Christmas City, USA

By Alice Schenk

Clara Schenk usually stayed home to babysit while her mom and dad drove their Model T to Rupert Square to buy groceries. In 1928, when she was nine, Clara finally convinced her parents to take her with them one evening. Her brother Bill, who was a year older than her, stayed home to babysit Richard, who was about four, and the baby Ardena. As the Schenks headed home after shopping, they drove over the canal and Clara later recalled that her mom, Karolina, cried out, “My babies, my babies!”

The house windows must have been open, because Karolina could hear Ardena wailing. At home, Bill was asleep on the floor, and Richard was upstairs next to Ardena in her crib, feeding her jam, trying to get her to quit crying. Obviously, Bill couldn’t be left in charge. Clara never got to go to town again.

That’s one of many Schenk tales I’ve heard since marrying into the family in 1982. I’ve lived in Rupert ever since then and have been in Minidoka County since 1969, when my family moved from Richfield to Heyburn. In the Schenk family, longevity prevails. Aunt Clara lived to 101 and Aunt Ardena just turned ninety-seven. Ardena still lives in her childhood home, which has been with the Schenks for more than a hundred years. My parents-in-law Richard (Rich) and Vi lived a mile up the road from us.

Rich and my husband Wayne farmed together. Rich supposedly retired from farming when he was seventy-five, but he continued to help Wayne on the farm until he passed away six months shy of his ninetieth birthday. Just a few days before that, Rich had helped Wayne move wheel lines on the farm.

For eleven years after Vi died, Rich came to our home for lunch. He had a dry sense of humor. For example, one day when we were at the table, Rich told me he had been reading in his journal about when he moved to Rupert. He was a tiny lad riding the train into town, looking out the window at the tall trees along the way.

“I didn’t know you kept a journal,” I gushed. “I’d love to read it.”

Truth be told, he didn’t have one. And he didn’t ride the train to Rupert, either. He was born here. The “tall trees” were sagebrush.

Rich’s parents, Gottlieb and Karolina Schenk, came West from the Dakotas and homesteaded alongside railroad tracks near Kimama, a small community about twenty miles north of present-day Rupert. Uncle Bill and Aunt Clara were both born there. The Schenk family had its share of hardships. Uncle Adolph, whom I never knew, was the first person to contract polio in Rupert.

He remained paralyzed and spent the remainder of his life in an iron lung in Boise. A younger brother, Albert, was hit fatally by a car as he was getting off the school bus in front of their home. Uncle Bill suffered a brain aneurysm but lived an additional twenty-five years (bedridden for most of it) under the care of his wife, who was a nurse.

Antique cars at the Wilson Theatre in Rupert. Jim Metzger.

Rupert's official Christmas City sign. Amanda Larsen.

The city clock on the square. Alice Schenk.

The author's ancestors with Uncle Adolph in the wheelchair. Courtesy Alice Schenk.

Alice poses in front of a town mural. Courtesy Alice Schenk.

A pageant poster. Alice Schenk.

Rupert Square. Jim Metzger.

Rupert Fountain. Susan Metzger.

Rupert Square, 1940. Minidoka County Museum.

Santa visits Rupert. Warren Yadon.

The Sugarbeet Drop. Sally Stephens.

The town's water tower. Alice Schenk.

When Uncle Bill and Aunt Vera bought their farm on Meridian Road in Rupert, their machine shop was formerly the town’s first jail, built in 1916. They later donated the building to the Minidoka County Historical Society Museum. Nowadays the museum, which offers free admission, contains many antique farm implements and collectibles. Wayne Birch, a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and an accomplished gunsmith, donated his extensive collection of guns and ammo to the museum. During the annual Steam and Power event, old steam engines are fired up there.

The museum also tells the story of the Minidoka Relocation Center. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly thirteen thousand people of Japanese ancestry—the majority of whom were American citizens—were forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated at Minidoka, about fourteen miles northeast of Rupert [see “Minidoka Memories,” IDAHO magazine, February 2014]. At the time, this made Minidoka the state’s eighth largest community.

