This extended weekend is rife with holidays. Yesterday was Valentine’s day, and now today, the 15th, is President’s Day.

This week, ISU’s Continuing Education and Workforce Training wants to commemorate President’s Day by looking back on the times that the former commander-in-chiefs have visited Idaho.

Pocatello was home to three national banks in the early days of the city, and each bank was able to issue their own currency. The founders and directors of these early banks were men prominent in local society and business and were well-known among the early citizens of Pocatello. Many of them are recognizable today, and some of them went on to found banks that are still currently in business.

Souvenir postcard of Pacific Hotel and Passenger Depot, constructed in 1883 with the top floor Mansard roof added in 1887 (photo courtesy of Justin Smith).

The Pocatello railroad depot, originally built by the Oregon Short Line Railroad (OSL), is the third structure to serve that purpose in the city. It was preceded by the Pacific Hotel and Passenger depot and the Oregon Short Line freight depot.

Pocatello has been home to one of the earliest Oregon Trail markers for more than 100 years. However, it has been out of general public view since the 1990s.

Between 1906 and 1908, Ezra Meeker, who as a young man had journeyed on the Oregon Trail from Ohio to the Pacific Coast in 1852, spent two years retracing that trip in a covered wagon pulled by a team of oxen. Past the age of 70, his goal was to inspire interest in preserving the trail and history of the westward migration to the Pacific Northwest.

Photo courtesy of Trent Clegg

Recent discovery of this stone as part of a fence in a Pocatello westside neighborhood raised the question, “Where did the stone come from?” The answer— Pocatello’s second stone school house.

The start of the Pocatello land run at noon June 17, 1902.

On June 17th, 1902 Pocatello experienced a land rush like the famous Oklahoma land run of April 22, 1889. The Pocatello townsite, which had been established by an act of congress in 1889, was to be expanded by an agreement with the Shoshone and Bannock tribes on February 19, 1898, but it was not until President William McKinley signed a treaty purchase bill enacted by congress June 6, 1900, that a land distribution plan was possible. By this treaty purchase, 418,000 acres were opened to settlement that would add five miles to northern Pocatello.

The original Pocatello town plat was laid out east and west of the railroad tracks on the Portneuf River flood plain. Almost every spring since the city was founded, some portion of the valley along the river has flooded when there is an early thaw. Though notable floods occurred in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, the worst floods occurred in February of 1911 and February of 1962.

This late 1920s campus view shows the former LDS Institute (now the Dental Hygiene Bldg.) on the upper right. Left of it is Residence Hall (now a parking lot) on the corner of 8^th and Terry.  On the far top left is Colonial Hall, by Paradice in 1925 (former dorm, now an office bldg.) Other buildings are, center left to right, Faris Hall (boys’ dorm) current location of Physical Science; the Beanery (cafeteria), replaced by Engineering; and the old Engineering bldg., (currently a parking lot). Next row, Swanson Hall, Baldwin Hall, and the original Reed Gym, (no longer standing). Bottom row, Frazier Hall, 1924, still in use, and the original Turner House (girls’ dorm), current location of Business Administration. Bottom right with the tall smoke stack, is the original campus heating plant.

Four buildings of five on the ISU campus designed by famous local architect Frank H. Paradice are still in use. They are Colonial Hall, the Administration building, Gravely Hall, and Reed Gym. Residence Hall was demolished for additional campus parking several years ago.

Several buildings in Pocatello’s Old Town Neighborhood exist because of fraternal organizations and secret societies. Such organizations (Elks, Masons, Eagles, Moose, and many others) were popular during the late 1800s and well into the twentieth century.

As the population increased in Pocatello due to the centralization of the railroad shops, the need for housing brought about an early use of prefabricated houses in the city. By 1890, the population had increased from about 200 people in 1888 to 500 people in 1889, then to 2,330 people in 1890.