Almo is an
unincorporated town in the
Upper Raft River Valley in
Cassia County,
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
, United States.
Description
Almo is just over east away from the
City of Rocks National Reserve, a area with granite columns as much as high. The ZIP Code for Almo is 83312.
Almo is part of the
Burley, Idaho
Burley () is a city in Cassia County, Idaho, Cassia and Minidoka County, Idaho, Minidoka counties in southern Idaho, United States. The population was 11,704 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 10,345 in 2010 United States cen ...
Micropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Many pioneers followed the
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what ...
west in the middle of the 19th century, and passed by the future site of Almo. Several of these pioneers wrote letters home describing their encounters with Native Americans. Although these accounts tended to be exaggerated by participants, there is historical evidence of several small incidents that took place from 1860 to 1862.
However, Almo's most famous historical event,
the Almo Massacre of 1861, did not occur. In 1938, the Sons and Daughters of Idaho Pioneers paid for and erected a marker in remembrance of the massacre, in which a
wagon train of nearly 300 pioneers was supposedly surrounded and slaughtered by Native Americans. However, the earliest written record of this event is from 1927, and the total absence of information about either the slaughtered pioneers or the five survivors has led the
Idaho State Historical Society to recommend the removal of the marker, which the town has refused to do.
Almo was established around a post office in 1881. It had previously been part of a ranch belonging to Myron B. Durfee and had often been considered to be in
Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
. By 1890, 40 of the 55 families in the Almo vicinity belonged to the
LDS Church, and most claimed English or Scandinavian ancestry. Almo at the turn of the century boasted a store, a post office, a school, a brass band, a theatrical group, three saloons, and a welfare society. Almo's population reached 260 by 1920, the peak of Almo's population growth. Its population declined in the years to follow, as less land was available to homestead. Almo's population was 100 in 1960.
See also
References
External links
Community reference
Burley, Idaho micropolitan area
Unincorporated communities in Cassia County, Idaho
Populated places established in 1881
Unincorporated communities in Idaho
1881 establishments in Idaho Territory
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