Fremont County- Eastern Idaho: Outdoor Adventure and Potato Country

I made it over to Teton and Fremont Counties for a work trip at the end of August. We spent the first few days in Driggs and Victor meeting with CVI Action Fund donors and working with county commission candidates Kathy Rinaldi and Bob Benedict. Everyone we met with were very interesting and pleasant people doing great work and of course the landscape was spectacular.  The Teton Mountains and bucolic nature of the Teton Valley are enough to understand why so many outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers are living in the area.  The demographics in the county now are such that new approaches to growth and other issues are being sought and implemented by smart progressive leaders in the communities.  It’s one if Idaho’s truly Blue counties, but is surrounded by some of the reddest of red counties.

After our political work in Teton County was finished we headed up to Fremont County and into the rolling, fertile hills where they grow so many seed potatoes, wheat and other crops and have for generations.  We were meeting with Chan Atchley who is the director of the Smart Growth Coalition, a group based in Ashton that is focussed on watchdogging the county commission and other policy makers with an eye to preserving the environment and feel of Fremont County.  The county borders Yellowstone National Park and sits in the northern corner of eastern Idaho only a short distance from spectacular Upper and Lower Mesa Falls on the Henry’s Fork river.  Many people know Fremont County because of it’s world class trout fishing on the Henry’s Fork or the snowmobiling mecca of Island Park. After robust policy and political discussions with Smart Growth Coalition and a bit of organizational development planning (with lot’s of family history story time interspersed) we headed up to the cemetary on the Atchley’s property for a brief 360 view of the area.

~ by c4hair on October 2, 2008.