1918: Idaho Falls greets the armistice with an all-day celebration
The Idaho Register of Nov. 12, 1918, described sirens before dawn, impromptu parades and a declared holiday.
IDAHO FALLS — On Tuesday, Nov. 12, 1918, The Idaho Register used its front page to describe how the town took the news that the world war was over.
The siren sounded and the fire bell rang at half past two the morning before, the paper reported, and the streets filled with people who had dressed in a hurry. Parades formed on the spot, with drums, ash cans, bells, auto horns and songs. By daylight, people from out of town had driven in to join them.
Business was suspended and a holiday declared. Decorated cars dragging cow bells and ash cans raced through the streets, and crowds went house to house. The noise and parading went on "all day and far into the night," and the paper called it "the greatest day that Idaho Falls has ever witnessed."
The same front page said Bonneville County was expected to largely oversubscribe its $17,000 quota in the United War Work campaign.
Source: The Idaho Register (Idaho Falls, Idaho), Nov. 12, 1918, page 1, via the BYU-Idaho Idaho Falls Newspapers collection: contentdm.lib.byu.edu.