Ola, Idaho

Ola is an unincorporated town in Gem County, Idaho, United States. It is located approximately 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Emmett.

Ola was established as a post office July 22, 1882, by Carroll Baird. It serves the Upper Squaw Creek Valley.

History

The first post office in this area was "Upper Squaw Creek," established in September 1875, by Carroll Baird. Baird homesteaded along Squaw Creek, less than half a mile west of the present-day site of Ola.^[1]

Nellie Ireton Mills^[2] writes that the Bairds built their cabin where the old Indian trail crosses the creek. The trail was also used by miners and others taking the short cut to, or from, Oregon and the Boise Basin. Prior to the 1875 post office, the mail was delivered by pack horse and snowshoes along the Brownlee Trail from Horseshoe Bend (Boise County) to Warren (Idaho County).

Six weeks after the post office was established, Bairds' bachelor neighbor to the north, Fred Hoffman was appointed postmaster, a position he held until the post office closed the end of January 1877, when mail was sent to Cascade (Valley County). Mills writes that first wedding in the community was between Fred Hoffman (aka Huffman) and school teacher Ella Drake March 6, 1879.

When the post office was re-established July 1882, Baird chose the name of Ola, "for an old Swede that happened along."

References

1. ^ http://www.glorecords.blm.gov
2. ^ Nellie Ireton Mills, All Along the River/Territorial and Pioneer Days on the Payette. Privately printed for Payette Radio Limited, 1963.

Coordinates: 44°10′42″N 116°17′33″W / 44.17833°N 116.2925°W / 44.17833; -116.2925