21-May-2013 -- I like it when confluence points tell a story about the history of the surrounding area. The point immediately to the west - [43,-114], which I had visited earlier in the day - tells the story of the recent (in geologic terms) volcanic activity in this area. This confluence point tells the story of how this part of southern Idaho was an arid sagebrush desert, prior to the extensive irrigation (from the damming of the Snake River) and farming that took place in the 20th Century.

Taking State Road 39 west of the town of Blackfoot, I drove through a series of farming communities north of the American Falls Reservoir. Because I had forgotten the report from the previous visitor (David Mower, in 2005), as I got close to the confluence point, I assumed that it would also lie within farmland. To my surprise, however, I found that the farmland ends just short of the confluence point, which lies within unreclaimed sagebrush. (A gravel road passes just 0.3 miles south of the confluence point.)

The plots of land to the immediate south, east and west of the confluence point have been cleared and farmed. The area to the north of the point remains unreclaimed desert. I wonder whether the confluence point will remain desert, or whether it, too, will eventually become farmland.