Camp Connor

The settlers the sign counts were Morrisites, followers of Joseph Morris, refugees from Utah Territory who had broken with the Mormon church. Connor's troops escorted them north in May 1863, and they laid out Morristown on the river below the post, with Connor's own Soda Springs above it; for a time they were Lower Town and Upper Town, and Oneida County's first offices sat in Connor's adobe store and hotel. Connor meant them to keep the Mormons out of this valley. Most soon gave up and left. Their town site now lies under Alexander Reservoir.

What the plaque says

Camp Connor Col. P. E. Connor set up the old town of Soda Springs, now mostly flooded, and an adjacent army post near here May 20, 1863. The gold rush to Idaho had greatly increased traffic on the Oregon Trail, and the post was needed to protect travelers from the Indians. Along with his troops, Connor brought 160 settlers from Utah, and the town they founded became the Oneida county seat from 1864-66. It soon declined, but in 1870 Brigham Young visited here and established the present townsite just east of the earlier location. 218 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Soda Springs Geyser — 1.1 mi
  Drillers looking for hot water for a swimming pool hit cold soda water under pressure. The town put the geyser on a timer.
• Black Canyon of the Bear River — 8.5 mi
  A basalt gorge cut by a river that, most of the year, now runs past it in a pipe.
• Lava Hot Springs — 20 mi
  The pools belong to the state because the springs left the Fort Hall Reservation and Congress handed them to Idaho in 1902.
• National Oregon/California Trail Center — 29 mi
  Emigrants came down off Big Hill and camped in the clover here. Brigham Young renamed the town; the trail center brings the camp back in costume.

More markers nearby

• Soda Springs — steps away
• Hooper Spring — 1.2 mi
• John Bidwell — 3.9 mi
• Bear River Lava — 3.9 mi