The early history of Chubbuck begins in the early 1800's with trappers and hunters visiting the area and trading with the Indians. The Bannock and Shoshone Indians had long since made the area their home, but it was not until the quest for furs brought trappers into the area that the white man became aware of it. In 1832, Captain Benjamin Bonneville visited the region to hunt and trap, and shortly after that Nathaniel J. Wyeth established the Fort Hall Trading Post.

It was not until 1843 that John C. Fremont visited the area and found it to be suitable for agricultural production. While the area is suited to agriculture for many years, it was bypassed in favor of lands in Oregon and California.

In 1878, the Utah and Northern Railroad constructed a narrow gauge railroad from Utah, near the Bear River northward to Gibson Jack area and Tyhee. In 1881, a Cessation Agreement was signed by 269 Shoshone males giving right-of-way land to the Oregon Short Line, and construction was begun on a track from Granger, Wyoming to Huntington, Oregon, to pass through Dempsey (Lava Hot Springs), McCammon, Pocatello, American Falls and on west. The ideal spot, although small in area, for the headquarters station would have been at the junction of the Utah and Northern Railroad and the standard gauge Oregon Short Line at McCammon. The McCammon site was selected but due to problems over land ownership the location of the headquarters was moved to Pocatello, which had a great influence on the future of both Pocatello, and Chubbuck.

I had always been led to believe that, like Pocatello and other city names in this vicinity, the name Chubbuck was of Native American origin, but apparently this was not the case. According to an account by John Valenty, a railroad conductor named Earl Chubbuck, who lived in Blackfoot, was in charge of loading railroad cars with agricultural produce from the area. Since sugar beets were the principle crops of the area and were loaded onto the trains at Chubbuck Siding, it became known as the Chubbuck Beet Run. It was later changed or shortened to Chubbuck Siding.

The original town site was owned by two persons, Mr. Abe Pierce, who homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres on the north side of what is now West Chubbuck Road, and Mr. Lindquist whose holdings were south of West Chubbuck Road. Each homestead was acquired in a land rush when the Indian Lands were opened to homesteading through the Homestead Act

Before Mr. briscoe dug the first well in this area, water for culinary purposes had to be hauled in from somewhere else. This was done generally by loading wooden barrels that contained 40 gallons of water onto a wagon drawn by a team of horses. Water was too precious to be used for laundry purposes, so the house wife usually dipped her water for laundry from the irrigation ditch and allowed it to settle over night before heating it on the wood burning stove to do the washing. In those days, the wash was not designated by such fancy names as laundry but was simply known as the weekly wash. It was of course done with a wash board and scrubbed by hand and then rinsed twice in clear water. If a woman was lucky, she had bluing to put into the second rinse to help whiten the clothes. If she did not have bluing, she relied on the sun or frost to help bleach and whiten the clothes. When a good well finally became available, it was indeed a cause for rejoicing, especially by the women.

A railroad man by the name of Kearns is said to have built the first store at the intersection of what is now the Yellowstone Highway and West Chubbuck Road. Later this store along with ten acres of ground was purchased by L.M. Young. Mr. Young probably did the first subdividing in the area as he divided his ten acres up into one acre plots to sell. He ran a pipeline from the well at the store to these lots to furnish culinary water. It was some years later when he finally drilled a well. This was after he had sold the store property to Ed brennan. Mr. Young bought four old houses in Pocatello and moved them onto four of his acre lots off of West Chubbuck Road

Walt Nelson, who was a brother-in-law of the Stuarts, built the house at 310 W. Chubbuck Road and sold it to Jim Crow a railroad engineer in 1924 or 1925. Sam Burley who was a conductor for the railroad lived near the railroad tracks. The Kirkpatrick family lived along Yellowstone for years. South of West Chubbuck Road on what was originally the Lindquist homestead the Merritt family and Fenwick family owned property. In 1927 John Roueche and his family moved to West Chubbuck Road. The winters were hard then and I have heard the Roueche girls tell of being snowed in for days at a time and having to walk out to the highway in order to catch a ride to town to get to work in Pocatello.

