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The Commemorative Quarter for Idaho





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 Obsidian (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 Obsidian. 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 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.

Obsidian is located in Custer County.

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 Obsidian. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Obsidian:

  • Custer County     (The home county of Obsidian)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Obsidian, with the one closest to Obsidian listed first.
    • Stanley
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stanley have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stanley
      • Stanley is located in Custer County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 68 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Stanley <2>
    • Bonanza ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonanza
      • Bonanza is located in Custer County
    • Custer ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Custer. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Custer
      • Custer is located in Custer County
    • Clayton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Blaine County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Obsidian, with the one closest to Obsidian listed first.
    • Sawtooth City
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sawtooth City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sawtooth City
      • Sawtooth City is located in Blaine County
    • Galena
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galena
      • Galena is located in Blaine County
    • Boulder ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boulder
      • Boulder is located in Blaine County
      • Boulder has also been known as:
      • Boulder Basin
  • Elmore County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Obsidian, with the one closest to Obsidian listed first.
    • Atlanta
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Alturas City ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alturas City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alturas City
      • Alturas City is located in Elmore County

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

Cemeteries Near Obsidian ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Obsidian.

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 Obsidian covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Stanley Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Stanley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Stanley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sawtooth Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sawtooth Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sawtooth Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Galena Pioneer Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Galena Pioneer Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Galena Pioneer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Boot Hill Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Boot Hill Cemetery
    • 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.
  • Bonanza Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)

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.<6>

While we didn't find Obsidian in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Obsidian.

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

  • Bonanza ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonanza
    • Bonanza is located in Custer County
  • Graham ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Graham have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Graham
    • Graham is located in Boise County
  • Custer ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Custer. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Custer
    • Custer is located in Custer County
  • Atlanta
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Clayton
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful 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 Obsidian:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Obsidian. 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: https://idaho.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Obsidian) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Obsidian. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.0788, Longitude: -114.8473       In this case, the coordinates for Obsidian have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<6>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Obsidian, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025