A Grand Exploration of Grand Valley

 

 

In the next few months you will probably see a lot more inquiries about Grand Valley and Swan Valley before and during the time Palisade Dam was considered and then ultimately built.  We are dredging up old names and even older ideas about our beloved country. We are working with 'The Atlas of Drowned Towns', a project you can learn about at this link... Atlas of Drowned Towns. 

If you have any info to add to this project, please contact us at svoldtimers@gmail.com.

 

 

 

 

This page is a scan from 'Trumpeter's Dell', a wonderful book by Afton Bitton. (Bitton, Afton. Trumpeter's Dell. Idaho Falls, ID, Falls Printing, 2011.)
 

 

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 Who knows where we can get a copy of "Trumpeters Dell''?  Was it a 1-off publication?  I'm scanning pages now for the Atlas of Drowned Towns' project.  I might as well share them here right now, as they won't be published in the Atlas for at least a year. I highlighted the pertinent info for the project. Read it all!

Wife wanted…. And needed.

Here’s a great personal ad from the Blackfoot Optimist, from Carroll Jones.  He’s looking for a wife to share his lonely life in Swan Valley, Idaho.  She can have 1/2 the ranch and all the livestock too.  

 

 

The 12th Annual Swan Valley Old Timers Reunion (1974)

 

September 12, 1913 The Settlement of Swan Valley

The current Swan Valley City officials and Chamber of Commerce say Swan Valley was settled before 1900, but this says it was not founded as a town until 1913.  Is there a distinction between settling and founding? When the Swan Valley area was “settled” was it called something else?  Was Rainey Dell the center of the settlement prior to 1900?  

-Here’s an article from the Idaho Republican newspaper, September 12, 1913 about the declaration of settlement in Swan Valley.

 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86091197/1913-09-12/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=1756&index=9&date2=1963&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Swan+valley&proxdistance=5&state=Idaho&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=Swan+Valley&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

Swan Valley was not considered a suitable dam site…

 Read this article from The Idaho Republican about dams and water district politics in 1922.  I found this article via Chronicling America, a government archive of newspapers while doing some research into Grand Valley, Swan Valley and the Palisades Dam project for the Atlas of Drowned Towns. 

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86091197/1922-04-13/ed-1/seq-4/

Cattle Brands of Swan Valley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11th Annual Swan Valley Old Timers Reunion (1973)