Goodale's Cutoff

The panel standing at this pull-off is not this sign. Since at least 2018 it has carried sign 305's text, written for US-20 near Hill City, about eighty miles west, where its 'rejoin the Oregon Trail 28 miles west of here' is true; a second copy of that panel still stands there. This sign's own words were photographed here in 1997, describing the wagons squeezing past the lava and quoting J. C. Merrill's 1864 account of a rock barely wider than his wagon. Read at Carey, the panel's directions put the trail's end in the wrong place.

What the plaque says

Goodale's Cutoff When emigrants began to take their westbound wagons along an old Indian and trappers' trail past this lava, they had to develop a wild and winding road. At this spot, like many others, they had barely enough space to get by. At times they could not avoid lava stretches. But they slowly crept along, leaving their road strewn with parts of broken wagons. J.C. Merrill noted in 1864 that "At one place, we were obliged to drive over a huge rock just a little wider than the wagon. Had we gone a foot to the right or to the left the wagon would have rolled over." 354 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Craters of the Moon National Monument — 8.3 mi
  A geologist coined the name in 1923. A Boise taxidermist carried his dog across the lava and sold the place to a president.

More markers nearby

• Atoms for Peace — 27 mi