Historic Idaho site hosts volunteer opportunity

HANSEN, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — A local historic site is looking for volunteers to help with tours in the coming months.

On Saturday, there was an orientation for volunteers at the Rock Creek Station and Stricker Homesite before guided tours start in a couple of weeks.

This historic site, dating to 1865, helped serve people who traveled on the Oregon Trail, the Overland Mail Route and Kelton Freight Road. The site is also home to the oldest standing building in the Magic Valley.

To volunteer, you do not need much background.

“We don’t require anybody to really have a ton of knowledge about the site before they come out to volunteer,” said Jennifer Hills, president of Friends of Stricker. “We have created what we call cheat sheets; we’ve put some of the relevant stuff. We gear these toward fourth graders and keep it pretty simple.”

If you want to help and volunteer, visit their Facebook page.

The site is now owned by the Idaho State Historical Society and managed by the Friends of Stricker. It is an essential piece of Idaho history to preserve this history in Idaho.

“We have a lot of early history here, from the 1800s, before Twin was even thought about. It’s really important for us to make sure that we’re preserving all of this history so that people understand how the Oregon trail worked. The Shoshone-Bannock camped here for their salmon fishing. The site is really important to the development of the area even before all the irrigation.”

The site is available daily for self-guided and guided tours with access to all buildings from April to October.

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