American Falls
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The pioneers continued
to follow the Snake River for over 300 miles after leaving Fort
Hall. And what a river! Some emigrants had never seen the like.
They had driven wagons across the mile-wide Platte, but this river
was a torrent, battering the jagged walls of its lava canyon. From
Fort Hall, the trail had swung slightly southwest. It was rough
and difficult, described as being "a very rocky road hard on wagons...the
river had precipitous banks in places 200 feet of rock perpendicular."
They passed American Falls, really a rapid, but the noisiest falls
some of them had ever seen, and repeated the story that it was named
for some American trappers who were swept over and drowned.
Most of the Oregon Trail
route through Idaho runs along the Snake River. At American Falls
the river dropped fifty feet in Oregon Trail days. Now, because
of locks and dams, most of the falls are dry, except in the spring.
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Last modified on:
January 31, 2004
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