George Stahl Butler, Bannock Creek homesteader, dies in 1931
The Kansas-born homesteader whose Bannock Creek home held the valley's first Protestant Sunday school died in October 1931, survived by eight children, three brothers and three sisters.
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Community blog · 2010–2020 · original publication order · stories from the old papers added since 2026
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The death of Joe Evans of Arbon, T. B. Evans's son, 1931
Jonah Edgar "Joe" Evans, an Arbon farmer and son of T. B. and Susannah Evans, died of pneumonia in Pocatello on March 19, 1931; Bishop Joseph Arbon presided at his funeral.
Seeking federal aid for Arbon's wheat road, 1930–1933
From 1930 to 1933 Pocatello's chamber of commerce and Power County officials sought federal money for Arbon Valley's wheat road down Bannock Creek across the Fort Hall reservation.
Preserve Elk, Arbon Haystacks and Two Committees, 1930–1931
Arbon Valley farmers' complaints of elk in their haystacks sent two committees to the Pocatello game preserve; the first found the herd halved by poachers, and both advised against a hunt.
Arbon Valley's wheat growers organize for the Farm Board, 1930
Arbon Valley wheat growers began organizing a Farm Board grain local in February 1930, and several of the same names later turn up on the New Deal's AAA committees.
The Sphinx of Idaho, or the Old Man of the Valley, 1929–1934
For five years a Pocatello man wrote to the Tribune about a rock in Arbon Valley that looked like the Sphinx, which he said settlers called the Old Man of the Valley.
A sheep-killing bear at the head of Rattlesnake Creek, 1899
In June 1899 men from Surveyor Sonnenkalb's camp ran down and killed a big bear, said to have killed hundreds of sheep, at the head of Rattlesnake Creek, very probably above the later Crystal.
Jerry Hatch and the hardest winter on the Arbon mail route, 1929
In the winter of 1928–29 mail carrier Jerry B. Hatch packed the Arbon mail on his back through a snowstorm on the reservation, and a Crystal woman finished the trip on a mail horse.
Rosa Bishoff of Pauline, who came from Switzerland, dies in 1928
Rosa Bishoff, 59, of Pauline, who came to Idaho from Switzerland in 1893, died in Pocatello on December 6, 1928.
Tom Sparks's cattle, the Fleming sheep and a death near Sunbeam
In 1928 an old cattleman remembered Tom Sparks's herds on the Arbon and Crystal range, the Fleming sheep that crowded them, and a sheepman found shot near Sunbeam creek.
Earl Lewis of Pauline: a ruptured appendix, January 1928
On New Year's Day 1928 Earl Lewis, 12, of Pauline was brought into Pocatello at 3:30 a.m. for an appendicitis operation; he died at a Pocatello hospital on January 19.
Naming the orphan range between Arbon and Rockland valleys, 1928
In January 1928 a newspaper reported that a national survey of place names had found the mountains between Arbon and Rockland valleys nameless, and two Power County old-timers chose a name.
The State's Elk at Crystal and the Hired Elk Puncher, 1927–1928
Elk the state planted near Crystal multiplied and raided Arbon Valley haystacks; a Crystal rancher complained in 1927, and in 1928 a cowboy was hired to herd them off the farms.
The high-tension line comes up Arbon Valley, 1927
In spring 1927 a contractor hauled poles up muddy Arbon Valley roads for a power line from American Falls to Utah, and the telephone company feared what it would do to its wires.
A record wheat crop and giant trucks: Arbon Valley, 1926
In August 1926 the Pocatello Tribune reported one of the biggest wheat crops ever recorded in Arbon Valley, harvested early and hauled to the railroad at Schiller in new trucks.
Gas, helium and a fallen derrick at the Arbon well, 1926
In 1926 the Gem State well at Arbon drew crowds, blew gas through its plug, was said to carry helium and lost its derrick; by autumn the company was in receivership.
Lila Wade of Horse Island, teacher in Arbon's one-room schools
In 1925 Lila M. Wade of Horse Island took charge of District 12's Arbon school, next door to the oil well; her 1994 obituary remembered her years in Arbon's one-room schools.
Arbon's postmaster and mail carrier in federal court, 1925
In October 1925 Arbon's former postmistress was arraigned in federal court at Pocatello over $419.06 in post office funds, and the valley's former mail carrier was fined for embezzling mail sacks.
The funeral of Jesse W. Keeler of Arbon, 1925
Jesse Willis Keeler, an Arbon homesteader and Navy man of 1917, died in a government hospital in Washington in 1925 and was buried at Pocatello with military honors.
The Sunshine Canyon club: six women at the south end, 1924
By late October 1924 six women at the south end of Arbon Valley had formed the Sunshine Canyon club, meeting weekly to talk over the election, child welfare and great women.
Smut explosion burns the Hatfield threshing outfit, 1924
In August 1924 a smut explosion on the Ray Hatfield place in Arbon Valley burned Clive Hatfield's threshing outfit, 75 sacks of wheat, a wagon, a derrick and a stack.
Perry Lusk and T. B. Evans on the Power County board, 1922–1925
How the Arbon Valley's seat on the Power County board passed from Ed England to Perry Lusk of Pauline in the 1922 Democratic sweep, and then to T. B. Evans.
Signing up the cows: Arbon Valley's cheese factory plan, 1924
In 1924 Ren Evans signed up 23 Arbon Valley farmers and 213 cows for a cheese factory backed by Ernest Brog of Driggs, but whether it ever made cheese is unknown.
Mail, grain and the Mink Creek road to Pocatello, 1924–1929
In the mid-1920s the valley's mail road to Pocatello ran by Crystal and Mink Creek, and the papers followed its tax complaints, a stage wreck and a county's plea for road money.
Arbon Valley talks of joining Bannock County, 1924 and 1939
In March 1924 an Arbon Valley delegation went to Pocatello to talk about joining Bannock County, and in 1939 some valley residents raised the idea again.
The Gem State oil well beside the Arbon school, 1923–1929
For five years the Gem State Petroleum Co. drilled for oil beside Arbon's Central school, drawing crowds of visitors in 1924 and reaching about 3,000 feet by 1928.
Pauline City: the crossroads that hoped to be a town, 1917–1924
In 1917 Pauline hoped a doctor's office and drug store would be "the beginning of the city of Pauline"; the papers follow that hope to a school yell of 1923.
Crystal will be almost deserted: the winter of 1923–24
In late 1923 Crystal's schoolchildren wrote in the American Falls Press that their settlement would be "almost deserted" that winter, then reported who moved away.
When Arbon Valley schoolchildren wrote the news, 1923–24
In 1923–24 the American Falls Press printed news written by pupils of Arbon Valley's country schools, spelling and all, and the Pauline pupils sent the first items.
By grain rack and on foot: the county superintendent's 1923 visit
In October 1923 Power County's school superintendent, Mrs. Cora Darling, spent two weeks among the valley's country schools, sometimes riding between them on a grain rack.