Jan 07, 2009
Caldera Folks
 
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L.R. Graf
 
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About Henry's Fork Country
 
In late winter 2007, members of the three chambers of commerce in Fremont County — Island Park, Ashton, and St. Anthony, met for dinner at the Trails Inn in Ashton.

These dedicated people shared ideas for promoting the many wonderful attractions in the county. Idaho’s tourism division has divided the state into seven travel regions. Fremont County is in the state’s Eastern Idaho region, but the Fremont County chambers wanted to narrow the focus down to the spectacular area within their county’s borders.

What do the communities of Island Park, Ashton, and St. Anthony have in common that makes this area so unique? The Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, of course!

The Island Park News, a weekly newspaper with a daily internet edition, has long published recreation guides to the area, and decided that the time is right for the guides to emphasize Henry’s Fork Country.

Island Park News publishers John and Elizabeth Laden-Losch also wanted a recreation guide that can be updated regularly. Their summer and winter guides, distributed throughout the summer and winter months, could not incorporate any new events scheduled after the guides went to press, nor could they report on any events. They decided to add this Web site, HenrysForkCountry.com, to their services, to take care of this update issue.

And so we bring you the first ever recreation guide to this area: Henry’s Fork Country, and its accompanying Web site, HenrysForkCountry.com.


Like the Island Park News, Henry’s Fork Country is lovingly created by the husband-wife team of Elizabeth Laden and John Losch.

The love of fly fishing bought Elizabeth and John together. She was born in New York State and he sprouted up in California but they met in Island Park at a small lodge — where she was cooking while writing her first novel and he was entertaining people with his flat pick guitar and singing.

Besides loving great music, the first thing they found they had in common was the preference for the same two fishing flies — the Royal Wulff and the Adams. They have been stealing them from one another’s fly boxes ever since!

Elizabeth massages the paper’s news and features. John caretakes the ad department. Both take photographs.

John owned a sandwich shop, worked for his father’s construction company, and managed a guest ranch before letting Elizabeth talk him into starting a weekly newspaper.

Elizabeth has worked as a a government and environmental reporter and feature writer, editor, and publisher at newspapers in Montana, Arizona, Louisiana, and Idaho. She has written two award winning novels, Mystic Warriors of the Yellowstone and Angels of the Unborn.

The Island Park News and its individual contributors have won dozens of awards for writing, photography, design, and community service projects.

Our Contributors

Lerinna Collins and her husband manage Elk Lake Resort. She is a freelance writer who specializes in nature and parenting stories.

Jane Daniels has made major contributions in the preservation of local history for many years, first as an archivist for the Island Park Historical Society and now as manager of the Ashton Archives. She is a state of Idaho Esto Perpetua Award winner for her work preserving historical writing, photographs, documents, and artifacts in Ashton and Island Park.

Renee´ Foster is the city of Island Park's clerk. In that role, she has spent many hours researching the city's history.

Peggy Hamlen.
If there is a wild animal or bird or a beautiful landscape, Peggy will find it and capture it perfectly with her camera. Her photography is one of the reasons people anxiously await the next issue of the paper. Most of her images are collected near her beautiful eight-sided glass and timber home in Shotgun West, as well as in Yellowstone National Park. She winters in Nevada.
   Visit Peggy’s shop - www.cafepress.com/natureseyephoto

James-Joseph is a graphic artist and photographer whose home studio is in the Island Park Village Resort.

Dick and Sharon Marler. Dick writes the weekly slice of life column for the Island Park News, Marler’s Musings, in which he often talks about the love of his life, his wife Sharon, aka The Redhead. After a long career in the U. S Navy, Dick and Sharon retired to St. Anthony, Idaho, but not really. They both work at a juvenile detention center — he in security and she in education. They are passionate visitors to Yellowstone National Park and both contribute photos they take there. Sharon occasionally writes about her passion— fighting cancer through programs she has founded, including a local Relay 4 Life, a Pink Tea, and an annual women’s health fair. Her book, Mammy Slammy: Mammograms with Courage and Humor, is a must-read for all concerned about breast cancer.
   Dick’s photos are at www.treehuggingphotography.com
   Sharon’s Mammy Slammy info is at www.mammyslammy.com

Will Rhea, owner of Rhea Computer Consulting, is the city of St. Anthony’s Web master. Besides being a computer whiz he is proficient with a camera and has taken many fine images of subject matter in Henry’s Fork Country.

Bill Ruppel is a retired school teacher who owns a home in Island Park he hopes to move to permanently some day. He stays in Island Park as much as he can, stalking wildlife and birds for his exquisite photographs.

Bill Schiess is a world famous angler and guide specializing in Henry’s Lake, a trophy trout lake at the north end of Island Park. If the fish are there, he will will find them and catch them with one of the flies he designed and made just for the lake. He is also an avid bird watcher and wildlife photographer.

Nancy Stratford is president of the Island Park Historical Society and her weekly columns on local history are full of interesting facts and lore. She is working on a cookbook of recipes used by early settlers and she is one of the editors of a publication on recent Island Park history that will be printed in 2007.

Story and photo contributions are welcome. E-mail here.