Hiline Road was the highway north prior to Yellowstone Highway that was being built. When the Hiline Canal was relocated, the state highway was relocated to the present location of Yellowstone Avenue. In the summer of 1925, the State began construction of a 24-foot wide concrete highway, which came from McCammon or Inkom on the south and then ran to Idaho Falls. This road remained until the State and City of Chubbuck constructed Yellowstone Avenue.

In February 1949 we experienced the heaviest snow storm in our history. It snowed for at least a week, so they had to close all of the roads into and out of Pocatello. The rail and truck traffic also came to a halt for that duration. Snow drifts were higher than a semi-trailer at the intersection of Yellowstone and Chubbuck.

In the early 1950's the Village Board annexed the area of land which lies east of Yellowstone, north of Evans Land and south to the highway and overpass on Quinn Road. This annexation included the Union Pacific Railroad property. The Railroad protested and in a court decision won approval to be removed from the annexation. The ordinance was not written properly and it did not contain the one sentence ?if any portion of this ordinance is declared invalid the remainder of the ordinance is ?valid.? The city fathers at the time were promoting liquor by the drink and slot machines in the city. They decided there were too many people in the area who could vote against the initiative, so they would lose the slots and liquor. A few months later, the City of Pocatello did annex this area, creating the difficult boundary between Chubbuck and Pocatello east of Yellowstone Avenue.

Twice a year Chubbuck Road became a sheep thoroughfare for several weeks. Sheep herds were trailed to the hills for summer grazing in the spring, down to the beet fields in the fall, and then over to Paul and Rupert to the desert winter range. These sheep migrations were part of the life blood for the small store in Chubbuck.

In 1925 after the Yellowstone Highway north was completed, Walter Nelson built the Blue Moon.For many years it was quite a popular place of entertainment for the young. Young people came from miles around especially from Pocatello.

In the old west or early day frontier communities, towns usually sprang up along well traveled trails, river crossings or at intersecting trails where there was a real need for them. The necessary establishments were the store or trading post, the drinking or gambling house (commonly called a saloon or the red light area), the livery stable, blacksmith shop, hotel, and later the church. One can readily understand the necessity for each of these businesses. They served as a source of supply, entertainment, and a care center for horses and equipment. In the old days a man was usually more concerned for the care of his horse than for himself. This is understandable since the horse was his only transportation. Often his lift depended on his horse, so if his horse was not in reasonably good condition, he did not go far. The church was concerned with the morals and spiritual guidance of the inhabitants, the blacksmith shop with the shoeing of horses and repair of equipment, and lastly the hotel afforded a place to stay on the trail. The modern town often follows the same pattern except that the old saloon is replaced by the bar or tavern, the livery stable by the service station, and the hotel by a motel.

A necessity of frontier towns was also a camping place for wagon travelers. The modern day campgrounds see the advent of the rest stop along the highways with the covered wagon replaced by the trailer, camper, motor home, etc. Chubbuck has had most of these elements. The original store of Mr. Kearns was operated in turn by L.M. Young (for a short time) then by Ed brennan. Mr. brennan ran his store as a grocery and hardware business, later converting too strictly hardware as other grocery stores made their advent.

Mr. brennan has paid tribute to our Indian neighbors and the part they played in the success of his business. It was a common sight to see an Indian family driving down the Yellowstone Highway or Chubbuck Road in their horse drawn wagon, first in the high wheeled variety and later in the Hoover or rubber-tired ones. Often there was one or two tied up at brennan's store with the men and women bargaining for their needs

Another family that has added much to the employment of Chubbuck is the Sam Valenty family. After living and farming on the Tyhee Flats for quite some time, the Valenty family started working with Ed brennan in 1936. The intentions were to purchase his business, but the deal fell through and they decided to establish their own business across Yellowstone from the brennan holdings. They purchased five acres of land and built a grocery store and service station with living quarters in the basement. There was also a bar in the north end of the building with room to dance. According to their records they commenced operating these enterprises on February 2, 1937. In 1947, the Valenty family built a new grocery store directly north of their other building. It has been in continuous operation since it was first completed. Most of the time it has operated under the name of Bill's Food Center. The first potato cellar in Chubbuck was built by Valenty which was later gutted by fire. They also built a blacksmith shop which was in operation for a time.

