relatively high altitude limited crops to those requiring a short growing season such as grain and alfalfa. Seed potatoes were not tried as a crop until 1920 but as it turns out, the area is perfect for seed potatoes. The short growing season keeps the potatoes desirably small, and the long, cold winters create the ideal conditions for seed. The longtime enemy to potato farming is potato blight, a form of mold that reproduces from spores in the soil and sickens the potato plant. Ashton's winters clean the soil of these mold spores with a long, deep and killing freeze. Potato blight never spreads because the soil is clean and free of spores each spring. After realizing this, farmers organized, hired inspectors, and began selling certified seed potatoes giving buyers comfort that Ashton seed was free of molds and disease. This enabled them to demand a premium price for these potatoes grown in the clean soils around Ashton and the area quickly became the largest seed potato producing area in the world as it is still known today. Geography and climate Ashton is located at (44.072092, -111.447858), at an elevation of above mean sea level. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land. Ashton is from the southwest corner of Yellowstone National Park, from Grand Teton National Park and from the Grand Teton with a clear view. Ashton is surrounded by farmland but is less than five miles (8 km) from the Targhee National Forest. There are four rivers within of Ashton, and all are outstanding trout streams: the Henrys Fork of the Snake River, Fall River, the Teton River and Warm River. Also nearby are three notable waterfalls: Upper Mesa Falls and Lower Mesa Falls, both on the Henrys Fork, and Cave Falls on Fall River. Moisture channel Ashton's climate is unique and distinct relative to most of the U.S. northern Intermountain West. Ashton's annual precipitation, at , is among the highest in southern Idaho and yet Ashton is not in the mountains. Further, the areas five miles (8 km) north or five miles (8 km) east of Ashton receive over of precipitation while St. Anthony, only to the southwest, receives only . This unusually high precipitation in the Ashton area is due to the geography of southern Idaho and Yellowstone. The Snake River Plain, formed by the