Cassia County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

. As of the 2020 Census the county had a population of 24,655. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

and largest city is Burley. Cassia County is included in the Burley, ID Micropolitan Statistical Area.

History

The first Europeans explored the Milner area in Cassia County in 1811. It was trappers who initially developed the Oregon Trail, which ran on the county's northern border. The Raft River's junction with the Oregon Trail marked the split for the California Trail. While the Oregon and California trails brought hundreds of thousands of emigrants through Cassia County, it also brought settlers. A stage line through the county was established between Kelton, Utah and Boise, Idaho in 1869. A stage station existed at City of Rocks. Additional stations were spaced at increments of 10–12 miles between stations to include one at Oakley Meadows, in the Goose Creek valley two miles west of the present settlement of Oakley. William Oakley settled at the Oakley Meadows station in 1870. Cattle operations also developed starting in 1872. Settlement began at nearby Albion in 1873 with significant Mormon settlement in 1875. By 1880, Albion had a population of 257. Mormon settlement at Oakley also began on June 1, 1878, when four Mormon men each staked out 160 acres for their settlement. Settlements remained primarily agricultural with more than 38,000 head of cattle in the area by 1885. Settlement at Malta occurred prior to 1890, as the Malta precinct had 172 residents at the 1890 census. Albion State Normal School was established at Albion in 1893. The school was focused on training Idaho teachers until 1951 when its programs were transferred to Idaho State College (now Idaho State University) in Pocatello. Burley was platted and settled in 1905 after a branch of the Oregon Shortline was constructed through the town. Declo was settled under the name of Marshfield by 1909. Cassia County was created from

Owyhee County Owyhee County ( ) is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,133. The county seat is Murphy, and its largest city is Homedale. In area it is the second-largest county in Ida ...

on February 20, 1879, with Albion becoming the county seat. A western portion became

Twin Falls County Twin Falls County is a county in the south central part of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 Census, the county had a population of 90,046, making it the fifth-most populous county in Idaho. The county seat and largest city is Twin Falls ...

in 1907. The county assumed its present boundaries when an eastern portion became Power County on January 30, 1913. The county seat was moved to Burley in 1918. The county was named for Cassia Creek, which in turn was named either for John Cazier, a member of the Mormon Battalion and an emigrant train captain, or for a plant found in the area.

Government

Elected Officials

Similar to other Idaho counties, an elected three-member county commission heads the county government. Other elected officials include

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

, treasurer, sheriff, assessor, coroner, and prosecutor. County Commission * District 1: Leonard Beck (chair) * District 2: Robert Kunau * District 3: Kent Searle Other Elected Officials * Clerk: Joseph Larsen * Treasurer: Laura Greener * Sheriff: George Warrell * Assessor: Dwight Davis * Coroner: Craig Rinehart * Prosecuting Attorney: McCord Larsen Cassia County is in Idaho's 2nd congressional district and represented by Congressman

Mike Simpson Michael Keith Simpson (born September 8, 1950) is an American politician and former dentist serving as the U.S. representative for since 1999. The district covers most of the eastern portion of the state, including Idaho Falls, Pocatello, S ...

. At the state level, Cassia County is in Legislative District 27, represented by Senator Kelly Anthon of Declo, Speaker Scott Bedke of Oakley and Fred Wood of Burley.

Politics

At every level, Cassia County is a Republican Party stronghold. All county-level offices are held by Republicans and have been for decades. Republican primaries are tantamount to election to office, as Democrats rarely field challenges for county or state legislative office. Cassia County is one of the most consistently Republican counties in the state, and in the gubernatorial election of 2010 Republican Butch Otter carried Cassia County with 76.54% to Democrat Keith Allred's 16.73%. In the presidential election of 2012, Mitt Romney, whose father lived for a few years in his youth in Oakley, carried Cassia County with 85.2% while

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

received 13.1%. The last Democratic presidential candidate to carry Cassia County was Franklin Roosevelt in the election of 1940 edging out

Wendell Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican ...

by around 100 votes. State legislators from Cassia County traditionally hold their seats for long periods of time. Two of the longest serving legislators in Idaho history were from Cassia County: Vard Chatburn of Albion who served in the House of Representatives from 1957 to 1986 and Denton Darrington in the Senate who served from 1982 to 2012. Because legislators rarely lose their seats, legislators representing Cassia County are often in leadership or chair committees. Since 2012, Representative Bedke has served as Speaker of the House. Bruce Newcomb of Burley also served as Speaker from 1998 to 2006. Though born in Burley, Congressman Simpson now lives in

Idaho Falls Idaho Falls ( Shoshoni: Dembimbosaage) is a city in and the county seat of Bonneville County, Idaho, United States. It is the state's largest city outside the Boise metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population of Idaho Falls was 6 ...

