It is the principal city of the Pocatello metropolitan area , which encompasses all of Bannock County in the southeastern part of the U. As of the census , the population of Pocatello was 56, The city is at an elevation of 4, feet 1, m above sea level and it sits on the Portneuf River in the Snake River Plain ecoregion. Pocatello covers a land area of Shoshone and Bannock Indigenous tribes inhabited southeastern Idaho for hundreds of years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition across Idaho in The city is named after Chief Pocatello , a 19th-century Northern Shoshone leader.
Nathaniel Wyeth of Massachusetts established one of the first permanent settlements at Fort Hall in , which is only a few miles northeast of Pocatello. When over-trapping and a shift in fashion to silk hats put an end to the fur trade, Fort Hall became a supply point for immigrants traveling the Oregon Trail. Although thousands of immigrants passed through Idaho , it was not until the discovery of gold in that Idaho attracted settlers in large numbers.
The gold rush brought a need for goods and services to many towns, and the Portneuf Valley , home of Pocatello, was the corridor initially used by stage and freight lines.
The coming of the railroad provided further development of Idaho's mineral resources and "Pocatello junction" became an important transportation crossroads as the Union Pacific Railroad expanded its service. After its founding in , Pocatello became known as the "Gate City" [ 7 ] for being a gateway to Idaho and the Pacific Northwest. As pioneers, gold miners and settlers traveled the Oregon Trail , they passed through the Portneuf Gap south of town.
Stage and freight lines and the railroad soon followed, turning the community into a trade center and transportation junction. After the gold rush played out, the settlers who remained turned to agriculture. With the help of irrigation from the nearby Snake River , the region became a large supplier of potatoes, grain and other crops.
