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Greetings folks. Last month I got the chance to come up from CO and visit this are for the purpose of possible relocation. Initially my plan was to focus on Pocatello, but after consideration Idecided to move on to the ID Falls area which I liked very much. I got to tavel all around the area up to MT and to WY and visit most of the communities along the way. I felt ID Falls was too big for the lifestyle I want and decided that I really enjoyed Rigby and Rexburg. The focus of this thread, however is on the ladder.
I am looking for an agrarian-based community that still celebrates the western/cowboy lifestyle and hope that there is a strong equestrian community there. I would be renting at first but later in life would like a ranch with horses. I will have ag work and forest service work as well.
ID Falls just seemed too big to me but after visiting Rexburg, I really liked it! I know this will raise a few hairs but I just have to ask because it is a nagging concern for me. Do non-LDS folks feel like it is hard to fit in or belong in Rexburg due to the prevelance of the LDS? I mean, I am not sure on the LDS population there, but it just seems like the presence is predominant...correct me if I am wrong, by all means.
We are not LDS, but have NO PROBLEM with them, in fact I admire their family values, conservatism, modesty and "clean cut"-ness. The concern for me is that if you are not LDS in this particular community, perhaps you will feel alienated or alone, but not saying that they will make you feel that way but perhaps one would feel that way naturally if you were not a member of the LDS Faith.
Anyone who has moved there recently and not LDS and wanted to comment, that would be great. As well as folks who have lived there along time or were born and raised there.
I am a Christian myself and also feel concerned about finding churches there other than LDS. If anyone can comment on that experience too, that would be great.
Lastly, I am in my early 30s. I worry about the difficulty in meeting others for friendships in their 20s-30s that are in the Rexburg area or if most in that age group are BYU Students. Any comments on this would be greatly appreciated. Although I felt ID Falls was too big and busy my impression is, given the aforementioned statements, that ID Falls may suit better? I am just not sure.
I enjoyed my visit to Idaho greatly. Some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. I love to Fly-Fish too, as well does my dad. So, those opportunities there were wonderful too. While there in July it sure seemed like there was a strong "cowboy" element. I am not sure if that was due mostly to the Rodeos going on in the area or if it is always that way. I am curious to that as well.
My gut reaction says you'll be more comfortable in IF or an outlaying area. Nothing says you have to live in town right? However, if you're just going to rent first go ahead and try Rexburg and see how it feels and fits your wants/needs.
I will say most folks from Rigby on up still pop into IF to do most of their shopping. Fly fishing is located within 30 minutes of anywhere in SE Idaho
My gut reaction says you'll be more comfortable in IF or an outlaying area. Nothing says you have to live in town right? However, if you're just going to rent first go ahead and try Rexburg and see how it feels and fits your wants/needs.
I would be renting and I am not sure if there would be a suitable place to rent outside of town (IF). IF just seemed to busy. We've got that here where we are now, and really want a smaller, more country town. Rexburg certainly fits the bill in that respect. If we moved to rexburg and decided we felt uncomfortable, then where would we go, since we don't really want to live in IF? Rigby was ok, but didn't have enough self-sustainment as far as retailers, resaurants etc. We don't want to have to go to IF often. Just once in a while.
Hi, Countryway...
Cowboy culture is widespread all over the Upper Snake River Valley.
I tend to agree with Cleosmom- Rexburg may be problematic for you in several ways:
While the LDS are very friendly and helpful folks, in towns where they constitute the high majority, it is often harder for newcomers to develop close friendships among them. Rexbug in particular is very LDS oriented, because of the presence of BYUI (Brigham Young University Idaho).
Earlier, Rexburg was home to Ricks College, a 2-year Mormon Jr. College. Over a decade ago, as Brigham Young University filled up to capacity in Provo, Utah, the church decided to make Ricks a 4 year college that was a full extension of BYU. Now, BYUI attracts young Mormons who want to obtain a full degree after serving their missions right out of high school. BYUI acts as an overflow college for BYU, and is slightly less expensive in tuition, which makes it particularly attractive to young, newly-married Mormon couples.
