Four days in the valley: Power County's first road season, 1913

In May 1913 two of the commissioners of the new Power County, with the county attorney and the county surveyor, spent four days in the Crystal and Arbon precincts looking at roads. The American Falls Press reported the trip, and the commissioners' minutes over the following months show what came of it.

Power County had been created early that year, and the valley, until then part of Oneida County, now looked to American Falls as its county seat. Its roads mattered. The wheat had to be hauled out to the railroad, and that September the Press estimated the year's crop at very nearly half a million bushels and put the cost of getting it to the railroad at about twenty-five cents a hundred pounds. In March the Arbon Commercial Club, in a letter signed by W. E. Dawson, had called the valley "a splendid field for an electric line."

Four days at Crystal and Arbon

At their April meeting the commissioners set May 8 and 9 for examining the roads of the Arbon district, and they accepted V. E. Randall's bond as road overseer. On May 8 the Press reported Commissioners Andrew May and W. S. Sparks, with County Surveyor Frank Moench, "in the Arbon Valley this week, looking up road matters."

The full account came a week later. Sparks, May, Moench and County Attorney O. R. Baum had been gone four days and were back at the county seat on Friday, May 9. The trip was meant, the paper said, to put them in touch with the needs of the people. Crystal, the settlement in a high basin of springs and creeks, came first. On the evening of Tuesday, May 6, a meeting was held in the schoolhouse there. There were short talks, and when the business was done the young people held a dance. The party looked over the roads up Crystal, Clifton and Rattlesnake creeks and secured right of way for county highways along them. Then they went on to Arbon:

Thursday the party reached Arbon and viewed the 18 mile long road across the valley that had been petitioned for. Later they secured right of way sufficient to connect this road with the Bannock road.

The paper did not say where the 18-mile road ran. The Bannock road was probably the road north along Bannock Creek, which flows out of the valley past Pauline and through the reservation. The meeting at Arbon, held in the schoolhouse of District No. 46, was "a very pleasant social event," the Press said, as well as a chance to talk business. Moench was to come back later and lay out the roads chosen. The paper added that work on the road from Arbon to American Falls was being pushed and that the really bad spots in it had been repaired. The visitors thanked the people of both districts "for their kindness and consideration."

An offer from Pocatello

The same report told of a rival plan. A party from Pocatello had been in Arbon the day before the commissioners arrived and, "it is said," had proposed a road across the mountains into Pocatello. They put its cost at $10,000 and offered to donate part of it if Arbon valley would raise the rest. How much the Pocatello party offered to donate cannot be read in the page's text.

The two towns wanted the same trade, and the Press left no doubt where it stood. Writing in August about a telephone line to Arbon, it declared, "The trade naturally belongs here," and said the valley's people preferred more direct communication with American Falls than with Pocatello.

The May report also gave, for the American Falls Board of Trade, the Bell telephone company's terms: 30 miles of line to the edge of the valley and the loan of a switchboard, if the farmers built their own valley line and guaranteed $50 a month for 18 months in tolls and rents. The terms changed over the summer; the first telephone line tells how the valley organized its own company that September.

No further report of the Pocatello road offer has been found. The valley's highway to Pocatello came later: the first state highway tells of the state highway from Pocatello to Arbon designated in 1919.

Petitions, a turnpike and a new overseer

On June 10 the board granted a list of road petitions, among them the Snyder Rattlesnake, Clifton Creek and West Arbon petitions, and ordered that "the old Arbon Rattlesnake road be kept open." The minutes give no routes. The Snyder petition was probably W. C. Snyder's, for a road up Rattlesnake Creek at Crystal; the first county road and bridges at Crystal tells of it and of the bridges the county ordered there that August.

By fall some of the work showed. When a party of American Falls businessmen drove out for the telephone meeting in September, the roads pleased them. Except for one or two places on the reservation, the Press reported, they were in fairly good shape all along the route. One of the greatest improvements was between the T. B. Evans place and the John Payne place. That stretch had been "one of the worst strips of road" in the valley, but in the spring it had been "turnpiked the entire distance and is now a very creditable highway." A turnpiked road was graded up into a raised, rounded bed with ditches along its sides, so that water ran off it. The paper did not say who had done the work.

On September 29 the commissioners accepted Randall's resignation as road overseer for the Arbon district and appointed Lawrence Dawson in his place. He was probably Lawrence E. Dawson, named that August as an Arbon witness in a homestead notice. Among the bills the board allowed the same day was $162 to W. C. Snyder for "expense of Rattlesnake road," along with others for road work and bridge logs.

Afterward

The county's next step was a larger one. On December 9 the commissioners called a special election for January 27, 1914, on bonding the county for $125,000 for roads and bridges, with Arbon voting at schoolhouse No. 12. When the returns were canvassed, Arbon stood 18 for the bonds and 130 against, and Crystal 25 for and 17 against. The bonds failed to carry the two-thirds they needed.

The article as printed

American Falls Press, May 15, 1913, page 1. Transcribed from the page scan.

SPARKS MAY, BAUM AND MOENCH RETURN HOME
Crystal and Arbon Visited, Roads Viewed and Right of Way Secured.
After having been absent for four days, during which time they visited in the Crystal and Arbon precincts, County Commissioners Sparks and May, Attorney Baum, and Surveyor Moench returned to the county seat on Friday of last week. Their trip was for the purpose of getting in touch with the needs of the people of the districts visited, and they believe that they accomplished a great deal of good.
Crystal was the first place visited, and a meeting was held in the school house there Tuesday evening. Short talks were made upon [illegible] and school matters, and after the business meeting the young folks held a dance. The party viewed the roads leading up Crystal, Clifton and Rattlesnake creeks, and secured right of way for county highways along them.
Thursday the party reached Arbon and viewed the 18 mile long road across the valley that had been petitioned for. Later they secured right of way sufficient to connect this road with the Bannock road.
A meeting was held in the school house of district No. 46, which was a very pleasant social event as well as a profitable opportunity for the discussion of business matters.
County Surveyor Moench will go later and lay out the roads selected.
The work on the road from Arbon to American Falls is being pushed, all the really bad spots in it have been repaired.
A party from Pocatello was in Arbon the day before the commissioners arrived, and, it is said, submitted a proposition for a road across the mountains into Pocatello. They stated that the road could be built for $10,000 and offered to donate [illegible] if Arbon valley would raise the remainder.
On behalf of the American Falls board of trade the [illegible] party submitted the following terms that the Bell telephone company has decided upon. The company will build [illegible] 30 miles to the edge of the valley and loan them a switchboard, if the farmers will build their own valley line, and guarantee the company $50 per month for 18 months in tolls and rents.
The commissioners and their companions state that everywhere they were treated with the utmost courtesy and hospitality, and they wish to thank the people of the districts visited for their kindness and consideration.

On this site: the Arbon area, Crystal, and the first engineered road out of the valley, which tells of the earlier road to American Falls.