Idaho - AHGP/Bingham County

Bingham County

"ESTABLISHED 1885
COUNTY SEAT Blackfoot
Bingham County was named for Henry H. Bingham, a Pennsylvania congressman and friend of Territorial Governor W.M. Bunn, who served in 1884. Bingham County originally was larger than some eastern states. Fort Hall was established within its original boundaries in 1834 by Nathaniel Wyeth. The railroad came to the county in 1879 and the first telegraph service crossed the county in 1866. Much of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation is in the county, along with the city of Fort Hall reservation headquarters. Agriculture is the chief industry, and Bingham County raises more potatoes and more wheat than any other county in the state. Both irrigated and dry-land farming exists in the county and livestock are ranged in the mountains on its eastern borders. State Hospital South, a mental health institution, is located at Blackfoot." - - "The Idaho Almanac," 1977 Edition, State of Idaho. map from almanac :: location and population from Idaho Almanac :: Bingham Co. ISU Digital Atlas

"The county was formed from Oneida County and was later partitioned itself to form Bannock (1893), Fremont (1893), Bonneville (1911), Power (1913), and Butte (1917) counties." - wikipedia

"Early cattle drives were marketed by trailing east. . . The old eastward trail led through Fort Hall, to the Blackfoot River, where they crossed near the present site of the Blackfoot Dam, went around Gray's Lake, trailed around the southern border of the Caribou Mountains, then went on to Salt River and followed the old Sublette trail to Cheynne." - p.232, C. J. Brosnan's "History of the State of Idaho." 1935

History of Fort Hall
Langley's 1876 Directory, alpha index - includes Blackfoot, Fort Hall, etc.
Post Offices
Hawley's 1920 History

Links
Fort Hall at OregonTrail101
The Shoshone – Bannock Tribes
BYUI Eastern Idaho Death Records
Bingham Co., IDGenWeb
Bingham Co. USGenweb Archives

News
"The Brave Winds of Idaho"
1892, July 4th Committees
1896, Feb. 1: First Withdrawal under Carey Act

Photos
1909 Panorama of Blackfoot, Library of Congress
1910 Shelley Potato Harvest
1915,Idaho hay stacking, John G. Hauff helped

Fort Hall marker, Barry Swackhamer photo
more at Bingham County Historical Markers

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