Glenns Ferry: The Most Dangerous Crossing

For generations of Oregon Trail emigrants, the Snake River at Three Island Crossing was the most dreaded decision point in Idaho. The south bank route ahead was brutally dry and rocky. The crossing itself, using gravel bars that extended between three islands, was swift and unpredictable.

Pioneer diaries record wagons swept away, livestock drowned, families lost. Many emigrants tried it anyway. They forded here until eighteen sixty-nine, when a freighter named Gustavus Glenn built a ferry two miles upstream to move goods and people more safely.

The town that grew around the landing took his name, though the apostrophe was dropped. In eighteen eighty-three the Oregon Short Line Railroad arrived, giving Glenns Ferry its first steady employer. Today Three Island Crossing State Park preserves the crossing site, and each August the town holds a reenactment of the ford.