We bought some acreage from L.M. Young in the spring of 1937 and moved to Chubbuck. Before that, we lived on Poleline Road in one of S.M. Nixon?s places, which we had bought in the spring of 1929. When we moved to Chubbuck, Freemon Cutler and Glen Bennett were already living on some acreage that had been owned by L.M. Young.

It was in 1939 that Alfred and Vera Mingo sold their home in Tyhee and purchased the Blue Moon Dance Hall from Walt Nelson. They held one dance there which ended up in a brawl and that disenchanted them with the dance hall management, so they converted the building into a cold storage plant, apartment and grocery store. There was only one other cold storage plant in the area and it was in Pocatello. Alfred and Vera also had a very good relationship with the Indians. Vera recalls Chief Ballard storing a trunk in their building and making periodic visits to it. She stated that they never knew all that the trunk contained but it did hold the Chief?s eagle feather ceremonial head dress. She also recalls that he took several thousand dollars worth of securities from the trunk.

Adjacent to the Nelson property that Alfred and Vera had purchased was the Allen Hurt Dairy. They bought the property and turned some of the buildings into a slaughter house. After a short time, it became apparent that Mr. Mingo?s health would not tolerate his further operation of the cold storage plant, so he sold it and the grocery business to Kennedy who later leased the business to Wayne Purrington. They sold the other buildings on the property to John Marker for a furniture refinishing business.

I do not know when the original Green Triangle was opened, but it was owned and operated by Ernie Stallings. It was in 1940 that R.C. Hillman moved to Chubbuck and took over management of the Triangle from Mr. Stallings. At that time, the building was much smaller and stood a little north of its present location. When Mr. Hillman started in business, it was illegal to sell liquor in Chubbuck. In Mr. Hillman's own words he states, I went into Pocatello because it was legal to have whiskey there and get a license. When Chubbuck finally legalized liquor sales, Mr. Hillman was able to free the Green Triangle from Pocatello?s jurisdiction through a loop hole in the law.

The Orson Talbot Blacksmith Shop and home were located where Figaro's Pizza and the Soup and Sandwich Shop is now located. Mr. Orson often would work on farm machinery all night so the farmer could work the following day. A local rancher and former World Champion Rodeo performer, Harry Hart, often came by the Talbot home (Talbot?s had a severely disabled daughter) and carried the crippled girl to his pickup and drove all over his ranch and other locations. Harry Hart donated the land to the City of Chubbuck where our Water Tank Farm is now located.

It was about 1938 when Willis Ward built his potato cellar. He also constructed an attractive stucco home which stood on the property that now contains the Key Bank building. Mr. Ward also constructed the service station on the southeast corner of East Chubbuck Road and Yellowstone.
In 1946, Ed brennan moved his old wooden store building to the back of his lot and constructed a new multi unit building which housed his grocery/hardware business, and for a time, a cafe. Later it was a service station, and then for a short time it was a drug store. The branch bank of the Idaho Bank and Trust occupied the north unit of the building later until the new bank building was constructed and opened for business in 1975. Through the years since its construction, there have been a variety of businesses housed in the building at various times.

Orson Talbot started his blacksmith shop in 1947, but it was not until 1948 that he purchased the present Talbot holdings.

Along the Yellowstone Highway between Chubbuck Road and the Green Triangle, Earl Thompson lived for a time on the east side of the highway and operated part of the Cream Top Dairy business before it was moved south of Pocatello.

For many years Chubbuck had a reputation as a rough area with lots of dance halls and saloons which catered to drifters and transients. This reputation still persisted until the late 40's and early 70's. For many years perhaps the most profitable of the businesses were the bars and the night clubs. It was the desire of these businesses to have slot machines and sell liquor by the drink that first sparked the idea of getting Chubbuck incorporated as a Village. It was in 1949 that the decision was made to work for incorporation because slot machines and liquor by the drink were not legal unless the establishments were located in an incorporated village. In order to be incorporated there had to be a total of 125 qualified voters within the village boundaries. In the area these businesses desired to designate as a village it was found that this number of qualified voters did not exit, so they went about meeting this basic requirement by moving in trailers and otherwise housing residents. The forces who opposed slot machines and liquor by the drink learned of the plans of the nightspot operators so they called a meeting to marshal their forces and get a larger area incorporated as the Village of Chubbuck as they felt by so doing they could better work for the outlawing of slot machines and liquor by the drink. Workers were organized by this faction and went about getting petitions signed for the larger village.

