Thomas Sutton served as mayor of Idaho Falls from 1949 to 1951. He played a role in the city becoming the headquarters for the Atomic Energy Commission, the agency that managed the National Reactor Testing Station. Today, it’s known as Idaho National Laboratory. Gen Miner, his great-granddaughter, talks about Sutton in the video above. | Photo courtesy Gen Miner
SHELLEY — Above the mantle in the living room of Gen Miner’s Shelley home hangs a treasured family heirloom.
It’s a framed map showing a trail leading to a cabin near Mack’s Inn in Island Park. The cabin holds a special place in Miner’s heart.
“We’d come here every summer. It was our happy place,” Miner tells EastIdahoNews.com. “We went up there to fish and spend time with cousins. It felt like a family reunion every year.”
But there’s another reason Miner loves it so much. It was originally owned by her great-grandfather, Thomas Sutton.
“He purchased the land and built the cabin (in the 1930s). My great grandma loved to fish and he … loved wood work. It was their vacation home.”
Sutton ran a grocery store in Idaho Falls with his wife, Jennie — from whom Miner gets her first name — for 23 years.
Although Sutton died before Miner was born, she’s always felt a special connection to him and wanted to live closer to the area where he spent a lot of time. Her dream came true in 2023 when she and her husband moved to the area and opened a Bricks & Minifigs LEGO store in Ammon.
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It was shortly after moving here that she discovered something about Sutton she’d never heard before.
“I was at Walgreens and they had a book of prominent Idaho Falls people. I was flipping through it and there’s my grandpa’s picture. I was like, ‘Whoa! Why is he in this book?’” Gen explains. “I started reading and was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I had no idea this was a thing.’”
The book explained that Sutton served as mayor of Idaho Falls when the Atomic Energy Commission selected the city as its headquarters. The AEC was the government agency that managed the National Reactor Testing Station, the predecessor to Idaho National Laboratory.
There was a lot of competition with Arco, Blackfoot and Pocatello for this role, but a great deal of lobbying and schmoozing by Sutton and other city officials is what ultimately led to Idaho Falls being selected.
As Miner reflects on the role her great-grandfather played in this, she says her decision to move here and open a business in the same town feels like a divinely-orchestrated plan.
“It makes sense now why this was something that felt like it was the thing that was supposed to be,” Miner says. “I was supposed to come here and I was able to do this because it’s my history and it’s in my blood.”
Sutton’s story
Thomas Laker Sutton was born July 3, 1896 in the Paris-Fish Haven area near Bear Lake. Based on Miner’s knowledge of historical and family records, she says Sutton was an outgoing guy who loved making jokes.
At age 21, he moved to Idaho Falls after getting a job at Anderson & Sons lumber company. It was short-lived because the U.S. was propelled into World War I a short time later.
Sutton served in the Marine Corps for two years before returning to Idaho Falls. After working in the grocery business for many years, he opened his own shop. Sutton Grocery (some records refer to it as Market Basket) opened on 1st and Lee Street in 1939.
It was around this same time that Sutton got involved in politics. He was elected to the city council in 1933, a position he held for the next 16 years.
Miner says her great-grandfather’s personality made him a good fit for public office.
“He was business-oriented and liked to make change and was interested in impacting people,” she says.
In 1949, four years after the end of World War II, the Atomic Energy Commission selected a desert site 50 miles west of Idaho Falls to be used as a nuclear research facility. The site was designated as the National Reactor Testing Station on Feb. 18, 1949.
The year before, as AEC executives were still considering where to set up shop, Miner says her great-grandfather saw a unique opportunity for the city’s growth. He filed to run for mayor and ended up winning the general election.
Weeks into his inauguration, Sutton flew to Washington, D.C. to sell the AEC on the idea of Idaho Falls becoming its headquarters. Later, when AEC executives came to town, Sutton and his team went to work to roll out the red carpet.
Senior INL Ambassador Shelly Norman told us last year the city held a big party for them.
The idea was to sell Idaho Falls as the cultural center of eastern Idaho. City officials purposely seated the AEC executives next to people who shared similar interests. One of the commissioners liked fly fishing and was seated next to a gorgeous woman who also loved fly fishing. Another man who liked opera was seated next to a beautiful opera singer.
In those days, U.S. Highway 20 from the desert site to Idaho Falls did not exist. There was a gravel road Bonneville County had built that ended at a certain point, according to a history book about the INL.
A road between Blackfoot and Arco did exist, which Bingham County officials argued could easily be updated for traffic traveling to and from the desert site. A clever scheme by the Idaho Falls City Council was successful in diverting the AEC’s attention from that fact.
“The mayor brought the AEC out and had a friend move some dirt around at the edge of town (to look like they were preparing to lay asphalt). He had a friend come up over the hill and tell the AEC he just came from Arco and the road was looking great the whole way,” Norman said. “That was enough to select Idaho Falls as the headquarters.”
While the decision sparked outrage in neighboring communities, Idaho Falls celebrated the decision. An old photo shows Sutton shaking hands with Idaho Falls City Councilmen E.F. McDermott and William Holden.
In news reports at the time, Sutton said he eagerly anticipated the influx of people it would bring to the area.
“I am confident they will be warmly received by the people of Idaho Falls and find this a city in which they will be proud to live in and become an active part of,” Sutton is reported to have said.
The decision set the stage for Idaho Falls becoming the largest city in eastern Idaho and the third-largest metropolitan area in the state.
Today, what is now the INL is managed by the Department of Energy and is the nation’s leading center for nuclear energy research and development. Roughly 6,200 people work across the desert and Idaho Falls campuses, making it the largest employer in the region.
Despite the city’s success in gaining this designation under Sutton’s administration, he was unsuccessful in his bid for re-election. He lost the 1951 election to E.W. Fanning.
In the ensuing years, he worked as a truancy officer for the Idaho Falls School District. He ran his grocery store until 1961.
Sutton passed away in 1979 at age 83.
Coming full circle
Looking back on her great-grandfather’s accomplishments in his short time as mayor, Miner notes what she calls the “coy expression” on his face in the photo taken after the AEC’s decision. She offers some additional perspective.
“That’s how you feel when you’re smart about how you win,” she says. “When I heard this story, I realized I’m a lot like him. I try to find ways to be strategic about how I meet people and talk to people and find ways we can connect and make it work for both of us.”
Although Miner has no current plans to run for public office, she says the idea is appealing to her because of her connection to Sutton. She’s open to running for an elected position sometime in the future.
The cabin Sutton built in the 1930s has been rebuilt over the years, and is now owned by a distant member of Miner’s family. She tries to visit as often as she can.
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In 2023, the INL reached out to Miner and her husband to help design a LEGO minifig for patent applicants. To her, that’s an example of life coming full circle and she can’t help but think her great-grandfather had something to do with it on the other side.
“It’s like (he’s sending a message that) I’m doing the right thing in my life, that I’m focused on the right stuff,” she says. “I think there was some divine guidance there.”
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