Island Park Idaho - Hotel, Lodging, Recreation, and Fishing

Joseph Curr, first settler of Fall River, which was later named Chester, arrived in 1885. James Siddoway was Teton’s first resident. Hp put in a water wheel and with Wm. Naylor built the Teton Flour Mill.
    The Birch brothers, Thomas, Edward, James, Dave, Robert, Jack and William, arrived from Utah in 1883 to settle in Wilford. The Parker townsite, named for Wyman W. Parker, was selected June 1883. John Donaldson was Teton’s first LDS Church bishop about the time Lysander Dayton, George and Bill Davis were taking up home sites in Twin Groves.
    Joseph R. Meservy and Sons were erecting a grist mill in the Wilford area when St. Anthony’s founding father, Carlos H. Moon, filed on 320 acres in 1887 and the St. Anthony bridge was built over Henry’s Fork of the Snake. There was a ferry crossing the river at Roberts by 1889 but up river to Lorenzo and on until it reached the new town, the traveler had to take his chances at the fords.
    Samuel Suver Sadoris established his family at Sarilda six months before Joseph and Mary Weaver Baker, who had brought a family of eight by wagon train from Nebraska, arrived to settle on Spring Creek west of Ashton in 1889.
    Sadoris had left the town in Illinois named for his family, and would live by the side of the road that crossed the Big Bend Ridge and see it named Sadoris Hill Road.

    By 1888 the Arangee Co. had founded the Swiss Colony in the lsland Park country, reminiscent of the Swiss Alpine region. A sawmill, a handsome two-and-half-story hotel, topped by a cupola, and flagpole were built. Stocked with imported Holsteins and peopled by Swiss emigrants who started up a cheese factory, made this an impressive beginning for a settlement.
    Jack Kooch, later builder and operator of the Big Springs Resort, traveled to the land office at Blackfoot to file on land for the company, one of the first homesteads filed on in the region.
    A.S. Trude, after a tour of the park, visited Henry’s Lake to check on the intriguing tales of the floating island there.
    By the year Idaho became a state, 1890, several families were making use of the first summer homes in Island Park.
    Charles Mackert of Egin Bench purchased the first threshing machine.
    The last year of the old century brought zero weather and the railroad line into St. Anthony. Half-fare passes were being issued to all LDS settlers interested in coming to Fremont County.

Source: Fremont County Chronicle-News Historical Edition Aug. 8,1963 by Margaret Hawkes Lindsley

This entry was posted on Friday, June 9th, 2006 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Island Park History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Joseph Curr, first settler of Fall River, which was later named Chester, arrived in 1885. James Siddoway was Teton’s first resident. Hp put in a water wheel and with Wm. Naylor built the Teton Flour Mill.
    The Birch brothers, Thomas, Edward, James, Dave, Robert, Jack and William, arrived from Utah in 1883 to settle in Wilford. The Parker townsite, named for Wyman W. Parker, was selected June 1883. John Donaldson was Teton’s first LDS Church bishop about the time Lysander Dayton, George and Bill Davis were taking up home sites in Twin Groves.
    Joseph R. Meservy and Sons were erecting a grist mill in the Wilford area when St. Anthony’s founding father, Carlos H. Moon, filed on 320 acres in 1887 and the St. Anthony bridge was built over Henry’s Fork of the Snake. There was a ferry crossing the river at Roberts by 1889 but up river to Lorenzo and on until it reached the new town, the traveler had to take his chances at the fords.
    Samuel Suver Sadoris established his family at Sarilda six months before Joseph and Mary Weaver Baker, who had brought a family of eight by wagon train from Nebraska, arrived to settle on Spring Creek west of Ashton in 1889.
    Sadoris had left the town in Illinois named for his family, and would live by the side of the road that crossed the Big Bend Ridge and see it named Sadoris Hill Road.

    By 1888 the Arangee Co. had founded the Swiss Colony in the lsland Park country, reminiscent of the Swiss Alpine region. A sawmill, a handsome two-and-half-story hotel, topped by a cupola, and flagpole were built. Stocked with imported Holsteins and peopled by Swiss emigrants who started up a cheese factory, made this an impressive beginning for a settlement.
    Jack Kooch, later builder and operator of the Big Springs Resort, traveled to the land office at Blackfoot to file on land for the company, one of the first homesteads filed on in the region.
    A.S. Trude, after a tour of the park, visited Henry’s Lake to check on the intriguing tales of the floating island there.
    By the year Idaho became a state, 1890, several families were making use of the first summer homes in Island Park.
    Charles Mackert of Egin Bench purchased the first threshing machine.
    The last year of the old century brought zero weather and the railroad line into St. Anthony. Half-fare passes were being issued to all LDS settlers interested in coming to Fremont County.

Source: Fremont County Chronicle-News Historical Edition Aug. 8,1963 by Margaret Hawkes Lindsley

This entry was posted on Friday, June 9th, 2006 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Island Park History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.