Arbon's road money, a bank failure and the wheat haul of 1921

In 1921 Power County expected the biggest wheat crop it had ever raised, and Arbon Valley's share had to go out by wagon and truck to a railroad siding miles away. That spring the valley's own road district lost its cash when a Pocatello bank closed its doors.

A road district of its own

Arbon had been in Oneida County until 1913, when it became part of the new Power County, whose seat is American Falls. On June 12, 1918, a unanimous vote created Highway District No. 3, which took in the Arbon and Pauline precincts, and that fall its voters approved $50,000 in bonds.

In April 1919 the commissioners, with J. E. Keeler as chairman and William Allard of Arbon as secretary, called for bids to gravel fifteen miles of road south along Bannock Creek. North of their line, the road down the creek toward the railroad belonged to Highway District No. 1, the American Falls district. In August 1919 a Salt Lake paper explained that in this wheat country "long hauls over poor roads have been the rule." By the end of 1920 the valley district had fourteen miles of graded and graveled road.

Courting the valley's trade

In February 1921 the revived American Falls Chamber of Commerce took up shortening the Arbon–American Falls highway "so that the farmers of that district could reach this city more easily." County engineer Irvin Allred reported that the road could be graveled for heavy traffic at about $1,000 a mile, and a "Shiller cut" would save about three miles; a cut-off starting about seven miles west of Starlight would save ten miles but could not be built for less than $3,000 a mile. The board favored the cheaper plan, asked its secretary to write to prominent Arbon citizens, and gave its reason:

With a newly graveled highway, it was felt by members of the board, and the proper trade inducements offered by local merchants, a bulk of the Arbon Valley trade would be diverted to this city.

No report of either cut being built has been found.

Money in a closed bank

On June 3 the American Falls Press reported that E. E. Zaring, the American Falls grain buyer, after a tour of every district, predicted two million bushels for the county, the largest crop it had ever harvested. Of the valley he said:

Arbon Valley shows now in its prime. From Pauline to Crystal, there is little choice for special comment. There is a universally excellent stand of grain, the acreage is larger than ever before and the yield is bound to be enormous.

The Bannock National Bank of Pocatello had closed in May. On July 11 the Salt Lake Telegram reported that the Arbon Valley highway district had lost its available cash in the failure. It had counted on about $2,000 for road maintenance that year, and the commissioners did not know how they would keep up their roads through the wheat haul. The same page said the frost of July 3 had been heaviest in the Arbon Valley, though most of the wheat was too far along to suffer much.

The haul to Schiller

Valley wheat was hauled to Schiller, a siding on the Oregon Short Line about a mile west of today's Bannock Peak Truck Stop on I-86, as the Pauline and West Fork history places it, and twenty-six miles from the Pauline warehouse by a 1924 report. In late August the Arbon column found the valley short of men to pick up straw and sacks:

Oliver Foutz, the U. S. mail carrier brings several out a day, but they work from half a day to three or four days and quit, which is quite discouraging, when help is needed so bad. Grain is going from 15 bushels to thirty-five. Several acres were found to be frozen when they commenced cutting the grain.

A Mr. Keeler (the initials as printed, "J. K.", may be a slip for J. E.) had bought an International truck and was making two trips a day to Schiller, where the Wheatgrowers Association's grain was handled that fall. In September the Press reported more trucks hauling than ever, and Zaring called the wheat excellent, at about 84 cents a bushel; between August 1920 and January 1, 1921, his company had paid from $1.34 to $2.22, depending on the day's market. The late frost, he added, had done considerable damage in Arbon Valley. By mid-October the lower end of the highway was "in a very bad condition, especially for travel with touring cars," while trucks went to Schiller siding and teams began freighting.

Receiver's certificates

The district's report for 1921, printed in the Press on February 3, 1922, shows what the failure meant. Its receipts, with the cash on hand at the start of the year, came to $4,954.32, mostly from a six-mill road tax, and it spent $1,000 on road construction, $735.67 on maintenance and $902.50 in interest on its bonds. It entered $1,937.66, probably the money caught in the failure, as "Bannock National Bank (Receiver's Certficates held)" (so spelled in the report): a claim on whatever the bank's receiver could recover. By its figures it ended the year with $3.60 in the bank and $2,410.24 in unpaid bills and interest. The commissioners were Keeler, George M. Houk and Roy Lindley, with Allard as secretary and treasurer.

In October 1922 Allred, the county surveyor, said the county's roads were far better than a year before, but "The Arbon valley road is our worst one at this time. The bed is too loose to be held in any shape." On November 7 the district was to elect three commissioners from five nominees: the three in office and two newcomers, Dave Lusk, probably David Thomas Lusk of Pauline, and L. B. Evans, probably Ren Evans of Arbon. The result has not been found. In December Allred, as engineer of the American Falls district, announced that twenty or twenty-one four-horse teams, furnished by residents of the district, would gravel three and a half miles of the Arbon Valley road from Rocky Ford north and west, explaining that "The Arbon road cuts up badly every year during the wheat hauling season."

Whether the valley district recovered its money is not recorded in the papers read. In January 1929 the Salt Lake Tribune reported a federal court's final decree holding the bank's directors responsible for the losses, in a case that had drawn attention "as many local people were financially involved."

On this site: the first state highway, the first trucks, the first grain warehouse and the foreclosures of 1920–1925.