Founding of Shelley

The town of Shelley owes both its existence and its name to one determined settler. In eighteen ninety-two, John F. Shelley came to this stretch of Idaho and opened a small general store.

As the story goes, when he needed the railroad to make a special stop to drop his building supplies, the railroad agreed, but told him to unload in under twenty minutes, and added that they had already named the rail spur after him. He could call the town whatever he liked, but the spur was Shelley. The name stuck.

The town was formally established in nineteen oh four.