Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Montpelier, ID

Montpelier is a city in Bear Lake County, Idaho, and it had a population of 2,643 at the 2020 census, up from 2,597 in 2010, making it the largest community in the Bear Lake Valley.

Montpelier was settled in 1863 by Mormon pioneers on the route of the Oregon Trail, and it was first known as Clover Creek by Oregon Trail travelers, then Belmont, before Brigham Young named it Montpelier after the capital of his birth state of Vermont.

The Oregon Short Line Railway reached Montpelier on August 5, 1882, and the railroad terminal was located there until 1972, making Montpelier the county’s “Gentile Town” as opposed to nearby Mormon-run Paris, the county seat.

On August 13, 1896, the Bank of Montpelier was robbed by Butch Cassidy and members of his Wild Bunch, Elzy Lay and Henry “Bub” Meeks, who escaped with roughly 7,000 dollars, and the heist is commemorated by a plaque on Washington Street.

The Butch Cassidy Museum at the Bank of Montpelier is located in a bank built in 1891 that contains the original vault, and it is the only bank robbed by Butch Cassidy that continues to stand.

The National Oregon/California Trail Center in Montpelier is an interactive interpretive center dedicated to the history of the trails that ran through the town.

The 2020 census counted 1,053 households in Montpelier, and the median age was 38.9 years.

The 4.9-acre Montpelier Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and includes the city hall, a high school, the high school’s gymnasium, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Stake Tabernacle.

U.S. Routes 89 and 30 intersect in Montpelier, which sits near the Wyoming border to the east in southeastern Idaho along the Utah border.

Montpelier is home to Bear Lake High School, and the city sits at an elevation of 5,978 feet.