Posts Tagged With: Idaho Falls

Pocatello, Idaho Oct. 2

It has been interesting to visit different churches along this journey. Just as in Bismarck, we found the local church in Twin Falls, there was only one from the town of over 50,000, to be very crowded. They did offer six masses, one in Swahili. Rather than an audience of mainly elderly people, there was a preponderance of families with multiple children and pregnant mothers.

After church, just for a lark, we drove around the downtown and came to a food court, one of the initial rejuvenators of the downtown area. Inside we had some wonderful crepes for lunch. Chris saw the family that had been sitting next to her in church. She asked the mother why they had a mass in Swahili, but the woman did not know. Looking it up on Wikipedia, it appeared that a resettlement center at the local University had helped to bring refugees to Twin Falls. Idaho is not a major destination for refugees. However, the top two countries with people resettling here are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan.

Sunday was rainy and cold. We had scheduled, after church, to go to parks and waterfalls in natural settings. We decided our lives would be happier and more settled if we made Sunday a logistical planning day. Besides doing the laundry, we reviewed our schedule up until our return date of October 12.

Our last week of traveling was scheduled to include two nights at Yellowstone National Park and two nights at Badlands National Park. A week or more ago we had made hotel reservations at alternate locations in case a federal budgetary shutdown closed Yellowstone and Badlands National Parks starting on Oct. 1. Since the budget was passed, after review, our resolution was to spend two fewer days in this eastern section of Idaho and two more days in Yellowstone. So I booked a reservation for two nights in West Yellowstone, canceled the two nights in eastern Idaho, and canceled the reservations for all of those alternate hotel locations we had made just in case the national parks closed starting October 1.

Barbed wire, ground sloth skeleton, and Shoshone Bannock drum cover at Museum of Idaho

Monday continued the cold and wet weather with rain most of the day. Luckily, we were leaving Twin Falls to visit museums in the eastern section of Idaho. Our first stop was in Idaho Falls at the Museum of Idaho. Their special exhibition area was closed for the installation of a new exhibit but we were there to focus on their exhibit about Idaho itself. Some of the topics covered included geology, prehistoric animals, agriculture, a sample small town Main Street from pioneer days, and the Shoshone-Bannock Indian nation.

Some of the facts I found interesting included: a.) Idaho state is the third highest producer of milk and cheese after California and Wisconsin; b.) Idaho is a made up name, not an Indian name; c.) the potato originated in the New World, was brought back to Spain, and then throughout Europe; d.) the potato grows well in Idaho due to warm days, cool evenings, predictable watering through irrigation, and fertile volcanic soils; e.) agriculture is Idaho’s top industry with 20% of the state’s economic base; and f.) hay is a top crop and Idaho produces more certified organic hay than any other state and is the second largest grower of alfalfa hay. No wonder we saw so many large trucks hauling hay everywhere we went in the state.

All that irrigation we saw? Well it’s critical for potatoes since they need about 24 inches of water per crop while the average here in rainfall is only about 10 to 12 inches. The museum had the usual display of samples of barbed wire. What I thought was particularly interesting was the examples of different barbed wire per ranch with the name and design shown for each ranch.

A docent volunteering in the exhibit area collared Chris and proceeded to have a discussion of the eastern US vs western US and the fact that she is here in Idaho to be closer to her family. I believe she was lonely as the crowd was not large inside the museum and she needed something to do.

It was 30 miles from Idaho Falls to Blackfoot Idaho. Blackfoot is the county seat of Bingham County. Bingham County is the top producing potato growing county for Idaho. So naturally, it was to be expected that the potato museum would be located in Blackfoot. We just had to stop and visit. What was not expected was to discover that the student handling the cash register was not in school since this is harvest week and some of the schools close down so the school children can help with the potato harvest. The actual days off vary from year to year, depending on when the potatoes have ripened.

Before we toured the museum, we went to their small café. The cafe offers a variety of potato products as a meal break. We each had a baked potato with all the trimmings, and of course, a Coke to wash it down.

The factoids in the potato museum are interesting and numerous. Idaho produces about 1/3 of all of the United States potatoes, and most of those are grown in eastern and central Idaho. The museum has a stupendous collection of potato mashers. Exhibits described the best uses for the variety of potatoes being grown. The information about the spread of potatoes from the New World to the Old World, and back again, was repeated from what we read at the Museum of Idaho. There was a nice video about the old time tractors used for harvesting, compared to the current, mammoth contraptions that harvest, clean and convey potatoes from the field to trucks hauling the potatoes to the processing centers.

The Russet Burbank potato was developed to help combat the devastating potato blight epidemic in Ireland. The great famine killed so many Irish (about 1,000,000) and de-populated the country so heavily (about another 1,000,000) that is the only European country with fewer residents now than 180 years ago.

Mural in our Airbnb

After the museum, we checked into our Airbnb in Pocatello, Idaho. Pocatello, Idaho Falls, and Twin Falls all have between 50,000 and 80,000 people and seem fairly robust economically. This Airbnb has a cute theme, modeling it after a mineshaft. There are many nice touches, including a mural painted on a wall resembling a mineshaft, and we found it a comforting location to stay in.

Ed and Chris, Pocatello, Idaho Oct. 3

Sunday crepe lunch