In 1914, Minidoka County was created from Lincoln County and five years later Rupert became the county seat. The community was originally called Wellfirst because it had the only well within miles, and people traveled long distances to get water from it. When a resident named Rupert left the area, his name remained with the town. Early settlers were forced to contend with jackrabbits that ruined haystacks, barked trees, and destroyed crops year after year.

In a 1912 hunt, sixty-five hundred jackrabbits were killed. The animals were not under control until the late 1950s, and my husband recalls being a part of the jackrabbit drives as a young boy. It was a gruesome but necessary task for the livelihood of the farmers and ranchers.

In 1911, Rupert became one of the first cities in the world whose streets were lit by electricity, with help from Minidoka Dam, which also provided irrigation. An online article from the National Park Service says that Rupert High School, which later became Washington Elementary, was touted as the country’s first all-electric-heated school. 

“Not only were the rooms warm, but electric lights glowed, and hot water flowed in the lavatories,”  the article reported. “In the ‘domestic science’ rooms, girls exchanged winter coats for aprons and cooked on electric hot plates and ranges. Rupert Electrical High School even had a ‘good electric bell’ connected to the principal’s office.” Built in 1913, the building was razed in 1984.

When Minidoka County’s new interstate section was built in 1961, it bypassed Rupert, which used to be on the main thoroughfare. Yet a trip into town is still well worth the effort. First there’s Rupert Square, a park in the center of the business district that boasts a gazebo, fountain, plenty of shade trees, and a playground. The square was updated in 2018, and a two-thousand-pound fountain bowl was ordered for the center.

Unforeseen circumstances led the manufacturer to finish it much later than anticipated, which would not be in time for Rupert’s traditional Christmas lighting event. The owners of a nursery in Twin Falls, who were among contractors working on the square, took it upon themselves to fly to the foundry. They rented a truck and drove the bowl to Rupert on their dime so the town would have its fountain in time.

The square’s revitalization over the years has included a new clock, sidewalks, benches, hanging baskets throughout downtown, and a change of the two-lane road around the square to a one lane, which allowed safer parking. An ice cream shop recently opened on the square in the newly renovated Roosevelt Building, and a popular pizza place has been sold, remodeled, and reopened.

Also on the square are a quilting shop and antique store, and very close by are a Chinese restaurant, barber shop and hair salon, florist, deli, café, and numerous business offices. My niece Esther Garner owns a flower shop on the square and when time allows, she paints murals.

The holiday season is hard to beat in a place proclaimed by the governor as, “Christmas City, U.S.A.” That’s right, Rupert was given this official nickname in 1987 by Gov. Cecil D. Andrus to honor the town’s intense Christmas spirit. I figure we’re the next best thing to the North Pole—and, fittingly, one year when I was in the real town of North Pole, Alaska, I saw wooden ornaments for sale that were carved by a Rupert resident.

Each year, our citizens raise thousands of dollars to decorate the town during Christmas, beginning with a “Christmas in July” community breakfast fundraiser. During Yule season, Santa arrives at the square, there’s a vast chili feed, fireworks, a singalong, a gift bazaar, and an ice-skating rink surrounded by huts that sell specialty coffees and hot chocolate, bakery items, and homemade Christmas gifts.

On New Year’s Eve, Boise has the Idaho Potato Drop but in Rupert, it’s the Crystal Sugar Beet Drop. There are concerts, food, and a fireworks display as the towering piece of produce, twenty-two feet tall and twelve feet in diameter, touches ground.

The beet drop is appropriate, because Minidoka County is home to one of the largest sugar beet processing plants in the United States, two miles from my house. We’ve grown sugar beets on our farm for more than forty years, and I enjoy the fall experience of driving loaded beet trucks to the factory—except for the time when I did not get the tailgate completely shut on my truck.

I pulled into a major intersection close to town, dumping beets as I drove, until I glanced back and saw Rich and Wayne running after me, waving furiously. They closed the tailgate, sent me on my way, and cleaned up the mess.

