Newdale, Idaho

Newdale, Idaho was established as a town in 1916. The town grew around the newly arrived railroad. The St. Anthony Railroad Company was incorporated in 1899 and a line was built from Idaho Falls to St. Anthony, Idaho. The line was extended to West Yellowstone, Montana in 1906 which resulted in the establishment of the town of Ashton. In 1910 the Oregon Short Line Railroad bought the Yellowstone line. In 1914 the O.S.L. railroad began platting a "belt route" through the rich farm land of SE Idaho so that the dry farmers wouldn’t have to haul their crops so far. This eastern belt route started in Idaho Falls, ran through Lincoln and then was extended NE 39 miles to Newdale, Idaho; about 10 miles east of Teton, Idaho.

The line was finished in 1916. The railroad established a grain loading depot at Ririe which they named for a local land owner. Thus the town of Ririe began in early 1916. The line was extended NE of Ririe through Sunnydell, over the dry farms east of Rexburg and on to Newdale where another grain loading depot was built. This resulted in the establishment of the town of Newdale late in 1916. The town grew rapidly as businesses and settlers arrived. The line was continued on to St. Anthony where it joined the Yellowstone branch and finished the loop around the Upper Snake River Valley.

The land where the town was built was originally owned by Sam Schwendiman of Teton, Idaho who had dry farmed the land for many years. By 1919 Newdale was listed as the 3^rd largest grain shipping location in the United States. The town grew to around 600 people by the 1920's but never grew much larger. Today Newdale still has a grain and potato shipping warehouse. The town has no other businesses and serves as a bedroom community of several hundred people for Rexburg and St. Anthony.

There are two known merchants who issued tokens from Newdale. The "Black & Bird/Newdale,/Idaho" token pictured above is the only known example from this business. I found it listed in 1916 as a pool hall but it must have been a very short lived business since it isn’t listed in my 1918 directory. It is round, brass and measures 21mm and is good for 5c in trade.

The other token issuing business was Charles H. Haws. He is listed in 1928 through 1934 as a confectionary and service station. There are 2 aluminum examples known. The say "C. Haws/Newdale, Ida//Good for/5c/in trade." They are round, aluminum, 21mm. John Mutch said Dan had a brass example of the Haws token but Dan denies owning one. I owned one of the aluminum C. Haws tokens but traded it to Kendall Ballard after I found the "Black & Bird/Newdale, Idaho" token. The C. Haws token I owned came from the John Gold collection. I’m doubtful a brass example exists but I’ll have to clarify that with John.