bonneville County was 110,089 (http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/1639700,16019).

[12] Ephesians 2:5

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1.2 Jesus, Incorporated

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Incorporated:

1.    United into one body, combined

2.    Organized and maintained as a legal business corporation[1]

 

Jesus is not a business but a person.  But Jesus is at work forming one body in His name.  Jesus is at work just like any business, in spreading His name, and the benefits of being incorporated into that name.  Jesus is and has been at work inviting men and women into His family, calling them to come together in His name, transforming them into His likeness, entrusting them with His name, and sending them out in His name to do His work, the work of His kingdom. 

 

Yet in Idaho Falls as in any other place on this globe, “Jesus, Incorporated” can get lost in the thousands of pursuits men and women seek after and fill their lives with.  His voice can be drown out by the cacophony of voices that seek our attention and allegiance.  His invitation and offer of new life, abundant life, can seem remote in the many strong currents of our culture.  Even after we join “Jesus, Incorporated,” we can easily lose sight of Him, and become entrenched in traditions and habits and mindsets that diminish His power and hide His glory that otherwise would be reflected by our lives.

 

Our goal in this book is to put the spotlight on Jesus.  The Bible puts the spotlight on Jesus, and using that light as our source, we want to take a long and serious look at this place - Idaho Falls, Idaho.  We have attempted to sift through the history of our city to see where and how Jesus has been at work, and we are seeking to talk to many members of His body in order to capture ways that He has revealed Himself, and doing here what He said He would do.

 

Why Idaho Falls?  Two reasons.

 

Idaho Falls is where we live and have lived – Todd, for nearly all his life, and Charles, for the past 30+ years.

 

The second reason is what we read in Scripture about the church.  When Scripture associates churches with a location, most of the time they are identified with cities, for example, the church of Jerusalem, of Antioch, of Corinth, or of Ephesus.  Of course there are many verses in Scripture that reference Christ’s body without any ties to geography or location, underlining the unity of the church across all geographic, ethnic, economic and other human divisions.   Where the church, singular, is identified with a location, two verses are of the form “the church that meets in the house of ____"; most others refer to the church in a single city; and a few refer to the church, singular, in a region, such as “the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria” of Acts 9:31.  All Scriptural references to churches, plural, that also include any specified or implied location, refer to a region, such as Galatia, Syria, Judea or Macedonia.  Thus churches in Scripture, when identified with a location, are predominately associated with a city.

 

So we have looked for Jesus forming and building his church, doing his work of redemption and deliverance, transformation and new creation in the city of Idaho Falls. 

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[1] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, William Morris, editor, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1969

 

1.3        God at Work

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If we were writing a book about how God is at work today, or at any other time in history, we might not include much about Idaho Falls.  But many others have written these books.

 

J. Edwin Orr, for example, has done extensive research and published several books documenting periods of revival, of times and places where God worked in what then and now seems like extraordinary ways, bringing great numbers of people into His kingdom, causing waves of growth in churches and transforming lives to the extent that societies were changed.  Some of the benefits of these past revivals, such as the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening, are still evident in our society.  Much has also been written of more recent revivals.  One example is Erwin W Lutzer’s Flames of Freedom, subtitled A penetrating, behind-the-scenes report of a recent revival movement carried worldwide by laymen.

 

Christian literature is rich in stories of missionaries taking the gospel and living the gospel in places where it hadn’t been preached, and seeing God work to bring people, communities, and even whole people groups out of darkness into His light, transforming them and their societies in the process.  From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth Tucker is a classic anthology of short stories documenting how God’s Spirit empowered His people to work toward fulfilling the Great Commission.  Another classic account of God at work bringing the gospel to a people in darkness is Through Gates of Splendor – The Martyrdom of Five American Missionaries in the Ecuador Jungle by Elizabeth Elliot.  This particular story is expanded on in The Dayuma Story  - Life under Auca Spears by Ethey Emily Wallis, and continued with Steve Saint’s End of the Spear and others.  Another classic of God’s work among native tribes in South America is Bruchko by Bruce Olson, along with his later updated Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle.  A whole library of books could be assembled from books about God is at work on the other side of the globe, penetrating the jungles of what was then called Irian Jaya, now Western New Guinea.  High on the list of these would be Don Richardson’s Peace Child and Lords of the Earth; also Torches of Joy by John Dekker and The People Time Forgot by Alice Gibbon. 

 

Numerous books have been written about the amazing growth of the church in China in the last 50 years; one is Jesus in Beijing – How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power, by David Aikman.  Another that combines the themes of God at work in a nation with the lives of a missionary couple is Anointed for Burial – Cambodia’s Like a Mighty Wind.  And before moving on from God’s work in Asia I need to mention Glory in Mongolia by Rick Leatherwood.

