The Bradley family as been in Arbon Valley, in the Crystal area, by 1900. The patriarch, George Willard Bradley, was born in Michigan. In the winter of 1901-1902 he applied for a homestead in the Rattlesnake Creek drainage area of Bannock Valley (later called Arbon Valley). The Rattlesnake area was officially part of the Crystal part of the valley. He was later able to get 160 acres under the Homestead Act. He had to live on the claim for the next five years. He built a homestead cabin and made improvements on his claim, which usually meant clearing land and building fences. This cabin is still on the original homestead, and in pretty good shape for its age. The Rattlesnake area was opened for actual homesteading later than down in the valley, so for a period of time he was still “squatting” and did not get a free and clear title to his land until 1911, five years after Rattlesnake was officially opened for actual homesteading. Today the fourth generation of Bradleys still ranch in the same area.
Bradley
From Michigan, by way of Montana
George Willard Bradley, a Michigan-born cowboy who wore two six-guns and never sat with his back to a door, held a decreed Rattlesnake Creek water right dating from 1902, years before his land was surveyed; his homestead and stock-raising homestead were patented only in 1924. His homestead cabin and the frame house he was building in 1918 (the family remembers 1915) still stand on a ranch the fourth generation runs.
- Arrived
- by 1900 by family account (earliest record: water right of May 1, 1902) no later than
- Homesteads and land
- 6 places on the map below ↓
- People recorded
- 8 across 4 generations ↓
- Named for them
- Bradley Mountain
From the family history
The account first written for this family on ArbonValley.com, kept in full. The chapters after it add what the records and the other family histories tell.
About this account · first posted September 26, 2019
Written for the original ArbonValley.com by Melinda Campbell. Memories and documents quoted in the account belong to the people who wrote them. This is the website publication date, not the date of every event described. References to “today” belong to the original account.
Editorial introductions and navigation were added in September 2026. Original citations remain in the account. How we preserve and annotate the history ↗
Their story
By the family’s account Bradley broke horses and sheared sheep across the West before building a cabin in the upper Rattlesnake Creek drainage in 1899–1900; the earliest record of him there is a decreed water right with a priority of May 1, 1902. His home land was still unsurveyed when he gave notice of proof of his irrigation works in 1909, and his homestead entries were made only when the township was platted in 1918–19; the patents, for 640 acres, were issued on April 4, 1924. His mother Julia’s cash patent of 1912 was the family’s first title. He registered the Lazy Four brand in 1905.
His mother, Julia Flanders Bradley, a widow from Augusta, Michigan, came to keep house and took up land too: a cash tract on the creek (patent 1912) and the strip of Section 1 on which the ranch house stands (patent 1921). In March 1918 George, then forty-five, married Ella Miller, a Kansas-born teacher at the one-room Rattlesnake school; in the early 1920s she was clerk of School District 26, the Lyons school. He piped spring water into the cellar and kitchen and diverted Rattlesnake Creek over a water wheel to light the house.
Ella died in July 1927, weeks after their son’s birth. In April 1930 Harold and Olive Crump and their children lived in the Bradley house as a separate household, by the family’s account caring for the motherless children. George was killed just before Christmas 1937 (23 or December 24) when his car skidded on a slippery highway about five miles east of American Falls; the family remembers that his car slid off the American Falls overpass while he was shopping for gifts. The children were raised in Indiana by his sister, and the ranch was leased to neighbors, Harold Crump and Herman Krueger, until George Jr. returned after the Marines to ranch it himself.
George Jr. (Willard) and his second wife, Rene’ Gibbons Bradley, built up Bradley Mountain Ranch with registered Gelbvieh cattle; Rene’ was clerk of the Arbon school board and the Eastern Idaho State Fair’s beef superintendent. Their son Willard runs the ranch.
