Carl Axel Johnson, a Swedish hand on the Wright ranch at Crystal
Swedish-born Carl Axel Johnson came to Arbon Valley about 1914 and made his home on the G. C. Wright ranch at Crystal until 1948; he died in Pocatello in 1952.
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Community blog · 2010–2020 · original publication order · stories from the old papers added since 2026
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Rebuilding the Arbon Valley highway, 1946–1954
From 1946 to 1954 valley residents, farmers and county officials pressed Pocatello, Boise and county boards for better roads out of Arbon Valley, from Mink Creek to Holbrook to Highway 30.
Four pupils at Mercer Creek, and two empty schoolhouses
In the fall of 1951 Mrs. G. W. Bradley taught four pupils at Mercer Creek, in the Crystal country; by May 1955 that schoolhouse and Crystal's had stood empty for about four years.
Arbon Valley ranchers join a posse on Bannock Creek, 1951
In June 1951 Arbon Valley ranchers joined a Power County posse hunting a Michigan family who fled a theft at a Bannock Creek home and walked over 30 miles to Inkom.
LeRoy Lindley's strip crops on an Arbon Valley slope, 1948–1950
In 1948 Power County farmers formed a soil conservation district with LeRoy Lindley of Arbon on its board, and in 1950 he began laying his own hillside wheat farm out in strips.
Three Pocatello fliers killed near Rattlesnake Creek, 1950
On a rainy night in November 1950 a light plane from Pocatello crashed near Rattlesnake Creek in upper Arbon Valley, killing a flight instructor and two students.
The Arbon Valley reunions in Pocatello, 1948–1950
Starting in 1948, present and former Arbon Valley residents met each winter in Pocatello for a dinner, a program and a dance; the hard winter of 1949 put one off until March.
Standard Oil comes leasing in Arbon Valley, 1949
In November 1949 Standard Oil Company of California applied to lease state land west of Arbon, and by January 1950 it held state leases in Arbon Valley.
Charles E. Norton, Crystal settler, dies at Arbon in 1949
Charles Ethen Norton, who had settled on the Crystal side of Arbon Valley by 1915 and took up land there, died at his home on August 5, 1949, at 73.
Skis, a weasel and a stuck plane: Crystal in February 1949
In the blizzard of mid-February 1949 a Rattlesnake rancher skied nine miles and telephoned that about 60 families had no new supplies, and a weasel brought a sick man out from Mercer Creek.
Santa at the Bannock Creek school: a Christmas party, 1948
Just before Christmas 1948, 104 guests from the Fort Hall reservation came to Arbon's Bannock Creek school, where the West Pocatello Stake's Mutual put on a Nativity program, handed out gifts and brought Santa Claus.
American Falls takes over the Bannock Creek day school, 1948
The Fort Hall agency told Bannock Creek residents in August 1948 that the American Falls school district would run their Indian day school, and called them to a meeting to hear the plan.
Arbon Valley wheat growers form a cooperative unit, 1948
In July 1948 Arbon Valley wheat growers meeting at the Pauline schoolhouse formed a unit of an Ogden grain cooperative, about 50 strong, to market their wheat through the Michaud elevator.
Dick Staker killed on the Arbon road, 1948
On July 24, 1948, sheepherder Dick Staker died beneath an overturned truck on the Arbon road while hauling camp supplies; Dave Lusk Jr. found him.
Harold Grant Moss killed under a dump truck at Arbon Valley, 1948
In April 1948 Harold Grant Moss, working with an Oneida County road crew in Arbon Valley, was killed when the raised bed of a dump truck came down on him.
A journalism student's portrait of Arbon Valley, 1947
In November 1947 a journalism student wrote up Arbon Valley for the Pocatello Tribune: power on the way, a road being marked, and a 1912 homesteader who had stayed through the Depression.
Jeanette Pocatello and Margaret Calvin visit Crystal, 1947
In the summer of 1947 two women visited the Wrensteds at Crystal, admired the valley's wheat and told stories of their people, among them that Mink Creek was named for Jeanette's grandfather.
Frost in the Arbon and Crystal wheat in a bumper year, 1947
In 1947 frost cost Arbon and Crystal growers 20 to 30 percent of their grain, some far more, in a year when the rest of Power County raised a bumper wheat crop.
William H. Mathews, Summit-end homesteader, dies, 1946
William Henry Mathews, who homesteaded at the Summit end of Arbon Valley and raised a large family there, died at Pocatello on Christmas Day, 1946.
Jewell Horton, Pauline homesteader and Arbon justice, dies in 1946
Jewell Horton, who homesteaded south-east of Pauline, clerked an Arbon meeting, was Arbon's justice of the peace and Pauline's grain agent, died at Pocatello on September 9, 1946.
Arbon Valley wheat farms in the want ads, 1946–1959
From 1946 to 1959, Utah want ads offered Arbon Valley dry farms of up to 1,600 acres, with combines, granaries and wheat allotments; one asked $160,000 in 1957.
Fremont's 1843 ride down Bannock Creek, argued over in 1945–46
A 1945 Pocatello Tribune history sent John C. Fremont down Bannock Creek to Fort Hall in 1843, and a reader's 1946 letter disputed which pass he had crossed.
Ed Davis of Arbon and his son Orval, 1945 and 1971
Ed Davis, Arbon's storekeeper and a former bishop, died in 1945; his son Orval, born at Arbon in 1902, ranched there and died in 1971.
Boyd Van Horn of Arbon and the Silver Star at Anzio, 1945
An Arbon farm boy who rushed an enemy gun position at Anzio came home wounded with the Silver Star and later made his home at American Falls.
The Stinson plane found from the air near Arbon Valley, 1944
In December 1944 a Stinson cabin plane bound for Salt Lake City crashed in deep snow west of Kinport Peak, killing all three aboard; two men in a search plane over Arbon Valley found the wreck.
The Arbon Valley road in the war years, 1940–1944
In the war years farmers and two chambers of commerce pressed for a better road out of Arbon Valley; in 1944 Idaho's public works chief urged it be a U.S. secondary highway.
Joseph and Louise Benson and the Summit Ward, 1913–1929
Joseph Benson led the Latter-day Saints at the Summit end of Arbon Valley from 1913 to 1924; his wife Louise, her obituary says, kept the ward's records and led its Primary.
Frank Blair Smith of Arbon Valley nominated for Annapolis, 1944
In January 1944 Congressman Henry Dworshak named Frank Blair Smith, son of Chester and Arvilla Smith of the valley, Idaho's principal candidate for the Naval Academy.
Joseph N. Williams, a Crystal farmer for 26 years, dies in 1943
A Pennsylvania-born farmer who settled at Crystal about 1914 and once grew peanuts on the divide died in Pocatello in May 1943, three years after leaving the valley.
Hazel and Glenn Andersen of Arbon in the war years, 1942–1945
Hazel and Glenn Andersen of Arbon married in Utah temples ten weeks apart in 1942 and 1943, and the papers followed her Spanish-costume reception and his air corps years.