Entrepreneur J.J. Goff

Before the wagon road from White Bird to Meadows was completed in 1903, travelers faced a treacherous and roundabout overland journey. To create a faster, more direct route, J.J. Goff offered ferry service across the Salmon River at Race Creek and built a one-mile trail from Race Creek to Gouge-Eye Flat, parts of which are still visible. In 1866, Idaho County Commissioners granted him the exclusive right to establish toll charges for his trail and ferry on Race Creek. By the late 1870s, the area at the mouth of Race Creek was known as Goff. Goff later bought the Race Creek property, including a stone house and race, a water ditch used for irrigation and nearby placer mining. In 1894, John Levander bought the property, built the Goff Hotel and Store, and established a post office and stage stop, while his sons Homer and Edgar also operated the nearby Goff Ferry. The first automobile bridge across the Salmon River at Goff was built in 1911 and 1912 at a cost of $15,000, completing the first auto road between north and south Idaho. It was replaced in 1934 by a $34,000 bridge that lasted 65 years, and in 1999 by the present bridge, built at a cost of 12.4 million dollars.

Riggins, Idaho · United States