Ashton

Ashton is a city in Fremont County, Idaho, United States. The population was 1,127 at the 2010 census, and it is part of the Rexburg Micropolitan Statistical Area. The district is noted for seed potato production and bills itself as the world's largest seed potato growing area.

In 1900, the Union Pacific Railroad, under the careful watch of the OSL and St. Anthony Railroad Company, brought the railroad into the Upper Snake River Valley from Idaho Falls to St. Anthony, Idaho, 14 miles southwest of what became Ashton, Idaho. The venture had considerable local support and official support from the LDS Church. Following successful construction and operation of the St. Anthony Railroad, Union Pacific, under the careful watch of the OSL and the Yellowstone Park Railroad Company, began plans for another railroad from St. Anthony to the Madison River entrance of Yellowstone National Park or to what is now known as West Yellowstone. For years, Union Pacific wanted improved rail access to Yellowstone's geyser basins and now to Old Faithful Inn, that opened in 1904. Old Faithful Inn was only 30 miles from the Madison River entrance, nearly half the distance from the Northern Entrance at Gardiner, Montana that was served by the Northern Pacific Railroad. The planned route for the new railroad was through Marysville, up Warm River Canyon into the forested Island Park country, and on over the Continental Divide at Rea's Pass into what became West Yellowstone, Montana.
Despite the obvious economic advantages and support, the residents of Marysville, perfectly happy without a railroad, resisted the new railroad intruding upon their land and into their lives. The matter was expeditiously resolved when Union Pacific decided to build the railroad through a new town one mile west of Marysville named after the OSL Chief Engineer, William Ashton. The founding of Ashton and the first scheduled train service to Ashton both occurred in 1906 with predictable results. Ashton quickly sprang to life while Marysville slowly declined into near oblivion. One of the two founding fathers, H. G. “Fess” Fuller, became the long-time Mayor of Ashton and the other, Charles C. Moore, went on to become Governor of Idaho.

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