I’m scanning the web and come across this article that whines about a T.J.Maxx store located near the bridge crossing over a Snake River canyon in southern Idaho. As it happens, the other DrC and I crossed that bridge many times en route from CA to WY, or the return trip over 20+ years, ending perhaps four years ago. Hence this nostalgia-fueled musing.
Yes the canyon is scenic and probably should have been declared a National Park or Monument. Like other wonders - think Lake Tahoe or the CA coastline - it wasn’t designated prior to development. Now it’s too late, a sadly common situation in our great land.
A major east-west Interstate (84) runs parallel to the north shore of the Snake at that point and another, lesser-known but important north-south highway (US 93) crosses the gorge on an excellent bridge bringing traffic north from I-80.
The people who actually live in southern Idaho built a city there by the river which the bridge made feasible. They needed places to shop, eat, recreate, worship, tend the sick and wounded, and bury their dead. Twin Falls, ID is the resulting regional shopping, religious and medical center for the surrounding agricultural areas.
Forty-six miles south of “Twin,” as it is known locally, just across the NV border is a classic NV border village - Jackpot - built around a couple of casinos. Most years on the trips back and forth we’d park the RV in a casino RV park and eat supper in the coffeeshop. Gambling-subsidized grub and lodging was perfect for a couple of non-gamblers.
Nobody will complain that the terrain at Jackpot should have been preserved. Nevada has another 7 million acres or more of equally disinteresting, empty landscape, mostly used as poor, low quality pasture. Having driven across NV many times - both north-south and east-west - I think of it as part of the “empty quarter.” Much of inland SoCal, AZ, and NM fit this definition too.
