Pocatello Valley ~ Index
In no one edition of the news could we hope to give anything like adequate representation to the many valleys and large productive regions of the great county of Box Elder, containing as it does more than 7,000 square miles of area. It is time, however, that beautiful Pocatello Valley receives some little attention. This choice valley lies immediately over the ridge west of Portage, and is destined to become one of the best known of the smaller dry farm valleys of the county and state. The valley varies from six to seven miles long. It is basin shaped, with the most natural and beautiful slopes imaginable. The soil is a rich black loam, with a depth varying from five to fifteen feet.
It has been regarded as an essentially dry farm valley, as there has not been water for even culinary purposes at all accessible to most parts of the valley; but within the last year or two several wells have been dug, yielding a splendid flow of excellent water from a depth of 150 to 250 feet, and several enterprising citizens of the valley have piped mountain springs to their farms. There is a movement on foot now which contemplates the piping of mountain water to every farm in the valley, a plan which is declared entirely feasible. It is also thought that the rapid development of Spring Creek Valley to the south and Curlew Valley to the west gives very fair promise of a railroad being built through the valley in the not far distant future.
There is cultivated now in the valley about 65,000 acres, and it has not been uncommon in the past to secure better than forty-five bushels per acer on summer fallowed ground. In this valley one finds happy– contented farmers, men who realize that they have a good thing and propose to keep it. Land values have increased over one-hundred percent during the past two years, and they will climb considerably higher before their actual value is attained. Here as everywhere else in Box Elder County, land is selling for very much less than it is actually worth, and the home seeker will do well to carefully investigate conditions here before buying elsewhere.1
- Box Elder News, September 1st, 1910.