Idaho’s Island Park claims to have ‘longest main street’

Humana offers its elderly health insurance policy holders online classes to promote healthy “senior living.” A recent webinar, “Name That State,” stressed the value of keeping one’s brain active. 

The facilitator asked a series of trivia questions about the 50 United States. One that stumped me was: “Which state has the longest Main Street?” 

The correct answer was Idaho. How can that be? There are only a few cities in Idaho that anybody’s ever heard of – namely Boise, Pocatello, Moscow and Sun Valley. The entire state has fewer than 2 million people living among all those potatoes. 

But come to find out, there is a place in Idaho known as Island Park, nestled in the southeastern stub of the state, near Wyoming and Montana, which claims to have the “longest main street.” It’s a 36.8-mile stretch of U.S. Route 20, with a dog leg on State Route 87 that curls over the top of Henrys Lake.

 

Henrys Lake

As one might suspect, alcohol was involved. The City of Island Park was incorporated in May 1947 to meet a state law requiring that all businesses that serve or sell alcoholic beverages be located within incorporated municipalities. 

Owners of all the businesses located along U.S. 20 corridor who desired licenses to offer alcoholic beverages to tourists who were visiting nearby national parks – Yellowstone and Grand Teton – put their heads together and drew city boundaries. They created a “community” of sorts that extends from Last Chance to Henrys Lake near the Montana border.

 Island Park is long and skinny, following the path of the highway (like a gerrymandered voting district). Island Park has only 166 residents. 

Island Park contains one of America’s premier calderas. Scientists at National Geographic explained: “A caldera is a large depression formed when a volcano erupts and then collapses. During a volcanic eruption, magma present in the magma chamber underneath the volcano is expelled, often forcefully.”

 

“When the magma chamber empties, the sides and top of the volcano collapse inward.” The Island Park Caldera is U-shaped and measures 18 miles wide by 23 miles long. 

The territory was discovered by fur trappers from Missouri who were led into the wilderness by Andrew Henry. The hunting party established Fort Henry in 1811 on Henrys Fork, a tributary of the Snake River. 

The first true settler in the territory was Gilman Sawtell, who built a lodge on Henrys Lake in the late 1860s. He was described as a “jovial woodsman whose principal business was spearing trout, packing them in ice, hauling them off in wagons and disposing of them at handsome prices to the busy population, who haven’t time to fish for themselves.” 

Next came Richard Rock, who everybody called “Rocky Mountain Dick,” a legendary buffalo skinner. He filled his corrals at Henrys Lake with bison, bears, black-tailed deer, mountain goats, moose and elk. He sold these animals to parks and preserves nationwide. 

George Rea was third in line. He operated the first cattle ranch and trout farm in Island Park and was a successful hunting guide. Rea’s most famous customer was President Theodore Roosevelt, whom Rea guided on several occasions through Island Park as well as Yellowstone. 

In olden days, a wild west stagecoach line carried tourists back and forth (about 30 miles) between Henrys Lake and Yellowstone.

Stagecoach rides have been reactivated for the pleasure of Yellowstone visitors.

 

These days, the Island Park watering holes stay busy year-round. In winter, they cater to cross country skiers and snowmobilers…as well as the Henrys Lake “cold-footers.” The cold-footers bore holes in the ice to fish for savory bass, trout and whitefish.