Sources: Bradley · George Willard Bradley & Ella Canote Miller · Crystal (area history) · Homestead patent to George W. Bradley, April 4, 1924 (BLM IDBL 0031710): SW¼NE¼, W½SE¼, SE¼SW¼ Sec. 1 T10S R34E; Blackfoot 030496 and 031710 · Stock-raising homestead patent to George W. Bradley, April 4, 1924 (BLM IDBL 0031710 01): 480 acres in Secs. 1, 2 and 12 T10S R34E · Cash-entry patent to Julia M. Bradley, December 13, 1912 (BLM IDBL 0005100): SW¼SE¼ Sec. 27 and N½NW¼, NW¼NE¼ Sec. 34 T9S R34E · Desert-land patent to Julia M. Bradley, September 8, 1921 (BLM IDBL 0030346): Lots 1–4 and SE¼NE¼ Sec. 1 T10S R34E · IDWR water-right report 29-479: George W. Bradley, Rattlesnake Creek, priority May 1, 1902 (decreed right; disallowed 2012)
Where they came from
- Charleston Township, Kalamazoo County, Michigan
- Big Elk, Montana (breaking horses, shearing sheep; family account)1897
- Upper Rattlesnake Creek, Crystal areaby 1902 (1899–1900 by family account)
Sources: George Willard Bradley & Ella Canote Miller · Find a Grave memorial 92306342: George Willard Bradley (Augusta, Michigan)
The people
8 people of the Bradley family on the valley map, household by household, and 1 history of their own in the archive. Names open their histories; portraits open in the family album.
The households 4
Each with the people who married in, and their children and grandchildren below, oldest first.
Julia Mary Flanders Bradley
1849–1929
Mother of George Bradley; widow of John Bradley (died 1908)
More about Julia
Widowed in 1908, she came to keep house for George and took up land of her own: a cash tract on Rattlesnake Creek (patent 1912) and a desert-land entry on the north strip of Section 1, where George was living in 1924 (patent 1921); she owned a reservoir on the creek in 1919. By the family’s account she sold her land to George and went back east; she died at a daughter’s home in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1929.
George Willard Bradley
1872–1937
Founder of the Bradley ranch
More about George
Horse-breaker, sheep-shearer and cowhand who once explored Yellowstone on snowshoes. He was using Rattlesnake Creek water by 1902 and proved irrigation works under a state permit in 1909, but his homestead and stock-raising homestead (640 acres) were patented only in 1924; he registered the Lazy Four brand in 1905 and lit his house with a creek-driven water wheel.
Ella Canote Miller Bradley 1889–1927
Married 1918
Ruth Evelyn Bradley 1924–2012
George Willard Bradley Jr. 1927–2013
Known as Willard
Frank Hayden Miller
1893–1961
Probably Ella Miller Bradley’s brother
More about Frank
Probably the brother who wrote Ella that Idaho needed teachers: a Frank Miller taught the Davis school in the Crystal district in 1915–16, and Frank H. Miller received a Crystal homestead patent in 1920. He returned to Kansas.
Mary Rene’ Gibbons Bradley
1938–2021
Second wife of George Willard (Willard) Bradley Jr. (married about 1969)
More about Mary
Grew up in Salmon, Nampa and Pocatello; in more than fifty years in Arbon Valley she helped run Bradley Mountain Ranch with registered Gelbvieh cattle. Clerk of the Arbon school board and beef superintendent of the Eastern Idaho State Fair. She was the source of the Bradley history in Bannock Valley (1982). Her Gibbons family, of Salmon, is not known to be related to the Arbon Gibbonses.
Homesteads and land
6 places the Bradley family took up or held, 1899–1919, placed from the land patents, the entry registers and the family accounts.
123456Bradley ranch
In the Rattlesnake Creek drainage near the foot of Mercer Creek Road, around the Bradley homestead and stock-raising homestead (patented 1924) and Julia Bradley’s 1921 desert-land patent (Lots 1–4, Sec. 1 T10S R34E), where George Bradley gave his residence in 1924. The homestead cabin and the frame house begun by 1918 (the family remembers 1915) still stand at the ranch headquarters.
