Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

• That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
• We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
• On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Challis (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Challis. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Challis is located in Custer County and is the County Seat.

To see how the shape of Idaho's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Custer County: Blaine, Boise, Butte, Elmore, Lemhi & Valley.

Below are the counties that are near Challis. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Challis:

• Custer County     (The home county of Challis)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Challis, with the one closest to Challis listed first.
  • Garden City ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Garden City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden City
    • Garden City is located in Custer County
  • Bayhorse ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bayhorse
    • Bayhorse is located in Custer County
  • Ellis
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ellis have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ellis
    • Ellis is located in Custer County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ellis <2>
  • Clayton
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clayton
    • Clayton is located in Custer County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 8 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clayton <2>
  • Custer ‑ Historic
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Custer
    • Custer is located in Custer County
  • Bonanza ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonanza
    • Bonanza is located in Custer County
  • Dickey
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dickey have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dickey
    • Dickey is located in Custer County
• Lemhi County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Challis, with the one closest to Challis listed first.
  • May
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for May have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for May
    • May is located in Lemhi County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for May <2>
  • Patterson
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Patterson
    • Patterson is located in Lemhi County

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Challis, see our County-by-County Page for Challis.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Challis:

• Websites specific to Idaho
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the //history.idaho.gov/idaho-state-archives

• Pages specific to Custer County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Lemhi County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Cemetery Information and Directories for Idaho
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Idaho
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of Idaho
  • Cemeteries of Custer County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Idaho
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Idaho
  • Cemeteries of Custer County

Cemeteries Near Challis ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Challis.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Challis covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Challis, with the one closest to Challis listed first.

• Bonanza Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bonanza Cemetery
• Boot Hill Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Boot Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Boot Hill Cemetery

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Challis had a population of 356 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Challis had a population of 1,066 people.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Challis, with the one closest to Challis listed first.

• Bayhorse ‑ Historic
  (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bayhorse
  • Bayhorse is located in Custer County
• Ellis
  (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ellis have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ellis
  • Ellis is located in Custer County
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ellis <2>
• Clayton
  (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clayton
  • Clayton is located in Custer County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 8 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clayton <2>
• Custer ‑ Historic
  (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Custer
  • Custer is located in Custer County
• Bonanza ‑ Historic
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonanza
  • Bonanza is located in Custer County

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Challis. See our List of 1890's Communities around Challis.

Off-the-Road Links ...

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Challis. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Custer County: www.co.custer.id.us/

The official website for State of Idaho: www.state.id.us/