Spuds are another cash crop in our county, and the sixteenth annual Potato Day and Food Drive was held recently by a research firm, which allows residents to dig russet potatoes and leave them in the field for people to pick up free. In October 2024, the owners of a frozen foods business opened a new $65 million high-tech food manufacturing facility northeast of Rupert. The one-hundred-thousand-square-foot plant produces and packages frozen, baked Idaho potatoes.

In 1997, a group of Rupert businesspeople established the Rupert Renaissance Initiative, which I was invited to join. One of its main objectives was to restore a glorious addition to Rupert’s cityscape of 1920, the Wilson Theatre, which went into receivership just five years later. By the 1950s, much of its delicate ornamentation had deteriorated or had been removed, and a standard movie marquee was added to the facade. The building was functional throughout the next decade as Rupert’s movie house but had lost what made it special.

The committee worked with the city to purchase and renovate the theatre for use as a multipurpose community and arts center [see “Renaissance in Rupert,” IDAHO magazine, October 2009]. Ten community leaders each gave ten thousand dollars to buy it. The restoration effort, led by local activist and visionary Earl Corliss, began in 2000.

One day a man named Robert Orr stopped by our mayor’s office. He was driving through Idaho and had decided to put flowers on his parents’ graves and reconnect with the city where he grew up. He asked if there were any projects in Rupert he could contribute to. Robert was in the final graduating class of Rupert High School before it closed in the mid-1950s. A farm boy, he earned a college degree at Long Beach State University and established a career in California and Utah that included ownership of a semiconductor company.

The person Robert spoke to was Audrey Neiwerth, who in 2000 had become Rupert’s first woman mayor. Under her guidance, Rupert was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Plaques were hung on Fifth District Judge Larry Duff’s building and thirty-three other downtown Rupert buildings. There’s an Avenue of Flags at the entrance to downtown and the National Historic Registry has added the Rupert Business Park to its massive database and web page.

“It’s no different from being a national monument, like Craters of the Moon,” declared Chris Jackson, who served for many years as the renaissance committee coordinator and the Wilson Theatre Renaissance Art Center’s executive director.

Audrey took Robert Orr to see the Wilson Theatre, which was then a work in progress. He donated one hundred thousand dollars to significantly move the restoration project forward. Since then, Robert has donated nearly one million dollars for continued work on the theatre and for the Fremont Plaza community space next to it. “His gifts to the city were not about making grand statements but were about his efforts to do his best to give something back,” Robert’s son Gregg Orr said. He believed his father “took a lot of joy” from helping with Rupert’s revitalization.

Over time and with the help of many organizations, donors, and businesses, the brick façade was restored, the intricate terracotta tile work was painstakingly recreated in fiberglass to withstand the elements better, grace was returned to the sweeping arches, and new windows were installed. Almost all the four hundred new seats were purchased by donors.

A gold and maroon ornamental ceiling was designed to mimic the European theatres after which the Wilson was patterned. An all-purpose event space on the second floor can be split into three separate classrooms, which are used for everything from rehearsals and workshops to wedding receptions and business functions.

Today, the theatre is owned by the city and managed as the non-profit Renaissance Arts Center. Every October, the Wilson Wizarding Experience transforms the theatre into a magic-filled building that draws crowds from surrounding states for train rides, shopping, and potions classes. In summer, during the Superhero Adventure, superheroes and villains swarm the theatre and visitors take a convoy ride or test their skills on a ninja training course.

Other events at the theatre include a Princess Tea Party for dads and daughters, Wednesdays at the Wilson, when young children learn new activities, and the Little Miss Christmas City Pageant. Vocalists and string and band instrumentalists aged thirteen to eighteen comprise the Wilson Youth Symphony and Chorus. The versatile venue also hosts a variety of concerts and dance recitals and donates space for local productions.

Another city improvement project that took a good while to complete was the Rupert Swimming Pool in Neptune Park. Built in 1949, it had deteriorated over the years and upkeep was costly. Wally Studer and I were on the Minidoka County Recreation Committee and we worked diligently to get the pool’s renovation on the ballot in 1998. But the measure failed and the pool shut down in 2002. For several years, city officials worked on upgrades and it eventually reopened along with a kiddie-sized pool.

