This collection brings together the original ArbonValley.com family histories, photographs, and community blog. It preserves 408 published blog posts from 2010 through 2020 and all 87 published pages found on the original site.
Since October 2026 the blog also carries From the Old Papers: stories of the valley retold from its historical newspapers, with quotations and links to the original page scans. They are new writing, kept apart from the preserved posts.
The original accounts and editorial additions
Historical articles are preserved in full, including their sources, family relationships, captions, and original photographs. Their words reflect the people and time in which they were written. New introductions, section headings, indexes, curated collections, and the timeline help readers explore the original accounts. They were added in September 2026 and do not replace the source text. Character-encoding errors are repaired for readability; spelling, dates, and historical claims are not silently rewritten. Dates and references to “today” remain part of those original accounts.
The historical areas collection credits Laurie Jean Ward Call’s Bannock Valley, published in 1982, and her permission for the Arbon Valley Homestead Project to draw on that work. Individual articles retain their own source citations and acknowledgments.
Who wrote this history
Melinda Campbell wrote 49 of the original site’s history pages, among them the five area histories, the “Valley Tragedies” account and many of the family biographies, and 25 of its community posts. Jacob Andersen wrote 22 history pages, including the Andersen family histories and the Crystal history, and 91 community posts. Each history page names its writer at the top.
Their pages draw on Laurie Jean Ward Call’s Bannock Valley (1982), shared with the Arbon Valley Homestead Project by her permission, and on family records and memories. Memories and documents quoted in an account belong to the people who wrote them.
The community blog was written by its readers, among them Arbon Valley Archive, Cheri Evans, Christie Evans, Ryan Weston, Debbie Curry, Valaree Estep, Robin Claunch, Deanna Curry, Myra Blau, De Williams, Hank Fitch, Rene Bradley, Julie Hayden, Steve Lusk, Spencer Fitch, James Benson, Shanna Perkins, Cindy Pierce, Kade Lusk, Hans Hayden, Shancy Lusk, Randy Kline, Michele Hayden, Dan Nuckols, Nancy Fitch and Pam Christensen.
The valley map, the Stories collections and the family timelines added in 2026 build on this work. Every fact taken from one of these accounts cites it, with its writer’s name.
References to Bannock Valley appear with both 1982 and 1989 dates in the preserved citations. Those edition details remain as recorded pending verification. Readers can suggest a sourced correction.
What the family trees show
The trees follow the original family-page hierarchy. Additional people named in an account are marked as mentions and link to that account. Connections across surnames cite the account that records the relationship. A tree is a guide to this collection and is not a complete genealogy.
Community records
Older announcements, school notices, and other blog posts remain available as historical records. Their events, services, and contact details may no longer be current.
Photographs and family memories
Photographs, family-tree diagrams, attachments, and the school class galleries remain part of the collection. Open a photograph to see its original file.
Adding to the collection
We welcome historical photographs, personal recollections, identifications, and sourced corrections. Send a story, photograph, or correction. Everything is read before publication. Read about the scope of the collection and histories still to be documented.