During pioneer days, Fort Hall was one of the most important posts along the Oregon trail. It was the first point west of Fort Laramie, where travelers could rest securely under the protection of the flag, and where there was a garrison of soldiers to relieve them of all fear of sudden attack from the Indians. Here the weary and travel-stained pioneers, pushing on for the far-famed Oregon territory, found respite from their toils and dangers, and enjoyed once more the companionship of their own kind. Here, too, preparatory for the last, long march of their transcontinental journey, they repaired their wagons, and discarded such baggage as it had seemed wise to bring when starting, but which later experience proved to be only an encumbrance. An area of several acres around Fort Hall is said to have been covered with this debris, which was ransacked by the Indians and shorn of such parts as the red men wanted. Prof. W. R. Siders, superintendent of the Pocatello public schools, who has been interested for several years in the effort to locate the site of the original fort, and to whom the writer is indebted for very generous and valuable information, maintains that it ought to be possible to identify the Hudson Bay company’s fort by the rummage in its vicinity. He has examined the banks of the Snake river for several miles and been unable to unearth any such remains. This failure adds probability to the statement of old “Doc” Yandell, a trapper in early days, who still resides in these parts. Mr. Yandell says that some years ago he and Pete Weaver lived on the site of old Fort Hall, which was then on the banks of the Snake river, and three quarters of a mile distant from a spring. In later years Mr. Yandell maintained that he could walk directly to the site of his former camp, but when he attempted to do so, he found that the Snake was flowing within three hundred yards of the spring that used to be three-quarters of a mile from its bank. It is probable that since his departure some spring flood had washed out a new channel for the river, thereby changing its course, and placing the old fort site under water. This might account for Prof. Siders’ failure to find the debris of which he was in search.