Fur trappers and traders named the Malad River the Riviere Aux Malad, or sickly river, after becoming ill from eating beaver trapped on its banks, an illness attributed to poisonous roots the beaver fed upon. Exploration of the Malad area began in the early 1800s as British and American fur trappers competed for territory in southwest Idaho, with many expeditions led between 1811 and 1843 before Oregon Trail migration began. At just 2.5 miles in length, the Malad River is among the world’s shortest rivers. Its source is the Big Wood and Little Wood rivers, which supplement the relatively constant discharge of the Malad Springs. Water from these rivers is stored in reservoirs upstream and used almost exclusively for irrigation, while water within the Malad flume is carried to the upper and lower power plants and flows into the Snake River from the lower power plant. The Malad Project has an annual average combined generation of 168,733 megawatt hours, enough to power more than 13,750 Idaho homes. In 1899, a gauge was established to determine the yield of springs flowing into the Malad and the feasibility of using its water for placer mining and irrigation. Several claims to the water were filed between 1902 and 1908, when the Kin Hill Irrigation and Power Company constructed a diversion dam, flume, and siphon to pipe water from the Malad across the Snake River to irrigate land in the King Hill area. In 1909, land and rights to 700 cubic feet per second of water were acquired by the Malad Power Company for power development, while 300 cubic feet per second were allocated to the King Hill Irrigation and Power Company for irrigation and maintenance of the diversion dam and flume across the Snake River. Electricity has been generated there continually since 1911, when the Beaver River Power Company purchased the Malad Power Company’s rights and built the 5,000 kilowatt upper power plant and wooden gravity flume, making it the largest power generator on the Snake River at that time. Beaver River Power Company was purchased in 1913 by Idaho Power and Light, which in 1916 became one of the five companies originally incorporated into the Idaho Power Company. The 8,270 kilowatt upper power plant was rebuilt in 1948 from plans drafted decades earlier by the Beaver River Power Company, and the post World War II building boom replaced the wooden flume with a concrete one, moved the lower plant site to the bank of the Snake River, and increased output from 5,000 kilowatts to 13,500 kilowatts.