Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls, a major waterfall on the Snake River in south-central Idaho near Twin Falls, drops 212 feet over a horseshoe-shaped rim in the Snake River Canyon and is often called the Niagara of the West. Formed about 14,500 to 17,000 years ago during the Bonneville Flood, it endures where harder volcanic rock resisted erosion. Long before it became a tourist destination, the falls were an important fishing and trading place for the Lemhi Shoshone and also drew Bannock people in summer, as salmon gathered below this barrier to upstream migration. Later tied to regional settlement and development, the falls now vary greatly with irrigation and hydroelectric diversions upstream.

Idaho · United States