In 1935, enough Aberdeen residents were sufficiently fed up by spending fifteen years waiting for the Blackfoot-Aberdeen Highway--Highway 39 now, the Roosevelt Highway then--to be completed to threaten secession from the county. Protestors, upset by a call for a new levy for the market road to the Montana highway without having had the benefits of a previous levy intended for the Roosevelt Highway, called for a revolt. Aberdeen businessmen pushed a bill into the Idaho legislature to allow a vote to leave Bingham and join the much nearer Power County, and the legislature complied by voting to allow a vote by the citizens of 66 sections surrounding Aberdeen. (The Idaho Statesman January 14, 1935 Page 7)
Secession is a political idea that frequently gets regurgitated in a democracy, as rural and urban areas clash and those in outlying areas feel left out. While Aberdeen was threatening secession from Bingham, for instance, the Grace and Bancroft areas were clamoring for a change in county rule, too (The Idaho Statesman January 10, 1935 Page 3). And, the Jackknife area near Gray's Lake saw the same request, the residents seeking a move to Wyoming (The Post-Register January 4, 1935 Page 9). Wait, there's more: in 1937, the Idaho Panhandle wanted to secede and join with areas of Montana to make a new state (The Post-Register February 8, 1937 Page 4). None of these efforts succeeded.
Whether an actual vote was taken by the Aberdeen voters isn't clear from newspaper accounts, but Aberdeen remains a part of Bingham County and the road to Aberdeen was finally paved. Though some of the road woes may have included disdain by the Blackfoot powers-that-be, the road's construction had stalled at Springfield when the bridging of the lake and the cutting of the adjoining hill proved far more difficult than expected. Though the road had made it from Blackfoot to Springfield fairly quickly, reaching there before 1920, work after that kept hitting snags. Add to that the swampy areas of Sterling that required more effort to build through than the drylands to the northeast did and before you knew it more than a decade had passed.
Comments