 

Many books that document the process of translating Scripture into one of the world’s thousands of languages testify to God’s hand at work.  One example is In Search of the Source – A First Encounter with God’s Word, by Neil Anderson.  The rapid acceleration of Bible translation in the past decade has resulted in multiplied stories of God at work through His word as it enters more and more languages.

 

There are whole categories of other ways God has been and is at work in the world that are rarely mentioned in popular news media – prayer movements, people movements, signs and wonders, stories of the perseverance of the saints under persecution and ways God is at work almost apart from any missionary involvement or church efforts.  A few books that provide windows into these ways are Red Moon Rising – How 24-7 Prayer is Awakening a Generation by Pete Greig and Dave Roberts, A Wind in the House of Islam – How God is Drawing Muslims Around the World to Faith in Jesus Christ, by David Garrison, Dreams and Visions – Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World? by Tom Doyle, and The Insanity of God, by Nik Ripken. The ways God was involved in the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s is also well documented.

 

Finally, there have been many biographies and autobiographies written that captivatingly detail Jesus delivering, saving, redeeming and transforming the lives of men and women.

 

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1.4 Jesus in Idaho Falls - Purpose

 

As encouraging as it is to read books like those mentioned above, we see the need to look closer to home and document ways that Jesus has been at work in a city, specifically Idaho Falls.  We have several motivations for writing this book.

 

The more we see of Jesus, we believe the more we will love Him, believe Him and live for Him.  We want to see Jesus receive glory for what He has done and is doing.

 

The more we see Jesus in the different parts of His body in Idaho Falls, the more we will realize the unity we have in Christ and the better we will become the answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23: …that they may be one… so that the world may know that You sent Me.

 

The more we see Jesus working around us in our city, the more encouraged we’ll be to persevere in the work He has called us to do and the better we’ll be able to fit into His work.

 

Psalm 145:4 says, “One generation shall commend Your works to another; they will tell of Your mighty acts.” We want to document ways that God has worked so that they are accessible to future generations.

 

While our focus is on Jesus, our secondary focus is on Idaho Falls, for the simple reason that the better we understand our city, the more effective our witness for Jesus will be.  

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This place — that at different times has been called Flathead Crossing, Black Rock Canyon, Barnard Ferry, Hickman's Ferry, Eagle Rock Ferry, Taylor's Bridge, Eagle Rock and, since 1891, Idaho Falls, — is not just a place.  In its early history it was a crossing, a ferry or a bridge to cross the river to get to someplace else - a campground, a rest stop, a delay in a journey, sometimes a danger on the way to a destination.   For most of the history of the place now known as Idaho Falls, only the Creator of this place enjoyed its beauty and knew its hidden treasures.  In prehistoric and early historic times there were temporary residents, but no evidence has been found of permanent dwellings.  Then, as described in Section 1.1, this place was viewed by nearly all who passed through as desolate and uninhabitable. 

 

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In July of 1862, prospectors found gold along Grasshopper Creek in Montana, about 140 miles north of where Idaho Falls is now.  That discovery proved significant for the formation of this community.

 

2.1 Events of 1863

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1863 was a very significant year for the future city of Idaho Falls.

 

On January 29th of that year, General Patrick Conner led his troops in the slaughter of 300-400 Shoshone and Bannock Indians at Bear River.[1]  In the words of an early Eagle Rock resident, this battle “settled the Indian question,” opening southeastern Idaho for both travel and settlement.

 

Only a month and five days later, on March 3rd, the Territory of Idaho was created.  Meanwhile, the “United” States were at war, and by summer, Confederate troops were winning victories in Virginia. 

 

With the discovery of gold in Montana the previous summer, in 1863 prospectors were flooding into southeast Idaho on their way to Virginia City, Montana.  To accommodate their crossing the Snake River, Harry Rickards (sometimes spelled “Rickets”) and William Hickman began building a ferry in May at Flathead Crossing, approximately 7.5 miles by river north of the present Broadway Street Bridge.  William Hickman is also known as “Wild Bill” Hickman, a guide for General Patrick Conner, and earlier a bodyguard for Joseph Smith and a confidant of Brigham Young.[2]  Hickman wrote an account of his life that was published by J. H. Beadle with the title, Brigham's Destroying Angel: Being the Life, Confession and Startling Disclosures of the Notorious Bill Hickman, Danite Chief of Utah.[3]

 

Besides building the ferry, Hickman and Rickards erected a log building which served as their living quarters and shelter for travelers.  When the ferry, which would shortly be called the Eagle Rock Ferry, opened on June 20, 1863, 230 people were eager to cross.  By the end of the year, 500 wagons had crossed.

