Beaver Canyon

The railroad made Beaver Canyon a town and then moved it. When the Utah and Northern reached the canyon in September 1879, the stage station gave way to a railhead, and sawmills followed: by one local history five lumber firms employing several hundred men, cutting ties for the line and much of the lumber that built Idaho Falls. The canyon was narrow, high and deep in snow, and after 1887 the town declined. In 1897 its people moved about six miles south to open ground and named the new town Spencer, for Hyrum H. Spencer, a Beaver businessman.

What the plaque says

Beaver Canyon After Montana's gold rushes began in 1862, thousands of miners came past here, and a Beaver Canyon stage station was built here. Freighters and travelers on stage lines from Salt Lake to Montana stopped at this station until Utah and Northern Railway service reached here in 1879. Large ranches also were supplied here until 1897, when they decided to move their Beaver Canyon town to a better site at Spencer. 222 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Nez Perce War — 16 mi