Teton Flood

The sign's figures are not the Bureau of Reclamation's. It gives the reservoir as 280 feet deep and the dead as 14; the Bureau's own history says 270 feet at the dam and 11 lives. The 14 appears twice in the independent review panel's report with nothing behind it. The 11 are known: six drowned, three died of heart failure, one man shot himself by accident while preparing to guard his property against looters, and one took his own life. That the dam went just before noon on a clear Saturday is why the warning reached so many.

What the plaque says

Teton Flood When Teton Dam suddenly was washed away, June 5, 1976, a large reservoir (280 feet deep) was dumped on farms and towns below. Houses floated away and crop land was ruined as water surged into Snake River and American Falls Reservoir, which finally controlled that flood. Church, government, and disaster relief agencies responded effectively, but 14 lives were lost and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages resulted from that unforgettable calamity. All that remains of Teton Dam still can be seen from a viewpoint 1.5 miles north of here. 345 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Teton Dam Site — 1.9 mi
  Geologists warned that the canyon walls would leak. The warnings were softened, the dam was finished, and it never held a full reservoir.
• St. Anthony Sand Dunes — 17 mi
  Four hundred feet of white sand, open to machines most of the year and closed to people when the elk come down.
• Warm River — 20 mi
  Union Pacific built the Yellowstone Branch for tourists. At the bottom of this canyon it turned the engines that pushed them uphill.
• Menan Buttes — 22 mi
  Two volcanoes built where lava ran into the Snake River, and one of them open to walk around the rim.

More markers nearby

• Fort Henry — 12 mi
• Brigham Young University-Idaho — 13 mi
• The Three Tetons — 16 mi
• Beaver Dick — 19 mi