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Hudspeth Cutoff
Mountain Man Bob Dempsey
Lava Hot Springs and the Portneuf River
Map
of the Lava Hot Springs area.
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| Chapter 13: Hudspeth Cutoff Mountain Man Bob Dempsey Lava Hot Springs and the Portneuf River |
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Map
of the Lava Hot Springs area.
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| Lava Hot Springs railroad depot, about 1920. The depot is now used, in two pieces, as a farmhouse and a shed, north of U.S. Highway30 west of Lava Hot Springs. Clifford Peake collection, Bannock County Historical Society. |
Hudspeth
Cutoff
The Hudspeth
Cutoff, after climbing high over the Portneuf Range south of the Portneuf River,
wound down through Henderson Canyon and what is now the Lava Hot Springs golf
course, to the river at a hill of Silurian dolomite known as Island Butte. The
river formerly passed south of the Butte, but now flows only on the north
side except in large floods. The dry channel can be seen from Highway 30. The
Cutoff then headed up a small canyon south of the river and down into what became
the rail station of Oneida and now is Arimo. From there it struck out west across
Marsh Valley, crossing the Bannock Range south of Garden Creek Gap. Although
this part of the Cutoff gained and lost considerable elevation, it was, at least,
well-watered. The same cannot be said for the Cutoff west of the Bannock Range.