BYU is THE college to go to for many Mormons. It's their equivalent of the Ivy League in desirablilty. BYUI is now the next best thing to attending BYU.
As a result, if you have young children of school age, they may feel isolated in school. If you like to go out and enjoy an adult beverage once in a while, you won't find any bars in Rexburg, especially if you would like something stronger than beer. The same goes for R rated movies, trying to find a skimpy new bathing suit, trying to buy a rap record, or similar stuff. The folks in Rexburg are generally very wrapped up in their religion, much more so than the rest of the valley by far.
The same, to a lesser extent, is also true of Rigby, but Rigby is more tolerant of the non-LDS. Idaho Falls is much more tolerant, as it has a much larger population that is much more diverse in religion and life styles.
There are several small communties just to the south of I.F. that share the I.F. attitudes- Taylor, Iona, Ammon,Shelley, and Firth. Ammon is now an extension of Idaho Falls, but still has it's own city council, etc.
Rentals in Rexburg are hard to come by and relatively expensive due to the huge influx of new students. They are much more readily found and generally more affordable in I.F. There are also outlying rental homes and small properties just outside the I.F. city limits that can be found if you want the quiet of country life.
Idaho Falls is quite busy during the day, but the town tends to shut down in the evenings and becomes quite quiet in most neighborhoods. My neighborhood is about smack in the center of the town, and it's almost as quiet as living in the country most evenings.
There are places to find a late-night bite that are open 24 hours, and most businesses are open on Sundays. The night life here isn't all go-go jumping, but it's very easy to find a nice place to go for an adult's night out, and it's easier to make new friends here in the age groups you mentioned.
Most of the upper valley's jobs are in I.F., so there is a lot of commuting here from as far north as Ashton, north of Rexburg, to Blackfoot, 25 miles south of I.F. Highway 20 is not bumper to bumper, but the traffic is heavy with commuters during the rush hours. Living inside the I.F. city limits makes going to a job relatively much easier, depending on where you are living in town and where the particular job is located.
Other living expenses are also lower in I.F. than in the surrounding towns as well.
And when it comes to fishing, the falls are a great place to catch big trout. Lots of folks walk or ride a bike to the greenbelt and drown a worm. I've seen some whoppers caught there.
Once you are here for a while, you will soon learn natural wonders abound everywhere close by in all directions. While I.F. may seem to be a big bustling city in comparison to the others, it's really still a small farming town at heart. Come, stay a few weeks, and try us out. Lots of newcomers love it here in short order. More importantly, lot of folks who move away find a way to return because they miss life here so much. Old Mother Idaho gets into a persons' blood and bones and heart life few other places do.
Hi, Countryway...
Cowboy culture is widespread all over the Upper Snake River Valley.
I tend to agree with Cleosmom- Rexburg may be problematic for you in several ways:
While the LDS are very friendly and helpful folks, in towns where they constitute the high majority, it is often harder for newcomers to develop close friendships among them. Rexbug in particular is very LDS oriented, because of the presence of BYUI (Brigham Young University Idaho).
Earlier, Rexburg was home to Ricks College, a 2-year Mormon Jr. College. Over a decade ago, as Brigham Young University filled up to capacity in Provo, Utah, the church decided to make Ricks a 4 year college that was a full extension of BYU. Now, BYUI attracts young Mormons who want to obtain a full degree after serving their missions right out of high school. BYUI acts as an overflow college for BYU, and is slightly less expensive in tuition, which makes it particularly attractive to young, newly-married Mormon couples.
BYU is THE college to go to for many Mormons. It's their equivalent of the Ivy League in desirablilty. BYUI is now the next best thing to attending BYU.
As a result, if you have young children of school age, they may feel isolated in school. If you like to go out and enjoy an adult beverage once in a while, you won't find any bars in Rexburg, especially if you would like something stronger than beer. The same goes for R rated movies, trying to find a skimpy new bathing suit, trying to buy a rap record, or similar stuff. The folks in Rexburg are generally very wrapped up in their religion, much more so than the rest of the valley by far.