 

As if this wasn’t enough notoriety for the beginning of Eagle Rock, on May 24 of 1863, Henry Plummer[4] was elected sheriff of Bannock, Idaho Territory, which included the Snake River Plain and hence Eagle Rock.  On Sept 2, 1863, Sidney Edgerton, who had just been appointed Chief Justice of Idaho Territory by President Lincoln, crossed paths with Henry Plummer in Eagle Rock and was favorably impressed with him.  Conversations with other travelers quickly changed Edgerton’s opinion of Sherriff Plummer.

 

And in 1863, the Eagle Rock Ferry was a favorite loitering place for hold-up men, waiting for wagons carrying gold from the north.  The robbers could make an easy escape into the desert to the west or mountains north or east.[5] Perhaps for this reason, as well as lingering fear of Indians, General Conner sent some of his troops to guard the Eagle Rock Ferry.

 

The events of 1863 in what would soon be called Eagle Rock are the backdrop for the work of Jesus.  There was much to be done!  The blood of the land cried out as did the injustice and greed that had taken root.

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[1] Generally ignored by historians until the last 40 years or so, the most comprehensive documentation of this tragedy is found in The Bear River Massacre, Newell Hart, Cache Valley Newsletter Publishing Co., Preston, 1982.  Immediately after the battle General Conner estimated 220-270 dead; estimates by settlers who discovered more bodies in ravines and buried in snow were as high as 500.  Less than 60 Indians survived.  In 2003, 26 acres that includes part of the battleground was purchased by a nonprofit organization and given to the Northwest Shoshone tribe.  Since then members of the tribe have gathered there annually in January to pray, offer songs to the dead and bless the land.

[2] See Barzilla W. Clark, Bonneville County in the Making, 1941 and Profiles of William A. Hickman, by Wm. A Hickman Family Organization, 1980.

[3] The extent that Beadle edited or added to Hickman’s draft has been discussed in later works on Hickman, and remains to some degree uncertain.

[4] Henry Plummer was a prospector, sheriff and outlaw in the West in the 1850’s and early 1860’s.  In January 1864 he was arrested by the Vigilantes of Alder Gulch and Virginia City Montana and hanged for alleged robberies and murders.

[5] Barzilla W. Clark, Bonneville County in the Making, Published by Post Register, 1941, p. 30.

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2.2  Water

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Except for the name “Eagle Rock,”[1] water is implied in all of names of Idaho Falls. In the early days of the community, the water brought by canals gave life to the town as the barren land was transformed to one of farms, homes, trees and lawns.  The name “Idaho Falls” was chosen purposely to change its image from a bleak, dry, barren place to one of life and abundance.  And water was critical in creating the opportunities to do that.  The name sought to convey the image of abundant water which in turn meant hope for life and community. The sandy area along rocky banks of a river that was once called uninhabitable developed into a community.  

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A map of the geology of Idaho illustrates the contrast between the Snake River Plain, in which Idaho Falls sits near the eastern edge, and the rest of Idaho. The broad banana-shaped swath across southern Idaho cuts the state in two unequal portions.  Fed by the snow melt from the Tetons and Yellowstone Plateau, an annual average 6,400 cubic feet per second of water is released from Palisades reservoir and another 1,950 added by the Henry’s Fork.[2]  The actual flow through Idaho Falls averages close to half of this amount because of water taken out for irrigation during the growing season.

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Barrenness transformed to life and community through water – that’s one way Idaho Falls can be characterized from a historical perspective.  There are other ways.  Most everyone who lives here has their own opinion and perspective of what Idaho Falls means, why they came and why they stay.  They may live here because of their occupation, family connections, recreational pursuits, or many other reasons.  Or it might have something to do with their religion.  Anyone moving to Idaho Falls sooner or later discovers the dominant role religion plays in this community.  Another name for this part of Eastern Idaho is the “Mormon Corridor.”[3] 

 

Idaho Falls, as every community, is constantly changing.  Families move here and people move away from here.  Babies are born and residents die.  Businesses start and grow and others fail or close for other reasons.  New churches start, some churches grow; others decline and close. 

 

In the flux of history and people, what can we say about Idaho Falls, and its immediate surroundings? 

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[1]  Although the exact origin of the name Eagle Rock has been disputed, if it was indeed due to an Eagle’s nest on an island in the river, the name indirectly references the importance of the river and water to the community.

[2] The Palisades release is based on the average of annual flows, 1935-2011.  The Henry’s Fork flow is based on data for river flow at St. Anthony for the period 1962-2011.  Data taken from USGS National Water Information System, accessible from http://waterdata.usgs.gov/id/nwis/current?type=flow

[3]  So named by cultural geographer Donald Meinig in 1955.

