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Arling, Idaho

Arling, originally called Arlington, was a Union Pacific Railroad shipping point for Long Valley farmers and ranchers. The small town was home to stores, a community center, a community club, a one-room school house, and the Mt. Valley Seed Company. Former residents recalled that Boiseans would visit Arling to purchase firewood, and that the nearby Gold Fork River ran thick with salmon. The town’s social life centered around family-friendly community dances, which were sometimes beset by teenage pranksters who switched sleeping children from one wagon to another. Although Cascade Dam was not completed until 1948, the federal government bought up Arling’s properties and began displacing its residents in the 1930s.