Rick Just
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No, not that Blackfoot

8/7/2018

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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.
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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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