'This little section of the world is about living the life that you want to live'

Located 45 miles southeast of Rexburg, Driggs is currently home to 1,800 people. With Yellowstone just an hour and a half away and Grand Targhee 12 miles to the northeast, Driggs has become a destination for more than 25,000 tourists every year.

But in the early days, Driggs was a desert landscape where a few dedicated families came to build a homestead and a new life.

“Teton Valley was the last unsettled place in Idaho. Nobody came here. It had a reputation of being a home for horse thieves. And it’s cold,” former Driggs resident Joyce Edlefsen tells EastIdahoNews.com. “It was not a great place to bring your wagon, your wife and your baby and say ‘Ok, we’re going to start a life here and we have nothing.'”

B.W. Driggs, Edlefsen’s great-grandfather, was among the first to settle the area in the spring of 1891. He came looking for farm ground. He also practiced law and went on to become the first prosecuting attorney for Teton County.

“The first residence built in Driggs was the log cabin of D.C. Driggs (brother to B.W.) in 1888,” B.W. wrote in his history of Teton Valley.

Once those first settlers arrived, others soon followed. Carving out a town was not an easy task. It was hard, back-breaking work and many people struggled that first year.

“It’s not like you could just buy (hay for your animals, let alone food for your family). There was nothing. It’s hard to imagine how dedicated those people had to be to stick it out,” says Edlefsen.

It would be another 20 years before Driggs officially had a name. B.W. Driggs played a pivotal role in the community getting recognized as a town.

“The community members petitioned the U.S. Postal Service for a post office in the area. There were so many signers of that petition with the last name of Driggs, so that’s what the postal service named it. It was an arbitrary decision,” Edlefsen says.

The townsite for Driggs was formally dedicated on Dec. 21, 1909.

By 1913, the railroad came through and it was a big boost for the burgeoning farming community.

“The railroad gave them a way to get their products to market because the roads weren’t that great,” Edlefsen says. “But agriculture was marginal from the very beginning. The railroad also got more tourism coming.”

Tourism paved the way for a thriving business economy that grew to include a variety of shops. Corner Drug at 10 South Main Street has been in business for 113 years and is the town’s longest-running business.

“The building’s history includes the home of the first high school in the valley until a regular schoolhouse was built. Ice cream for the soda fountain was also made on-site at one time,” according to the business’s Facebook page.

The Wardrobe Company, a department store offering clothing, footwear and home decor, will be celebrating its 100th anniversary next year.

“We are a third generation owned business and have evolved from the old Price Mercantile in the early 1900s, selling everything from livestock feed to the latest in fashion clothing,” says the company’s website.

“There are many companies in this town that were founded many, many years ago by some of the early families here, and they continue to do well,” Brian McDermott, Executive Director of the Teton Regional Economic Coalition, tells EastIdahoNews.com. “Those companies provide incredible value, incredible services, and they’ve got a ton of integrity. They really are the backbone of this community.”

Agriculture continued to flourish as well and Driggs remained a popular spot for tourists because of its close proximity to Yellowstone. But during the harsh winters, everything would shut down and it was difficult to make ends meet. During the 1960s, a few locals got together and decided to change that.