OREGON SHOBT LINE OGDEK TO YELLOWSTONE, 131 



7,000 acres and pays $5 a ton for them. The average yield is about 



dllful 



20 to 22 tons. 



The flat extending from Snako Elver, 3 miles west of the railroad, 

 to the foot of the hills on the east is aU under irrigation ditches, 

 practically every acre being cultivated. The agricultural interests 

 of this valley are diversified; no one crop predominates. On .either 

 side of the track are fields of alfaKa, barley, oats, potatoes, sugar 

 beets, timothy, and wheat. Apple orchards are common. Many 

 of the highways are lined by trees, and almost every group of farm 

 buildings is shaded and sheltered by Lombardy poplars. This tall 

 poplar, a native of Europe, is a favorite because the trees grow rapidly 

 and, if planted in rows close together, make excellent windbreaks. 

 They are propagated by means of cuttings. Wliile viewmg this pros- ' 

 perous and beautiful rural country the traveler should bear in mind 

 that only a few years ago, not further back than 1885, the entire 

 Snake River plain was one great sagebrush desert, whoUy barren 

 of trees and populated mainly by jack rabbits, coyotes, and 

 rattlesnakes. 



WapeUo in 1914 was a new settlement consisting of a store, a 



school, and a railroad siding. The tr-ees about a mile to the west 



are on the bank of Snake River, the main stream of 

 apello. southern Idaho. The name of the river is said to 



Elevation 4,542 feet, ^^ ^|.^^ translation of the name of a tribe of Indians, 



the Shoshones, who live along its banks. The river 

 rises among the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains in Yellowstone 

 National Park, flows southward, broadening into Jackson Lake, and 

 then northward, and near Rigby, Idaho, is joined by Henrys Fork, 

 locally kno\\Ti as the North Fork, wliich rises in Henrys Lake, near 



the Idaho-Montana State line. The portion of Snake River above 

 Henrys Fork is locally laiown as the South Fork. These two streams 



receive numerous^ tributaries, much of whose water the year round 

 is melted snow. Below the confluence Snake River flows in a general 



southwesterly course for 150 nnles, to a point a short distance below 

 the American Falls, where it tm-ns nearly westward. 



The small settlement of Firth, which was started about 1911, is on 

 the Snake River flat or first bottom. A three-span steel highway 



bridge crosses the river near by. Half a mile north 

 *^^^' of Firth the river itself first comes into sisht from the 



Ogden 164 miles. 



Elevation 4,564 feet, train. The bluff risins: to the second bottom is just 



Ogden 169 miles, - , " t t^- -, . r -i-.- .i j 



east of the track. Five miles east of i irtn a second 

 bluff rises about 50 feet to a third flat or bottom. This flat is com- 

 posed of material brought down from the mountams by Blackfoot 

 River and deposited on the plain at the mouth of its canyon. 



Blackfoot River has had a hard fight for existence. When the 

 earth's crust cracked and broke and quartzites and limestones were 