George Bradley’s homestead (entry about December 1918 – January 1919)
SW¼NE¼, W½SE¼ and SE¼SW¼ of Sec. 1, T10S R34E, on upper Rattlesnake Creek: George Bradley’s 160-acre homestead, filed when the township was platted (about December 1918 – March 1919) and patented on April 4, 1924, years after he began irrigating here (a decreed right with a 1902 priority; works under permit 1705 in 1909).
George Bradley’s stock-raising homestead (entries 1918–19)
George Bradley’s 480-acre stock-raising homestead: E½SE¼ and SW¼SW¼ of Sec. 1, SE¼SE¼ of Sec. 2, and NW¼NW¼, E½NW¼, W½NE¼, NW¼SE¼ and E½SW¼ of Sec. 12, T10S R34E, south of the ranch house toward Bradley Mountain. Entered with his homestead in 1918–19 and patented on April 4, 1924, with the minerals reserved.
Julia Bradley’s creek tract (cash entry about February 1909)
SW¼SE¼ of Sec. 27 and N½NW¼ and NW¼NE¼ of Sec. 34, T9S R34E, down Rattlesnake Creek from the ranch: a cash entry made by George’s widowed mother about February 1909 and patented on December 13, 1912, the family’s first title. By the family’s account she later sold her land to George.
Julia Bradley’s desert-land strip, the house lot (entry about December 1918)
Lots 1–4 and SE¼NE¼ of Sec. 1, T10S R34E, the north strip of the section along the old reservation line: Julia Bradley’s desert-land entry (about December 1918), patented on September 8, 1921. George’s own notice of 1924 puts his residence on Lot 2, and the 1968 USGS quadrangle shows the farmstead just south of Lots 1–2.
Frank H. Miller’s homestead (entry about 1915–16)
E½SE¼ of Sec. 13 and NE¼NE¼ of Sec. 24, T9S R34E, with Lot 3 of Sec. 18, T9S R35E: the homestead of Frank H. Miller, the Crystal teacher of 1915–16 who was probably Ella Miller Bradley’s brother. The first entry dates to about 1915–16 by its serial; the patent was issued on March 15, 1920.
The land patents
The federal patents that made the homesteads theirs, from the General Land Office records.
40 dates in the family’s history
Every date the valley map shows when you follow the Bradley family, era by era: the most telling of each era first, the rest a click away. Dates keep the sources’ own wording.
Homestead or landFamily historyEventValley firstTragedy
Early Claims
Possessory claims and water rights before the valley opened.
1892 (family belief)Family history
To Idaho in 1892?
George’s Michigan obituary of 1937 says he moved to Idaho in 1892. No Idaho record of him from the 1890s has been found.
1890s Settlement
Homesteads, the first ditch, and the first winters.
August 1897; winter 1899Family history
Breaking horses in Montana
By the family’s account George left school at seventeen and worked across the West breaking horses, shearing sheep and herding cattle. A letter came home from Big Elk, Montana, in August 1897, and in the winter of 1899 he crossed Yellowstone on snowshoes.
by 1900 by family account (earliest record 1902)Event
George Bradley builds on Rattlesnake Creek
By the family’s account, Michigan-born cowboy George Willard Bradley built a cabin in the upper Rattlesnake Creek drainage in 1899–1900, and the cabin still stands. The earliest record of him there is a decreed water right on the creek with a priority of May 1, 1902. No land-office application was made in 1901–02: his home land was still unsurveyed in 1909, his homestead entries date from the 1918–19 platting, and his patents were issued on April 4, 1924.
by 1900 by family account (earliest record 1902)Homestead or land
Bradley ranch
In the Rattlesnake Creek drainage near the foot of Mercer Creek Road, around the Bradley homestead and stock-raising homestead (patented 1924) and Julia Bradley’s 1921 desert-land patent (Lots 1–4, Sec. 1 T10S R34E), where George Bradley gave his residence in 1924. The homestead cabin and the frame house begun by 1918 (the family remembers 1915) still stand at the ranch headquarters.
