Caribou

Formed February 11, 1919 (44^th county)

Caribou County (7,028), Soda Springs (3,132)

The tan brick Classical Revival building for Caribou County was built in 1919.  It is on Main Street at Center Street.  United States Highway 30 is one block south of the site.  C. K. Bocker is the building designer.  The grounds feature veteran memorials.  Soda Springs has always been the county seat for the county created from Bannock County on February 11, 1919 as the 44^th and final county.  The county is named for the Caribou Mountains.  Local mineral deposits are the source for the county seat’s name.  

Caribou County government consists of a sheriff, a prosecuter, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.)  Three Circuit Court Judges and a Magistrate Court Judge serve Caribou, Bannock, Bear Lake, Franklin, Oneida, and Power counties (judicial.) The county is in south east Idaho on the border with Wyoming.  The county center is 8.9 miles North-Northeast of Soda Springs.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Bonneville County and Wyoming and Bear Lake, Franklin, Bannock, and Bingham counties. 

The area of the county is 1766 square miles.  It is 17 out of 44 in the state.  It ranks 35 out of 44 in population in the state.  It has a density of 4.0 persons per square mile making it 33 out of 44 in the state.  Caribou County has 61.9% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 30 enters from the southeast, Bear Lake County, and exits to the west, Bannock County.  The county shape could be described as an animal facing west.  Soda Springs is in the southwest quarter of the county.  Soda Springs is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 44.6% of the county population.  The county is pronounced KARE-I-BOO.