Pocatell me everything about Pocatello.
October 14, 2011 3:32 PM Subscribe
I want to know about Pocatello, Idaho.
Please tell me what you know about this place. I'm basically just trying to get a feel for what life in Pocatello would be like. Any information would be appreciated, including:
- the culture of the town
- what it is "known" for
- what Idaho state university is like
- what industries are there
- what recreation and activities are available there
- what the surrounding area and towns are like
- any personal experience with the area
Thanks, all!
Please tell me what you know about this place. I'm basically just trying to get a feel for what life in Pocatello would be like. Any information would be appreciated, including:
- the culture of the town
- what it is "known" for
- what Idaho state university is like
- what industries are there
- what recreation and activities are available there
- what the surrounding area and towns are like
- any personal experience with the area
Thanks, all!
Best answer: South eastern ID is a great place if you are into the outdoors. Yellowstone, Teton Park, and tons of wild rugged wilderness is not that far away. Yellowstone is about 3.5 hours drive north. It's an easy weekend or day trip if you don't mind the drive.
It gets cold in the winter. You can have a few days of sub zero temps at a time. However I did live a bit north of Pokey. If you want a bigger city, SLC is about 2 hours south. Also, there's a resort called Lava Hot springs. It's kind of 'low rent' but a nice place to visit. They have actual hot springs and a cool river to raft.
The Snake river is nearby. If you are into fly fishing and such.
I can't speak to the cluture of the univeristy, but the larger culture tends to be very conservative farmer types. Lots of old farming families. Vast open stretches of farms are also right out your door.
Idaho Falls is about 45 minutes north. I think Pocatello is a bit less conservative than IF. IF is hub of the LDS church. And a little north of that is BYU-ID.
A lot of people work at the 'Site'. There's lots of tech types. Engineers, and people who work at the test reactor at the site.
For what it's worth. Idaho Falls, has a huge gaming community. Board games. RPGs. There's two game stores in this tiny town.
tl:dr.
It's an awesome place to live if you love rugged country outside your door.
posted by hot_monster at 3:53 PM on October 14, 2011
It gets cold in the winter. You can have a few days of sub zero temps at a time. However I did live a bit north of Pokey. If you want a bigger city, SLC is about 2 hours south. Also, there's a resort called Lava Hot springs. It's kind of 'low rent' but a nice place to visit. They have actual hot springs and a cool river to raft.
The Snake river is nearby. If you are into fly fishing and such.
I can't speak to the cluture of the univeristy, but the larger culture tends to be very conservative farmer types. Lots of old farming families. Vast open stretches of farms are also right out your door.
Idaho Falls is about 45 minutes north. I think Pocatello is a bit less conservative than IF. IF is hub of the LDS church. And a little north of that is BYU-ID.
A lot of people work at the 'Site'. There's lots of tech types. Engineers, and people who work at the test reactor at the site.
For what it's worth. Idaho Falls, has a huge gaming community. Board games. RPGs. There's two game stores in this tiny town.
tl:dr.
It's an awesome place to live if you love rugged country outside your door.
posted by hot_monster at 3:53 PM on October 14, 2011
Pocatello is really nice. I was just there a couple of weeks ago while road tripping to Las Vegas. It is a pretty city that loves their college football team (Bengals) and the people seem very friendly. It's surprising to suddenly be there after driving through miles of nothingness.
posted by Calzephyr at 4:46 PM on October 14, 2011
posted by Calzephyr at 4:46 PM on October 14, 2011
Pocatello was on an msn list of liveable cities yesterday or the day before. Should be easy to find more info there.
posted by jennstra at 9:04 PM on October 14, 2011
posted by jennstra at 9:04 PM on October 14, 2011
Best answer: PokeyTown's OK, but nothing like Boise. Daughter went first to I-State and then U of I. Was not impressed with I-State, as she said was really podunk. She said was slower paced than U of I, but frustrating for her. The university milieu is more exciting and less straitlaced liberal than most of the community.
It's a pretty conservative place with a small town stand-offish feel, and you better not mind the Mormons. They will leave you alone if asked, but then you may be left out, too. There are some upscale places, but Fort Hall Indian Reservation's pretty close, and there are lots of farm families on a very limited budget. Population in town is around 60,000. Read the online newspaper, Google doctors, look online at jobs, what's playing at the theaters, and go through DexOnline to see what there is in terms of restaurants (not much) IMHO. Check out the rental and real estate pages.There are some so-so videos on YouTube that might give you an idea of the country around there.
The cost of living is pretty low--there are some Google pages that will let you compare with your current area.
The weather is hot and arid in the summer--mid-90s for days on end, and damn cold in the winter. Mostly low temps--frequently below zero--sometimes a foot of snow. The wind is what makes the cold miserable. Spring winds are 20-30 mph, but anytime of the year, the air's almost always moving. The mountains surrounding range from 7-9000 feet. The best part is the recreation possibilities. If you can do it outdoors, it's there, and it's fabulous. Unless you plan on hanging out around the small campus and town, you'll need a car to get anywhere.
posted by BlueHorse at 11:22 PM on October 14, 2011
It's a pretty conservative place with a small town stand-offish feel, and you better not mind the Mormons. They will leave you alone if asked, but then you may be left out, too. There are some upscale places, but Fort Hall Indian Reservation's pretty close, and there are lots of farm families on a very limited budget. Population in town is around 60,000. Read the online newspaper, Google doctors, look online at jobs, what's playing at the theaters, and go through DexOnline to see what there is in terms of restaurants (not much) IMHO. Check out the rental and real estate pages.There are some so-so videos on YouTube that might give you an idea of the country around there.
The cost of living is pretty low--there are some Google pages that will let you compare with your current area.
The weather is hot and arid in the summer--mid-90s for days on end, and damn cold in the winter. Mostly low temps--frequently below zero--sometimes a foot of snow. The wind is what makes the cold miserable. Spring winds are 20-30 mph, but anytime of the year, the air's almost always moving. The mountains surrounding range from 7-9000 feet. The best part is the recreation possibilities. If you can do it outdoors, it's there, and it's fabulous. Unless you plan on hanging out around the small campus and town, you'll need a car to get anywhere.
posted by BlueHorse at 11:22 PM on October 14, 2011
Best answer: Oh hell, I'm late to the post, but it looks like hot_monster and Bluehorse have pretty much covered everything. Here are a few more scraps of info:
Pocatello was and still is to some extent, a railroad town.
Up until 2001 FMC had a big fertilizer plant in Pocatello that provided lots of blue collar jobs and suprisingly bad air pollution.
During the real estate boom the combination of relatively cheap real estate and a thriving rental market made investing in crappy rentals in Pocatello a thing.
Pocatello has a sizeable Greek population, as outlined in this essay I found.
Also, my parents met in Pocatello, so it's a very important place indeed.
posted by gamera at 4:52 PM on October 16, 2011
Pocatello was and still is to some extent, a railroad town.
Up until 2001 FMC had a big fertilizer plant in Pocatello that provided lots of blue collar jobs and suprisingly bad air pollution.
During the real estate boom the combination of relatively cheap real estate and a thriving rental market made investing in crappy rentals in Pocatello a thing.
Pocatello has a sizeable Greek population, as outlined in this essay I found.
Also, my parents met in Pocatello, so it's a very important place indeed.
posted by gamera at 4:52 PM on October 16, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by geegollygosh at 3:50 PM on October 14, 2011