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Photograph of City of Rocks National Reserve
Photograph by Levieuxchiendetalus, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

City of Rocks

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1988. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

From the record

“The City of Rocks National Reserve, also known as the Silent City of Rocks, is a United States National Reserve and state park in south-central Idaho, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the border with Utah. It is widely known for its granite rock formations and rock climbing.”

Wikipedia article City of Rocks National Reserve, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 7 National Register listings published here for Cassia County · listed in 1966 · category: District · built in 1988 · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • Address. City of Rocks State Park, Almo, 83312
  • When was it listed? October 1966
  • Category. district
  • Census division. Albion
  • When was it built? 1988
  • National Register reference number. 66000308 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

12 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of City of Rocks between 1992 and 2016, burning about 1,072 acres in total. 3 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Recreation and ceremony3
Natural3
Equipment and vehicle use2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 1998Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCity of Rocks National ReserveSITE#33
4 September 2011Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresSawtooth National ForestALMO PARK
29 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.5 acresIdaho Falls DistrictCIRCLE C
29 September 1999Missing data/not specified/undetermined800 acresTwin Falls DistrictCITY OF ROCKS 3
29 August 2002Naturalunder an acreSawtooth National ForestROCK
22 August 2006Equipment and vehicle use120 acresIdaho Falls DistrictCASTLE ROAD
19 August 1999Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCity of Rocks National ReserveCITYOFR2
19 August 1999Missing data/not specified/undetermined15 acresCity of Rocks National ReserveSTANROD

Every fire recorded in Cassia County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 19 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of City of Rocks: 9 unknowns, 8 occurrences, 1 past producer, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: REE, Titanium, Iron, Garnet, Zirconium, Beryllium, Titanium, Iron, Garnet. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Almo Basin-Circle Creek #3REE, Titanium, Garnet, IronUnknown
Almo Basin-Edwards CreekREE, Zirconium, Titanium, Garnet, IronUnknown
Almo Basin-Raft River #3Garnet, Iron, Zirconium, Titanium, REEUnknown
Black Jack ScheeliteTungstenOccurrence
Brooks ProspectBeryllium, Thorium, UraniumOccurrence
City of Rocks MineFeldspar, Uranium, Beryllium, ThoriumPast ProducerPegmatite
City of Rocks Uranium DepositUranium, REE, ThoriumOccurrenceMagnetite
City of Rocks Uranium Placer DepositUraniumProspectPlacer
Idaho Queen #1Beryllium, Uranium, ThoriumOccurrence
White Mica Mining and MillingZinc, Silver, Lead, Gold, CopperOccurrence

Every working recorded in Cassia County

Storms near this property

10 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Almo, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 4 hail, 2 heavy rain, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2025Thunderstorm WindAlmo-A 60 mph wind gust measured near Almo near intersection of Idaho 77 and Narrows Rd.
May 2023Tornado (EF0)Almo-Tornado photographed east of Almo. No damage occurred as it was in open fields.
September 2019HailAlmo-A spotter measured 1.25 inch hail 12 miles southeast of Almo.
May 2018Thunderstorm WindAlmo-The Goose Creek RAWS site measured a 73 mph wind gust.
June 2015HailAlmo-Trained spotter measured ping pong size hail southeast of Almo.
August 2014Heavy RainAlmo-Cassia County was declared a natural disaster area by the USDA due to barley crop loss in August from heavy rains. Eastern Idaho lost about 64 million dollars of barley crops due to the rains with a portion of that occurring in Cassia County.
July 2009Flash FloodAlmo-Birch Creek came out of its banks flooding and closing a local road northeast of Almo.
August 1997HailAlmo-Thunderstorm produced dime-size hail and 0.50 inch of rain.
May 1996HailAlmo-no account filed
July 1996Heavy RainAlmo-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cassia County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 66000308 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cassia CountyAll 7 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.