Pioneer family celebrates 151 Years in Idaho with guided tours

FIRTH, Idaho (KIFI) - On Sunday, the descendants of Nels and Emma Just are celebrating the anniversary year of the Justs moving into the Blackfoot River Valley with an open house for the public.

From 1 to 4 p.m., visitors can take tours of the brick house the Justs built in 1887 and hear their pioneer story. The Just home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. The tours are free and refreshments will be available.

The family planned a sesquicentennial celebration last year, but plans were canceled due to the pandemic.

In 1870, wagon freighter Nels Just woke up along the Snake River somewhere near present-day Firth to find that his team of oxen had wandered away in the night. He tracked them a few miles southeast and found them grazing in a little secluded valley along the Blackfoot River. Nels decided right then that he would come back some day and settle in that valley.

In November of that same year, he brought his new bride to live there in a dugout that used a buffalo robe for a door. 151 years later, their descendants still live and work in that valley. 

Details and directions to the celebration can be found at prestopreservation.com.