Arco is a city in
Butte CountyButte County is a rural county located in the U.S. state of Idaho. It was established in 1917, and its county seat and largest city is Arco. As of the 2010 census, the county had a population of 2,891...
,
IdahoIdaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 995 at the 2010 census. The city is the
county seatA county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of
Butte CountyButte County is a rural county located in the U.S. state of Idaho. It was established in 1917, and its county seat and largest city is Arco. As of the 2010 census, the county had a population of 2,891...
.
Craters of the Moon National MonumentCraters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a national monument and national preserve located in the Snake River Plain in central Idaho, U.S.A. It is along US 20 , between the small cities of Arco and Carey, at an average elevation of above sea level...
is located along
U.S. Route 20U.S. Route 20 is an east–west United States highway. As the "0" in its route number implies, US 20 is a coast-to-coast route. Spanning , it is the longest road in the United States, and the route sparsely parallels Interstate 90...
, southwest of the city. The
Idaho National LaboratoryIdaho National Laboratory is an complex located in the high desert of eastern Idaho, between the town of Arco to the west and the cities of Idaho Falls and Blackfoot to the east. It lies within Butte, Bingham, Bonneville and Jefferson counties...
(INL) is located east of Arco. Arco is located along the
Big Lost RiverThe Big Lost River is a major river in the U.S. state of Idaho, about long. It starts in the Rocky Mountains and flows in a generally southeast direction into the Snake River Plain. True to its name, the Big Lost River's surface flow does not reach any larger river, but vanishes into the Snake...
and is a gateway to the Lost River Valley.
History
In 1901, the town, then known as Root Hog, moved its borders to place the town at the intersection of two stagecoach routes that crossed Idaho. The town leaders applied to the U.S. Post Office for the town name of "Junction."
The
Postmaster GeneralThe United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...
thought the name too common and suggested that the place be named Arco for
Georg von ArcoGeorg Wilhelm Alexander Hans Graf von Arco was a German physicist, radio pioneer, and one of the joint founders of the "Society for Wireless Telegraphy" which became the Telefunken company. He was an engineer and the technical director of Telefunken...
(1869–1940) of
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
who was visiting Washington, D.C. at the time. Georg von Arco was an inventor and a pioneer in the field of radio transmission and would become the lead engineer of
TelefunkenTelefunken is a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft...
, a German company founded in 1903 that produced
radioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
vacuum tubeIn electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
s.
Arco was the first community in the world ever to be lit by electricity generated by
nuclear powerNuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
. This occurred on July 17, 1955, powered by a reactor (see
BORAX experimentsThe BORAX Experiments were boiling water reactor experiments done at the National Reactor Testing Station, now the Idaho National Laboratory....
) at the nearby "National Reactor Testing Station" (NRTS), which is now the
Idaho National LaboratoryIdaho National Laboratory is an complex located in the high desert of eastern Idaho, between the town of Arco to the west and the cities of Idaho Falls and Blackfoot to the east. It lies within Butte, Bingham, Bonneville and Jefferson counties...
. NRTS made further history on January 3, 1961, when the
SL-1The SL-1, or Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, was a United States Army experimental nuclear power reactor which underwent a steam explosion and meltdown on January 3, 1961, killing its three operators. The direct cause was the improper withdrawal of the central control rod, responsible for...
reactor melted down, causing three deaths. It was the world's first (and the U.S.' only) fatal reactor accident.
Economy
The town's economic base is primarily derived from the
Idaho National LaboratoryIdaho National Laboratory is an complex located in the high desert of eastern Idaho, between the town of Arco to the west and the cities of Idaho Falls and Blackfoot to the east. It lies within Butte, Bingham, Bonneville and Jefferson counties...
(formerly the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory or INEL), agricultural products, and recreation in the Lost River Valley.
Geography
Arco is located at 43°38′5"N 113°18′5"W (43.634632, -113.301323). The elevation is 5325 feet (1623 m) above sea level.
According to the
U.S. Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 0.9 sq mi (2.3 km²), all of it land.
In town, the most striking physical feature is Number Hill, a rocky hill with numbers painted all over it.
Butte County High SchoolButte County High School is a high school in Arco, Idaho. Despite its extremely small size — the school had an enrollment of 166 students in 2004-05 — the school has won multiple awards and championships in interscholastic competition.- Scholastics :...
has a tradition of each class since 1920 painting its graduation year on the face of hill.
Demographics
of 2000, there were 1,026 people, 427 households, and 269 families residing in the city. The
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,163.9 people per square mile (450.2/km²). There were 505 housing units at an average density of 572.9 per square mile (221.6/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 95.13% White, 0.49% African American, 1.36% Native American, 1.75% from
other racesRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 1.27% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.61% of the population.
There were 427 households out of which 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.2% were
married couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.0% were non-families. 34.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 3.04.
In the city the population was spread out with 27.9% under the age of 18, 6.8% from 18 to 24, 22.4% from 25 to 44, 25.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $27,993, and the median income for a family was $34,688. Males had a median income of $34,688 versus $17,386 for females. The
per capita incomePer capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $14,744. About 19.6% of families and 22.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.8% of those under age 18 and 15.8% of those age 65 or over.
External links