Preston’s Circle of Life

Preston, Idaho, is surrounded by lush fields of green. Acres of alfalfa, wheat, safflower, barley and other crops are harvested by the farmers that work the soil to feed people and livestock alike.

It’s a profession that took root locally, in the 1860s, shortly after Preston’s first pioneer residents settled in the area. Lush grasses grew across the deltas and flatland left behind by the prehistoric Lake Bonneville. The lake’s northern shore covered the county.

It wasn’t easy for those early settlers to establish themselves, however. The weather was ferocious. Fruits, vegetables and water often froze inside their log homes. Conditions were so severe in 1876 and 1879, that pioneers resorted to hauling hay from Smithfield, Utah, for the exorbitant price of $15 a load. Some of them tore straw from the roofing of their sheds to feed the few cattle that survived the long, snowy and bitterly cold winters.

Summers were harsh in an opposite manner, as wind whipped across Poverty Flats (north side of Preston), desiccating tender new gardens and fields. Grasshoppers feasted on what was left. Nellie Parkinson, an early resident, defied her doubting neighbors by stubbornly pouring her wash water to save the tree saplings she had planted.

Despite its menial reputation today, there was nothing dishonorable about being a ditch digger in the day. Working as communities, men shoveled and picked at rocks by hand and plowed and scraped with teams of horses to create hundreds of miles of ditches to bring life- giving water from the area’s surrounding canyons to their thirsty crops.

The first ditch was completed in 1881. It brought water from Cub River, around hills and ravines to the fields east of Preston. It was such a vital accomplishment for the new community’s survival, that the community planned an official celebration at its completion. Shouts of “Hosanna” and tossed hats marked the first trickle of water that flowed to its new destination. That farmers could depend on the availability of water marked a new day – it reduced the level of chance by which they succeeded in filling larders and barns during the winter months. The community would survive.  

Built on and blessed by pioneer-era canal systems, agriculture is still king in Franklin County today. If they aren’t running commercial level farms, most families raise at least one form of livestock or crop for personal use or as a 4-H or FFA project for one of their children. Farms teach much about life – making them worth holding onto in the eyes of local residents.

The miracle of life repeats seasonally as new animals are born and each seed planting pops up, as winter white melts into spring green, then matures into the gold of fall harvest.

Here, in Preston, the clear and simple yet profound circle of life can still be identified and enjoyed by community residents.

By Necia Seamons, Author of Images of America: Preston, Idaho