For many years the most profitable of businesses were the bars and night clubs, which were Valenty's, Elaine's Place, the Show Bar, Myrtle's Place, the Five Mile Inn, and the Redwood Gardens. Some of these are still in operation today. I do not think Elaine?s Place was ever licensed to sell liquor. It was the desire of these businesses to have slot machines, which were legal in Idaho at that time. The selling of licensed liquor by the drink first sparked the idea of getting Chubbuck incorporated as a village. It was in 1949 that the decision was made to work toward incorporating because slot machines and liquor licenses could not legally be sold to businesses unless they were in an incorporated village. In order to be an incorporated village there had to be a total of 125 qualified voters within the village boundaries.

As it so happened both petitions reached the county commission at the same time so the commissioners accepted the petition for the larger village as they contended that the larger village would better serve the needs of a greater number of the area residents. The advocated of the smaller village were not satisfied with the decision of the county commission so they took it to court and Judge Thatcher reversed the decision claiming that since the petition for the smaller area bore the earliest date it should be accepted and he so ruled. The opposing faction was not to be out done so they raised money and took it to a higher court which, after due deliberation upheld the original decision of the Bannock County Commission and the incorporation of the larger village was duly entered upon the county records.

The village was formed and incorporated and while the advocates of the larger village were victorious, they still lost their try to have the slot machines and liquor outlawed. In a local election the forces of the business men in favor of slot machines and liquor won out.

April 24, 1951 was the first official election of Board Members. The elected Board Members were Enoch Cox with 138 votes; John R. Valenty, 130 votes; Arthur Fenwick, 115 votes; George Gianinnia, 112 votes; Willis Ward, 103 votes. On Saturday, April 28 the newly elected Board Members were sworn into office by Chairman J.O. Cotant and were officially pronounced to be the new trustees for the Village of Chubbuck, Idaho.

John R. Valenty was appointed as temporary Chairman until he was elected permanent Chairman of the Board of Trustees. W. R. Ward, Art Fenwick, and Chairman Valenty were appointed to serve four year terms. Enoch Cox and George Gianinnia were appointed to serve two year terms. Charlotte Kennedy was named Clerk of the Board and was then sworn into office by Chairman John R. Valenty. John Black was temporarily retained as Attorney for the Village of Chubbuck by a carried motion. The second Tuesday of each month was kept as the regular meeting time of the Board of Trustees and since the village did not yet have a permanent building, the office of Willis R. Ward was named as the temporary meeting place of the Village Board.
Charlotte Kennedy was the first Justice of the Peace in Chubbuck. Jimmy Valenty followed and was in office until the state changed to the Magistrate System in about 1972. In the early 1970's Vera Armstrong was the City Clerk and was the best attorney the city had at the time. Jordan Stuart was a maintenance foreman and did most of the work himself. Arnold Stone was Police Chief and was soon joined by Jerry Rowland.

The Village of Chubbuck suffered intense growing pains. It was known to be the fastest growing village in the State of Idaho, if not in the whole country. At the time of incorporation the population was about 170 and then by 1960 it had jumped to 1,300 at almost a phenomenal rate. The population in 1999 is approximately 10,000.

It was in 1955 that the Parrish family moved to Chubbuck and commenced their business. They also have a housing subdivision and a mobile home court where they sell the lots for placement of mobile homes.

The little community church on Valenty Street has been in operation for years. A group purchased land from the Mingo's for the building of the Primitive Baptist Church. There was a large population of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) members in the community who attended church in Tyhee. It was not until the early spring of 1966 that their half million-dollar building on Whitaker Road was completed and dedicated for use. The church membership did most of the construction work and financing of the building.

It was about 1965 that serious planning for the community really commenced. It was under the administration of Willis Ward as Village Board Chairman that a decision was reached that something should be done to regulate the Village growth and do some planning for the future. Before that time the Board Chairman had been J.O. Cotant, appointed by the Bannock County Commissioners in December of 1949 with the first elected Board Chairman being John R. Valenty in April 1951. Following Valenty the Board Chairmen in order of their appointment or election was Larry Davis, May 1959; D.T. Worsencroft, January 1964; Willis Ward, August 1965; R.G. Hillman, January 1967. Mr. Hillman contended that he was the first appointed Mayor, although he was never elected to the post. His appointment as Mayor came in August 1967. Following Hillman the elected Mayors in order were Boyd N. Twiggs, who left the community in April 1968 after having been elected mayor, then Leslie Henry was appointed to fill the vacancy. He served until January 1969 when John O. Cotant, Jr., was elected by a write-in campaign, which he has served as Mayor since.

