Looking back: School ordered to close, farmer survives accident with train and ‘dense fog’ grounds flights

Community Presbyterian Church of Rexburg, established 1918. The Presbyterian Church is the oldest church in Rexburg that is still being used today.| Courtesy photo
IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of Jan. 16 to Jan. 22 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
SUGAR CITY — A local school was ordered to close until the board of trustees “had provided sufficient pure water for drinking purposes,” according to the Sugar City Times.
The article in the paper dated Jan. 22, 1913, explained the order came after Idaho’s Sanitary and Pure Food Inspector James H. Wallis visited “the school at Iona.”
“It seems that there is no water other than the canal, and when that is frozen, as it is now, the children, some 200 of them, were obliged to be without water, which is a condition which does not meet with the approval of the official,” the article states.
It continues, “The school was closed, the children dismissed, and the trustees took the matter up at once for providing sufficient water for drinking.”
1926-1950
UCON — A farmer in Ucon walked away with only a bump on his head after the truck he was driving was hit by a train, the Idaho Falls Post Register said on Jan. 16, 1933.
The train was leaving Idaho Falls headed to Victor when the accident happened. The train was going “very slow” but managed to turn Frank Harris’s truck “completely around in the road.” Harris said the windows of the truck were frosted and he did not see the train or hear it whistle until he was almost on the track.
“He threw the car in reverse, but the motor was cold and not working as it should, and the engine quit,” the local paper explained. “The front of the truck was projecting just far enough onto the track to be caught by the locomotive.”
1951-1975
POCATELLO — A car overturned and two policemen were injured in the second traffic accident within a week involving a police car on an emergency call, the Idaho State Journal reported on Jan. 16, 1956.
Robert Dillon, 22, was the driver of the overturned car. He didn’t get hurt in the accident but was charged with failure to yield the right of way to an emergency vehicle.
Officer Richard Raymond, 26, was driving the police car. He suffered back injuries and leg bruises. His partner, Officer LaMont Anderson, 24, bruised his knee in the accident but “returned to duty after treatment.”
“Raymond told Officer W.R. Van Leuven, who investigated, that he was approaching the intersection with his siren blowing and red light flashing and that Dillon’s car collided with the right side of the police auto,” the article reads. “Van Leuven said Dillon told him he heard the siren as he entered the intersection but that he could not stop in time.”
Van Leuven estimated $450 in damage to the police car.
1976-2000 A “dense fog” forced airports in Idaho Falls and Pocatello to close, the Idaho State Journal wrote on Jan. 18, 1976.
The closure affected an estimated 1,000 air passengers, according to the Journal. One airplane was able to leave the Idaho Falls Airport early in the day before the shut-down.
“The fog reduced visibility to less than one-eighth of one mile and was forecast to plague valleys through Sunday morning,” the Journal explained. “It stretched as far south as the Cache Valley of northern Utah and caused numerous traffic accidents in eastern Idaho.”
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Source: eastidahonews.com