 

2.3 The People of Idaho Falls

 

Let’s start with the people, who have lived in Idaho Falls or are now living here.

 

About 32,000 have been buried in 24 cemeteries in Bonneville County. A little more than three times that amount, 104,234 people, were living in Bonneville County as of 2010.  The 2010 census shows the population of the City of Idaho Falls to be 56,813. More than 12,000 people from outside the city commute to jobs in Idaho Falls. The growth of Idaho Falls and the nearby communities of Ammon, Lincoln and Iona has in effect integrated these towns, with a combined (additional) population of 19,266, into Idaho Falls. Populations of Swan Valley, Irwin, and the part of Ririe within Bonneville County are at most a few hundred each, leaving a sizable rural population in the county.  A large part of this rural population can be considered part of Idaho Falls either because of geographic proximity or social, religious and business connections.

 

Between 1883 and 1885 the population of Eagle Rock exploded from 550 to 1500,[1] when the railroad house came to town.  But by 1890 it had plummeted down to 472 as the railroad jobs were lost to Pocatello. The population more than tripled in each of the next two decades.  The next largest period of high population growth was in the 1950’s, in which the population grew by 73%, due to formation of the National Reactor Test Site, the forerunner of the Idaho National Laboratory.  The growth spurt of the 1950’s was followed by the slowest growth, of 7.9%, for the decade of the 1960’s.  Since then the population has grown by 10-15% per decade.

 

In recent years, the fastest growing segment of the Idaho Falls and Bonneville County population has been Hispanic, increasing from about 2% of the population in 1980 to nearly 12% in 2010:

 

Based on the 2010 census, 57% of the people living in Bonneville County were born in Idaho.[2]  It’s highly probable that most of those were born and grew up in Idaho Falls.  In our highly mobile society, that’s a high number, suggesting strong attachments to the city or area. Based on the same census, 37% of Bonneville County residents came here from other states, while 5% were foreign born. 

 

In contrast, in 1880, only 12% of the population of Eagle Rock and Willow Creek had been born in Idaho, about 33% in Utah, 27% in 22 other states and 19% in eight European countries or Canada.

 

In 2010, there were 2,412 births in Bonneville County and 890 deaths.  The net in-migration from other states to Bonneville County from 2000-2009 was 8,057 people, but in 2010 turned negative as 107 more people left than came.  The net in-migration of people born outside the United States to Bonneville County was 853 from 2000-2009 and remained positive in 2010, when 128 more came than left.

 

God so loved the world – including the people of Idaho Falls – that He sent His Son…. 

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[1]  Idaho Falls City of Destiny, p. 151

[2]  U.S. Census Bureau, 2006-2010 American Community Survey, http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_5YR_DP02.  For comparison, only 42% of the population of Ada County (Boise) were born in Idaho.

 

2.4    The Geography of Idaho Falls and the Surrounding Area

 

The most obvious geologic feature of our city is the river that runs through the town, and supplies electric power to most of it.  Not quite so obvious is the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer, of which Idaho Falls sits on the eastern edge. One reason water is so essential to the city is the dryness of our climate, with an average annual precipitation of only 10.5 inches.

 

Located near the eastern edge of the Snake River Plain, the terrain of Idaho Falls is nearly flat.  The elevation at different points in the city varies in an irregular pattern from about 4,700 to 4,735 feet.  Lava fields dominate the terrain west and southwest of town. The Snake River Plain stretches approximately 50 miles west, 50 miles north, and 10 miles south of town.  

While many Idaho Falls residents enjoy recreational opportunities in mountains within easy driving distances in any direction from Idaho Falls, the closest mountains are the Blackfoot Range, southeast of town.  Taylor Mountain, rising to 7,414 feet, is included in this range, named for James “Matt” Taylor who built the first bridge in what became Eagle Rock.  The highest point in Bonneville County is the top of Mount Baird, at 10,025 feet, in the Snake River Mountain Range.  The highest point in Idaho, 12,668-ft Borah Peak, is 96 cross-country, straight-line miles from Idaho Falls. Mountain ranges near Idaho Falls all are oriented northwest to southeast.  The Blackfoot Range lies between Willow Creek and the Blackfoot River. Between Willow Creek and the South Fork of the Snake are the Caribou Mountains, and northeast of the Caribou Mountains is the Snake River Range and the Big Hole Mountains.  

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[Add photo of Mount Baird and /or map of mountains and rivers around Idaho Falls]

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Also nearby Idaho Falls are spectacular canyons.  Near-vertical walls keep much of the Teton Canyon east of the failed Teton Dam difficult to access.

