Smiths Ferry is a census-designated place in Valley County, Idaho, United States. Its population was 75 as of the 2010 census. Situated where the North Fork of the Payette River briefly calms and widens, its elevation is above sea level.
A ferry at the river was established by Clinton Meyers in 1887 to transport livestock to summer pasture in the Round and Long Valleys across the river. Also popular with freighters, the ferry was sold by Meyers to Jim Smith in 1891, hence the name Smith's Ferry.
Demographics
Highway
- SH-55 to Boise (south) and McCall (north)
Smiths Ferry sits along State Highway 55, the primary north–south route out of Boise, It was designated the "Payette River Scenic Byway" in 1977.
1962 B-47 crash
In 1962, a U.S. Air Force B-47E bomber crashed on a training mission shortly before midnight on August 22 in the mountains several miles south of Smiths Ferry (). Controlled flight into terrain started a forest fire near the summit of Packer John Mountain, and all three crew were killed. The B-47 was based in Arizona at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, where it had departed from earlier that Wednesday evening.