George Willard Bradley, Ella Canote Miller Bradley, Julia Mary Flanders Bradley
Early 1900s Growth
Schools, churches, stores and post offices in every area.
opened June 17, 1902; first entries October 2, 1902; first proof July 29, 1907Valley first
The first homesteads at Crystal
Crystal, on Fort Hall land ceded by the Tribes, opened to homesteaders at noon on June 17, 1902, and the first entries came that October.
priority May 1, 1902Valley first
The first water right at Crystal
George Bradley's Rattlesnake Creek right, with a priority of May 1, 1902, is the oldest settler water right found in the Crystal basin.
July 29, 1907Event
Crystal’s first proved-up homestead
Crystal was homesteaded later than the rest of the valley. The Meadows claim — entered by Joseph H. Meadows of Pocatello on October 3, 1902 — was the first to be proved up, commuted to a cash entry on July 29, 1907, after his death in December 1905; the patent went to Melvin Meadows, probably his son, in 1908. John O. Johnston and Henry Kettler, who also entered in October 1902, received patents in February 1910. Of the names listed before 1920, only the Hayden, Bradley, Stewart and Wright families still had homes and farms there when the account was written.
1909Homestead or land
Julia Bradley’s creek tract (cash entry about February 1909)
SW¼SE¼ of Sec. 27 and N½NW¼ and NW¼NE¼ of Sec. 34, T9S R34E, down Rattlesnake Creek from the ranch: a cash entry made by George’s widowed mother about February 1909 and patented on December 13, 1912, the family’s first title. By the family’s account she later sold her land to George.
October–November 1909Family history
Proving the irrigation works
George gave notice that he would prove completion of his irrigation works under State Engineer permit 1705, for one second-foot of Rattlesnake Creek on 50 acres of still-unsurveyed land in Sec. 1, T10S R34E, at Pocatello on November 20, 1909. Whether the proof was made is not recorded, but a right was in use there by 1921.
by 1911 (Rattlesnake school); 1912 (Crystal Central)Valley first
The first schools at Crystal
Crystal's first school on record is the Rattlesnake schoolhouse, in use by 1911, and in 1912 District 14 built the 28-by-48-foot Crystal Central School for $1,750.
Show 4 more from these years
April 9, 1907Family history
The Bannock Creek water decree
The federal court’s Bannock Creek decree fixed the old Rattlesnake Creek water rights. George’s right, with a priority of May 1, 1902, was probably one of them.
about February 1909 (patent December 13, 1912)Family history
Julia’s creek tract
George’s mother Julia, of Augusta, Michigan, made a cash entry on 160 acres down Rattlesnake Creek; the patent, issued in December 1912, was the family’s first title. A cash entry needed no residence, and she is first recorded in Idaho in 1915.
1911Event
Union Sunday School on Rattlesnake Creek
A Sunday School open to all denominations was organized in the Rattlesnake schoolhouse near the Bradley ranch.
June 1911Family history
Good crops at Crystal
The American Falls Press named “Mr. Bradley” among the Crystal farmers with good fields.
Community Development
A new county, roads and phones — and the first departures.
1915Homestead or land
Frank H. Miller’s homestead (entry about 1915–16)
E½SE¼ of Sec. 13 and NE¼NE¼ of Sec. 24, T9S R34E, with Lot 3 of Sec. 18, T9S R35E: the homestead of Frank H. Miller, the Crystal teacher of 1915–16 who was probably Ella Miller Bradley’s brother. The first entry dates to about 1915–16 by its serial; the patent was issued on March 15, 1920.
Frank Hayden Miller
about 1918 (water wheel); home plants to the 1940sValley first
The first electric lights
Long before power lines reached the valley, George Bradley ran Rattlesnake Creek over a water wheel to make electric light for his ranch house.
October 1918 – early 1919Tragedy
The influenza of 1918–19
The Spanish influenza closed the schools and churches, killed a valley pioneer and a baby, orphaned six children at Holbrook and kept Crystal sick all winter.
