Juliaetta, Idaho — Two Women's Names Became One Town

Juliaetta sounds invented because it was.

Early settler Charles Snyder combined the names Julia and Etta, women in his family, into a single place-name distinctive enough that the town has been explaining it ever since.

The location required less creativity.

Juliaetta sits low in the Potlatch River canyon between the higher Palouse and the Clearwater. Its lower elevation brings milder winters and a longer growing season than the plateau above.

Fruit, gardens and vineyards once took advantage of that difference while grain dominated higher ground.

Rail transportation made those products easier to ship, and nearby Kendrick developed only a few miles upstream.

Floods periodically reminded residents of the downside to concentrating homes in a river valley.

The orchards are less dominant now. The climate remains.

So does a town name created by simply refusing to choose between Julia and Etta.