Portneuf River

Portneuf River, watercourse, southeastern Idaho, U.S., rising in the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, southeast of Blackfoot. The Portneuf flows south then west and northwest past Lava Hot Springs and Pocatello, between segments of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, to the American Falls Reservoir on the Snake River. The upper course of the 83-mile (134-km) river is dammed for irrigation. The horseshoe-shaped river’s name probably comes from that of a French-Canadian trapper who was killed near the river in 1825.