The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-05-13

Inc population or BlackIOOC on
May s, 1919 was 4O94. The town
was founded by the construction~of
the Utah Northern railroad in 1875.
The first passenger train arrived in
Blackfoot ON Christmas eve, the
year 1878. The town derived it's
name from the river, Blackfoot, an,i
the river derived it's name from the
Blackfeet Indians. The Blackfeet
Indians derived their name from the
fact that in their early relations with
white men, their mocassins and leg
gins were always black from walking
thru regions that were burned over.
1t was their custom in terrorizing
the other tribes, to use the torch
literally. In the year 1919, Donald
Mckenzie, formerly one of the men,
bers of the Astor overland party,
was getting party of trappers and
traders westward and encountered
bands of these Indians, the Sitsikas,
on the head waters of the stream
now known as the Blackfoot river.
They were in the region of the
marshes at Henry, Idaho, and this
party dubbed them the Blackfeet.
They lived chiefly in Montana,
Wyoming and southern Canada and
seldom came into this part of the
world.
Made County Seat
Blackfoot became the county seat
in 1885, when Corrinne was the dis
tributing center from the Union
Pacific northward, Blackfoot was a
distributing center for eastern and
central Idaho. The Salmon river
railroad now carries the commerce of
central Idaho from Blackfoot to the
north and west.
Following Wild Game Trail
The railroad follows the course of
the old stage road, the state road
follows the course of the road used
by the freiglfters, the freighters fol-
lowed the trails made by the tribes
of Indians, the Indians followed the
trails made by the buffalo and other
wild game, the game beat these
trails travelling from one water hole
to another and between the water
holes and the best grazing land, and
between the water holes and the
highest point on the landscape,
where they would stand in the wind
and fight the flys and buffalo gnats
in hot weather. This accounts for
the old roads across the desert go
ing the ziz-zag course and touching
the highest points and the lowest
places. When the railroad was
hui nj
it follows the same general direction
across the country.
Demand for Homes
Blackfoot is the seat of the United
States land office, which serves a
district comprised of several counties
of the eastern part of the state. A
quarter of a centurysago it was gen.
orally considered that the business
of the land office was destined to
pinch out, because the agricultural
land was about all taken. The bust
ness of the land office, however, has
steadily increased and is still in
creasing. Thirty years ago the gov
eminent rented a small office build
ing for the land office work. Now it
rents large brick building and a
measure is pending in congress to
appropriate money for a federal
building to house it and the Black
foot post office.
Railroad Advantages Coming
The railroad known as the Aber-
deem branch extending from Black
foot southwark, will be linked up
with the Twin Falls branch and
eventually form connecting Sec
tion of the route to San Francisco.
Agriculture began in an expert
way during the eighties, but