Unique Town Names in Idaho (Idaho Falls, Blackfoot: top hotel, hotel, homes)

[pimit2]

Nearly every State in these United States have towns with unique or unusual - even strange - names. Makes you wonder. For example, how did Intercourse, Pennsylvania get its name? Or, Monkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky? Or, Goose Pimple Junction, Virginia? Studying the names of towns on a map can be downright entertaining. How, one wonders, did some of Idaho's towns get their unusual names?

For example, how big is Small, Idaho? Just how cold does it get in Chilly, Idaho? And, just how is the attitude of folks who live in Moody, Idaho? Some of the other unusual names of towns in Idaho include: Atomic City, Bliss, Bone, Crouch, Dingle, Fish Haven, Gay, Gross, Hope, Mace, Magic City, Ozone, Riddle, Santa, Slickpoo, Squirrel, Sugar City, Sweet, and Yellowjacket.

What do we know about how some of these Idaho cities got their unusual name? Do you know? Are there other unique town names in Idaho?


pimit2 (Bob)

[Keim]

Keep in mind that some of those aren't so much towns, as spots on the map. I live near Slickpoo, and no one ever refers to it as a town. (And my guess is somebody slipped!)

But I get your point, and often wonder the same thing.

[banjomike]

Bone is an early settler's family name. The Bone family owned a stage stop hotel located at Ozone.

Ozone was probably an assigned name created by the stage company. The reason the stage stop was located there is due to the strong ground spring that lies just outside the large corral. The horses and mules that pulled the stages needed rest and water, and Ozone's water was right there, by the side of the road.

By stagecoach, Ozone was almost a full day away from Idaho Falls, so the hotel was used as an overnight rest stop. The Bone road is the shortest route from Soda Springs to Idaho Falls, and Idaho Falls was the northmost crossing point of the Snake River. Miners coming west from Colorado and Utah, going to the big mines in Butte and north central idaho all crossed the Snake at Idaho Falls.

Even when the short line railroads were built, stage and freight companies continued to use the Bone road until all the short lines were finally connected. That didn't happen until the late 1800's. The road was in continuous 4-season travel; during the winters, horses were shod with ice shoes, and the road during the winter was often 4 feet higher, all ice, than it was in summer. Heavy sleighs were used instead of wagons durning the winters.

Ozone is situated in a high spot, but just below the crest of the nearby hills. That made it perfect for an overnight stop, as it was sheltered from blizzards, and the road into Idaho Falls was all downhill from there.

The Ozone corral has been used by stockmen ever since while trailing their livestock up to the summer ranges in the Blackfoot mountains and back down again in early winter. All traces of the Bone Hotel and the stage company's buildings are long gone. The hotel was dismantled and the lumber was used by early ranchers after all the family was gone.

Old rumor has it that the Bone daughters did a little business on the side in the hotel.

[banjomike]

Some of the old mining camps in central Idaho were populated largely by prospectors who were displaced Southerners, who came west after the Civil War had destroyed their homesteads. Dixie, Idaho and Atlanta, Idaho, both show evidence of where their populations came from. Same goes with Virginia City, Montana.

I wonder if Idaho's advanced tech biz keeps growing if we will have a town called Cupertino some time in the future...

[pimit2]

Bone is an early settler's family name. The Bone family owned a stage stop hotel located at Ozone.

Thank you, banjomike! We can always count on you for some interesting historical facts.


pimit2 (Bob)

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by pimit2

Thank you, banjomike! We can always count on you for some interesting historical facts.


pimit2 (Bob)

Thanks, Bob, but there is a lot more I don't know than I do.

[ILI.EB]

Atomic City was named because it was where atomic energy was first place to have atomic energy - or something like that.

[banjomike]

Picabo is probably the most mis-pronounced town name in the state.
It's a Shoshone word that's pronounced peek-a-boo.

Picabo Street, the famous Olympic skier, got her name from the town.

[pw72]

Hitt Road in Idaho Falls was likely named after a landowner with the last name Hitt. However, it is ironic that this has become one of the major Idaho Falls commercial streets (also known as 25th E.), and accidents (hitts), occur hear quite frequently. (Although Sunnyside seems to have taken over that distinction, I have witnessed, or driven by moments after, four collisions this summer on Sunnyside, two in the past week and a half.) Part of the problem, in my mind, is many treat Sunnyside as a beltway, or freeway, but it certainly is not. It has multiple left-turn lanes, mostly unregulated, and the speed limit of 40 means most are going 50. I.F. should seriously look at the safety of this corridor.

However, that isn't the topic here.

Excuse me if these have already been mentioned.

Freeze, ID
Santa, ID
Zaza, ID

[Clark Fork Fantast]

On the map our place is closer to Cabinet than to Clark Fork, but there is no town of Cabinet! So there we have an unusual name for a town, but without a town . There used to be a thriving community there, with its own train stop, and a ferry stop, a school, and a footbridge across the Clark Fork River. Then the 1910 Big Burn happened, and the logging industry that was the reason for Cabinet simply died. Today there are a couple of buildings left, and a few foundations, and a cemetery. The name Cabinet derives from the Cabinet Gorge and mountains, of course. And the Cabinet Gorge was presumably named by the French trappers employed by surveyor David Thompson, who, while paddling down the Clark Fork through the gorge, are said to have exclaimed that it was like sailing between tall cabinets. Hence: Cabinet Gorge, Cabinet Mountains, and the town of Cabinet. And whenever I google "Cabinet" to find more pictures and stories about the old village, I get a bunch of websites trying to sell me kitchen cabinets! (And when I google Clark Fork, I get websites about Clark forklifts! )