Indigenous tribes Shoshone and
Bannock Indigenous tribes inhabited southeastern
Idaho for hundreds of years before the
Lewis and Clark Expedition across
Idaho in 1805. The expedition's reports of the many riches of the region attracted fur trappers and traders to southeastern Idaho. The city is named after
Chief Pocatello, a 19th-century
Northern Shoshone leader.
Permanent settlements Nathaniel Wyeth of
Massachusetts established one of the first permanent settlements at
Fort Hall in 1834, which is only a few miles northeast of Pocatello. When over-trapping and a shift in fashion to silk hats put an end to the fur trade,
Fort Hall became a supply point for immigrants traveling the
Oregon Trail. Although thousands of immigrants passed through
Idaho, it was not until the discovery of gold in 1860 that Idaho attracted settlers in large numbers. The gold rush brought a need for goods and services to many towns, and the
Portneuf Valley, home of Pocatello, was the corridor initially used by stage and freight lines. The coming of the railroad provided further development of Idaho's mineral resources and "Pocatello junction" became an important transportation crossroads as the
Union Pacific Railroad expanded its service.
Gate City After its founding in 1889, Pocatello became known as the "Gate City" for being a gateway to Idaho and the Pacific Northwest. As pioneers, gold miners and settlers traveled the
Oregon Trail, they passed through the Portneuf Gap south of town. Stage and freight lines and the railroad soon followed, turning the community into a trade center and transportation junction.
Gold rush and agriculture After the
gold rush played out, the settlers who remained turned to agriculture. With the help of irrigation from the nearby
Snake River, the region became a large supplier of potatoes, grain and other crops. Residential and commercial development gradually appeared by 1882.
Alameda consolidation The adjacent city of
Alameda was consolidated into Pocatello in 1962,
Chubbuck, further north, opposed a similar merger and remained a separate municipality. After a 2015
TED Talk by
Roman Mars made Pocatello's flag infamous, the city's newly created flag design committee met for the first time in April 2016, with Mars in attendance. On July 20, 2017, after a year and a half of work by the flag committee, the Pocatello City Council approved the adoption of a new flag with the informal name of "Mountains Left" out of a total of 709 designs. ==Geography==