The same, to a lesser extent, is also true of Rigby, but Rigby is more tolerant of the non-LDS. Idaho Falls is much more tolerant, as it has a much larger population that is much more diverse in religion and life styles.
There are several small communties just to the south of I.F. that share the I.F. attitudes- Taylor, Iona, Ammon,Shelley, and Firth. Ammon is now an extension of Idaho Falls, but still has it's own city council, etc.
Rentals in Rexburg are hard to come by and relatively expensive due to the huge influx of new students. They are much more readily found and generally more affordable in I.F. There are also outlying rental homes and small properties just outside the I.F. city limits that can be found if you want the quiet of country life.
Idaho Falls is quite busy during the day, but the town tends to shut down in the evenings and becomes quite quiet in most neighborhoods. My neighborhood is about smack in the center of the town, and it's almost as quiet as living in the country most evenings.
There are places to find a late-night bite that are open 24 hours, and most businesses are open on Sundays. The night life here isn't all go-go jumping, but it's very easy to find a nice place to go for an adult's night out, and it's easier to make new friends here in the age groups you mentioned.
Most of the upper valley's jobs are in I.F., so there is a lot of commuting here from as far north as Ashton, north of Rexburg, to Blackfoot, 25 miles south of I.F. Highway 20 is not bumper to bumper, but the traffic is heavy with commuters during the rush hours. Living inside the I.F. city limits makes going to a job relatively much easier, depending on where you are living in town and where the particular job is located.
Other living expenses are also lower in I.F. than in the surrounding towns as well.
And when it comes to fishing, the falls are a great place to catch big trout. Lots of folks walk or ride a bike to the greenbelt and drown a worm. I've seen some whoppers caught there.
Once you are here for a while, you will soon learn natural wonders abound everywhere close by in all directions. While I.F. may seem to be a big bustling city in comparison to the others, it's really still a small farming town at heart. Come, stay a few weeks, and try us out. Lots of newcomers love it here in short order. More importantly, lot of folks who move away find a way to return because they miss life here so much. Old Mother Idaho gets into a persons' blood and bones and heart life few other places do.
Hi BanjoMike! I was hoping you would show up! You helped quite abit on another thread I had a while back as we discussed cowboy culture and live country music. You had said to get in touch with you when I came to visit and you were gonna introduce me to some musicians you play with but I sincerely forgot, when I was there in the area! Darn! Here's the thread: //www.city-data.com/forum/idaho...-so-where.html
Anyway, the info you provided is excellent and confirms my suspicians of Rexburg. Again, I really liked the town alot and had the right pace, culture and way of life, but I agree that I will feel uncomfortable. I live in Fort Collins, CO with relatively the same population, and we really want something smaller and more "countrified" than IF. We stayed there for a week in IF in an motel and toured the area. I did notice immediately that even within IF, the pace of traffic AND life was much slower than here in CO. I liked the presence of cowboys, ranching and the beautiful wheat, barley and potato farms as well as the aura of conservative, family, traditional values that I am sure the LDS Church influences. Living in a party town here in CO has been wearing.
The first thing that really bothered me about IF, aside from size, was the confusing streets. Oh man, they just go every direction it seems and it took a while to get it figured out. LOL. But thats ok.
I remember us talking about Live Country Music on the previous thread. I didn't really see any Dancehalls or honky tonks or cowboy bars, except the one in Jackson of course. I want to be able to play country music with others and enjoy dancehall settings. Did I miss them, or is there just not any left like we talked about before?
If we did live in the IF area it would have to be ouyt of town. On the side where the Sandy Downs was seemed real nice for country living but not sure as to rentals out that far from town.
Being a fly-fisherman for years, that whole area is well known among my fellow trout fisherman. There were plenty of excellent rivers and streams as well as lakes. I liked the proximity to WY and MT for western/mountain activities over there too.
The area was surely beautiful and an authentic way-of-life was obvious indeed. The quality, pace, values and friendliness were on par! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit. We enjoyed local restaurants, shopping and the Visitor's Center as well. I bought this candy that was a Huckleberry Cordial. It was outstanding. Wanted to get some more before I left but forgot. People seemed open, and friendly wherever we went. We especially enjoyed all the mountian drives north, east and south. Drove up to MT via 20 and over to Teton Valley, Swan Valley and Jackson via 26 and 33. Loved the farms and the gorgeous forests.
