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Rexburg to mark the 50th anniversary of the Teton Dam flood with weeklong Flood 50 events and a service campaign
Summary
City presenter Jed Platt outlined a year-long Flood 50 commemoration focused on remembrance, community service and regional participation, with walking tours, a dam-site ribbon cutting on the June 5 anniversary, immersive exhibits and a campaign for 50 acts or hours of service.
Jed Platt, presenting to the Rexburg City Council on April 23, announced a year-long commemoration called Flood 50 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Teton Dam flood in June 2026. The program will include walking tours, an audio-guided bus tour, a VIP ribbon cutting at the dam site on the June 5 anniversary, rotating film screenings at the Romance Theatre, community exhibits, and a service campaign inviting participants to record “50 acts of service” or “50 hours of service.”
Platt said the organizers intentionally framed the commemoration to emphasize response and recovery rather than disaster imagery. “We fully realized that this wasn't a Rexburg specific event, but that we have become the steward of the story,” Platt said. “Our vision together, for Flood 50, is really a threefold mission to remember, to serve, and to connect.”
The event series will include interactive downtown walking tours that point out surviving evidence of the flood, a mobile app developed with BYU–Idaho students showing before-and-after views, and bus tours that will provide onsite narration and survivor testimony. Platt said the city and partnering communities are preparing an audio tour that will be posted on the museum website after the commemoration so residents can take the tour independently.
Organizers plan a slate of community activities during the anniversary week: a fireside-style campus program modeled after a historically significant gathering at Ricks College, a marathon and post-race party at Smith Park, river floats, a motorcycle rally beginning at the Teton Dam site and ending at American Falls Dam, a golf tournament and an accompanying preparedness fair. Committee member Terry Hill will lead the motorcycle rally, Platt said. Local arts projects will incorporate original flood mud and photographs into exhibits and public art along the riverway.
Platt and partners are also preparing an interactive exhibit aimed at showing settlers’ solutions for irrigation, the reasons a dam was built, the recovery work after the breach, and current community challenges with suggested solutions. The museum and committee plan smaller listening groups and a weekend schedule that culminates in a community devotional on the seventh (date given by organizers as the closing event of the week).
Platt said the committee expects regional interest and is planning outreach to volunteers and visitors who assisted in 1976. He asked council members and staff to help publicize lodging and event information so visitors can plan travel for “June of 2026.” The committee is inviting the public to log service hours on a Flood 50 website and is in touch with national media and service programs to broaden participation.
Alicia, a representative from the Museum of Rexburg and the flood museum, is staff contact for exhibit and archival materials, and the committee is producing an accompanying book and a short documentary titled Flood of Memories that has already been shown to the council. Platt encouraged residents and regional partners to contribute oral histories and volunteer for planning and event staffing.
Organizers said additional event details, volunteer sign-ups and the audio tour downloads will be available on the museum’s Flood 50 web pages as they are finalized.
