Idaho town boasts the birthplace of television
Rigby Idaho is not just the birthplace of television, it is a little town of about 2,900 people located in the hub of Eastern Idaho.
Philo T. Farnsworth, the man accredited with inventing television, lived in the town when he came up with the idea of video transmissions.
According to www.farnovision.com, Farnsworth wasn’t actually born in Rigby, he just spent his time there as a youth after his parents moved from Utah.
According to the Web site, Farnsworth was a Utah farm boy with not much knowledge of electricity when he arrived in Rigby in 1919. Farnsworth and his family came to town in a covered wagon when Farnsworth was just 11 years old. The first thing Farnsworth noticed as he arrived at their new farm home was the electric wiring running between the buildings.
“This place has electricity,” he said.
According to the Web site, this was the first thing to spark Farnsworth’s interest in electricity and television.
Later, as a freshman at Rigby High School, Farnsworth started taking senior chemistry classes because his classes were not challenging enough for him, the site reported.
According to the Web site, Farnsworth frequently daydreamed about television and the ability to transmit lines of light on the end of a glass jar, while plowing the endless rows in his field.
In March of 1922 he presented this idea to Justin Tolman, his high school chemistry teacher who, after some deliberation, decided Farnsworth’s idea just might work, according to the Web site.
For a few years, Farnsworth traveled around, taking his ideas through BYU, the University of Utah and eventually to Hollywood, according to the site.
But it all started in Rigby.
Not only is Rigby the place where Philo T. Farnsworth did much of his growing up but it is also the center of Eastern Idaho.
Mayor Keith Scott said Farnsworth is one of the best things that Rigby has.
“There’s just not a heck of a lot to do around here,” Scott said.
Scott said although Rigby has been recently recognized as the birthplace of television, this publicity didn’t come until about three or four years ago.
A lot of the publicity arose because of new attention made by the Jefferson County Historical Society Farnsworth TV and Pioneer Museum.
Marge Scott, the curator of the museum and wife of the mayor, said the museum pays particular attention to Philo Farnsworth, the pioneers and now has a display to honor the community’s veterans, fire fighters and law enforcement.
“It’s definitely one of the best museums in Idaho,” Marge said.
She said she loves living in Rigby because the people are friendly and wonderful.
“Rigby is the hub of Eastern Idaho,” she said. “It is right between Rexburg and Idaho Falls.”
Marge said people like to come to Rigby because of the museum and Hiese Hot Springs located in nearby Ririe, Idaho.
Mayor Scott said Rigby’s 2,998 residents are about the most friendly people around, which is the thing that really attracts people to the town.
Mayor Scott said some of the highlights of Rigby include the brand new Post Office – which had its ribbon cutting on Monday, the new recreation center – which is still being constructed, and the fact that not many towns the size of Rigby have curbs and gutters lacing all the streets of the city.
He said it is truly the center of Eastern Idaho because all of the highways – north, south, east and west – run right through town.
“That’s why the state put the highway department here,” he said.