Rick Just
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Niagara of the West (Tap to read)

5/28/2023

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Shoshone Falls is a thing of beauty for us today, whenever there’s enough water going over them to help us remember their spectacular historical flow. To migrating fish, though, it’s a wall. Or, it was a wall for eons because it was as far upstream as salmon could go to spawn. Installation of Hells Canyon Dam and other manmade obstacles kicked the salmon downstream even further.
 
The falls are sometimes called the Niagara of the West, and you often see the tagline “higher than Niagara.” True, but Niagara is more notable for its width and volume than its height. Water drops over the edge at Shoshone Falls and crashes into itself 212 feet below. The falls are nearly 1,000 feet across.
 
This Magic Valley wonder was Idaho’s second state park, named such in 1909. It didn’t stay a state park for long. The City of Twin Falls took over management of the scenic attraction in 1933 and has managed it ever since.
 
The famous painting of the falls below was done by Thomas Moran in about 1900.

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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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