check out history - Ashton, ID. | WikiXM

Beginning in 1910, Ashton was the railhead used for the construction of Jackson Lake Dam in Grand Teton National Park by the Bureau of Reclamation. For several years, materials and equipment were freighted by wagon from the Reclamation Building in Ashton to the dam site at Moran, Wyoming on what was known as the Ashton-Moran Road or Reclamation Road, as the locals called it, that ran 56 miles (90 km) over the north end of the Teton Range.

Union Pacific then built the Teton Valley Branch railroad to Driggs and Victor from Ashton and completed in 1912. They built an engine house and other railroad facilities in Ashton to service the Teton Valley Branch and the Yellowstone Branch. These and further developments in the area soon made Ashton prosper and become one of the more important towns in Eastern Idaho. American Dog Derby Ashton, being at the head of the Snake River Plain and at the end of the Yellowstone moisture channel, has 20 inches of precipitation annually (according to usclimatedata.com).

Not as much snow as the typical ski town in Colorado as Crested Butte gets over 40 inches in January alone (according to usclimatedata.com). See "Effects on Climate" in article "Snake River Plain"). Ashton was also the wintertime rail terminus for the region and where there was considerable development in the higher country north and east of Ashton, there arose a need for wintertime travel to the snowbound areas around Ashton.

People began using the only wintertime transportation available at the time...dogsled. There became several accomplished mushers in the area whose livelihood became their dog teams. The many mushers, dog teams and their abilities were fun topics of conversation and it was not long before a race was organized that, by fate, would become the world-famous American Dog Derby. The legend goes that a few of the boys were socializing in the barbershop one quiet winter day when Jay Ball, a beloved Ashton businessman, hatched his idea of a dog race after reading about dog races held in Alaska and Canada.

The idea resonated with local mushers and businessmen alike and the first race, a simple 55-mile (89 km) run down the unplowed Yellowstone Branch from West Yellowstone to Ashton, was held on March 4, 1917. A blizzard held up the finish making spectators wait two days to see what was supposed to be a one-day race, but it was enough of a success that it was promoted and held again the following year.

Union Pacific Railroad, always advancing their interests, helped to promote the races. The second race, designed to be more spectator friendly, was held in the open fields around Ashton on a figure-eight course with Ashton at the intersection so that teams would come running through town twice each lap.

Interest in the American Dog Derby grew. Union Pacific brought spectators in special trains and by the early twenties, thousands of people thronged the streets of Ashton each February to see mushers and dogs come charging down Main Street on one of their laps. It may have been Ashton's beautiful view of the Tetons, it may have been the happy cast of characters involved, but for whatever reason, by 1923, the American Dog Derby had captured the imagination of the western world.

Newspaper correspondents and newsreel cameramen came from distant cities seeking the inside story of the American Dog Derby while crowds grew to 10,000 or more people in this town of less than two thousand. Winning mushers became celebrities and some became wealthy. A female musher nicknamed Whistling Lyd toured the United States and Canada, appeared in a movie, and may have been on her way to being a movie star when she died of pneumonia in 1930.

The buildup to and the results of the American Dog Derby were reported by newspapers and by newsreels in the Americas, in Europe, and elsewhere. Ashton was dubbed, “the best known American town in the world.” Seed potatoes Ashton was first and foremost a farming community, as the soil of the area is rich and the water is plentiful.

Shortly after the first settlers arrived in the 1890s, several canals were developed to divert water from streams running off the Yellowstone Plateau and Teton Range. Some farmland, mostly to the east, is high enough and close enough to the Teton Range that crops can grow without irrigation due to increased rainfall.

The relatively high altitude limited crops to those requiring a short growing season such as grain and alfalfa. Seed potatoes were not tried as a crop until 1920 but as it turns out, the area is perfect for seed potatoes. The short growing season keeps the potatoes desirably small, and the long, cold winters create the ideal conditions for seed.

The longtime enemy to potato farming is potato blight, a form of mold that reproduces from spores in the soil and sickens the potato plant. Ashton's winters clean the soil of these mold spores with a long, deep and killing freeze. Potato blight never spreads because the soil is clean and free of spores each spring.

After realizing this, farmers organized, hired inspectors, and began selling certified seed potatoes giving buyers comfort that Ashton seed was free of molds and disease. This enabled them to demand a premium price for these potatoes grown in the clean soils around Ashton and the area quickly became the largest seed potato producing area in the world as it is still known today.