Ira Perrine and the Twin Falls Townsite
Near Twin Falls, Idaho
Twin Falls did not grow organically. It was invented. Ira Perrine, a fruit grower who had settled in the Snake River Canyon bottom land in the eighteen eighties, spent more than a decade trying to convince investors that the desert above could be farmed if only someone would build a big enough canal.
He finally succeeded, forming the Twin Falls Land and Water Company in nineteen hundred and drawing capital from Salt Lake City and the Midwest. The town of Twin Falls was founded in nineteen oh four, a year before the dam that would make it viable was finished. Lots were sold by mail to settlers across the country sight unseen.
When the water arrived in nineteen oh five, farmers were already waiting. Perrine is memorialized today in the bridge name that spans the canyon at the north end of town, a tribute to the man who looked at nearly five hundred feet of basalt cliff and decided the answer was to get the water up there somehow.
