Gooding County was created by the Idaho Legislature on January 28, 1913 by a partition of Lincoln County.  Named for Frank R. Gooding, pioneer sheep rancher, early mayor of the city of Gooding, later Idaho Governor and U. S. Senator. Mountain men and fur traders trapped the Malad River extensively in the early 1800s. Settlers came to the rich agricultural lands of the Hagerman Valley in the 1860s.  The county seat is located in the City of Gooding.  The county contains the cities of Bliss, Gooding, Hagerman and Wendell.  The county has a population of over 14,461.  Gooding County has been one of the fastest growing and prosperous counties in South Central Idaho. The economy is increasingly influenced by the dairy industry, and growth has been strong in the last decade. Although unemployment was very high in the early 1990’s, the dairy influence and cheese factories have stabilized unemployment and now Gooding County often has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state. Gooding County also is one of the largest trout producing areas in the United. The scenic Thousand Springs and the temperate weather of the City of Hagerman make tourism a significant industry with boat trips, fishing, and other water sports. Per capita income has grown steadily in Gooding County, and it is higher than the state average.  Gooding County is entirely on the Snake River Plain, north of the Snake River. Thus all the rocks are Miocene and younger, with Quaternary basalt covering most of the county. In the north the Gooding City of Rocks, carved from Miocene rhyolite ignimbrites of the Twin Falls Volcanic Field, forms the south flank of the Mount Bennett Hills. Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, itself located on the west side of the Snake River in Twin Falls County, has its headquarters in Hagerman.  Malad Gorge, a narrow canyon cut by the Wood River in the last few hundred thousand years, is a unique feature of southern Gooding County.