1918Homestead or land
George Bradley’s homestead (entry about December 1918 – January 1919)
SW¼NE¼, W½SE¼ and SE¼SW¼ of Sec. 1, T10S R34E, on upper Rattlesnake Creek: George Bradley’s 160-acre homestead, filed when the township was platted (about December 1918 – March 1919) and patented on April 4, 1924, years after he began irrigating here (a decreed right with a 1902 priority; works under permit 1705 in 1909).
1918Homestead or land
Julia Bradley’s desert-land strip, the house lot (entry about December 1918)
Lots 1–4 and SE¼NE¼ of Sec. 1, T10S R34E, the north strip of the section along the old reservation line: Julia Bradley’s desert-land entry (about December 1918), patented on September 8, 1921. George’s own notice of 1924 puts his residence on Lot 2, and the 1968 USGS quadrangle shows the farmstead just south of Lots 1–2.
1919Homestead or land
George Bradley’s stock-raising homestead (entries 1918–19)
George Bradley’s 480-acre stock-raising homestead: E½SE¼ and SW¼SW¼ of Sec. 1, SE¼SE¼ of Sec. 2, and NW¼NW¼, E½NW¼, W½NE¼, NW¼SE¼ and E½SW¼ of Sec. 12, T10S R34E, south of the ranch house toward Bradley Mountain. Entered with his homestead in 1918–19 and patented on April 4, 1924, with the minerals reserved.
Show 11 more from these years
January 1915 and September 1919Tragedy
The Bradleys in court over land and water
A neighbour’s injunction suit against George and Julia Bradley, and a jury trial over the opening of Julia Bradley’s reservoir headgate, show how hard-fought water was at Crystal.
about 1915–16 (patent March 15, 1920)Family history
Frank Miller’s homestead
Frank H. Miller also took a homestead at Crystal, in Secs. 13 and 24 of T9S R34E and Sec. 18 of T9S R35E. The patent was issued in March 1920, and he was on the county’s list of returned soldiers that spring.
Frank Hayden Miller
1915–1916Family history
Frank Miller teaches at Crystal
Frank H. Miller, probably Ella’s brother, taught the Davis school in the Crystal district and was hailed as the first man teaching in Power County to try serving hot lunches. By the family’s account it was his letters home that brought Ella to Idaho.
Frank Hayden Miller, Ella Canote Miller Bradley
January–March 1918Event
A new house and a bride on Rattlesnake Creek
In January 1918 George Bradley was building a new house on his homestead, four and a half miles south of Crystal; on March 1, at Blackfoot, he married Ella Miller of Kansas, who had taught at the Rattlesnake school.
about December 1918 – March 1919Family history
Filing at last on the home place
When the east part of T10S R34E was finally platted, George and his mother filed at once, in the same run of serials as their neighbours: Julia a desert-land entry on the north strip of Sec. 1, where the house stood, and George a homestead and a stock-raising homestead around it. Julia’s strip was patented in September 1921.
April 1919Family history
Victory Loan committee
Ella Bradley and R. Mittlestedt were the Hawkins district’s members of the women’s Victory Liberty Loan committee.
January 1920Family history
The 1920 census
George and Ella owned their farm free of mortgage. Their neighbours on the upper creek included Frank Blair’s family, Jacob W. Jones, the Hatleys and Lawrence C. Evans.
1920–1923Family history
Clerk of the Lyons school district
Ella was clerk of School District 26, the Lyons school, in 1920 and 1922 and probably in 1923, years when the district, too poor to bond, held school in a log cabin and planned a schoolhouse built with donated labour.
May 1921Family history
Moving the water within Sec. 1
“Julia M. Bradley of Crystal” gave notice of a proposed transfer of her water right from Lots 1–3 and the SE¼NE¼ of Sec. 1 to Lot 4.
