Humphrey, Idaho on the Union Pacific Railroad's Montana Subdivision
Humphrey, Idaho, is a ghost town.
In 1902, Humphrey was the site of Patt Ranch, where the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) built a dam and ice pond along the early Utah & Northern route. Workers harvested up to 31,000 tons of ice a year that were loaded onto trains and carried south to the Pocatello ice house. Used on passenger cars, to keep produce fresh, or in the commissaries and dining establishments along the rail line, the ice was of such high quality that the UPRR continued to harvest ice from Humphrey until World War II. When the ice harvest was discontinued, the dam that once flooded the ice pond deteriorated.[1] Humphrey, which supported a population of between 30 and 60 people, became little more than a signpost on Interstate 15. In 1957, the modest Humphrey Depot, built in 1901, was demolished. Today the former railroad construction camp has but a few abandoned buildings, including an imposing wooden school house.
Though changes in Humphrey obscured the legacy of the UPRR, some artifacts remain. Along a private stretch of rail hangs a wooden sign that reads "Paymaster Tree." In the late nineteenth century, maintenance crews, who lived every few miles alongside the rail line to keep sections in good repair, would gather at the tree. The sign marks the general spot where the UPRR's Paymaster distributed wages in gold and silver coins from his private rail car.[2]
Near that sign, two stone culverts convey Beaver Creek under the UPRR railroad grade. Carved stones read "1899" and "1900," denoting the years the culverts were constructed. Remnants of a beautification effort launched after the UPRR was rescued from bankruptcy following the economic panic of 1893, the culverts, like the Paymaster's Tree and the ghost town of Humphrey, are hidden artifacts of Idaho's colorful railroad history.[3]
Related Sites along the Union Pacific Railroad:
Dillon Depot, on the Union Pacific Railroad's Montana Division
Idaho Falls, on the Union Pacific Railroad's Montana Subdivision
Southern Terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad's Montana Subdivision, Pocatello, Idaho
Northern Terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad's Montana Subdivision, Silver Bow, MT
Credits and Sources:
[1] Thornton Waite, Union Pacific: Montana Division, Route of the Butte Special, (Idaho Falls: Brueggenjohann/reese & Thornton Waite, 1998), 141.
[2] Thornton Waite, Union Pacific: Montana Division, Route of the Butte Special, (Idaho Falls: Brueggenjohann/reese & Thornton Waite, 1998), 140.
[3] Union Pacific Railroad Company, “The Annual Report for the Year Ended June 30, 1900,” Reports and Documents, Commercial and Financial Chronicle 71, (National News Service, 1900): 968.
