At the end of August 1926 the Pocatello Tribune reported that the wheat harvest in Arbon Valley was practically finished and that the yield was one of the biggest ever recorded there. Valley farmers had bought big trucks to haul the threshed grain to the railroad, and the paper named two of them.
The news came after hard years. From 1920 to 1925, as an earlier post tells, the valley's farmers raised good crops that sold at falling prices, while credit ran short and banks failed. The crop of 1925 was better. On September 2, 1925, the Tribune wrote that the valley would produce "a wonderful crop of grain this season, mostly wheat," dry-farm wheat standing three feet or more, cut by combined harvester and sacker. Its writer also noted the empty homes:
It seems, however, that there are many vacant homes throughout the district, but those who have remained and held their faith in the wonderful soil of the area are being compensated in very substantial manner.
A dry year and an early harvest
In late April 1926 the Tribune described a drive into the valley: the roads were in excellent condition and the young wheat stood green against the uncultivated sagebrush. New casing was being hauled out for the oil well at Arbon, in the valley where, the paper said, southeastern Idaho's oil hopes lay.
The early summer was dry. Even so, on July 8 the Tribune reported that harvest was already under way, about two weeks earlier than usual, with grain being hauled to American Falls for shipment, and that "in spite of the dry weather of the earlier part of the summer indications are that there will be a bountiful crop." On July 14 Pocatello's mayor, C. Ben Ross, told the chamber of commerce forum that the experts who had expected heavy losses several weeks earlier had not counted on the moisture left in the ground from the year before, and that recent rains had changed the outlook. Of the Arbon valley, the paper reported, "he said the yield would be good."
Not every field came through. A dispatch from Malad, printed on August 14, told of a hailstorm the Sunday before, probably August 8, that swept over Oneida County, the valley's neighbor to the south, and cleaned out grain fields from the Pleasant View district to Elkhorn. It added a single sentence: "In the Arbon valley severe losses were felt from the same storm." It named no farms and gave no acreage.
Trucks to Schiller
By August 31 the harvest was practically finished. Valley people who traded in Pocatello described their crops as better than in several years. Rainfall had been lighter than for several years, but there had been enough all through the valley to keep the grain from drying up in all but a few spots.
Then came the haul. Lew Carter had been in Pocatello on Monday, August 30, and drove home over the Mink Creek divide in a three-ton truck that he meant to keep busy for the next two weeks between Arbon and Schiller, the railroad siding between Pocatello and American Falls where the valley's grain was loaded. Kelly Palmer had left town late the week before with a truck of four and a half tons for his own grain. A Tribune man who had driven over the divide and down the valley to the American Falls highway found both roads in fine condition and the highway graveled most of the way.
Lew C. Carter was an Arbon man. In March 1921 the stockholders of the valley's Falls-Bannock Telephone Company elected him their president, and in the fall of 1925 he was clerk of the Arbon school district, as the post on Lila Wade's years in Arbon's schools tells. That he is the Lew Carter of 1926 is very probable. Kelly Palmer does not appear anywhere else in the papers searched for this post, and who he was is not known.
Schiller had been the valley's shipping point for some years. In 1923, as the post on the Schiller buying war tells, teams and trucks hauled the crop there, 26 miles from Pauline. In 1926 the paper called the new trucks giants, and the site's entry on the first trucks records that the Ward family bought their first truck that year.
What the papers leave out
The August article gives no bushel figures, prices or count of trucks, and its headline's "record" crop goes further than its own words, "one of the biggest ever recorded." The July report has grain going to American Falls and the August one names Schiller; the papers do not say how the haul was divided. Where the August hail struck in the valley, and how much it took from the total, is not known.
The better years did not last long. Within a few years drought and debt began to empty the outlying settlements, as the Stories entry on Crystal and Buist tells.
On this site: the history of Arbon, the history of Pauline and West Fork, and the Mink Creek road to Pocatello.
The article as printed
Pocatello Tribune, August 31, 1926, page 10. Transcribed from the page scan.
RECORD WHEAT CROP HARVESTED IN THE ARBON VALLEY DISTRICTS
Wheat harvest in the Arbon valley is practically finished and farmers of that section have found that their yield this year is one of the biggest ever recorded in the valley, reports received today by The Tribune said.
Giant trucks, which will be used in the transportation of the threshed grain to the railway, have been purchased by Arbon Valley farmers and are already in use. Lew Carter, who was in Pocatello yesterday, departed for his home across the Mink creek divide driving a three-ton truck which he will have in constant use for the next two weeks between Arbon and Schiller, the point midway between Pocatello and American Falls, where grain and other produce from the valley is loaded for the markets of the east.
Kelly Palmer, another Arbon Valley farmer, left Pocatello during the latter part of last week with a four and a half ton truck which will be used for the hauling of his grain.
Better crops than for the past several years is the way in which residents of this rich valley who make Pocatello their trading point describe their grain yields this year.
Although this section of the state had less rainfall this year than for several years, precipitation all through Arbon valley has been enough to keep grain from drying up in all but a few spots, it is said.
Both roads into the valley are in fine condition, it has been found by a Tribune representative, who recently made a trip up over the Mink creek divide and down the valley to the American Falls highway. The highway is graveled most of the way and the few spots where it has not been surfaced are in fairly good condition for this time of the year.
Sources
- Pocatello Tribune, August 31, 1926, page 10
- Pocatello Tribune, September 2, 1925, page 6
- Pocatello Tribune, April 26, 1926, page 3
- Pocatello Tribune, July 8, 1926, page 12
- Pocatello Tribune, July 14, 1926, page 14
- Pocatello Tribune, August 14, 1926, page 2
- American Falls Press, March 18, 1921, page 2
- American Falls Press, October 29, 1925, page 1