The frost year: Bannock Valley's wheat crop of 1914

In the spring of 1914 the farmers of Bannock Valley, as Arbon Valley was still often called, expected the biggest wheat crop they had ever raised. In June frost struck the fields. The American Falls Press, published at the seat of the new Power County (the valley had belonged to Oneida County until 1913), followed the season from those spring hopes to the carloads counted the next winter.

A hopeful spring

On Monday, April 13, 1914, C. R. Butterfield, road overseer of the Crystal district, came to American Falls on road business. The Press reported his opinion that crops throughout the valley were in better condition than he had ever seen them at that season. None of the crop had winter-killed, and the acreage was fully a third larger than the year before. Two days later L. B. "Ren" Evans came over from Arbon with his sister-in-law, Mrs. David Evans, and the paper printed his report on the same page:

Mr. Evans reports that everything is looking fine in the Bannock Valley and the farmers of that section expect the greatest wheat yield that has ever been known in that section. The fall sown crop went through the winter without any damage whatever and it is Mr. Evans' opinion that there is ample moisture in the ground to assure its maturity.

The frost

George Andersen was farming his homestead in the valley with his wife, Beth. More than fifty years later he wrote down what happened. On the evening of June 13 they walked through their wheat, which stood nearly to their waists, "a perfect stand." A cold north wind blew in the night. By morning the wind had stopped and the grain was frozen, so badly that it broke off "clear to the ground" as they walked through it. His memory does not name the year; the 1914 comes from the heading the site gives that part of his own account.

The papers bear out the year, though at first they played the frost down. On June 25 the Press wrote: "From all that can be learned the frost of Sunday night did but little damage, except to garden stuff." There had been fears for the wheat in some sections, it added, "but reports are to the contrary."

A week later the news from Arbon was different. Under the headline "Frost Got Wheat Crop," the Press of July 2 reported that E. Keeler had come over from Arbon with "a most discouraging report" on the damage done by frost in that section a couple of weeks before. Keeler believed that no more than a third of the valley's wheat acreage would be harvested, except what might be cut for hay; the subheading put the loss at fully two-thirds. The same item said that Keeler, urged for some time by people of his section, had agreed to run for the Democratic nomination for county commissioner. He was probably J. E. Keeler of Arbon, whom the Press listed in September as the party's Democratic nominee for commissioner.

A plea to the county

On July 16 the Press reported that Bishop Joseph N. Arbon and T. B. Evans had come over from Arbon the week before to ask the county board of equalization for a blanket reduction in the valuation of real estate in their part of the county. The board was the county commissioners, sitting to hear complaints about assessments. The paper gave the two men's reason:

The reason advanced by the gentlemen for such action is that the recent frosts destroyed practically all of the wheat crop and most of the people are going to have a hard time to get thru until another harvest season rolls around.

The commissioners' own record, printed on July 30, does not mention the request. It says the board found "no complaint of the assessment" before it when it sat on July 7, and that the 1914 tax roll was turned over on July 27 "with no change as returned by the assessor." Whether the Arbon request was ever formally filed, or how it was answered, the papers do not say.

Harvest after all

On September 3 the Press, reporting strong wheat prices at American Falls, judged that "the prices received will largely overcome the losses occasioned by frosts in June." By the middle of October the haul was under way. "Grain hauling is at its height from the Arbon country now. Most of it is being received at Michaud siding," the Press reported. Michaud was the railroad siding north of the valley. At Crystal, after a month of rain, threshing had only just begun. The paper counted 140 to 150 farmers in that settlement and expected two threshing machines to be kept busy there.

On November 26 the Press printed the estimate of G. S. Randall, whom it called a prosperous Arbon farmer: Arbon and Crystal had produced "about half a million bushels" that year, and about two-thirds of it had already been marketed. He expected "two solid townships of wheat" in 1915, with at least 46,000 acres already seeded or ready for spring seeding.

In February 1915 Gordon Williamson, who had been receiving wheat at Michaud for the Inter-Mountain Milling Company, told the Press that the frost had hit Arbon valley farmers harder than those of any other section. Even so, he said, they had shipped "fifty-six carloads of wheat through his warehouse."

What the accounts leave open

The figures do not sit easily together. In July Keeler expected no more than a third of the acreage to be harvested, and Bishop Arbon and Evans spoke of practically all the wheat destroyed; in November Randall counted about half a million bushels from Arbon and Crystal. None said how he reckoned, and no report found says which farms lost most. The dates are unsettled too. George Andersen remembered the night of June 13. Keeler, in town at the end of June, spoke of a frost a couple of weeks earlier. The Press's "Sunday night" frost was probably June 21. Later items speak of "frosts" in the plural, so there may have been more than one.

For George and Beth Andersen the loss was complete. They borrowed money for seed and planted again, and the next year brought drought.

On this site: the frost is among the valley's tragedies, and the first valley wheat at a world's fair tells how John H. Bullock's dry-land wheat took first prize at the Idaho State Seed Show that December.