American Falls

The town around this park is the moved one. When the Bureau of Reclamation built the dam, more than 340 homes, 46 businesses, three hotels, five churches, a school and six grain elevators were hauled from the old townsite by steam engines and tractors in about eighteen months of 1925 and 1926. One building stayed. The Oneida Milling and Elevator Company's concrete grain elevator of 1912, 106 feet high and too heavy to move, still stands in the reservoir and shows its full height in dry years.

What the plaque says

American Falls The town is named for the nearby falls of Snake River, a famous landmark for fur trappers and early western travellers. The Oregon Trail passed close to the falls, which had been named in contrast to "Canadian Falls"--now known as Shoshone Falls--95 miles downstream. The town of American Falls was founded when the railroad came in 1882, and served a ranching area. An important power dam was built in 1902. When the present large irrigation dam was built in 1925-1927, the town had to be moved out of the reservoir area. 274 Text prepared by the Ida. Historical Society Marker made & installed by Ida. Dept. of Hwys.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Massacre Rocks State Park — 9.8 mi
  Named for emigrant deaths that happened somewhere else, five months before a massacre that was called a battle.
• Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Museum — 28 mi
  Fort Hall told from the other side of the trade counter, by the tribes whose reservation now surrounds the site of the post.

More markers nearby

• American Falls Power Plants — 1.7 mi
• Oregon Trail — 8.4 mi
• Emigrant Trails — 19 mi
• Idaho State University — 22 mi