Gooding Milner Canal
I've spent long enough in California that waterworks, large and small, get my attention. This spot is about 35 miles north of Twin Falls, Idaho, and just a couple of miles north of the town of Shoshone. It's an area that shows what irrigation can do for an otherwise forbidding landscape, turning what I'll unscientifically call volcanic scrublands into rich-looking farm land.
The canal was seemed so full and fresh in the midst of the scrub that I wanted to stop and take a look. The little monument and plaque above were a little ways off the side of the highway. The text:
In Grateful Appreciation
of the invaluable efforts of the late
Frank R. and Fred W. Gooding.
Whose untiring efforts made possible the construction of this project, this tablet is erected by the cities of Shoshone and Gooding.
June 15 1931.
I wasn't the only one who thought the canal looked inviting. A bunch of teenagers were dropped off at a little parking lot across the road from the marker. They put on life jackets and jumped into the canal and starting floating downstream. I talked to a couple of the kids before they got into the water, and they said they would be carried to a park down the canal -- about a 20-minute trip.
Submitted by Dan Brekke
@danbrekke