My children learned to swim there, and my son Matthew was on the Rupert Sharks swim team. The Rupert Pool hosts competitive swimming and lessons, and it can be rented out for special events. Recently, realtor Stan Buckley and wife Denise donated a multi-family home in Boise to the City of Rupert, which sold it for just shy of one million dollars. The proceeds will be used to put a retractable cover on the pool so that it can be enjoyed year-round. Stan swam in the pool as a youth. He still swims there, and now his grandchildren use it.

At the parking lot entrance to the pool is an M4 Sherman tank, the WWII workhorse. Donated by the National Guard, it’s dedicated to disabled American veterans. Also near the pool are world-class pickleball courts, made possible by private donations and a community development block grant. A recent tournament there raised thirteen thousand dollars to help the city fund the swimming pool.

In a spirit of goodwill and to encourage camaraderie, Minidoka County Sheriff Dave Pinter and his chief deputy, Dan Kindig, freed up officers to play pickleball at lunchtime. Dan told me only once so far has he had to interrupt the guys to help with an accident call. “Within a year, we had a sixty-eight percent decrease in sick time and one guy lost thirty pounds,” Dan said. “When the weather turned cold, the group moved indoors to play.”

Another committee on which I served tried to bring a YMCA to Rupert. Our goal was to remodel the old Pershing Elementary School, with a plan to open at the end of June 2016 and to give guided tours during Rupert’s Fourth of July festivities. In the end, we didn’t get the YMCA—but we did get a fitness center with great classes, instructors, free weights and machines in the school, and a Boys and Girls Club next door.

For more than thirty years, Boys and Girls Clubs of Magic Valley have offered memberships to all youth aged five to eighteen. But the organization has stringent requirements for putting a club in a community. When officials came for a scheduled half-hour to consider Rupert, they stayed more than two hours. They decided we were a great fit: our superintendent of schools would provide busing, a building was available, and we had a plan in place.

Before Robert Orr died, he established a charitable foundation called, “Building Youth around the World.” He told his son he would love to continue giving to Rupert. The foundation recently donated to the Rupert Boys and Girls Club and plans are underway to renovate a nearby building purchased by the foundation. The expansion will allow the current membership to expand by an additional 150 youth to a total of 345, and it will offer a community food pantry.

What else is there to do in Rupert? Well, we have a first-rate county fair and 4-H programs, in which my children have participated. The town has a golf course and we’re less than fifteen miles from the Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge, Minidoka Dam, Lake Walcott, and Walcott Park, where there are camping facilities to enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of nature. Pomerelle Ski Resort, with twenty-four ski runs and two terrain parks, is only thirty miles away.

For my money one of the most fun things in Rupert is to attend the Fourth of July celebrations, which I think are the best in Idaho. The Fourth brings our town together in what feels like a family reunion. Warmth and kindness emanate from this place and from the good souls who run the booths that surround our excellent little park in the heart of the city. There is nightly entertainment in the gazebo.

As the sun drops in the western sky, hundreds of people eat dinner, listen to live music, and soak in a truly American experience. The Fourth of July Parade oozes with pride as local restaurants, schools, churches, businesses, and tractor supply stores advertise their love of nation and of this little city. Many people set out chairs and blankets along the parade route, sometimes two rows deep. How nice it is to leave your things on the side of the road and no one disturbs them.

One year at the Fourth festivities on the square, Ty England came to town, and it was an unforgettable experience for me. Singers love to bring someone on stage to embarrass, and I was induced to go up with him as he sang a solo. I sat on a stool, hammed it up and played along as he sang, “You’re the Perfect Girl” to me. My friends later told me they thought we had rehearsed it. I saw him on stage again when Garth Brooks sold out the Boise State Stadium in 2019…but I didn’t get invited up that time.

As you can tell, I love my hometown and feel fortunate to live here. Rupert has a rich heritage and, to me, the people here are like family.