The History OF Bannock County Idaho BY ARTHUR C. SAUNDERS [Illustration] POCATELLO, IDAHO, U. S. A. THE TRIBUNE COMPANY, LIMITED 1915 COPYRIGHT 1915, BY THE TRIBUNE COMPANY, LTD. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction 9 CHAPTER I Preliminary History 11 CHAPTER II Some Natural History 23 CHAPTER III The Indians 35 CHAPTER IV The Cowboy 46 CHAPTER V Fort Hall 55 CHAPTER VI The Nez Perce Indian War 66 CHAPTER VII The Bannock Indian War and the Sheep-Eaters 76 CHAPTER VIII The Stage Coach 88 CHAPTER IX The Railroad 101 CHAPTER X General Conditions and Development 111 CHAPTER XI Pocatello 122 CHAPTER XII Conclusion 136 INTRODUCTION Although Bannock county is not yet twenty-five years old, it has seemed desirable to collect her history, before the adventures and legends of early days have been lost in the more prosaic and pressing interests of today. Probably no state in the union is less known than Idaho. Wyoming has her “Buffalo Bill,” Colorado her Pike’s Peak, Nevada her far, but ill-famed Reno; Utah her famous salt lake; all known throughout the English speaking world. But Idaho, rich in natural resources, fertile and prosperous, has furnished no wild-west tragedy like that of Custer in Wyoming, to attract the attention of writers. She possesses no natural wonder to rival the Niagara Falls or Grand Canyon; she has produced no Kit Carson or Daniel Boone to fire the adventurous blood of ten-year-olds. Few people in the eastern states can accurately locate Idaho. They know dimly that it is in the great northwest, but whether it is hill or plain, mine or ranch, they have forgotten along with much of the other lore of early school days. The history of Idaho, however, has already been published by men whose long residence in the state and experience in its public affairs eminently fitted them for the task. It is our more humble and less pretentious pleasure to record the annals of our own county--Bannock--than which no other in Idaho is more beautiful in scenery, more romantic in history or more promising for the future.