Last week I found myself in Blaine County doing a land records search. I do not get to Blaine County very often for court related matters. In fact, I have never been to the courthouse in person before. All the hearings I have held there were by phone or videoconference. I walked in and imposed on one of the bailiffs for a tour. He took me to the three courtrooms and showed me around. As plain as it is on the outside, the inside was actually a bit fun. The district court room is in the round, of sorts.

I have tried to remember to take pictures of county courthouses while visiting, or at least nearby. The land record search was actually in the old Blaine County Courthouse, not the Judicial Building.

This building was built for Alturas County. Construction began in 1883, and the building opened in the summer of 1884. Alturas County was created in February 1864 from Boise County. Alturas County limits stretched up the Snake River from CJ Strike Dam southwest of Mt. Home to about half way between Roberts and Rexburg, then north to the Montana line and west from there. Here is a map that was hanging in the old Courthouse.

I grew up in Jerome County and went to school and work in Minidoka County. All part of what was once Alturas County.

Alturas lost territory to the new Custer County in 1881. Then, in February 1889, the territorial legislature split Alturas again. The western portion became the new Elmore County, a strip on the east went to Bingham County, and the southern portion became the new Logan County.

During this time, the area that is now Minidoka, Lincoln, and Jerome Counties was all part of Logan County. The county seat was first in Shoshone, but an election in 1890 moved it to Bellevue, just five miles down the road from Hailey.

In 1891, the new state legislature abolished both Alturas and Logan and tried to replace them with two new counties, Alta and Lincoln, with county seats at Hailey and Shoshone. The Idaho Supreme Court struck the act down that same year because the people in the area being moved never got a vote, and Alturas and Logan were restored. There is some interesting history here, but in short, the split grew out of a long fight between Hailey and Bellevue.

In March 1895, Idaho combined Alturas and Logan back together and renamed it Blaine County. That same month, Lincoln County was created, including what is now Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, and Minidoka Counties. This creation of Lincoln also recreated the panhandle and the present eastern boundary of Minidoka County.

Gooding and Minidoka Counties were created in January 1913. All of the cities presently in Minidoka County, except Acequia and Burley, were incorporated while the area was still part of Lincoln County. Burley was incorporated in Cassia County in 1909 and grew across the river into Minidoka County in 1960. Acequia was incorporated in Minidoka County in 1952. Eden and Hazelton were part of this Minidoka County. It was this same month that created Power County and carved the eastern portion of the Blaine panhandle as we know it now.

Butte County was created in 1917 carving off the eastern portion of Blaine, leaving the panhandle even more pronounced. Jefferson and Bingham also donated to the new Butte County. In the same legislative session that created Butte County on the east, Camas County was also created on the west, only from Blaine County. These are essentially the current boundaries of Blaine County, apart from a small land exchange with Custer County in 1925.

Jerome County was created in February 1919 claiming eastern portions of Gooding County, basically the south half of remaining Lincoln County, and the western portion of Minidoka County. I only knew Jerome County growing up, just over the border from the present Minidoka County.

This was once the courthouse for the areas I grew up, Paul and Hazelton, now in Minidoka and Jerome Counties. It served them from 1884 until Logan County split off in 1889, and again for a couple of weeks in March 1895, between the creation of Blaine County and Lincoln County.