Bellevue, Idaho

Episode 67 / 3 May 2018 / 109 min / full

A Very Beloved & Dead Couple

"James says the show is going all the way to Bellevue, Idaho, in Blaine County, about two hours ten from Boise" about 0:05:43

The case: Murder of Alan and Diane Johnson (Labor Day weekend, 2003). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2018

Population

2,300

Median age

31 and a half

Median household income

about $45,000

Median home value

$274,233

Two-bedroom rent

$963

Cost of living

118

Religious

about 28%

Property crime

▼ about 20% less

Violent crime

▼ about a third lower

History, in brief

• Founded by prospectors in the 1860s mining boom (1862); silver and lead followed gold, bringing Irish, Welsh, German and Chinese immigrants. The first permanent settlers were farmers. about 0:10:07
• The first electric lights came in 1883 via a Philadelphia mining company. about 0:12:19
• Sheep became the main economic force: more than two million sheep raised by 1900, and over a million head brought through between 1910 and 1920, making nearby Ketchum a major sheep shipping centre. about 0:13:23
• Construction of the Sun Valley Resort began in 1936; the area was branded Sun Valley by marketers to attract rich skiers and celebrities. about 0:14:05
• The Wood River Valley was first explored in 1824 by fur trader Alexander Ross. about 0:16:38
• Bellevue was settled and chartered in 1882, a mile-wide stretch between mountains, with mines such as Keystone, Antelope, Phoenix and Paymaster. about 0:18:55
• A silver market crash in the 1890s ruined the town until the resort was built. It had two newspapers by the 1880s and was once part of Logan County before Blaine County was carved out. about 0:19:36
• A huge fire destroyed the business district in 1905 when a bartender from the Seamor Saloon checked for a gas leak with a lit match. about 0:20:10
• In 1957 eight tons of dynamite and fifty-six artillery shells accidentally detonated on the edge of town, breaking every window. about 0:21:11
• The 1971 Wood River Rock Festival, a Woodstock imitation held in Slaughterhouse Gulch, was plagued by bad sound, cold, no bathrooms, a grasshopper plague and poor attendance. about 0:22:05
• Local oddities: farmer Dave Markham lost his llama Dagwood to mountain lions in 1998; farmer Bill Sherbine was Idaho Barley Grower of the Year in 2004. about 0:24:02
• From 2009 the town had corruption problems: city clerk Lacey Ann Low Miller was sentenced to 180 days in jail for embezzling almost $14,000. about 0:26:13
• Former mayor John Anderson resigned in 2010 after a second drink-driving arrest, pleaded guilty to felony DUI in 2011, and in 2012 shot his wife Lynn DeVawn with a shotgun and then himself. about 0:27:00
• Notable people: Walt Done, who played baseball for Cleveland in 1909 and 1901 (22.7 innings, 5.56 ERA), and Olympic snowboard half pipe gold medallist Kaitlyn Farrington (Sochi, 2014). about 0:29:01
• Town motto: built on a vision, hard work, resourcefulness and family. County motto: at the heart of central Idaho's great outdoors. about 0:08:44

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