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Figure 4. Photos of the Teton River Canyon.

 

The South Fork Canyon (in Bonneville County) draws thousands of people every year, who bring their drift boats or hire guides and launch from Conant, seeking to catch the cutthroat and browns of the river.[1]   

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Figure 5. Photos of the Canyon of the South Fork of the Snake.

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[1] Table 4 of the Interagency Management of Special Recreation Permits/Special Use Permits and Designated Camping within the Snake River Planning Area and Teton River Canyon Draft Environmental Assessment, July 2, 2015, shows between 22,862 and 48,107 people put boats in at Conant each year from 2004 to 2014, and hence floated through the Snake River Canyon.  Including other access points on the river, an average 200,000 people float the South Fork annually.

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2.5 Idaho Falls Businesses

 

Once canals began supplying water to pioneers in Eastern Idaho, agriculture became the economic base for Idaho Falls and remained so until the early 1950’s.  As early as 1869, geologist Ferdinand Hayden, who led numerous expeditions in the West and has left his name in numerous places in Yellowstone Park, reported that the Snake River Valley “was composed of a rich, sandy loam, that needs but the addition of water to render it excellent farming land.”[1]

 

A 1920’s brochure included the following in its description of Idaho Falls:[2]

 

“It is in the center of one of the greatest irrigation districts of the West, and the trade center for 1,300,000 acres of irrigated lands, exclusive of hundreds of thousands of acres of dry farming, grazing and forest lands.”

 

“[Among businesses] located in this city might be mentioned the largest sugar factor in the West, grain elevators, feed mills, wholesale grocery houses, three strong and successful banks, wholesale potato houses, bonded warehouses, a cheese factory, bottling plants, bakeries, oil distributing plants, some of the finest garages in Idaho, planing mills, a steam laundry, one of the largest wholesale seed pea companies in the world, honey shipping houses, several lumber yards, cream buying stations, ice cream and candy factories…”

 

The above quotation mentions four of the agricultural products (potatoes, grain, sugar and honey) – two of which are now largely forgotten – that were important in the history of Idaho Falls. 

 

To some, Idaho is synonymous with potatoes; Idaho Falls along with other parts of southern and eastern Idaho is a center for marketing and processing potatoes grown in the area. In recent years six billion pounds of potatoes have been grown in Idaho fields each year; potato processing in Eastern Idaho accounts for 44% of the total in the state.

 

Idaho also leads the nation in barley production, and two of the three barley processing facilities in the state are in Idaho Falls, Anheuser Bush’s Idaho Falls malt plant and the Idaho Falls Modelo malt plant.

 

In 1903 some Idaho Falls citizens formed the Idaho Sugar Company and constructed a sugar factory in Lincoln.  The History of Idaho,[3] published in 1914, reported that this sugar factory was the largest in the world, processed sugar beets from 10,000 acres, and disbursed a million dollars annually[4] in payment for beets and labor.   It’s original capacity of 600 tons of sugar beets a day was expanded to 4400 tons/day.  Over 75 years of operation, the plant produced over 4 billion pounds of sugar.  As late as 1970, the plant was the second largest sugar factory in the nation, employing between 350 and 400 workers, and producing about 150 million pounds of sugar a year.[5]

 

In the early 20th century Idaho Falls was recognized as one of the largest producers of honey in the world.

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Other major business in Idaho Falls iinclude the Idaho National Laboratory, discussed in Section 2.7, Melaleuca, the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, WinCo Foods and Golden Valley Natural, which produces jerky and other snack foods.

 

 

[1] From Idaho Falls, City of Destiny, compiled and edited by Mary Jane Fritzen, Bonneville County Historical Society, p. 4.

[2] Taken from Idaho Falls, City of Destiny, compiled and edited by Mary Jane Fritzen, Bonneville County Historical Society, p. 2.

[3] History of Idaho, Hiram Taylor French, 1914

[4] Equivalent to $24 million in 2014 dollars.

[5] Post Register, Feb 26, 1971, p. 16.

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2.6    Idaho Falls Power Generation

 

Power is another important theme running through the history of Idaho Falls that combines the people, the river and geology, and the economy of the city. 

