History Corner

Bacon Creek runs west from Mesa to join the Weiser River. Goodrich Creek flows down to the Weiser River from the southern foot of Cuddy Mountain and enters the Weiser River upstream from the mouth of Bacon Creek. Settlement at the mouth of Goodrich Creek is where a store, post office and school once formed the center of a community called Goodrich.

In 1890 a petition was presented to the County Commissioners to build a road from the Middle Fork of the Weiser through “Bacon Valley” to Salubria. Evidently this was a name for the general area we now call Goodrich. Both names (Bacon Valley and Bacon Creek) came from Andrew J. Bacon who was an early settler in that vicinity. Bacon died in 1900 at the Soldiers’ Home in Boise.

When you drive out Goodrich Road, if you go straight instead of going to the right (north) up over the hill to “downtown” Goodrich, after a short distance there is a small hill that sits alone in the valley. What remains of Andy Bacon’s cellar is still visible on the east side of that hill.

The road mentioned above in 1890 was built at some point, and today one can drive all the way through to Cambridge. When it was built, Indian Valley people feared the Bacon Valley road would cut their community off from the flow of traffic and hurt business.

Some of the early settlers at Goodrich were Mr. and Mrs. John Rosti, who came here from Switzerland. John wrote home to his nephew, Adolph Grossen, and persuaded him to come to America in 1899. “Grossen Canyon” just northeast of Council is so named because the Grossens homesteaded there. After Adolph Grossen came to the Council area, he wrote to Abraham and Anna Schmid and their son, Alfred, and persuaded them to come to Goodrich in 1900. Another early settler was Earl Gallant who arrived in 1909. Earl married Abraham and Anna Schmid’s daughter, Freida, in 1914.

As the Pacific & Idaho Northern Railroad was being built up the Weiser River in 1899, the company put a sawmill at Goodrich, almost certainly to produce ties for the line’s construction. Late that fall the Signal reported: “The Richardson & Bates Bros. Sawmill has been removed from Goodrich Creek to a point twelve miles above Council.” Whether this was the famous sawmill man, Steve Richardson, I don’t know. And it is unclear whether this had anything to do with the railroad mill.

The P&IN eventually installed a section house (1902), a tool house, 12’ X 12’ shelter shed (1915), a 128 sq. ft. platform, a big wooden water tank, stockyards (1903), a bunk house and a three-car siding (just big enough for the Galloping Goose to get off the main line to let freight trains pass).

In the early 1900s, Goodrich had a baseball team, and its own “orchestra” that played all around the Council area.

Goodrich School

Sometime around 1910 the community had enough families to warrant a school. Adams County School Superintendent J.D. Neale said in his 1911 report,that the building cost $1,000. It was designated as District No. 45. Neale described the school: “Has the a modern, new, one-room school building, built on the same plan as the new buildings and districts 2 and 3, has purchased a supply of single seats, has cleaned the yard and build a new fence around the school premises, has good window curtains, voted a heavy special tax and a bond for building and equipping the new school house, and has shown a great interest in school affairs in that community. All have taken much pride in building this new building, and the building was well built and completed in every way. Well painted, plastered, flag and pole, new stove.”

By 1912 there were 20 students in attendance. Near the school was a “teacherage” for the teacher to live in, and a barn for students’ horses.

The school was used for all sorts of social gatherings. In 1915 it was designated as the official voting place for folks in the Goodrich precinct.

In the P&IN book I said a new Goodrich School was built in 1915, but I’ve discovered that this was based on a mistake in the Council Leader newspaper. The paper said bids were being taken for a new school at “Goodrich, Dist. 12,” but Dist. 12 was the Bacon Creek school, so I’m pretty sure the new school was being built at Bacon Creek that year. The concrete foundation of the Bacon Creek School is still there, just south of the Goodrich Road where the road first reaches Bacon Creek (going west).

About 1941 school districts in Adams County started to consolidate. The Bacon Gulch School District was made part of the Goodrich District.

In 1956, most area school districts, including Goodrich, were reorganized into a new district: District B-13 at Council. After that, Goodrich children were bused to Council.

In 2021, a group called “Friends of the Goodrich Schoolhouse” formed and took over management of the property. They are working toward preserving and restoring the old school.

Next week: the Goodrich store / post office and more.

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