oneida elevator

Old American Falls wasn’t abandoned – it was condemned, bought, and physically hauled uphill, building by building, before the Snake River was dammed and a reservoir swallowed the old townsite in 1926. Hundreds of structures rode steam tractors and rollers to a new city on higher ground; the rest were razed. Each low-water autumn, the drowned streets reappear. Here’s the documented history, the legends worth checking, and how to see it.