Twin Falls Idaho History & Facts

Twin Falls is the county seat and largest city of Twin Falls County, Idaho, United States. The city had a population of 44,125 as of the 2010 census. In the Magic Valley region, Twin Falls is the largest city in a one-hundred-mile (160 km) radius, and is the regional commercial center for south-central Idaho and northeastern Nevada. It is the principal city of the Twin Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which officially includes the entirety of Twin Falls and Jerome counties. The border town resort community of Jackpot, Nevada, fifty miles (80 km) south at the state line, is unofficially considered part of the greater Twin Falls area. Located on a broad plain at the south rim of the Snake River Canyon, Twin Falls is where daredevil Evel Knievel attempted to jump across the canyon in 1974 on a steam-powered rocket. The jump site is northeast of central Twin Falls, midway between Shoshone Falls and the Perrine Bridge.

Excavations at Wilson Butte Cave near Twin Falls in 1959 revealed evidence of human activity, including arrowheads, that rank among the oldest dated artifacts in North America. Later Native American tribes predominant in the area included the Northern Shoshone and Bannock.

The first people of European ancestry to visit the Twin Falls area are believed to be members of a group led by American Wilson Price Hunt, which attempted to blaze an all-water trail westward from St. Louis, Missouri, to Astoria, Oregon, in 1811 and 1812. Hunt's expedition met with disaster: much of his expedition was destroyed and one man was killed in rapids on the Snake River known as Caldron Linn near present-day Murtaugh. Hunt and the surviving members of his expedition completed the journey to Astoria by land.

In 1812 and 1813, Robert Stuart successfully led an overland expedition eastward from Astoria to St. Louis, which passed through the Twin Falls area. Stuart's route formed the basis of what became the Oregon Trail. Some 150 years later, Robert Stuart Middle School in Twin Falls was named in his honor.

Snake River Canyon
The first permanent settlement in the area was a stage stop established in 1864 at Rock Creek near the present-day townsite. By 1890 there were a handful of successful agricultural operations in the Snake River Canyon, but the lack of infrastructure and the canyon's geography made irrigating the dry surrounding area improbable at best.

To address this issue, in 1900 I. B. Perrine founded the Twin Falls Land and Water Company, largely to build an irrigation canal system for the area. After an August 1900 area survey of 244,025 acres (98,753 hectares), in October 1900 the company was granted the necessary water rights to begin construction of the irrigation system. Several lots in the surveyed area were set aside specifically for future townsites. These lots eventually became the settlements of Twin Falls, Kimberly, Buhl, Filer, Hansen and Murtaugh. In 1902, the project nearly failed as most of the original investors pulled out, with only Salt Lake businessman Stanley Milner maintaining a stake in the company.

Twin Falls is one of only three Idaho cities which has a council-manager form of government. The seven-member Twin Falls City Council is directly elected in non-partisan municipal elections to four-year terms. The mayor, who holds little executive power, is periodically selected among current city council members to chair meetings and is "considered the official representative of the city." City council meetings are usually held on Mondays.

Famous Peoples From Twin Falls Idaho

Bruce Bastian

Bruce Wayne Bastian (born March 23, 1948) is an American computer programmer, businessperson, philanthropist, and social activist. He co-founded the WordPerfect Software Company with Alan Ashton in 1978 (originally known as Satellite Software International and then changed to WordPerfect Corporation in 1982).

Bastian was born on March 23, 1948, in Twin Falls, Idaho. He attended college at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, where he initially majored in music. While serving as the director of the BYU Cougar Marching Band, Bastian developed a software program to help choreograph marching band performances with the help of instructor Alan Ashton. After leaving his position with the marching band, he went on to earn his master's degree in computer science.

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