Thanks for your advice. I will take it in to consideration. However, living in IF is a concern because we really want a smaller city/town.
Hi, countryway...
I.F. streets can be confusing at first, for sure, but most of the main thoroughfares are mostly oriented north and south, east and west. Relatively few of the main streets are going off on angles. The older part of the east side of town, neighborhoods that are close to the downtown area have 1-way streets, but the rest of the town is all 2-way, often with 3 or 4 lanes on the main arterials.
I think you would be pretty happy living in the nearby country that lies just south of the city limits. It's very possible you would really like Iona or one of the other little villages close by as well. Iona, in particular, favors horse and limited livestock ownership, as the town was originally platted out in large lots that would accommodate winter livestock feeding in the old part of town.
My brother is coming in for a visit via Hwy 20 (Broadway), and the directions I gave him were complicated because once you hit downtown, everything seems to go haywire. Part of the problem is IF was originally built with very little indication of major growth east and into Ammon. So we were left with 17th, which 40 years ago was still a residential street. Now we have Sunnyside, which acts as the southern beltway for the area. It can be confusing!
City planning is one of those things that is full of unintended consequences.
Back in 1978, widening 17th st. was seen as a way of moving more traffic on the east side.
Unfortunately, the city planners didn't take into account that much of the land adjoining 17th was still agricultural, and cheap as the dickens in comparison to the commercially zoned areas on the west side and on the north and south areas of town.
17th was already a mixed zone; for years, it had been zoned commercial/residential/agricultural. The 70's were the great era of shopping mall development all over Idaho, and before the zoning plan was ever approved, plans were already in the works for 2 diffferent mall developments on 17th. The Grand Teton mall won out, and it would have been built even if 17th st. had not been widened. As a result of the street improvement, land speculators from all over jumped on the ag properties and snatched them up. And sold them for business development as soon as the land was bought.
The failed mall proposal was very close to where Home Depot is now. If it had won, I.F. would be a lot different now. Holmes, 17th, and Sunnyside were already established thoroughfares.
Until then, growth in I.F. was pretty logical, but growth has a way of being unpredictable and creates it's own screwy logic as it goes along.
Hi, countryway...
I.F. streets can be confusing at first, for sure, but most of the main thoroughfares are mostly oriented north and south, east and west. Relatively few of the main streets are going off on angles. The older part of the east side of town, neighborhoods that are close to the downtown area have 1-way streets, but the rest of the town is all 2-way, often with 3 or 4 lanes on the main arterials.
I think you would be pretty happy living in the nearby country that lies just south of the city limits. It's very possible you would really like Iona or one of the other little villages close by as well. Iona, in particular, favors horse and limited livestock ownership, as the town was originally platted out in large lots that would accommodate winter livestock feeding in the old part of town.
Yeah, they were confusing at first, but after a few moments of looking at a city map and then a day of driving around the city, I got the hang of it.
I wasn't aware of Iona or some of the other town you mentioned that were southaways or towards Blackfoot. I did look at Ammon though.
I really liked the country south of IF out by the rodeo grounds and all around that area. If we were to move there we would want to live in that area for sure. Out in the country. I think it was the area south-west and south-east of Sunnyside? I am foggy on my info.
Yeah, they were confusing at first, but after a few moments of looking at a city map and then a day of driving around the city, I got the hang of it.
I wasn't aware of Iona or some of the other town you mentioned that were southaways or towards Blackfoot. I did look at Ammon though.
I really liked the country south of IF out by the rodeo grounds and all around that area. If we were to move there we would want to live in that area for sure. Out in the country. I think it was the area south-west and south-east of Sunnyside? I am foggy on my info.
No you got that right. However, keep in mind the built up area of Sunnyside looked like that at one time not long ago, too. If the economic recovery revs up, the area you refer to will eventually be overtaken by suburbia, IMO.
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