 

Since 1900 the City of Idaho Falls has operated an electric generation system, initially using water flowing in a canal.  This first power generated by the city was used only for street lights.  Three hydroelectric facilities were built on the river in Idaho Falls between 1912 and 1940, two of which were virtually destroyed when the Teton Dam failed in 1976. The Bulb Turbine project replaced these two and a third was added by 1982 to enable the generation of up to 24,000 kilowatts of energy. Along with the Gem State Power Plant, located just south of the Bonneville County line, the total annual generation of electricity is approximately 220 million kilowatt hours, supplying electricity to all within the city limits and at times exporting surplus energy.  As a result of these power plants, Idaho Falls Power Company’s rate for electricity is lower than any other state in the nation.[1]

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[1] http://www.idahofallsidaho.gov/wwwroot/userfiles/files/ifp/national_rate_2014_final.jpg

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2.7    Idaho Falls and the Idaho National Laboratory

 

Power has also been a primary focus of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and its predecessors.   

 

While agriculture dominated the business life of Idaho Falls from roughly 1900 to 1950, since then the Idaho National Laboratory has played a major role in the economy of Idaho Falls.  Appendix 1 contains a brief history of the INL and its predecessors, and several books have been written that provide a more complete story.  How has the INL affected Idaho Falls?

 

One obvious answer is that the Department of Energy and INL contractors have provided jobs and brought people to town who otherwise wouldn’t have come here to live and work.  The Bel Aire subdivision was built in the early 1950’s to provide affordable housing to the first “Site workers.”  The rush to build the first facilities on the Site involved over 2,000 construction workers; and the spurt in Idaho Falls population growth in the 1950’s is clearly due to these employees, as well as others who came to work in those facilities once they were built.[1]  Employment by INL contractors grew to 5,000 by 1965,[2] and in that year 65% of them lived in Idaho Falls.  Three years later, that percentage increased as the Department of Energy decided to move all office personnel into town.  By 1990, 3,223 INL employees were working in 22 buildings in Idaho Falls,[3] and of course many others who worked at Site facilities lived in Idaho Falls.  Besides DOE and contractor employees, about 39,000 Navy sailors spent from 3 to 6 months in the area from 1953 to 1995, while being trained to operate nuclear submarines at the Naval Reactors Facility. Many lived in Idaho Falls during their training.  Recent data from the Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce shows the INL as Idaho Fall’s top employer, with 7,500 employees, followed by School District 91 with 1,700, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center with 1,311 and Melaleuca with 1,300. So the economic impact of the INL has had on Idaho Falls is obvious, and has been detailed in various studies.  But has the "Site" affected the character or identity of the city? 

 

Here’s my opinion. The early years of the INL (then called the National Reactor Testing Station), even the first two decades, were filled with optimism that nuclear power was the answer to the nation’s energy problems.  There was much optimism also in using nuclear power as well to improve areas of national defense – not in bombs but in powering submarines and airplanes and military power installations. 

 

The projects at the Site provided much of the knowledge needed to build nuclear reactors and power plants in the United States and the world. In 2014, 100 nuclear reactors were operating in the United States, which produced nearly 20% of the nation’s electricity.  As of 2015, 435 reactors were in operation worldwide; France produces 77% of its electricity through nuclear power and a dozen other nations from 30-57%.[4]  Whether you are a proponent or an opponent of nuclear power, there’s no question that the work done at the INL was essential in providing the basis for the design and operation of these facilities.  So one contribution of the INL to the character of Idaho Falls is that it has brought greater involvement in the energy needs of the nation and the world. That involvement consisted of resolve and creativity in designing tests to prove theories and then engineer them into useful and safe processes.  That sense of mission and purpose, and working to meet challenging national needs, has been infused into the character of the city.  One reflection of it is the title of probably the most comprehensive history of the city, Mary Jane Fritzen’s Idaho Falls, City of Destiny. Chapter 20 of that book, written by Ben Plastino, long time Post Register editor and unofficial INL historian, begins: “(The INL) wrote its history in the nuclear and scientific field of unsurpassed achievement.”

 

That sense of mission and achievement was somewhat dimmed and darkened at times in the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, as questions were raised about nuclear and hazardous wastes generated at and/or shipped to the Site, as controversial and sometimes complex environmental agreements were hammered out between the state and federal agencies and as opposition groups to nuclear power and nuclear waste treatment arose.   

 

In the past 20 or so years the INL has gone through various changes in mission, at times seeking to refocus the development of nuclear power and at times diversifying into new missions.  Contractors have come and gone; employees have come, contributed, some having moved on while many retired and stayed in Idaho Falls.  Some the Lord has brought to Idaho Falls to bring to Himself though the witness of the gospel.  Some INL employees have become leaders in churches and ministries while employed at the INL.  The Lord brought others to Idaho Falls through employment at the INL and then called them into other areas of service or ministry in the city. 

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[1] The population of Idaho Falls increased by an average of 360 per year between 1900 and 1950, and 1395 per year between 1950 and 1960.