April 4, 1924Event
George Bradley’s patents
George Bradley received patents for a 160-acre homestead and a 480-acre stock-raising homestead on Rattlesnake Creek (Secs. 1, 2 and 12 T10S R34E). His mother Julia had patented a creek tract in 1912 and, in 1921, the strip of Section 1 on which the house stood; together they made the core of a ranch still in the family.
June–July 1924Family history
The house on Lot 2
A notice George signed in 1924 placed his residence on Lot 2 of Sec. 1, T10S R34E, part of his mother’s desert-land strip; the 1968 USGS map shows the farmstead just south of it.
Depression & Change
Drought, closures, tractors, electricity, the reservation boundary.
April 1930Event
The Crumps in the Bradley house
Three years after Ella Bradley’s death, the census found Harold and Olive Crump and their three children living in George Bradley’s house as a separate, renting household beside George and his two children. By the family’s account the Crumps cared for the motherless children.
December 23 or 24, 1937Tragedy
George Bradley killed on the road before Christmas
The Crystal rancher George Bradley was crushed to death when his car skidded on an icy highway just before Christmas, leaving two orphaned children.
from 1938Event
Neighbours lease the Bradley ranch
After George Bradley’s death in December 1937 his children went to Indiana and the ranch was leased to neighbours, Harold Crump and Herman Krueger (the original ArbonValley.com account’s “Herman Kruger”). Harold Crump taught young Willard Bradley ranching before Willard took the place over himself.
about 1945Family history
Willard in the Marines
Raised in Indiana after 1937, Willard registered for the draft there and served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Second World War.
1945 or 1947 (accounts differ; Buist about 1947)Event
Electric power arrives
Through the Rural Electrification program, power reached Arbon Valley in 1945 (the Eph Bolingbroke page) or 1947 (Zella Bolingbroke’s original text in Bannock Valley), and the Buist area about 1947. Families who had relied on coal-oil lamps, a Delco plant, wind chargers — or, at the Bradley ranch, a water wheel on Rattlesnake Creek — now bought electric stoves and refrigerators.
Generations
Fewer, larger farms; descendants on the old homesteads.
1998Family history
Ranch water rights decreed
The Snake River Basin Adjudication decreed the ranch’s Rattlesnake Creek and spring rights, with claimed priorities of 1900 to 1903, to G. Willard Bradley and his sister Ruth Bradley Braseke.
about 2008–2018Family history
Rene’ Bradley’s public roles
Rene’ Gibbons Bradley ran Bradley Mountain Ranch with Willard, known for its registered Gelbvieh cattle, was clerk of the Arbon school board, and served as beef superintendent of the Eastern Idaho State Fair.
August 21–23, 2010Event
Fire in the valley
A fire that began at the Lee Bailey homestead jumped into wheat stubble and ran north-east up the east side of the valley into the Rattlesnake area. Farmers cut firebreaks with tractors and discs alongside the county road grader, BLM crews and Fort Hall firefighters; one rancher estimated 8,000–10,000 acres burned.
At the time of the archive’s accounts (2018–2019)Event
The valley the homesteaders made
The whole valley is now called Arbon. Of its four post offices (the accounts say five) one remains, in Pauline; instead of ten schools, Arbon Elementary teaches grades K–6 in two classrooms. The accounts name families still farming and ranching on or near the original homesteads, including Andersen, Bradley, Evans, Hayden, Hess, Jenson, Lusk, Swim, Ward and Williams.
Firsts and tragedies
The valley firsts the Bradley family had a hand in, and the hard times it lived through, most remembered first.
What they built
Cattle ranching on Rattlesnake Creek
Ella wrote in her first years that “Mr. Bradley has more stock than anyone I know”; the family later became known throughout Idaho for registered Gelbvieh cattle.
Home-made hydropower
George ran Rattlesnake Creek over a water wheel to generate electricity for the house, decades before rural electrification.
Teacher at the Rattlesnake school
Ella Miller Bradley taught all eight grades at the Rattlesnake school on Mercer Creek.
