In 1864, a stage line driver named Matt Taylor and two associates decided Black Rock Canyon was the place for a toll bridge to handle traffic to and from Montana. The following year, their bridge opened and a town called Eagle Rock took shape. With the coming of the railroad, trains brought everyone from saloon keeper Dick Chamberlain to temperance crusader Rebecca Mitchell. To project a more genteel air, Eagle Rock became Idaho Falls in 1891. Joseph Clark, the first mayor, and newspaper publisher William Wheeler were just two of the people who helped pave the streets and turn on the lights. After assiduous wooing by boosters such as Bill Holden, D.V. Groberg, and E.F. McDermott, the Atomic Energy Commission in 1949 chose Idaho Falls for the headquarters of its National Reactor Testing Station. Today, Idaho Falls is a vital trading and service center with two hospitals, a professional baseball team, symphony orchestra, and world-class museum. It is also the hometown of some remarkable people who have gone out in the world to make names for themselves.
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