Chapter History
Now located in Idaho Falls, the Old Fort Hall Chapter, NSDAR, was organized in Blackfoot on November 7, 1925. The chapter met in Blackfoot until it relocated to Idaho Falls in 1981.
The chapter was named for historic Fort Hall, located near the junction of the Blackfoot and Portneuf Rivers in a shaded bottomland - long a gathering place for the Shoshone-Bannock Indians. Construction started on a rough log cabin in 1834 by Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth and his band of seventy men. Their goal was to establish a center for fur trading with the Native Americans.
To quote emigrant Osborne Russell:
"On the fourth of August, the fort was completed. And on the fifth the Stars and Stripes were unfurled to the breeze at sunrise, in the center of a savage and uncivilized country over an American trading post."
The flag was homemade and its rising was accompanied by a salvo of gunfire which signaled the beginning of the history of Fort Hall. The fort served as an important stop on the California and Oregon trails for many years. It was later sold to the Hudson's Bay Company and eventually abandoned. The site of the fort is on the Shoshone-Bannock Indian Reservation and not accessible to the public.
Old Fort Hall Chapter, NSDAR, respects and honors our history while being actively involved in the events of today, and constantly looking towards improving the future.
Now located in Idaho Falls, the Old Fort Hall Chapter, NSDAR, was organized in Blackfoot on November 7, 1925. The chapter met in Blackfoot until it relocated to Idaho Falls in 1981.
The chapter was named for historic Fort Hall, located near the junction of the Blackfoot and Portneuf Rivers in a shaded bottomland - long a gathering place for the Shoshone-Bannock Indians. Construction started on a rough log cabin in 1834 by Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth and his band of seventy men. Their goal was to establish a center for fur trading with the Native Americans.
To quote emigrant Osborne Russell:
"On the fourth of August, the fort was completed. And on the fifth the Stars and Stripes were unfurled to the breeze at sunrise, in the center of a savage and uncivilized country over an American trading post."
The flag was homemade and its rising was accompanied by a salvo of gunfire which signaled the beginning of the history of Fort Hall. The fort served as an important stop on the California and Oregon trails for many years. It was later sold to the Hudson's Bay Company and eventually abandoned. The site of the fort is on the Shoshone-Bannock Indian Reservation and not accessible to the public.
Old Fort Hall Chapter, NSDAR, respects and honors our history while being actively involved in the events of today, and constantly looking towards improving the future.
The content contained herein does not necessarily represent the position of the NSDAR. Hyperlinks to other sites are not the responsibility of the NSDAR, the state organizations, or individual DAR chapters.