[2] NRTS employment in 1964 was 4740 and the following year 5038 based on numbers in Russell Miller, The Economic Impact of the National Reactor Testing Station on Idaho Falls, Idaho, 1968.  However these number do not include construction workers, which add between 500 and 1500 per year.

[3] Ben J. Plastino, Coming of Age: Idaho Falls and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, 1998, p. 111.

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_by_country, accessed 10/31/2015.

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2.8  The Darker Side of Idaho Falls

 

God is, and has been, at work to redeem a people for Himself.  The backstory of God’s work here, as everywhere else in the world that someone calls home, is that the inhabitants of this planet need redeeming. The history of Eagle Rock and Idaho Falls contains ample evidence that things are not right, of people destroying themselves or hurting others, of injustice and tragedy and suffering and futility. 

 

2.8.1 The Bear River massacre and treatment of Native Americans

 

Habakkuk 3:12 declares, "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, and founds a town with violence."  The Bear River massacre opened Southeastern Idaho for both unhindered travel and for settlement.  If this battle had not occurred, it's doubtful that Eagle Rock, which grew up around first the gold traffic and then agriculture, would have even existed, or at least developed in the same way or timeframe.  Though this tragedy may seem at first glance unrelated to the history of Idaho Falls, it left a legacy of injustice directed toward the Native people of this area, an area greater than, but including the future site of Idaho Falls. 

 

Several incidents are cited by historians as the immediate causes of the Bear River massacre.  These include the theft of some horses and cattle by three Indians from the Bear River camp, another incident in which several miners were killed, and another in which two Indians and two whites were killed.  Indians' accounts give evidence that the Shoshoni leaders were ready to hand over the "trouble makers" involved in the first incident, while the other two involved Indians of bands not present at Bear River.[1]  At the very time of the battle, Shoshoni Chief Sanpitch was in Salt Lake City trying to bring peace between his tribe and Mormon settlers.  But these specific incidents made little if any difference to Col. Patrick E. Conner.

 

In 1862 Col. Conner of the Third California Infantry was impatiently waiting to be sent to the front lines in the Civil War, so much so that his troops authorized $30,000 be withheld from their pay if they could be sent back east.  When he was sent instead to guard the mail routes in Utah, as remote a place as there was in those days, he was dismayed, for his heart was set on bigger things.  Selecting a site overlooking Salt Lake City, "Conner took the position that his real work was to wage a war against the Mormons."  It's quite apparent Conner didn't like anything or anyone who got in the way of his ambition.  "He hated Indians too [besides settlers] mostly because they had deterred his career...'The only way to subdue the Indians,' he said, 'is to kill all; squaws, papooses, and all.'"[2]  And that is just what he did.             

 

To forestall the possibility that Indians would flee when a large body of troops approached them at Bear River, his troops, both infantry and cavalry, traveled only by night from Salt Lake City.  Before dawn on the bitterly cold morning of January 29, 1863, he moved his cavalry into position in another attempt to prevent escape.  Then he sent detachments of infantry up and down each end of the steep ravine in which the Indians were camped, effectively surrounding them.

 

According to a Mae T. Perry, "Indian men, women and children and babies were being slaughtered left and right."[3]  "By some accounts troopers took babies by the heels and dashed them to death.  Squaws, helpless from their wounds were raped even as they died."[4]  One of the chiefs, Bear Hunter, was shot, whipped, kicked, tortured in other ways, and finally a red hot bayonet was thrust through his head from ear to ear.      

 

William Hull, sent by his Mormon bishop the day after the massacre to look for survivors, reported, "Never will I forget the scene, dead bodies were everywhere.  I counted eight deep in one place, and in several places they were three to five deep; all in all we counted nearly four hundred; two-thirds of this number being women and children."[5]  

 

Two nights before the massacre, one of the elders of the Northwest Shoshone band, Tin Dup, had a dream in which his people were being slaughtered by soldiers on ponies.  Convinced his dream was a warning from the Great Spirit, he encouraged all who would listen to flee, but only a few families joined his hasty exodus.  A white friend of the Indians also came to the camp and warned the Indians that the settlers of Cache Valley had sent an appeal to Col. Conner to come and get rid of the Indians once and for all.

 

Col. Conner, after the massacre, was promoted to General and went to Soda Springs to establish a post to protect overland emigration to Oregon, California, and the mines in Montana.  From there he explored the area to the north, looking for a more direct route to the Snake River.  His expedition took him to site that would become Eagle Rock, and he employed a man who had served him as a guide and scout, William "Bill" Hickman, to build a ferry across the river..

