Montpelier tourist information
Montpelier Idaho
The Bear Lake Valley was recognized as a potential settlement area by Mormon colonizer and LDS Church leader Brigham Young before he arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The first vanguard of Mormon settlers to arrive in the valley was in late September of 1863 under the direction of colonizer and Apostle Charles C. Rich. In the following spring of 1864, John Cozzens led a group of sixteen families to settle the area known as Montpelier today.
Like most western communities, the town name was changed several times. First known by travelers along the Oregon Trail as the Clover Creek and later called Belmont by the Mormon settlers until it was named Montpelier by Brigham Young after the capitol of his native state Vermont. During the first year businesses sprang up along the trail known today as Fourth Street. The location became a good choice for a business with the emigrants passing through the community, tired and weary from their journey enroute to destinations in Oregon or California. The Bear Lake Valley became a welcome rest area along the Oregon Trail to replenish supplies with fresh produce, dairy products and beef.
On August 13, 1896, Montpelier became the site of one of the infamous Butch Cassidy Gang bank holdups that has become a part of Bear Lake folklore. Click to get Butch Cassidy and the Montpelier Bank Robbery information.
With the arrival of the railroad in 1892, the first significant number of non-Mormon population occurred and soon the settlement grew into separate communities - "Uptown (Mormon) Montpelier" and "Downtown (Gentile) Montpelier". The town became the home terminal for the Union Pacific/Oregon Short Line trains, engine crews and was a subdivision until October 1972, when the terminal was moved to Pocatello. Largely due to the arrival of the railroad, the community became the largest in the Bear Lake Valley and by 1900 most of the businesses of the valley were located in Montpelier.
Montpelier continues to be the center of commerce of the valley with a population near 3,000. The largest employers in Montpelier are the Bear Lake County School District and Bear Lake Memorial Hospital while farmers and ranchers continue to produce barley, wheat, beef and dairy products. Tourism has begun to flourished thanks to the city's location on US Highway 89 between Salt Lake City, Utah and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, gateway to Yellowstone National Park. Scenic Bear Lake with its surrounding mountains and abundant wildlife is a beautiful setting for the recent addition of the National Oregon/California Trail Center preserving and perpetuating the history and heritage of the Oregon/California Trails and settlement of Bear Lake Valley.
Montpelier, Ohio is located in extreme Northwest corner of Ohio on the banks of the St. Joseph river. We are approximately two mile from exit 2 of the Ohio turnpike, and three miles West of State Route 15 on State Route 107. We are an industrial, farming, and business community.
In the early history of Williams County, Ohio, a physician by the name of Luke Paul emigrated from Vermont and settled in Superior Township, and to him belongs the honor of christening the community after Montpelier, the capital of Vermont. On May 25th, 1845, the survey of the original town was made and platted by Thomas Ogle. This was the start of Montpelier, Ohio.
The St. Joe area was overspread with stately elms and massive sycamore trees with trellises of hanging grapevines running from tree to tree. Our early 1840's history indicates that during this time, Indians were plentiful in Montpelier since a very bad winter of sub-zero weather damaged the food supply. Several Indians and settlers moved Westward as weather permitted. This left very few Indians in our area. Large Indian mounds were located on the South side of State Route 107 in a field just west of Montpelier. These two large mounds have since been leveled.
In June of 1880, the town really grew when the Wabash Railroad came under full operation. Montpelier, with its splendid advantages, was ranked and one of the best commercial communities in Northwest Ohio. Anyone entering Montpelier has to cross a bridge. A map showed that in 1904, it was necessary to cross three bridges when entering Montpelier. There are currently four bridges leading into our community, one at each cardinal point. One can visit the Williams County Historical Museum at the Williams County Fairgrounds in Montpelier to view displays of historical farm machinery, Indian relics, and other historical artifacts.
Montpelier, Ohio, has much to offer with its pleasant rural rolling farmland setting. From the rivers to the many churches and community festivals, we offer a great family environment for residents and visitors alike.
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