Teton Dam collapses, June 1, 1976. Photos from the Lynn Thomson collection, BYU-Idaho Special Collections.

 

At 11:57 A.M. on June 1, 1976, in the Teton Canyon of Fremont County, the collapse of an earthen dam sent a wall of water toward Idaho Falls. The flood killed 14 people and caused at least $1 billion in property damage. Ripping though Wilford, Sugar City, Salem, Hibbard, and Rexburg, it destroyed 13,000 head of livestock, 3,500 farm buildings, and 4,000 homes. The federal government paid more than $300 million to settle more than 7,500 claims.

          In the immediate wake of the Teton Dam disaster, Ricks College in Rexburg housed 2,000 refugees.Today the fast-growing college is Brigham Young University—Idaho. Its library holds a 13-box archive of flood documents and images that include photographs by physicist Lynn Thomson, selectively reprinted here.