 

The massacre of Bear River is not the only Native American bloodshed on the land.  According to fur trapper James P. Beckwourth, Captain William Sublette sent 215 trappers against the Bannock after they had wounded two trappers and killed two Shoshone helpers.  After a chase of 45 miles, they trapped the Indians on an island in the Green River and took 488 scalps.  The few squaws that were spared were given to the Shoshone.[6]  A somewhat similar incident, also on the Green River, a decade later is reported by the biographers of Jim Bridger and Joe Meek.  The Bannock's refusal to surrender horses and traps stolen from Nez Perce trappers resulted in the plunder of the Bannock village and a three day pursuit before peace was negotiated.[7]  However, there is relatively little documentation for both of these events, and at least one historian thinks there were the same one while others think they may only be tall tales or greatly embellished.

 

This is not the place to review or evaluate the whole history of the treatment of Native Americans in Southeast Idaho, as that would be more appropriate for the story of Pocatello, Blackfoot or Fort Hall.  Yet, for at least as long as census record have recorded it, Idaho Falls has had Native American residents.  The latest census (2010) shows 790 Native Americans living in Bonneville County.   

 

 Add information about the more recent treatment of Native Americans in Eagle Rock and Idaho Falls – “rolling” Indians at the Broadway Bridge etc.

 

2.8.2 Treatment of other ethnic minorities

 

Jesus commanded his disciples to make disciples of all ethnic groups (Matt 28:18-20) and John in the book of Revelation tells us Jesus purchased for God with His blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Rev 5:9).  God commanded the Israelites not to oppress foreigners living among them but instead to but love them (Ex 22:21, 23:9, Lev 19:33-34, Deut 10:19) and the New Testament, Jesus equated treatment of strangers (foreigners) with treatment of Himself (Matt 25:35,43).  

 

In the 1870’s more than 25% of the population of the Idaho Territory were Chinese; many of the laborers in the Caribou mines in southern Bonneville County, and in the railroad shop in Eagle Rock, were Chinese. In 1886 Territorial Governor Stevens declared, "The Chinaman is directly antagonistic to the white race and the best interests of the laboring men cannot be served by his presence.”  In the same year an Anti-Chinese Congress was held in Boise.  Editors of newspapers called for Chinese to leave or be "extinguished" reflecting the anti-Chinese hysteria throughout the West.

 

As the flow of Chinese laborers into the West was cut off by the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese took up the slack.  Japanese provided labor on many of the sugar beet farms around Idaho Falls.  They also worked on the railroad, digging irrigation ditches, and as domestic labor.  Like the Chinese, the Japanese were excluded from purchasing land by a state law passed Feb. 26, 1891.  They were also denied citizenship.  In 1923 the Alien Land Measure was passed, which denied aliens the right to hold or lease land in Idaho.  This law was in effect from 1926 until 1955.

 

Like the Chinese, the Japanese suffered discrimination, particularly in the 1940's.  Governor Chase Clark, former mayor of Idaho Falls, called the Japanese "alien enemy labor to Idaho." and called for them to be placed in concentration camps under armed guard.(add reference)  Governor Clark blocked sales of land in Idaho to Japanese trying to comply with a U.S. Army plan for Japanese living on the coast to voluntarily relocate. In 1942, harsher measures were taken, and Japanese, mostly from Washington, Oregon and Idaho, were forcefully moved to a "relocation camp," surrounded by barbed wire and guard, in Minidoka. By September 1942, 9500 people were living in the camp.  They remained until February 1946.  Idaho Falls had two POW camps during the war.  One of these camps was in Taupthaus Park and had 500 prisoners, mostly Germans; another was on the property where the Westbank Motel is now. 

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Other possible sections in 2.8: Crime, disease & epidemics, poverty, suicide, homelessness, mental illness, divorce, child abuse, addictions - substances and activities, legal and illegal -, obesity and eating disorders, idolatry, hypocrisy... 

 

[1] Mae T. Perry, "Massacre at Bia Ogoi", contained in The Bear River Massacre, Newell Hart, Cache Valley Newsletter Publishing Co., Preston, 1982, p. 219.

[2] "Plaque Reminds of Massacre," Newspaper clipping dated Dec. 28, 1954 in the Idaho File of the Idaho Falls Public Library.

[3] Mae T. Perry, "Massacre at Bia Ogoi", contained in The Bear River Massacre, Newell Hart, Cache Valley Newsletter Publishing Co., Preston, 1982, p. 220.

[4] "Bear River Nightmare," Robert Mims, The Post Register, March __, 1990, p. D-2

[5] Quoted in The Bannock of Idaho, B. D. Madsen, Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1958, p. 137.

[6] The Bannock of Idaho, B. D. Madsen, Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1958, p. 49-51.

[7] Ibid, p. 61

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