Almo, Idaho

Almo is just over {{convert|2|mi|km}} east away from the City of Rocks National Reserve, a {{convert|14300|acre|km2|0|adj=on}} area with granite columns as much as {{convert|600|ft|m|-1}} high. The ZIP Code for Almo is 83312.{{cite web|url=https://www.zipdatamaps.com/83312|title=Almo ZIP Code|publisher=zipdatamaps.com|year=2022|access-date=November 11, 2022}}

Almo is part of the Burley, Idaho Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Many pioneers followed the Oregon Trail west in the middle of the 19th century, and passed by the future site of Almo. Several of these pioneers wrote letters home describing their encounters with Native Americans. Although these accounts tended to be exaggerated by participants, there is historical evidence of several small incidents that took place from 1860 to 1862.{{cite journal|author=Idaho State Historical Society|title=Almo Massacre|journal=Reference Series|date=February 1971|issue=232|url=http://history.idaho.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/reference-series/0232.pdf|accessdate=10 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130203145249/http://history.idaho.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/reference-series/0232.pdf|archive-date=3 February 2013|url-status=dead}}

However, Almo's most famous historical event, the Almo Massacre of 1861, did not occur.{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Thomas |title=The Inconvenient Indian: A curious account of native people in North America |date=2012 |publisher=Anchor Canada|page=291|isbn=978-0-385-66422-6}} In 1938, the Sons and Daughters of Idaho Pioneers paid for and erected a marker in remembrance of the massacre, in which a wagon train of nearly 300 pioneers was supposedly surrounded and slaughtered by Native Americans. However, the earliest written record of this event is from 1927, and the total absence of information about either the slaughtered pioneers or the five survivors has led the Idaho State Historical Society to recommend the removal of the marker,{{cite book|last=Loewen|first=James|title=Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong|year=1999|publisher=New Press|location=New York|pages=89–93}}{{cite journal|last=Madsen|first=Brigham D.|title=The "Almo Massacre" Revisited|journal=Idaho Yesterdays|date=Fall 1993|url=http://134.50.3.223/idahoyesterdays/index.php/IY/article/viewFile/38/72|access-date=2013-08-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140619214458/http://134.50.3.223/idahoyesterdays/index.php/IY/article/viewFile/38/72|archive-date=2014-06-19|url-status=dead}} which the town has refused to do.

Almo was established around a post office in 1881. It had previously been part of a ranch belonging to Myron B. Durfee and had often been considered to be in Utah.Andrew Jenson. Encyclopedic History of the Church. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1941) p. 12 By 1890, 40 of the 55 families in the Almo vicinity belonged to the LDS Church, and most claimed English or Scandinavian ancestry. Almo at the turn of the century boasted a store, a post office, a school, a brass band, a theatrical group, three saloons, and a welfare society. Almo's population reached 260 by 1920, the peak of Almo's population growth. Its population declined in the years to follow, as less land was available to homestead.{{cite journal|last=National Park Service|title=Historical Development of the City of the Rocks Region|journal=Historic Resources Study|url=http://www.almoidaho.org/library/Histories/1256529954_CITY%20OF%20ROCKS%20HISTORIC%20RESOURCES%20STUDY.pdf}} Almo's population was 100 in 1960.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=World Book Encyclopedia |publisher=Field Enterprises Corporation |year=1960 |page=27 |volume=I |language=en}}

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• [http://www.inidaho.com/City.asp?City=Almo Community reference]

{{Cassia County, Idaho}}

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Category:Burley, Idaho micropolitan area

Category:Unincorporated communities in Cassia County, Idaho

Category:Populated places established in 1881

Category:Unincorporated communities in Idaho

Category:1881 establishments in Idaho Territory

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