The 1967 Arbon Valley reunion and the families who had moved away
A 1967 notice called Arbon Valley's former residents home for a reunion; old papers and obituaries show where five homestead families had gone.
October 2026
News, observations, announcements, and remembrances from the original Arbon Valley community blog.
Browse the original records
Community blog · 2010–2020 · original publication order · stories from the old papers added since 2026
↗
Lieutenant Reese Andersen of Arbon Valley, killed in Vietnam, 1969
In April 1969 Marine Lt. Reese Andersen of Arimo and Arbon Valley died of an accidental gunshot near Quang Tri; the papers told of his life and his funeral at Arimo.
Two men of 1875: the deaths of Joe Arbon and William Allard
Joe Arbon, Arbon Valley's first bishop, and William Allard, the first valley man found in the Idaho Legislature, were born in 1875 and died in Pocatello in 1972 and 1973.
Grasshoppers and Mormon crickets in Arbon Valley, 1973–1991
Grasshopper spraying in 1973, Mormon crickets moving through Bull Canyon in 1975, and crickets in the safflower in 1991: three summers of insect trouble in Arbon Valley.
Arbon Valley land in the want ads, 1976–1983
Utah want ads of 1976–1983 offered Arbon Valley recreation land at Knox Canyon, a cattle range, barnwood and big dry farms, and in 1983 a 320-acre farm offered by the government.
Branch or ward? Arbon's Latter-day Saints in the papers, 1976–1998
Utah papers of 1976–1998 reported Arbon's missionaries, branch presidents and an Eagle Scout, and sometimes called the valley's Latter-day Saint branch a ward.
Governed by the weather: the Hubbards' school bus in Arbon Valley
In 1976 Jessie Hubbard told a Utah paper how weather ruled life on her family's Arbon Valley dry farm, where her husband David sometimes rode a horse six miles to reach his school bus.
The church farm taxes that put the Arbon school at risk, 1982
In 1982 a dispute over taxes on a 6,742-acre church-owned farm in Arbon Valley threatened the Arbon school, until the church agreed to pay in a compromise with the county.
Deer, hunters and mountain lions in Arbon Valley, 1988–2000
In 1989 Idaho's governor held up Arbon Valley's farmers and deer hunters as an example; in 1997 a rancher there opposed a lion study; in 2000 Nelda Williams shot a cougar.
Range fires around Arbon Valley in the papers, 1988–2016
Range fires around Arbon Valley from the Mosho fire of 1988 to the Power Line fire of 2016, as the papers reported them, and the farmers who turned out to fight them.
Waiting on rain: Arbon Valley dryland wheat, 1994–2020
Cloud seeding in 1994, one grower's best-ever crop in 2005, the heat of 2013, a wet 2017 and May rain in 2020, as the farm press followed the valley's dryland wheat.
The Women's Challenge bicycle race comes to Arbon Valley, 1996
On June 25, 1996, a stage of the PowerBar International Women's Challenge, the last major women's race before the Atlanta Olympics, ran 60 miles from Pocatello to Arbon Valley.
The Powerline Fire of 2017 and the evacuation of Pauline
In August 2017 the Powerline Fire burned about 53,000 acres at the north end of Arbon Valley, crossed the highway several times and sent Pauline families from their homes.
Bringing beavers back to West Fork Bannock Creek, 2019–2021
Shoshone-Bannock Fish & Wildlife crews built 31 imitation beaver dams on West Fork Bannock Creek; two beavers were released there in the fall of 2019, and trout counts rose by 2020.
Pasakwa Huude and other names on Bannock Creek
From 2022 to 2025 the Sho-Ban News printed tribal names for Bannock Creek, among them Pasakwa Huude, and reported an effort to replace a derogatory creek name there.