An early Rattlesnake Creek water right
George Bradley’s decreed right on Rattlesnake Creek carries a priority of May 1, 1902, and in 1909 he proved irrigation works under State Engineer permit 1705.
Clerk of the Lyons school district
Ella Bradley was clerk of School District 26 (the Lyons school) in 1920 and 1922, when the district, too poor to bond, held school in a log cabin.
Arbon school board clerk
Rene’ Gibbons Bradley was clerk of the Arbon school board and the Eastern Idaho State Fair’s beef superintendent.
Sources and open questions
Everything above comes from the archive’s family histories and the public records the valley map checked them against. Where accounts disagree, the page says so rather than choosing silently.
Where the accounts differ
- The 1899–1900 cabin rests on the family account (Bannock Valley, 1982); the earliest record is the May 1, 1902, water priority, and no land-office application was made in 1901–02.
- George’s death: December 23 (the Associated Press report) or December 24, 1937 (death index); the overpass and Christmas-shopping details are family memory.
- George Jr.’s birth: June 25 or 27, 1927 (the original ArbonValley.com carries both).
Sources 14
Show every source
- BradleyMelinda Campbell · posted 2019
- George Willard Bradley & Ella Canote MillerMelinda Campbell · posted 2019
- Crystal (area history)Jacob Andersen · posted 2018
- Homestead patent to George W. Bradley, April 4, 1924 (BLM IDBL 0031710): SW¼NE¼, W½SE¼, SE¼SW¼ Sec. 1 T10S R34E; Blackfoot 030496 and 031710Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office
- Stock-raising homestead patent to George W. Bradley, April 4, 1924 (BLM IDBL 0031710 01): 480 acres in Secs. 1, 2 and 12 T10S R34EBureau of Land Management, General Land Office
- Cash-entry patent to Julia M. Bradley, December 13, 1912 (BLM IDBL 0005100): SW¼SE¼ Sec. 27 and N½NW¼, NW¼NE¼ Sec. 34 T9S R34EBureau of Land Management, General Land Office
- Desert-land patent to Julia M. Bradley, September 8, 1921 (BLM IDBL 0030346): Lots 1–4 and SE¼NE¼ Sec. 1 T10S R34EBureau of Land Management, General Land Office
- IDWR water-right report 29-479: George W. Bradley, Rattlesnake Creek, priority May 1, 1902 (decreed right; disallowed 2012)Idaho Department of Water Resources
- Find a Grave memorial 92306342: George Willard Bradley (Augusta, Michigan)Find a Grave contributors
- Western States Marriage Record Index no. 17582: George W. Bradley × Ella Miller, Blackfoot, March 1, 1918BYU-Idaho Special Collections
- 1930 U.S. census, Power County, Idaho, ED 39-5 (Crystal precinct)U.S. Census Bureau (NARA T626 roll 402)
- Obituary for George Willard Bradley (2013)Posted by Jacob Andersen · posted 2013
- USGS 7.5′ quadrangle Bradley Mtn, Idaho (1:24,000, 1968)U.S. Geological Survey
- Pocatello Tribune, 1937-12-24, page 2 (“Crystal Man Victim of Auto Accident”: George W. Bradley)
Research notes
- Bradley is not shown on the archive’s family maps, which cover the central valley. The ranch was first placed from road and school descriptions; it is now placed at the farmstead on the 1968 USGS Bradley Mtn quadrangle, on the lot where George gave his residence in 1924 (Lot 2, Sec. 1 T10S R34E, part of Julia’s 1921 desert-land patent).
- Bradley Mountain (GNIS) south-west of the ranch probably takes its name from the family.
- Neighbours: the Crumps, Kruegers, Browers, Blairs and Hatleys; the Hatley homesteads were filed in the same 1918–19 rush as the Bradley entries.
- Ella’s brother was probably Frank H. Miller, a Crystal teacher (1915–16) and 1920 homesteader (FamilySearch sibling link only).
- Rene’ Gibbons Bradley’s family (Gibbons of Salmon) is not known to be related to the Arbon Gibbonses.