Mini Cassia Heritage Hub

07/31/2026

John Blyth was an early sheepherder in our area. He came from Scotland to work for a sheep company near Oakley in 1880 and eventually became a very wealthy sheepman with his home place in Yost. He was caught up in the Sheepmen-Cattlemen wars. We tend to think of the conflict as more centered in Oakley and the areas to the west of there, but there were a lot of skirmishes in other parts of Cassia County. John was attacked by a notorious cowboy and lived to tell about it. Here is the story from the local newspaper in 1931.

07/31/2026

Sorry it has been so long since I posted on our Heritage Hub page! We are still gathering history and stories about our area and hope you will share your stories and pictures with us! If you haven’t visited the site already, please check out minicassiaheritagehub.com and discoverheritagehub.com. The sites are connected but the first one is a direct link to our local history and information. Lots of fun things and more to come. We have found out a lot about our valley and area that we didn’t know and will be sharing. Try listening to some of our heritage hub you tube recordings. They aren’t professional but they are fun. Some
of the people aren’t with us now so it is especially fun to hear their voices again. Stay tuned for more of our heritage and history!!!!

Facebook YouTube Blog Almo, Idaho Genealogy by Jan About Mini-Cassia The Mini-Cassia area of south central Idaho is rarely described on maps or legal documents. "Mini-Cassia" combines Southern Idaho's Minidoka and Cassia counties into a portmandeau-a phrase that combines two words into another uniqu...

02/09/2026

02/04/2026

These are the photos I was looking for! I had such a great time traveling all over the valley, over to Moulton and Kelton and so many other places with these four good men. As soon as I can figure out how to post the audio on you tube, I will put up some of their recordings. The Castle Rocks are in the background. On this day, we were looking for the Robert Eames Homestead just to the northeast of this spot. His brothers, Henry and Will, also came to the valley. They bought the Jones and Ward store that had just been started and shortly moved the location to the present site of the Tracy General Store. The Taylor family owned property on both sides of this road. Earl Taylor's house is just ahead and to the left in the photo was Herman Taylor's home. They built nice sturdy brick homes, two of which are still in use. Now these men are gone, except for Stan, who is in his 90's.

02/03/2026

The McCaskey Bill Holder at the Tracy General Store is a priceless treasure. It held the monthly charges for the customers. There is a list on the Case that shows the names of everyone who had a charge account at the store. Many of the families couldn't survive the drought and had to leave, but they are still remembered here!

02/03/2026

The Tracy General Store was started in 1894. The history of the store is an important link in the history of the Almo Valley.

01/31/2026

I can't find the photo I was looking for so this will have to do for now. Years ago, Stan Lloyd took me, Jim Sheridan, Olen Eames and Jim Lloyd on jaunts around the area. Stan was in his 70's then and the others were into their 90's. I have some great stories recorded as they remembered people and places of long ago. In the last post, I mentioned that the Moon family owned the land that had been the City of Rocks stage station. Jim Lloyd had a very quick dry wit, a slow drawl and always had a story. Very often it would take me several minutes before I got his joke. He had known the Moon family when he was a little boy and was out herding his family sheep. In his characteristic way, he remembered the Moons in a story. "Once I saw a half Moon (a stepson), Once I saw a Harvest Moon (bringing in the crop), And once I saw a Full Moon (had a little too much to drink)." The Moon family raised a huge flock of turkeys and they would butcher them and stuff the carcasses in the snow until they could get them to town to sell them at Thanksgiving. He remembered seeing the family bringing Mr. Moon's casket to the cemetery (I think at Moulton). We don't understand how hard the realities of life were back then. Another trip prompted him to tell about the Indians coming back from the Fort Hall Reservation in the fall to hunt and to gather pine nuts. Again, he was herding sheep, a little boy out alone for weeks. The Indian family invited him to eat supper with them. Jim said that they were roasting a porcupine over the coals and he ate it with them. "When my folks asked me how the porcupine tasted, I told them it was a little sharp." It was quite a while before I started to chuckle. I did enjoy his sense of humor and can still hear his slow drawl. I will be posting some of the audio recordings of those trips and others on you tube and will alert you here. There are recordings there already at Mini Cassia Heritage Hub with the trip to Kelton and some of our monthly Heritage Hub meetings.

01/19/2026

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted on our Heritage Hub page. But the good news is that we have good news! I have been working with Jack Johnson, owner of Discover Area Guides. Jack sells advertising in his tourism booklets that he distributes throughout the area. He and Colby Otte of Breakpoint Media in Burley have put together a really fantastic website featuring the local history as well as giving information about the features and amenities in each community.

The website is www.minicassiaheritagehub.com and it gives access to this page, our Blogspot, and You Tube recordings of our area. We will soon be adding access to our Google Docs. We have a lot to do, but there is an amazing amount of information already on the website. And Jack has a sister website at discoverheritagehub.com, That website contains access to history and information of all the counties on each side of the Idaho/Utah border. It is amazing!

We invite you to check out the websites and see what is there. And we would love to have you share the information, stories, pictures, etc. that you have. Colby is working on that feature now.

I plan to use this page to alert you to when we have new information posted on the Heritage Hub website. Stay Tuned!!!!

Picture is from the location of the old Stage Station near the City of Rocks. The Twin Sisters are in the background. Stan Lloyd and others indicated that the Moon family used the logs from the stage station for buildings on their homestead.

05/07/2025

Join us for Heritage Hub Thursday May 8, 2025 at the Almo Ward Building at 7 pm!

Is the story of the Almo Massacre part of your family tradition?!? It is ours! But now it is considered by many to be merely a legend or an untruth. Kent and Janis Durfee have a lot of stories and sources to prove that something significant happened in the valley in 1862 that became known to our ancestors as the Almo Massacre. Myron Bushnell Durfee, one of the first settlers here in 1878, was on the rescue party and came here to settle years later. That is just one bit of evidence that there was an "Almo Massacre".

The photograph is of Willard Duane Cranney who later settled in Oakley. He and his father came West with the doomed party of settlers, leaving them around Fort Hall to go to Salt Lake City. He wrote in his journal, marveling that he and his father weren't part of that attack.

Join us for an evening of history, visiting, and friendship!
Audio will be posted at www.minicassiaheritagehub.com