Island Park History
The railroad, the Railroad Ranch, the Nez Perce, and America's longest Main Street.
The railroad to Yellowstone
In 1905 the St. Anthony Railroad Company began extending its line north from St. Anthony toward the West Entrance of Yellowstone. The towns of Ashton and West Yellowstone grew up along it, and the first passenger train reached West Yellowstone in 1909. For seventy years the line brought tourists, loggers and ranchers into Island Park, battling deep winter snow, until it closed in 1979.
Today the old railroad bed is a trail for ATVs, mountain bikes and horses in summer, and a groomed snowmobile trail in winter.
America's longest Main Street
The City of Island Park was incorporated in 1947 so that the lodges along the highway could hold liquor licenses, which Idaho law allowed only inside incorporated towns. The city limits were drawn to take in those businesses, from Last Chance north to the Montana line. That is why Island Park's "Main Street" is a stretch of US-20 more than 30 miles long, and why the town proudly calls it the longest Main Street in America.
The Railroad Ranch
In 1902 a group of railroad officials and investors bought the land that is now Harriman State Park. As the Railroad Ranch it was a private retreat and working cattle ranch for the Harriman family of Union Pacific fame, and its owners protected the wildlife for three quarters of a century. Many of the ranch buildings still stand.
The Nez Perce
In 1877 bands of the Nez Perce, led in part by Chief Joseph, made a long fighting retreat across Idaho and Montana as the U.S. Army pursued them. Both the Nez Perce and the Army passed through Island Park and camped near Henry's Lake on the way toward Yellowstone.
Johnny Sack and the dam
The Johnny Sack Cabin at Big Springs, built by a German cabinetmaker in the 1930s, is one of the finest buildings in the area. In the same years, Depression-era workers built Island Park Dam, creating Island Park Reservoir.
The 1959 earthquake
In August 1959 a powerful earthquake near Hebgen Lake, just over the Montana line, set off the landslide that formed Earthquake Lake. See Quake Lake.
Make some history of your own
A cabin for your family's next tradition.
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