Malad is a city with a long and rich history.  While many who graduate from a school in the valley learn quite about their town’s history in the course of their education, the Museum has secured an initial batch of 20 historic markers to note the places that have impacted the formation and building of the town.  From locations important in the early church origins of the town to those important to business and social life, these markers will provide an informative walkable landscape of historical information.

Founded in 1864, Malad City was one of the first villages settled in Idaho. Its important and interesting past is reflected in the many historically significant buildings in the City. Every building in downtown Malad along Bannock Street (a cutoff of the Oregon Trail) and North Main Street (formerly the Gold Road or Montana Road) has a story. One of the Oneida Pioneer Museum’s purposes is to preserve those stories, both by housing artifacts for display and by marking historic sites throughout Oneida County.

To begin the project of identifying sites and then researching their history, the Oneida Pioneer Museum’s Historic Signs and Tours Subcommittee used information compiled by Luke Waldron’s 8th grade social studies classes as published in “Do You Know Malad?” Twenty sites in downtown Malad were initially identified for the first phase of the project. After conducting research in The Idaho Enterprise, historic documents in the Oneida Pioneer Museum and the Family History Center and books such as The History of the Malad Stake 1888-1988, and interviewing current and past owners of properties, the histories were compiled along with pictures and other related documents.

Each full version of the history of a site was edited to about 80 words for an historic marker and then printed on a heavy aluminum sign. Members of the Museum subcommittee are in the process of discussing with property owners the placement of the signs with the goal of having all 20 historic markers in place by Memorial Day.

The long versions of the histories and related pictures, notes and other documents will soon be found on the Museum’s website: www.oneidapioneermuseum.org. A brochure with a map indicating the location of each historic site will be available by Memorial Day at the Museum and on the website.

The members of the subcommittee are Bill Lewis, Marvin Hess, Larry Thomas and Jean Thomas.  They have already identified 25 more historically significant sites for the next phase of the project with the eventual goal of identifying sites and placing historic markers throughout Oneida County.