Evan E. Filby's Blog: South Fork and More, page 15

Daredevil Cyclist Evel Knievel Attempts Snake River Canyon Jump [otd 9/8]

On Sunday, September 8, 1974, motorcycle stunt rider Robert Craig (Evel) Knievel launched his jet-powered “Skycycle” across the Snake River canyon at a spot near Twin Falls, Idaho. Idaho was Evel’s second choice to the Grand Canyon. As a Sport Illustrated writer put it, the U.S. Park Service had “refused to grant him permission to kill himself on federal property.”
Knievel in the Snake River canyon.
Sport Illustrated cover.
Perhaps the most successful professional daredevil of all time, Robert was ...

Boise Banker, Businessman, and School Advocate Horace E. Neal [otd 09/07]

Boise businessman Horace Edwin Neal was born September 7, 1859 in Van Buren County, Iowa, about 100 miles southeast of Des Moines. He was still a small child when the family moved to a farm near the Missouri River in southeast Nebraska. Horace pieced together several years of college classes, taught school for three years, and then worked for several years in Kansas and eastern Colorado.
H. E. Neal. [Illust-State]
Horace and a younger brother, W. Scott Neal, moved to Boise in 1890 and started a bu...

Opening Day for Boise Junior College, Precursor to Boise State University [otd 9/6]

On September 6, 1932, Boise Junior College greeted its first students, 41 men and 37 women. BJC can actually trace its roots back to 1892, when the Episcopal church started St. Margaret's School. For forty years, St. Margaret's offered a “classical education” to girls in Boise.
Opening day, BJC. Boise State University photo.
By 1910, Boise was the largest city in Idaho. Other towns like Caldwell and Nampa further skewed the state’s population toward the Boise River valley. Yet, for reasons too co...

Astorian Fur Trade Party Led by Robert Stuart at American Falls [otd 09/05]

On September 5, 1812, fur trader Robert Stuart wrote in his journal, “The whole body of the stream is here scarcely 60 feet wide, but immediately above expands to the breadth of half a mile, with little or no current and the banks sufficiently covered with Willows to afford a plentiful supply of food for the incredible numbers of furred animals who inhabit its borders.”
American Falls before dam construction. Library of Congress.
Stuart's note referred to the Snake River as it constricted into the...

Dentist, Rancher, Banker and Oakley Mayor John Lowe [otd 09/04]

Mayor Lowe. H. T. French photo.Dentist and Oakley Mayor John O. Lowe was born September 4, 1877 in Willard, Utah, 10-12 miles north of Ogden. Soon, the family moved to Cassia County, Idaho. In fact, John missed by just a few months being eligible as a south Idaho “Oldtimer” when they formed an association forty years later. You had to be (Idaho Statesman, October 3, 1921) among the “residents of this Territory prior to January 1, 1880.”

John went to school in Cassia County and graduated from Alb...

Emigrant Elizabeth Porter on the Oregon Trail [otd 09/03]

On Saturday, September 3, 1864, Oregon-bound pioneer Elizabeth (Lee) Porter wrote in her diary, “Morning: 12 head of cattle gone, found 5 head. Hunted all day for the rest but found no cattle. Beautiful valley here and lots of ranches. We are four miles below the city.”

Boise City, established little more than a year earlier, was already a thriving community of over sixteen hundred residents. It was, in fact, by far the largest town they had seen since leaving the vicinity of Omaha. The family – ...

Mining Investor and Twin Falls Area Developer Harry Hollister [otd 09/02]

Harry Hollister. H. T. French photo.Central Idaho developer Harry L. Hollister was born September 2, 1859  in Rockton, Illinois, about seventy miles northwest of Chicago. He showed an early talent for banking, real estate investing, and progressive business development.

By 1900, he had substantial holdings in the Chicago area, the Dakotas, and in Michigan. After about 1900, Hollister located his company headquarters in Chicago.

In 1898-1900, Hollister began investing in mining properties in the Wo...

Tarzan Creator, and Idaho Cowboy, Edgar Rice Burroughs [otd 09/01]

Edgar Rice Burroughs,
successful writer.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan and many imaginative worlds, was born September 1, 1875 in Chicago. Edgar tried many jobs, in many places, before taking up the writing career that made him world famous. He spent several of his most impressionable years as a young man in Idaho.

The Idaho connection began in 1891. An influenza epidemic in Chicago led his parents to ship young Edgar off to Idaho. There, brothers George and Harr...

Ray Hunt: Legendary Trainer of Horses (and Riders) [otd 08/31]

Tribute photo. Richard Beal’s Blog.Renowned horse trainer Ray Hunt was born August 31, 1929 in Paul, Idaho (about 4 miles north of Burley). A few years later, the family moved to Mountain Home. A child of the Great Depression, he knew the hard, grinding farm labor of that era. His father also raised work horses, which he hired out to farms and ranches in the area. Ray learned to ride bareback and dreamed of becoming a cowboy.

He got his chance the spring when he was twenty years old. The famous T...

Idaho Cattle Baron and Nevada Governor John Sparks [otd 08/30]

Idaho-Nevada cattleman and later Nevada Governor John Sparks was born August 30, 1843 in Winston County, Mississippi, 60-80 miles northeast of Jackson. The Sparks family became moderately wealthy by developing raw land into successful farm-ranch operations, selling at a good profit, and then moving on to a new location. In the late 1850s, they established a ranch in Texas. John thus grew to manhood in the early Texas ranch/cowboy culture.
Early cattle drive. Library of Congress.
He reportedly serv...