Editing Jefferson County, Idaho (section)

==History==
The Salt Lake City to Virginia City Stagecoach was established through the area in 1864. Stops were established at Market Lake (Roberts), Sand Hole (Hamer), and Camas. Small settlements grew up around the stagecoach stops with the most significant development occurring at Market Lake. The county's first post office was established at Market Lake on July 29, 1868, when the post office at Eagle Rock was relocated there.<ref>{{cite web|title=Postmaster Finder |url=http://webpmt.usps.gov/pmt003.cfm |publisher=United States Postal Service |access-date=February 21, 2017 }}{{dead link|date=April 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Initial settlement at Mud Lake also originated in 1868.<ref>{{cite web|title=Check ins for this Travel Point|url=http://motoidaho.com/sites/default/files/RonS/Challenge2012/DSCF2226.jpg|website=motoidaho.com|access-date=February 21, 2017|archive-date=February 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222054603/http://motoidaho.com/sites/default/files/RonS/Challenge2012/DSCF2226.jpg|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Utah and Northern Railway reached Camas on July 3, 1879, bringing with it a new wave of settlement, particularly at Camas and Market Lake.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Utah Northern|journal=The Commercial and Financial Chronicle|date=July 26, 1879|volume=29|issue=735|page=96|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEitgzLHLccC&q=Camas+Idaho+Utah+and+Northern+Railway&pg=PA96|access-date=February 21, 2017}}</ref> Mormon settlement of the county began when John R Poole settled the Menan area in April 1879 with the settlement initially named Poole's Island. Settlement followed at Lewisville in 1882, Rigby in 1883 and Ririe in 1888. The Camas and Market Lake precincts are the first to emerge in census data under Bingham County in 1890. At that point, 379 residents were enumerated in the Camas precinct and Market Lake counted 218.<ref>{{cite book|title=Report on Population of the United States, at the Eleventh Census: 1890|date=1895|publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington|page=99|url=http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1890a_v1-01.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051108174600/http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1890a_v1-01.pdf |archive-date=November 8, 2005 |url-status=live|access-date=February 21, 2017}}</ref> By the 1900 census, precincts were added for Lewisville, Menan, Rigby, and Rudy (located between Ririe and Rigby). Together with Camas and Market Lake precincts, they contained a population of 3,046.<ref>{{cite book|title=Census Reports Volume I: Twelfth Census of the United States, Taken in the Year 1900|date=1901|publisher=United States Census Office|location=Washington|page=112|url=http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/33405927v1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150914182802/http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/33405927v1.pdf |archive-date=September 14, 2015 |url-status=live|access-date=February 21, 2017}}</ref> By 1910 there were 10 precincts that would become part of Jefferson County three years later with additional precincts added for Grant, Hamer, Labelle, and Lorenzo. The 1910 census population for those precincts was 5,535.<ref>{{cite book|title=Thirteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1910|date=1913|publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington|pages=415–416|url=http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/36894832v2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912170833/http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/36894832v2.pdf |archive-date=September 12, 2015 |url-status=live|access-date=February 21, 2017}}</ref>

A common characteristic of Jefferson County's early settlements was their reliance upon a series of canals to deliver water from the Snake River. The first of these systems commenced at Menan in 1880 with construction of the Long Island Canal. The Butte-Market Lake Canal originated in 1884 with construction starting on the big Feeder Canal in 1895. The Owlsey Canal in western Jefferson County had its origins April 13, 1909.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Scott|first1=Patricia Lyn and Marjory|title=Images of America: Jefferson County|date=2009|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|location=Charleston|pages=12, 15, 17, 21, 25–27, 29}}</ref>

At the time of the first settlement in 1864, the territory east of the Snake River was part of Oneida County with the remainder being part of Alturas County. Mud Lake became the defining point for Oneida County's boundary with Alturas County in 1877 with a portion of the western boundary changed to a line drawn north from a point on the Snake River due south of the "sink of Camas Creek".<ref>{{cite book|title=General Laws of the Territory of Idaho, Ninth Session: An Act Defining the Boundary Line Between Alturas and Oneida Counties|date=1877|publisher=Milton Kelly, Territorial Printer|location=Boise City|pages=90–91|url=http://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qae4LqUR18F21iBfD0PN6LGAWYHYLr2li1F63CE-aCa3h__3smzwlRlHPcG_WlS6eVYecLDVOTwN7v3jZxZcFKJZQ4Ddr7Aa4yMcA-HUpKkvJ5EKFd6CXqMGSTWjwNyyZW7uc2qgH_D1Eiht8Cj5L8q2422TBMCGr1oLVt28cioExGWZtXizVOFSFvkAlBMcQvUfpgJuJAFF534fGAgP4s73-CzNCl0MrCxB84GZ703PuQzU6zDzWRIA2gyS1mLKm0mkDXe_-LKNtoLU33MoOYeTVZXIRubSq7EtfnNo3YbwP5GayRY|access-date=February 21, 2017}}</ref> The change transferred settlements at Camas and Market Lake to Oneida County. Bingham County was created in 1885 from Oneida County with no change in the boundary of Alturas until 1889 when the rest of the Mud Lake area was transferred to Bingham County. All of present Jefferson County became part of Fremont at its creation in 1893. After its creation in 1913, Jefferson County quickly took its present shape in 1917 at the formation of Butte County.<ref>{{cite book|title=Idaho Atlas of Historical County Boundaries|date=2010|publisher=The Newberry Library|location=Chicago|pages=12, 26–27, 87, 115–116, 162}}</ref>

Census data indicates Lewisville became the county's first incorporated village in 1904. It was followed by Rigby in 1906, Menan in 1907 and Roberts in 1910. Ririe was incorporated by 1920 with Hamer and Mud Lake incorporated after 1950.
      
===Adjacent counties===
* [[Clark County, Idaho|Clark County]] - north
* [[Fremont County, Idaho|Fremont County]] - northeast
* [[Madison County, Idaho|Madison County]] - east
* [[Bonneville County, Idaho|Bonneville County]] - south
* [[Bingham County, Idaho|Bingham County]] - southwest
* [[Butte County, Idaho|Butte County]] - west

===Major highways===
*[[Image:I-15.svg|20px]] [[Interstate 15 in Idaho|Interstate 15]]
*[[Image:US 20.svg|20px]] [[U.S. Route 20 in Idaho|US 20]]
*[[Image:ID-22.svg|20px]] [[Idaho State Highway 22|SH-22]]
*[[Image:ID-28.svg|20px]] [[Idaho State Highway 28|SH-28]]
*[[Image:ID-33.svg|20px]] [[Idaho State Highway 33|SH-33]]
*[[Image:ID-48.svg|20px]] [[Idaho State Highway 48|SH-48]]

===National protected area===
* [[Camas National Wildlife Refuge]]
* [[Targhee National Forest]] (part)