134 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTEEJST UNITED STATES. 



The city of Idalio Falls lias a significant name and its site has had 

 an interesting history. Snake River ^ here falls over the edge of a 



lava floWj and the incessant wear of the running 

 Idaho Falls. water has cut the falls back into the lava sheet fully 



Elevation 4,708 foet. j^^^f ^ -^^Wq ^^^ they are now at the head of a narrow 



ogden 184 miles. cauyon, the walls of which are at one point barely 



50 feet apart. Here a toll bridge was built in 1866, 

 and the toll money collected from the freighters over the Utah- 

 Montana trail started a store and the store started a town. Tlie town 

 was called Eagle Rock, because for many years an eagle had a nest on 

 the large rock in the stream just above the bridge. The name was 

 changed to Idaho Falls a few years ago. Snake River fonns the west 

 boundary of the city^ and the falls, the eagle rock, and the site of the 

 original bridge are only three blocks west of the railroad. 



Steel was laid on the main line north from Idaho FaUs in 1879, and 

 the railroad was completed to Silverbow, 6 miles from Butte, ^lont., 

 m ISSl. The branch line to Yellowstone was completed in 1906. 

 In 1914 a loop around the valley was being built from Idaho Falls 

 northeastward to cross Snake River (South Fork) below Heise Hot 

 Springs and thence go north to St. Anthony. 



Idaho Falls owes its prosperity to the large quantities of farm 

 products raised in its vicinity and is the most important shipping 

 point between Ogden and Butte, PracticaPy all the land m this part 

 of the valley is in a high state of cultivation under irrigating ditches. 



The average yield of grain to the acre m the upper Snake River valley, 

 on irrigated and dry land taken together, is estimated to be as foUows: 

 Wheat, 40 bushels; oats, 70 to 75 bushels; potatoes, 200 bushels; and 

 beets, 14 tons. These averages are far below what the successful 

 rancher gets, for oats dn irrigated land make from 50 to 120 bushels 

 an acre and weigh from 40 to 44 pounds to the bushel. Two hundred 

 bushels of potatoes is a light yield, 200 sacks or 400 bushels a good 

 yield, and it is reported that as high as 700 bushels an acre have been 

 raised in one 20-acre tract. In 1913 the district between Blackfoot 

 and St. Anthony shipped 5,000 cars of potatoes, Idaho FaUs alone 

 being the shipping point for 2,500 cars. Potato bugs are as yet 

 unkno\\TL in this region. Wheat on irrigated land jdelds from 40 to 

 60 bushels, weighmg from 60 to 63 pounds to the bushel. It is re- 

 ported that one tract of 720 acres averaged 38 bushels an acre in 1913, 

 and as much as 70 to 75 bushels an acre has been produced in 10-acre 

 tracts. It is said that almost no commercial fertilizer is shipped to 

 this country. Crop rotation is practiced. When oat fields fail to 

 yield 85 bushels an acre, some ranchers sow them with alfalfa or 

 clov^er for a few years. Seed peas and beans for planting kitchen 

 ardens from :Maine to Cahfornia are gro\vn in the \ipper Snake River 



' The mean discharge of Snake River at Idaho Falls from 1890 to 1892 inclusive, 

 was 10,300 cubic feot a second. 



