Norman Maclean made the Blackfoot River famous with his short story collection, A River Runs Through it, and Other Stories. That Blackfoot River is in Montana, something I frequently had to explain to people after the movie A River Runs Through It came out. I grew up along the Blackfoot River, but not that one.
My Blackfoot River is in southeastern Idaho. It flows into the Snake River south of the town of Blackfoot. It may seem odd for the name Blackfoot to apply to two rivers and a town. It’s an odd name. It refers to the dark moccasins worn by Blackfeet or Blackfoot Indians. Their words would be Siksika.
The indigenous people around Blackfoot are mostly Shoshone and Bannock, but fur trapper Donald McKenzie bumped into some Siksika in that area in 1819, and gave the anglicized version of their name to the river. The town was named after the river.
Blackfoot is the county seat of Bingham County. It calls itself the Potato Capital of the World because large quantities of Idaho’s Russets are grown in Bingham County. The number one spot for selfies there is in front of the big potato sculpture at the Idaho Potato Museum, which is housed in the old Union Pacific Depot on Main Street.
My Blackfoot River is in southeastern Idaho. It flows into the Snake River south of the town of Blackfoot. It may seem odd for the name Blackfoot to apply to two rivers and a town. It’s an odd name. It refers to the dark moccasins worn by Blackfeet or Blackfoot Indians. Their words would be Siksika.
The indigenous people around Blackfoot are mostly Shoshone and Bannock, but fur trapper Donald McKenzie bumped into some Siksika in that area in 1819, and gave the anglicized version of their name to the river. The town was named after the river.
Blackfoot is the county seat of Bingham County. It calls itself the Potato Capital of the World because large quantities of Idaho’s Russets are grown in Bingham County. The number one spot for selfies there is in front of the big potato sculpture at the Idaho Potato Museum, which is housed in the old Union Pacific Depot on Main Street.
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