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Fort Hall Bottoms, Idaho

The Fort Hall Bottoms are dotted with springs, and are an oasis of plant and animal life in an otherwise dry, desert environment. Shoshone-Bannock people have long lived around the Bottoms, and utilize the area for hunting, berry picking, fishing, and buffalo herd foraging. Fort Hall Bottoms also functions as winter grazing land for cattle, which are a significant and historic part of the Shoshone-Bannock economy. American Falls Dam flooded three-quarters—or about 30,000 acres—of the Bottoms in 1926.