Miscellaneous newspaper articles for Minidoka County Idaho

September 25, 1906
Idaho Falls Times
Minidoka County Badly Scorched
The town of Minidoka suffered a disastrous fire on Friday, the biggest part of the business section being destroyed, entailing a loss of about $50,000 with insurance to cover only a small part of the loss. Among the buildings destroyed are Ward's hotel and saloon, the Burroughs store and residence, Reed's saloon, Fee's saloon, Oliver hotel, Rizza's residence, Eagle club building, Main street livery and a number of smaller buildings. It will be a sad loss to the town. (Transcribed by C. Anthony)

July 16, 1917
Idaho Statesman
Three Drown In Minidoka Main Canal
Hiram Davies, Wife and Son Lose Lives When Car Gets Beyond Control.
R. S. Houghton and Family Narrowly Escape Death
(Special Dispatch) Rupert, Ida.--Hiram Davies, wife and young son were drowned, and R. S. Houghton, wife and two children narroly escaped death Wednesday morning when a car driven by Davies ran into the Minidoka canal about eight miles northeast of Rupert.
Davies and the party were on the way to the Minidoka dam for a day's fishing. While driving along the roadway on top of the main canal bank Davies, who was driving, lost control of the car, and it ran over the bank into the canal. The care remained upright, and Houghton placed his wife and one child on the top, and running down stream about 30 feet, rescued his other child, later taking them all out safely.
Davies, his wife and boy were drowned. Although every effort was made during the day to recover the bodies, not a trace of any of them was found.
Davies was about 40 years of age, and with his family resided in Rupert. Four other children, all under 14 years of age, are left parentless by the accident. (Transcribed by C. Anthony)

MINIDOKA, Sept. 21. – A disastrous fire swept Minidoka last night causing a loss estimated at $25,000. The insurance is very small. The fire started in the Overland hotel and swept the west end of the town clean. Every effort possible was made to stop the spread of the flames without avail, the scarcity of water being the great handicap. The alarm was given at 10:30 and in a very short time the entire west end of town was in ruins and the flames had died down because of lack of material upon which to feed. A partial list of the losses in the burned district follows:
Burroughs’ Mercantile company, store building, stock of goods, warehouse, residence of Mr. Burroughs and barn.
Cotton’s store, residence and barn.
Vaughn’s livery and feed stable.
Ward’s saloon and residence.
Peterson’s saloon.
Minidoka Hardware company’s store and residence of the proprietor.
Delli See’s saloon.
King’s saloon.
George Reed’s saloon.
Shephard’s lodging house.
Rizzi’s residence.
A number of small residences and other buildings were destroyed. It is not known how the fire originated.
Source: Idaho Statesman - September 22, 1906
Submitted by Marla Zwakman

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