By western author Nick Brumby

Dateline: April 1, 2023

DID YOU KNOW?: America’s legendary wild Idaho Spaghetti Trees were discovered on this day in 1872 by two railroad workers lost in a blizzard while building the Transcontinental Railroad.

The two men, Pa Star and Carb O’Nara, were part of a crew building the Central Pacific railroad west across the Swiss Mountain Range. Searching for firewood, the pair were caught in a snowstorm, took a wrong turn, and found themselves stuck on a ridge exposed to the howling winds.

Nearing death, they stumbled into a grotto and found a fabulous grove of wild Idaho Spaghetti Trees. To their amazement they saw trees heavy with tendrils of spaghetti almost brushing the ground.

In the 1870s wild Idaho Spaghetti Trees sprouted spaghetti tendrils up to twelve feet long and half an inch thick.

Unfortunately, in their haste to build a fire the two men burned the entire grove of spaghetti trees down, salvaging only a single cutting.

The pair then vanished into the wilderness and out of history books. They re-appeared years later, having planted a field of wild Idaho Spaghetti Trees just outside of Babylon, Idaho. This field was America’s first commercial spaghetti plantation, known by locals as the ‘Hanging Pasta of Babylon.”

Both men summoned their families. This made Carb’s wife, April, the first woman to cross the Swiss Mountains from the west.

Acres of the finest wild Idaho spaghetti soon covered Idaho fields. However the entire crop was wiped out by a hungry swarm of Short-legged West Texas Longhorn Fire Beetles, which in turn were wiped out because their sole food source was Idaho Spaghetti Trees. Sadly, wild Idaho Spaghetti Trees and Short-legged West Texas Longhorn Fire Beetles have never again been found in Idaho or in fact anywhere else, ever since.

The two historic photos on this page, dating from 1873, are the only evidence we have left of the once lush fields of Old West Idaho spaghetti trees.

About Nick Brumby

I like a good story. And of all stories, I love westerns the most.

As a kid, I spent far too many afternoons re-watching Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, picking up ‘Shane’ for just one more read, or saddling up beside Ben Cartwright when ‘Bonanza’ was on TV each afternoon.

I’m a former journalist and I love horses, dogs, and the occasional bourbon whiskey. I live with my wife, daughter and our ever-slumbering hound in a 1800’s-era gold mining town – our house is right on top of the last working gold mine in the area. There may not be much gold left, but there’s history wherever you look.

I hope you enjoy my westerns as much as I enjoyed writing them!

Happy trails,

Nick