Just Once or Twice . . .

Reading in "Captain Bonneville's County," a history of Bonneville County written in 1963. They share this tidbit from 1879:

Once or twice a summer a bitter three-day wind howls up the valley. Contrary gusts pick up the sharp sand and backlash it in mockery. The cottonwood trees and the willows bend low, as if turning their backs to the chill. The whole landscape is grey and cowering, and, summer or not, the air is raw.

From a journal written ty Tomas Moran, famed artist who painted Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons in the era:

"August 21, 1879. Left Fort Hall with Captain A.H. Bainbridge and 20 men 2 wagons on way to Taylor bridge. Reached Taylors Brfidge [Idaho Falls] later in the afternoon 27 miles desolation. Abandoned town, railroad bridge over the Snake. Andersons store. Dismal camp. Furious wind all night. Driven sand everywhere almost blinding. Gray dismal morning. Black basalt abomination. Rushing river like Niagara Rapids.

"August 22. Left camp at Taylor's Bridge at 7 o'clock. Cold and windy with dust following and blinding us all the way."

We now have a thunderstorm blowing in, and that wind, which comes only "once or twice a summer" is here.

Good to hear more than a century and a half of settlement and growth hasn't stopped the wind from blowing.