In 1970, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game used Pittman-Robertson funds to purchase over 2,800 acres of this winter range, creating Portneuf Wildlife Management Area (WMA).

The ponds created by beaver dams hold water in the area longer and greatly improve habitat for native cutthroat trout populations.

Coyotes, raccoons, yellow-bellied marmots, cottontail rabbits, red pine squirrels, and the occasional bobcat and mountain lion also roam WMA lands.

Golden eagles, Northern harriers, red-tailed hawks, and great horned owls are commonly seen on Portneuf WMA.

Riparian habitat along the Portneuf River and the WMA drainages is defined by willow, red osier dogwood, birch, and cottonwood.

Upland areas contain a mixture of shrubs and grasses including sagebrush, bitterbrush, serviceberry, elderberry, mountain mahogany, chokecherry, juniper, bluebunch wheatgrass, Idaho fescue, and bottle-brush squirreltail.

On the timbered slopes adjoining the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, Douglas fir, juniper, and aspen stands dominate.

The site’s popularity with men on the wrong side of the law eventually earned it the name “Robber’s Roost.” A now legendary stage holdup occurred in 1865.

The Pocatello Tribune provided this account of the heist: “a stage of the Concord type, carrying several passengers and $60,000 worth of gold was betrayed by its driver, Frank Williams, to a gang led by Jim Locket.

As he rounded a steep hill, Williams turned his horses, and the road agents, concealed in the brush which was so thick that it scratched the sides of the coach, gave the word of halt.

At the cry ‘hands up!’, the passengers opened fire bringing upon themselves a volley that killed both of them and two other men.” Legend has it that the outlaws buried their loot in the Robber’s Roost area.

When homesteaders settled the area, they spoke of watching strangers armed with shovels, tape measures, and crude maps scour the hillsides of Robber’s Roost, but ultimately leaving empty-handed.