Rigby family receives Century Farm recognition

Over 100 years ago, members of the Rigby family made their way into the southern parts of Idaho and started to farm.

Today, dozens of family members gathered at the family farmhouse on the road the bears the Rigby name.

Because the wheat farm has been part of the family since 1910, it was recognized by the state’s historical society as a Century Farm.

An occasion of the sort brought family members back to Bancroft to celebrate and remember the years they had spent there.

For brothers Bert, Bart and Mark Rigby, bologna sandwiches bring back fond memories.

“Bologna sandwiches, in the dirt, beside a grain truck, in the shade of a grain truck,” Mark said with his brothers nodding in approval.

Things like go-cart races, pipe wars and other “character-building activities” came back to the family as they reminisced Wednesday.

“Every one of us,” Mark said, “I think would, the memory of learning to drive. We learned to drive in the fields and maybe on the roads too.”

Their 87-year-old mother, Bonnie, remembered her husband, Max, taking the kids out into the fields.

“He would tell them ‘if anything goes wrong, just shut they key off.'”

Photographs and memories are bound to be found on all the more than 400 Century Farms in Idaho. But recently, fewer and fewer have been getting the designation in southeastern Idaho.

Jim Johnston, a trustee with the Idaho State Historical Society, said that only two farms in the region have been recognized in the last decade.

“It’s absolutely incredible to see a family farm still exist,” Johnston said. “We are proud of the Rigby family.”

A feeling that was echoed by Celia Gould, Director of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.

“A family like this is critical to Idaho agriculture,” Gould said.

“Our ag history is rich it’s what made our state, is our ag background, and what you think of what these folks and their ancestors went through to keep a family farm in the family for more than 100 years, it’s kind of mind-boggling, quite frankly.”

The family is grateful for the honor, recognizing how few families there really are like theirs.

“To know that you’re being recognized for land being in the family for a century, you know. It just doesn’t happen like that,” Bret said.

“To keep a farm going for so long is obviously harder and harder, but nearly possible, I think, moving forward,” Mark added.

Generations of Rigby’s have grown up on the farm, and although most of the family resides in Utah, they try to get back as often as they can.

“Driving home, at the end of whatever, whether it’s been a week, a summer or a day, everybody just says to each other ‘we’re tired, we’re old, our backs are hurting,’ but everybody always just has said ‘well, that was fun,'” Mark said.