Not only Mendon: Buist settlers from Box Elder and Spanish Fork
Buist's first homesteaders came from Mendon, but the papers show families coming from Brigham City, Garland and Spanish Fork too, probably among them a postmistress fined in 1912.
Arbon Valley archive
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Community blog · 2010–2020 · original publication order · stories from the old papers added since 2026
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Letters from a mission: J. C. Cairns of Arbon comes home, 1912
In 1912 the *Pocatello Tribune* printed letters from Arbon rancher John C. Cairns, written from Dublin and Halifax as his mission ended, and Arbon welcomed him home with a supper and dance.
Somerset to Arbon: the valley's Kentucky settlers, 1908–1922
In December 1911 G. S. Randall of Arbon planned a visit to his old home at Somerset, Kentucky; the papers follow the Kentucky families who came to the valley, stayed and left.
Jim Taggert of Bannock Creek and his children, 1911
In 1911 the *Tribune* reported that "Indian Mike," killed in a Nevada fight, had once farmed on Bannock Creek as Jim Taggert, and that his four surviving children were brought to Fort Hall.
Rules for stockmen on the Bannock Creek road, 1911
In October 1911 the Fort Hall superintendent opened the Arbon–American Falls road down Bannock Creek to the public, with no camping or fires and escorts for driven stock.
The Orisons of Summit: a family between Arbon and Logan
Charles and Jean Ann Orison came from Cache Valley to a homestead at Summit, and for eighty years the papers followed their family between Arbon Valley and Logan.
Mattie Nunnelley and Herman Noth elope on train No. 6
In 1911 an Arbon homesteader's daughter slipped away on train No. 6 with the brother of an American Falls doctor; the Press later followed the couple to a ranch at Arbon.
Showing the dry farm: Arbon at Farmers' Day, 1908–1912
Arbon people were named judges and officers of Farmers' Day, the yearly American Falls farm show begun in 1908, and their dry-land alfalfa won the paper's praise.
Nine threshers behind forty headers: Arbon's harvest of 1911
The American Falls Press followed Arbon Valley's 1911 grain harvest from the July estimates and the steam threshers to the wagon trains hauling wheat to the railroad.
The state land selector on Rattlesnake Creek, 1911
In July 1911 Idaho's land selector looked over the Moonshine and Rattlesnake country for land for the state, and found that most of the good land on Rattlesnake Creek was ceded Fort Hall land.
Around Bannock Peak in a day: an auto trip through Arbon, 1911
On July 16, 1911, four American Falls men drove 127 miles around Bannock Peak in a day, calling on Arbon's pioneers and taking pictures along the way.
A road over Moonshine: the short cut to American Falls, 1911–1912
In 1911 the county surveyed a road from American Falls over the Moonshine divide to Arbon; in 1912 town cash and valley labor built a short cut, probably on that line, for the wheat wagons.
District 46 and the building of Arbon's Central school, 1911–1913
In 1911 the lower Arbon valley was to vote on joining its school districts and building on Tom Evans' place; by 1913 the Central school stood on Evans land as school and meeting hall.
Talk of a townsite: the makings of a village at Arbon, 1911
In 1911 the Arbon columns reported a hotel, a store, a dance hall, a village blacksmith and butcher, and talk of opening a townsite in the valley.
The Flood of January 1911 and the Bannock Creek Bridges
A January rainstorm in 1911 drowned three Arbon children and took the bridges on Bannock Creek; that spring Oneida County put new bridges to a bond vote.
How Arbon voted to join Power County, 1908–1913
Between 1908 and 1911 Arbon voted three times to leave Oneida County for a new county around American Falls; bills failed in the 1909 and 1911 legislatures before Power County was created in 1913.
Mrs. Jennie Price of Arbon runs for county treasurer, 1910
In 1910 Mrs. Jennie Price of Arbon won the Republican nomination for Oneida County treasurer, in a race where every candidate for the office was a woman.
Settlers Taking Arbon Valley: the newcomers of 1910
In 1910 the American Falls Press reported that newcomers outnumbered Arbon Valley's old settlers two to one and estimated a wheat crop double that of two years before.
Arbon Rich Community: Pocatello takes notice, 1909–1910
In July 1910 an Arbon rancher told Pocatello of a commercial club, an irrigation company and a Pioneer Day to come, and the *Tribune* put Arbon on its front page.
Stranded at Rattlesnake Gulch: an auto trip toward Arbon, 1909
In May 1909 four men drove out of American Falls to view a proposed road to Arbon, and when the car broke down at Rattlesnake gulch they walked back through the night.
Sixteen wagons of Arbon wheat to Michaud switch, 1908
In November 1908 sixteen Arbon teamsters hauled a carload of sacked wheat to the railroad at Michaud switch, and the American Falls Press printed every driver's name.
The $300 road from Arbon to American Falls, 1908
In November 1908 Oneida County spent $300 on a shorter wagon road from Bannock Creek over the foothills to American Falls, and the Press named the men who laid it out and built it.
Homeseekers' Paradise: Arbon Valley asks for settlers, 1908–1909
In 1908–09 Arbon's settlers and the American Falls Press advertised the valley's open land to homeseekers, and by spring newcomers were filing on it fast.
Mendon in winter, Arbon in summer: the Cache Valley homesteaders
Logan's town columns of 1908–1917 follow Mendon and North Logan families north to Arbon and Buist homesteads each spring and home to Cache Valley for the winter.
Arbon's 1907 harvest: 35,000 bushels from the dry farms
In November 1907 two Arbon men told the American Falls Press that thirty-two families had threshed 35,000 bushels of grain, and named the best wheat fields and varieties.
A brother's death and the Payne store at Arbon, 1907
A 1907 front-page report of an Idaho Falls druggist's death ended with news carried to his brother, who kept a general store at Arbon, the earliest printed mention of the Payne store yet found.
Andrew Jenson's 1906 letter from Arbon
In 1906 the church historian Andrew Jenson wrote from Arbon, telling how the young settlement began and describing the valley as he saw it from Rocky Ridge.
Opening the Mink Creek road over the divide, 1906–1910
In 1906 a Rattlesnake Creek rancher graded a road up Mink Creek from Pocatello; in 1910, after settlers asked for a better route, a new road over the divide won Arbon's praise.
The Bannock Creek water suit against Dave Daniels, 1904
In October 1904 a federal judge let the Fort Hall agent's suit over Bannock Creek water go forward against Dave Daniels and his neighbors, and the settlers asked to bring in every user.
Prospecting for ore and coal around Arbon, 1903–1920
An Ogden man's 1903 bonanza, a coal company on Birch Creek and a Pocatello mayor's claims: the papers followed prospecting around Arbon for years, but no report found says any of it paid.