Stanley is a town in the Sawtooth Valley in Custer County, Idaho, United States.

[5] Fur trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company discovered the Stanley Basin in the 1820s, but it was mostly avoided due to scarcity of beaver.

Captain John Stanley, a Confederate Civil War veteran, led a party of twenty-three prospectors through the area in 1863 (or 1864), but they found little gold and moved on and discovered the Atlanta lode on the south end of the Sawtooths.

[8] The 2017 solar eclipse attracted a large number of visitors to Stanley and surrounding areas.

The Milky Way is clearly visible in Stanley, and the town has sought the seal of approval from the International Dark-Sky Association.

On March 31, 2020 at 5:48 MST, a M 6.5 earthquake 20 miles northwest of Stanley shook the town.

[22] Stanley has an alpine subarctic climate with very cold winters and warm summers with a very large diurnal temperature variation.

During the summers, the Sawtooth Mountain Mamas Craft Fair is held in the field next to the grocery store, usually for about 2–3 days in July.

[28] A music festival, the Sawtooth Valley Gathering, also attracts a fair number of people.

[29] An imaginative 1980 novel by Gino Sky, Appaloosa Rising: the Legend of the Cowboy Buddha, is set in the Stanley area.

[30] A 2003 memoir by John Rember, Traplines: Coming Home to the Sawtooth Valley describes life in Stanley and its surrounding area, and the cultural changes connected to the establishment of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

[31] The 1985 Clint Eastwood film Pale Rider was mainly shot in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area near Stanley.