Midvale, ID

Midvale is a city in Washington County, Idaho, in the valley once known as Middle Valley. The first settlers arrived in 1868, and a post office and school were established in 1876. The original valley name remained in use for years before the postal service shortened it to Midvale. The town sits along the Weiser River, where roads, bridges, and later rail lines brought the surrounding farms and livestock country into closer contact with stores, schools, and the growing business district.

The Middle Valley Ditch began in 1884, a first store followed in 1885, and the Pacific and Idaho Northern Railroad reached Midvale in the late 1890s. By the early twentieth century, the town had a hotel, bank, livery, printing press, grain facilities, and other businesses serving the valley. Fires and floods changed the built landscape over time, but the school tradition continued through Midvale School District 433. Midvale is a small Idaho city whose story is easy to trace through a river, an irrigation ditch, a railroad depot, and the name change that turned Middle Valley into a town with its own place on the map.