. The only other member of congress with ties to the county is

Henry Dworshak Henry Clarence Dworshak Jr. (August 29, 1894July 23, 1962) was a United States Senator and Congressman from Idaho. Originally from Minnesota, he was a Republican from Burley, and served over 22 years in the House and Senate. Early years Born in ...

who represented Idaho's 2nd congressional district and later served in the Senate. He lived in Burley and was the publisher of the ''Burley Bulletin''. A Burley elementary school is named after him.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.6%) is water. The county's highest point is Cache Peak at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of above sea level in the Albion Mountains, and the lowest is Milner Lake, a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

on the Snake River, at . The northern half of the county is part of the

Magic Valley The Magic Valley is a region in south-central Idaho constituting Blaine, Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka, and Twin Falls counties. It is particularly associated with the agricultural region in the Snake River Plain located ...

region of the Snake River Plain, and numerous mountain ranges extend north from the southern boundary and diminish as they approach the river, which flows from east to west. The Silent City of Rocks National Reserve, containing exposed

granitic A granitoid is a generic term for a diverse category of coarse-grained igneous rocks that consist predominantly of quartz, plagioclase, and alkali feldspar. Granitoids range from plagioclase-rich tonalites to alkali-rich syenites and from quartz- ...

batholith as old as 2.5 billion years, is located in the southern part of the county.

Adjacent Counties

* Minidoka County - north * Blaine County - north * Power County - northeast * Oneida County - east * Box Elder County,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

- southeast * Elko County,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

- southwest/Pacific Time Border *

- west * Jerome County - northwest

Highways

* Interstate 84 * Interstate 86 *

US 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route in the system of the United States Numbered Highways, with the highway traveling across the northern tier of the country. With a length of , it is the third longest ...

* SH-27 * SH-77 * SH-81

National protected areas

* City of Rocks National Reserve * Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge (part) *

Sawtooth National Forest Sawtooth National Forest is a National Forest that covers 2,110,408 acres (854,052 ha) in the U.S. states of Idaho (~96 percent) and Utah (~4 percent). Managed by the U.S. Forest Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it was originally ...

(part)

Demographics

2000 census

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 21,416 people, 7,060 households, and 5,485 families living in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

was 8 people per square mile (3/km²). There were 7,862 housing units at an average density of 3 per square mile (1/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 84.69%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 0.17%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.80% Native American, 0.37% Asian, 0.05%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 12.06% from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 1.87% from two or more races. 18.74% of the population were

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

or Latino of any race. 23.1% were of English, 13.8% American and 12.9% German ancestry. There were 7,060 households, out of which 42.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.20% were married couples living together, 8.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.30% were non-families. 19.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.99 and the average family size was 3.46. In the county, the population was spread out, with 34.10% under the age of 18, 9.00% from 18 to 24, 24.50% from 25 to 44, 19.60% from 45 to 64, and 12.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.70 males. The median income for a household in the county was $33,322, and the median income for a family was $38,162. Males had a median income of $29,132 versus $19,851 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the county was $14,087. About 11.10% of families and 13.60% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 17.60% of those under age 18 and 8.00% of those age 65 or over.

2010 census

As of the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servi ...

, there were 22,952 people, 7,666 households, and 5,758 families living in the county. The population density was . There were 8,372 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 81.8% white, 0.8% American Indian, 0.5% Asian, 0.3% black or African American, 0.1% Pacific islander, 14.2% from other races, and 2.3% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 24.9% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 22.3% were English, 11.8% were German, 10.6% were American, and 5.1% were

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

. Of the 7,666 households, 41.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.8% were married couples living together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 24.9% were non-families, and 21.5% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.96 and the average family size was 3.46. The median age was 32.0 years. The median income for a household in the county was $39,866 and the median income for a family was $47,995. Males had a median income of $36,402 versus $22,156 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,782. About 12.4% of families and 15.4% of the population were below the

, including 18.7% of those under age 18 and 8.1% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Cassia County is served primarily by one school district, Cassia Joint School District #151, which was consolidated in the 1950s.

Schools Located in Cassia County

High Schools * Burley High School in Burley * Cassia Alternative High School in Burley * Declo High School in Declo * Oakley High School in Oakley * Raft River High School in Malta Jr. High Schools *Burley Jr. High School in Burley *Declo Jr. High School in Declo *Oakley Jr. High School in Oakley *Raft River Jr. High School in Malta Elementary Schools *Albion Elementary School in Albion *Almo Elementary School in Almo *Declo Elementary in Declo *Dworshak Elementary School in Burley *Evans Elementary School in Burley *Mountain View Elementary School in Burley *Raft River Elementary School in Malta *White Pine Elementary School in Burley

Communities

Cities

* Albion * Burley * Declo *

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

* Oakley

Unincorporated communities

* Almo *Basin *Connor *Elba * Idahome *

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

*Marion *Pella * Raft River * Springdale *Sublett *View

References

External links

County website

County Parcel Map
{{authority control Idaho counties Populated places established in 1879 Burley, Idaho micropolitan area 1879 establishments in Idaho Territory