The $300 road from Arbon to American Falls, 1908

In November 1908 a county road crew began a new wagon road from Bannock Creek over the foothills to American Falls, meant to bring the Arbon settlement ten or twelve miles closer to a market town. The American Falls Press followed it through three issues, naming the men who laid the road out and built it.

Arbon was then in Oneida County, governed from the county seat at Malad; Power County was not created until 1913. The valley's earliest way out had been Rocky Ridge, little more than an old trail widened by the settlers' wagons, toward Malad. In July 1907 the Press reported that the county's road districts had been renumbered, and Arbon became Road District No. 10. The next spring the county commissioners voted money for the Rockland and Neeley roads, but "No appropriation for the Bannock road made, as no petition was received." A road meeting in the second week of May was to see "the Arbon road given consideration." The paper does not say whether the Bannock road and the Arbon road were the same, or what the meeting decided.

A shorter haul for the wheat

By the fall of 1908 the valley had grown about 45,000 bushels of wheat. J. L. McKown of American Falls visited the valley early in November and praised it for dry farming. Reporting his visit, the Press added that "a water-grade road can be built into American Falls," meaning one with gentle, even slopes. The next week J. R. Bailey, the Arbon postmaster, was in town, and the Press of November 14 reported:

An appropriation of $300 has been made for a new road to the valley which Mr. Bailey believes will shorten the distance ten or twelve miles and bring the lower end of the valley within about fifteen miles of American Falls, with a water grade most of the distance. An ordinary team of horses will bring about thirty sacks of wheat to market here without difficulty.

The same month sixteen Arbon wagons took a carload of wheat to Michaud switch, between American Falls and Pocatello. The Press held that "American Falls is the natural market for Arbon," but the elevator machinery there had not arrived.

Laying out the road

On November 21, 1908, the Press reported that the $300, apparently voted several months earlier, was to be spent at once. A committee of James Bailey, Julius Abter and Otto Anderson was named to help lay the road out. James Bailey was almost certainly J. R. Bailey, who had spoken for the road the week before. Otto Anderson, as the paper spelled him, was probably Andrew "Otto" Andersen. At the committee's suggestion J. L. McKown was added from American Falls.

Wilson Barnard, the road overseer for the district, went out on Tuesday with the engineer H. G. Hawley to survey a route over the foothills. A survey had been made some time before, but they hoped to find easier grades. The proposed road, the paper said, would cross Bannock Creek some distance above Rocky Ford, climb the foothills, and enter the valley near C. C. Robinson's place, east of American Falls. The paper expected it to save at least ten miles.

The work began that same Tuesday, probably November 17. With Barnard were Hawley, Ben McQueen, and Frank Allen and his son. The Press described where they started:

Wilson Barnard began work on the new road to Arbon Tuesday morning. ... he began at a point about a mile above the Rocky Ford, at Big Joe's place on the Bannock, and by an easy grade is taking the road around the hill to the flat, and thence across country to American Falls. Mr. Hawley says the grade at no place reaches five per cent, and is steep for short distances only.

The road left the Bannock valley near a rocky butte, crossing the creek, it was understood, at an old bridge, and for probably three miles it followed a recent government survey for an extension of the Ross Fork canal. Hawley said that from the valley to the top of the hill the grade would average about two per cent, and from the top of the hill into town the grade was easy. The $300, the paper said, was not enough to make the road as good as it should be. Even so, Hawley said, heavy loads could be drawn over it, and it would cut one to two hours from the trip. The paper expected it to open for travel within a few days.

A week later the Press reported, apparently on Barnard's word, that the steepest grade was 4.6 per cent, and that only for a short distance. The roadbed was ideal, he said, and the road would be one of the best in the county. But the $300 would fall about $50 short of finishing it. The Press said efforts were being made to raise the rest, since so much wheat had to be marketed.

What became of it

After that the record thins. No report of the road's completion has been found, and whether the last $50 was raised is not known.

On May 8, 1909, the Press printed a comic account of an automobile trip along "the proposed route to Arbon." The car broke down at Rattlesnake gulch, about thirty miles out, and the story ended: "No report has been made on the proposed road between American Falls and Arbon." The paper did not say whether that was the 1908 road or a new line. Later that month two Oneida County commissioners, Harding and Rowe, came up from Malad on road business, and "They came overland, via Arbon."

In December 1909, arguing over a road near Igo, north of American Falls, the letter writer A. F. Hughes warned: "Then this proposed road will meet the same fate that the Arbon road has." He did not say what that fate was.

In July 1911 the county surveyed yet another road to Arbon, over the Moonshine country, and the Press compared its grades with "the road built two years ago," which had "a long stretch of 14 per cent and one 17 per cent grade." The paper did not name that road, and "two years ago" would point to 1909. If it was the 1908 road, the figures are far from the 4.6 per cent reported in 1908; if not, the 1908 road's later life is missing from the pages found.

The article as printed

American Falls Press, November 21, 1908, page 1. Transcribed from the page scan.

WORKING ON ARBON ROAD
Wilson Barnard and Crew Began Work Tuesday.
Wilson Barnard began work on the new road to Arbon Tuesday morning. Accompanied by H. G. Hawley, of the engineering firm of Moench & Hawley, Ben McQueen and Frank Allen and son, he began at a point about a mile above the Rocky Ford, at Big Joe's place on the Bannock, and by an easy grade is taking the road around the hill to the flat, and thence across country to American Falls. Mr. Hawley says the grade at no place reaches five per cent, and is steep for short distances only. The grade, he believes, from the valley to the top of the hill will average about two per cent. From the top of the hill into town the grade is easy. For probably three miles it follows closely the survey for the extension of the Ross Fork canal recently made by the government.
The road leaves the valley near a rocky butte that rises in the valley about a mile above Big Joe's place. It is understood the Bannock is crossed at an old bridge above this point. The appropriation for the road ($300) is not sufficient to make it as good as it should be, but Mr. Hawley says heavy loads can be drawn over it, and the time will be shortened from Arbon to American Falls from one to two hours. The road will be open for travel within a few days.

On this site: the first engineered road out of the valley sets the 1908 road beside the Jenson Pass road toward Malad, and the Arbon area history tells of the settlement it served.