Woman, library looking for long-lost neighborhood

In her kitchen, Dolores Face pulls out a pile of papers from a manila envelope. The contents of the pile include newspaper clippings, old school photos and even a poem from a child she helped when she was a nurse.

There seems to be a lot in there, but there’s something missing for Face: her time in Pocatello’s old neighborhood Cupetville.

Face is currently working on a scrapbook of her life. As she continued to collect items for it, she realized she had nothing of the long-lost neighborhood.

“I was just thinking here about my life because I’m 86-years-old and I wanted to make sure my mind was still working,” Face said. “I just wanted to go as far back as I could.”

To find more information, she called the Marshall Public Library for help, but all that could be found was an Idaho State Journal article from March 1967. In the article, titled “Clearing River Sewage Cited As 1966 Gain by Sanitarian,” Cupetville is only referenced once with no other information.

Face remembers playing in Cupetville as a girl in the 1930s, recalling swinging on wooden rails.

Trent Clegg, Marshall Public Library’s reference specialist, is now trying to find out more about the neighborhood. For him, it’ll help share what Pocatello is.

“Preserving these pieces of history can help us explain why we are, where we are, and that can help us figure out where we need to go,” Clegg said.

For Face, she’s hoping to add more memories to her pile.

“They’re not important to anybody else, but they’re important to me,” she said.

The exact location of Cupetville is unknown. Face remembers it being between Hawthorne Road and Pole Line Road. However, Clegg said someone he spoke to remembers it stretching out west to Kraft Road.

To contact Clegg with information about Cupetville, you can call the Marshall Public Library at 208-232-1263. You can also email them at ref@marshallpl.org.