Raft River, ID

    • Origin of Name: Community is named after the Raft River, which flows nearby; the once-mighty stream of up to two-miles wide, was named Raft River because its deep, muddy waters often forced travelers to cross the stream in rafts 
    • Known for: The California and Oregon  Trails split at the mouth of the Raft River at a campground called Parting of the Ways, where many emigrants tarried, as they decided whether to proceed either to California or to Oregon.  Promoters from California and Oregon who were hired to persuade the travelers to travel to the areas they represented influenced many pioneers; the dead from the Massacre Rocks Indian attack were buried at the Parting of the Ways; many cattlemen who were forced to move from other areas after their grazing lands were homesteaded, ended up in the Yale/Raft River area. A prominent cattleman, Andrew Sweetser, sent his son Lewis, east to attend Yale College; after graduation, Lew returned to Raft River with the Burroughs Brothers, and later named the community of Yale after his alma mater; the Sweetser and Burroughs families partnered in many ventures, including ranches and the Sweetser and Burroughs company, which ran a gold dredge on the Snake River; the Burroughs’ younger brother, Edgar Rice Burroughs, worked on their Raft River ranch for at least a couple of years, before creating his famous literary character, Tarzan; Lew Sweetser later became Lieutenant Governor of Idaho
    • Notable History:  Early mountain men trapped on the Raft River from its tributaries south of the City of Rocks to its mouth at the Snake River; in his journal, Peter Skene Ogden’s successor, John Work, described the party’s journey from Raft River through the Narrows, the Almo Valley and over Granite Pass, through Lynn, Utah in great detail
    • Raft River, the River:  During the settlement years, the Raft River emptied into the Snake River, after meandering from its tributaries near Sublett and Jim Sage Mountain, through the Raft River Valley, though the river has now dried up and no longer flows through to the Snake.
    • Location:  31.3 miles (30 minutes) east of Burley via I-84 E and I-86 E
    • No population estimates for this unicorporated rural community

    Last Mortified: