Goddin's River

The trapper the river was named for left a son, and the son's grudge reached across two valleys. Thyery Goddin was killed by Blackfeet (Niitsitapi) in 1828 or 1830, by some accounts on the stream that carried his name. His son Antoine never forgave it. In July 1832, when a band of Gros Ventre (A'aninin) came out to parley below Pierre's Hole, Antoine took their chief's hand while a Flathead companion shot him, and a day-long battle followed. In 1836 Blackfeet invited Antoine to trade across the river from Fort Hall and shot him as the pipe came round.

What the plaque says

Goddin's River Known as Goddin's River in the days of the fur trade , this stream originally was named for the trapper who discovered it. Thyery Goddin, a prominent Iroquois who explored this river in 1819 or 1820, had come here with Donald Mackenzie's fur hunters who worked for the North West Company of Montreal. Well stocked with beaver until it was trapped out in 1824, Goddin's River offered a wealth of furs to early trappers. Then after the fur trade was over, the river's original name was forgotten. Later settlers called it Lost River because it sinks into the desert lava. 229 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Borah Peak Earthquake Fault Scarp — 13 mi
  In 1983 the valley floor dropped seven feet in a second, and a truckload of hunters dropped with it.

More markers nearby

• Mount McCaleb — 9.2 mi
• Ghost Towns of Mackay, Idaho — 9.2 mi
• Earthquakes — 12 mi
• Mount Borah — 12 mi