Jerome: The Carey Act Colony
Near Twin Falls, Idaho
Jerome did not grow organically. It was built in nineteen oh seven as a planned irrigation colony under the federal Carey Act, which let private companies reclaim arid western land by building canal systems and then selling water rights to settlers. The North Side Twin Falls Canal Company developed the townsite, naming the new city, by most accounts, for Jerome Hill, a developer of the North Side irrigation project.
The canals eventually watered a large area on what became known as the North Side Tract. Jerome grew quickly once irrigation transformed the Snake River Plain's dry volcanic soil into productive farmland, and it was incorporated as a village in nineteen oh nine. The county seat of Jerome County, it sits about ten miles from Twin Falls and remains an agricultural hub for the Magic Valley.