Electric power to the Chubbuck area originally came from the north, about September 29, 1903 from the Blackfoot Light and Whites Limited, a subsidiary of Idaho Power Company. A substation was built in the vicinity of the Green Triangle. It was years before individual telephone service arrived. Originally just a couple of through lines north comprised the service.

The Yellowstone Highway north was the old Hiline Road and when the Hiline canal was relocated, the roadway had to be changed. The concrete highway from Inkom to Idaho Falls began construction in 1924 or 1925. The new interstate highway practically replaced the old highway, but when it was built it was a real boom to the people of this area.

Under John O. Cotant, Jr., the Board, and planning and zoning commissions, the city has increased its service tremendously. Garbage pickup was commenced and a water system has been installed. Plans are underway to build a million and a half gallon water storage tank. A very few years ago it was not thought to be feasible for Chubbuck to have a sewer system, but with federal help, one has been installed. The Mayor and Board feel that the next item of pressing business is the development of more streets and roads. At the present time there are only four roads in Chubbuck, Yellowstone, Chubbuck, Hawthorne, and Hiline. The traffic on these thoroughfares is tremendous and the plans of the State are to make East Chubbuck Road a four-lane road.

How times have changed! I do not remember the date that West Chubbuck Road was surfaced but prior to that it was just gravel. It seemed a cloud of dust constantly hung over the road and roadsides. The gardens that we planted were adversely affected, with their growth being stunted from the dust. Housekeeping was a real problem to with all the dust. What a difference it made after the road was improved. The state plans to convert Yellowstone Avenue into a four-lane highway. It will be interesting to follow the development of more streets and roads in the city.

New business and industry are locating here. Most of the businesses necessary to the development of the community are present. The city even has a dentist since Dr. Gregory E. Romriell located his business here. As far as I know, a medical doctor has not yet located a business here.

There is two elementary schools in the city : Chubbuck Elementary and Ellis. Children of Junior High School age have to be bused elsewhere and the high schooler's attended Highland and Pocatello High Schools.

A recent addition to the community is a very attractive branch library building. Until its construction, Chubbuck was served by a bookmobile from the main Pocatello library.

The Chubbuck Police Department consisted of five officers and patrolmen. The first Police Judge for the community was James Valenty. He was forced to retire because of deteriorating health, so Charlotte Kennedy succeeded him and served for years.

The Chubbuck Fire Department is a volunteer force. The firemen train with the Pocatello City firemen regularly. The first Chubbuck Fire Truck was furnished by the Snake River Insurance Company. The fire station was built to house the Fire Truck with the Police Headquarters located there. The first police officer was a man by the name of Williams with a Mr. Blondell to assist him. It was not long until Carl Hensley took over as Constable and was the first to occupy the apartment in the upstairs of the new Fire Station. Mr. Hensley served as Chief Police Officer for a total of 17 years before his retirement in late 1969 or early 1970.

The Chubbuck city offices were established in a Quonset building at 5160 Yellowstone. After being remodeled and added to, it has become quite an attractive and commodious municipal building. In 2004 the City offices were remodeled and expanded. The onld Quonset building was torn down to make way for the new offices.

Chubbuck has a very attractive and well maintained municipal park which was named after our current Mayor John O. Cotant, Jr., Cotant Park where our recent Chubbuck Day's celebration was held.

One of the chief affairs of the Chubbuck Lions Service Club has been the annual Christmas celebration and party for the disabled. They also join with the other area Lions Clubs in raising finances for the blind.

Chubbuck has annually joined with the Pocatello Cutter Association in hosting the yearly International Cutter Races and competitions. Our local participants are usually very high in the competitions.

Chubbuck City now has a full time City Engineer which many of the businessmen in the area have long felt to be a necessary requirement for the orderly growth of the city.