This year the Bonneville Neighborhood Association, in partnership with NeighborWorks Pocatello, applied for and received a Project Neighborly Grant from the Idaho Community Foundation. The grant will be to provide funds to hold a community event on September 24, 2022, to be held on 3rd and Lander in Pocatello. The event will bring back to the forefront the knowledge and stories of the Historic Triangle Neighborhood. The Triangle Neighborhood began with the coming of the railroad. Pocatello grew up alongside the Oregon Short Line Railroad, as the Union Pacific built this line to Oregon through the Portneuf Valley in 1882. The industrial origins of the city shaped the demographic spectrum of Pocatello’s population. As a result, Pocatello’s population was the most diverse of any city in Idaho. (Thompson Purce, Idaho. The “Triangle”: A Slice of America. Dec. 2005)
The Triangle represented not only a wide variety of ethnic groups and businesses living and working together, but from its origins at the turn of the century to its demise as a cohesive neighborhood in the decades following World War II the neighborhood reflected a unique time period in American life when such working class, ethnic communities thrived throughout the country. For many decades, a vibrant, healthy, and diverse group of people lived and flourished in the shadow of the Bannock Flour Mill (the current General Mills grain elevator on Pocatello Avenue). Families from a variety of ethnic groups and nationalities–African Americans, Italians, Japanese, Chinese, Greeks, Mexicans, French, and Germans- moved into the Triangle beginning in the late-1800s. Trapped there by the confines of poverty and racial discrimination, they developed a thriving community, each with their own business and social institutions. (Thompson Purce, Idaho. The “Triangle”: A Slice of America. Dec. 2005)
The Bonneville Neighborhood Association looks to rekindle the stories of this historic area of Pocatello. The Triangle Neighborhood was a large part of the formation of Pocatello and the residents that still reside here today. Located at 305 N 3 rd Ave is the Triangle Monument that was erected a little over ten years ago. The monument has an engraved listing of names of some of those families that have ties to the Triangle Neighborhood.
The September event hopes to bring the community together to celebrate the rich and diverse history that was part of Pocatello, specifically the Triangle Neighborhood. The attendees will be able to listen to music, visit vendor booths and partake in food cooked up by the Pocatello Police Department.
A storytelling booth will be set up where many of the historical stories of the Triangle Neighborhood will be displayed. There, even more stories will be collected from residents and descendants of the Triangle Neighborhood. The Bonneville Neighborhood Association and NeighborWorks Pocatello hopes that this will be a rich and fulfilling event to celebrate the diverse history that made Pocatello what it is today.