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Idaho's First Railroad Didn't Last Long

6/27/2023

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The first train rolled into Idaho in 1874. The railroad, built by Mormon investors to serve LDS communities in Northern Utah and Southern Idaho, brought its first steam engine into Franklin that year. Before 1874, Corrine, Utah, was the nearest railroad station to Idaho. Upon successful completion of the Utah Northern Line to Franklin, many suppliers from Corrine set up satellite operations in Idaho’s first town.
 
The Utah Northern was intended to go at least to Soda Springs, but financial problems put the kibosh to that. The railroad, promoted by John H. Young—the son of Brigham—went bankrupt by 1878.
 
But Idaho’s railroad history was far from over. That first line to Franklin was quickly taken over by Union Pacific. At the peak, there were 2,877 miles of track crisscrossing Idaho. That peak was in 1920. Today, about 1,630 miles of track are in regular use in the state. By trains, that is. You can still hike and bike some of those abandoned rail lines, notably the Trail of the Hiawatha, Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, the Ashton-Tetonia Trail, and the Weiser River Trail.

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This Union Pacific engine traveled the tracks between Ashton and West Yellowstone in 1930. You can take most of that route today on your bicycle on the Ashton-Tetonia Trail.
Speaking of Idaho history posts are copyright © 2020 by Rick Just. Sharing is encouraged. If you don’t find a button that lets you do that, find the post on Speaking of Idaho. If you’re missing my daily posts, select the RSS button, or select See it First under the Facebook Following tab.
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    Author, Speaker

    Rick Just has been writing about Idaho history since 1989 when he wrote and recorded scripts for the Idaho Centennial Commission’s daily radio program, Idaho Snapshots. One of his Idaho books explores the history of Idaho's state parks: Images of America, Idaho State Parks. Rick also writes a regular column for Boise Weekly.

    Rick does public presentations on Idaho's state park history and the history of the Morrisite war for the Idaho Humanities Council's Speakers Bureau.idahohumanities.org/programs/inquiring-idaho/
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    Check out Rick's history of Idaho State Parks.

    The audio link below is to Rick's Story Story Night set called "Someplace Not Firth"

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