IDAHO GOES DOWN In this article, EastIdahoNews.com examines the history of east Idaho during the week of June 16–22.
1900-1925
According to a June 19, 1913, article in The Bingham County News, a unique marriage ceremony was held in Blackfoot.
Judge F.S. Stevens married Henry Jimmett to his Shelley wife, who was not mentioned in the paper, around thirty years before 1913.
Nearly thirty years later, Judge J.M. Stevens, the son of Judge F.S. Stevens, wed Miss Daffine Webb to Clifford Jimmett, the son of Henry Jimmett. The courthouse’s judge’s chambers served as the venue for the ceremony.
According to the story, the senior judge’s presence was the only item that would have completed the previous marriage ceremony.
Before assuming life’s responsibilities, Clifford and Daffine traveled to Burley to see Daffine’s parents following the wedding.
1926-1950
The Rexburg Standard stated on June 16, 1927, that a Blackfoot man barely survived when his plane caught fire in midair and was destroyed.
After filling up with fuel, the aircraft took off flawlessly. When the mass of flames exploded from the tank, J.M. Bills, a Blackfoot commercial pilot, was approximately 100 feet above the ground.
According to the narrative, Bills immediately began descending toward Earth, straightened the aircraft, and executed what witnesses said was a flawless landing over rough terrain. Just as the fire extended to the wings, the pilot, engulfed in flames, jumped out of the cockpit and fled the area.
Before taking guests on a flight over American Falls Dam, Bills, an experienced pilot who escorted passengers on sightseeing excursions, was testing the aircraft.
For more than an hour, the heat from the fire kept onlookers more than a block away. At the time of publication, the precise cause of the fire was unknown. The estimated loss of the plane, which had been bought a year earlier, was $3,000.
According to the publication, the plane had to be rebuilt after being destroyed in its hanger by a strong hurricane before Bills learnt how to fly.
Bills spent almost three weeks honing his aviation skills in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the spring of 1927. Before the tragic incident, he had traveled multiple times and returned from Salt Lake by himself.
1951-1975
On June 20, 1961, the Idaho State Journal reported that a teenager from St. Anthony, Pocatello, drowned in the Snake River while fleeing the Idaho Industrial Training School in St. Anthony.
On May 31, 1961, 16-year-old Alvin Pilkenton and 15 other young people fled the school.
Shortly after the escape, the youngster reportedly drowned while trying to swim the river, according to the officers. On June 19, 1961, his body was found in the Snake River.
According to what the cops stated, the youngster vanished in the water when the two were trying to swim to safety, which is what another escapee told police after being apprehended.
According to the article, youth workers had disregarded the story because they thought the second teenager was trying to buy the Pilkenton boy more time to go.
At the time the report was published, just one of the 16 young people who had escaped was still alive.
When Pilkenton lived at Soda Springs, he was initially committed to the facility from Caribou County. Later, his family relocated to Pocatello. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Coy Pilkenton, he was born in February 1945.
1976-2000
On June 21, 1977, the Idaho Falls Post Register announced that a FIRTHA search was in progress for a 65-year-old Firth man who had gone missing.
Authorities discovered Orville Prestwich’s pickup truck at the head of Wolverine Canyon, close to Blackfoot, on or around June 2, 1977, after he had been reported missing.
When two men noticed that Prestwich’s truck was inoperable after plunging down a 40-foot embankment, the missing man allegedly rejected their assistance.
A Bingham County sheriff’s deputy stated, “We haven’t given up looking for him, but we don’t have any new leads.”
One full-time deputy had been assigned by the county to look for Orville.
