Historical Society comes to the rescue!

Former Soda Springs residents Randy and Patricia Hoopes were traveling through town from Arizona to Afton to visit relatives, and stopped in town hoping to find documentation to verify that Patricia’s mother was a resident in 1962.  The documentation was necessary as a part of filing a Downwinder claim for illness caused by exposure to radiation during the 1950s and early 60s. 

The search had started earlier with a social media request for any information that might prove that her mother indeed lived here at the time.  Bill Horsley, of the Caribou County Historical Society, saw the posting.  “What Patricia put on Facebook was something like, ‘does anyone have an old phone book from 1961 to 1962,” Horsley said.  I responded that I’m pretty sure we have a City Directory with the same information.  That was courtesy of Deanna Hendricks [Lundin].”

Bill thought that there may be something at the Historical Society headquarters on Hooper Ave that could hold the needed information, and it turned out he was right.  Among the collected historical records on site was one “Gobble Agency’s Montpelier with Georgetown and Paris Bear Lake County and Soda Springs with Bancroft and Grace Caribou Idaho City Directory”.  How’s that for a mouthful?  The amazing thing is that the volume in possession of the Historical Society is the 1961/1962 edition, which is exactly the one they needed.  

The directory is not quite a phone book, rather it is a list of households and census information about the residents.  Bill was able to find himself and his family, listed out by age, occupation, and other details.

“We have a book that just happened to be a city directory from the right time,” Horsley said.  “Here’s what’s crazy to me—in 1962, if we look up Horsley, we see my parents, and here’s me, William D, second grade.  Douglas Milton, five years old, and my little sister Kibbie too.  Can you believe they would put all that in there?”  The book lists the age, marital status, occupation, and grade level of those listed.  For Patricia, that’s exactly what she needed to confirm that her mother did indeed live in the area during the timeframe in question.

“It has everyone that lived here,” Bill said.  “Patricia’s mother happened to be a waitress. Right here—” he said, pointing to the page in the volume, “her mother is listed as a waitress at the Idaho Café.”

While it’s likely the courthouse records also contain the necessary information somewhere, a good old fashioned analog document search is a comfortable means of finding information for many people who need it.  It’s also the case that there is some local information that simply never made it into any official record. Local antiquarians and genealogists have learned that to be true over time, and resources like the Caribou County Historical Society can be immensely valuable for tracking down information about certain aspects of a city’s history.  And in the case of Patricia’s parents, while they had moved to Soda Springs in 1959, they had not built their house until 1963, making the most salient records just past the cutoff for the application.

“Thank heaven for Bill that he had this or we wouldn’t have the information I need,” Patricia said.  She had first heard of the Downwinders program from someone who had looked into it.  “My friend in Pocatello called me and said, ‘Patty, what did your mom die of?’  I told her ‘colon cancer’ and she asked if I had heard of the Downwinders program. She said  ‘What you’ve got to do is prove that your loved one lived in Idaho from 1951 to 1962.  Idaho just became eligible in July.  Anyone that lived in Idaho during those periods is eligible for that compensation, if they had certain cancers.”

The book had come to the museum through its own circuitous route.  “What happened was that the woman who donated this was a neighbor,” Horsley said.  “When Greta [Lundin] passed away, Tom and Deanna called us over to look at the stuff in her basement, and told us to take what we could use.”  Among the items were kitchen gadgets, radios, coffee pots, and many documents, including the City Directory.  

“It’s come in handy more than a few times!” Horsley said.

Patricia was delighted to find what she needed to keep the process going, and encourages others to look into the program themselves if they have a relative who lived in Idaho from 1951-1962 and died of one of the listed cancers.  “It’s easy to do, but there is a lot of leg work,” she said.  “I’m just glad that Bill had that book that someone donated—how wonderful is that?”

According to the Department of Justice, “The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), 42 U.S.C. § 2210 note, is a federal law that provides partial restitution to individuals who developed certain serious illnesses following exposure to radiation from the U.S. nuclear weapons program, or their survivors.  RECA assigned responsibility to the Attorney General to establish procedures and make determinations regarding whether claims satisfy statutory eligibility criteria.

This unique statute was designed as a non-adversarial alternative to litigation.  RECA does not require claimants to prove causation.  Rather, claimants qualify for compensation by establishing a diagnosis of a compensable disease after working or residing in a designated location for a specific period.”

It was the latter condition that Patricia was hoping to verify.  Soda Springs is a qualifying area, but the residency requirements are the years 1951-1962.  As the DOJ further explains: “The Downwinder must have been physically present in an affected area for one of the following durations: In the State of New Mexico for 1 year between September 24, 1944, and November 6, 1962; In any affected area for 1 year between January 21, 1951, and November 6, 1962; or In any affected area for the entire period from June 30, 1962, to July 31, 1962.  The affected areas under RECA’s downwind provisions include the states of Idaho, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as selected counties in Arizona and Nevada.

In addition to proving residency during the time period, the claimant must also “show that they were diagnosed with a specified compensable disease.  The specified compensable diseases are leukemia (other than chronic lymphocytic leukemia), multiple myeloma, lymphomas (other than Hodgkin’s disease), and primary cancers of the: thyroid, male or female breast, esophagus, stomach, pharynx, small intestine, pancreas, bile ducts, gall bladder, salivary gland, urinary bladder, brain, colon, ovary, liver (except if cirrhosis or Hepatitis B is indicated, or lung.”

Information about the program and the application can be found at https://www.justice.gov/civil/reca.