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A national, upper-midscale hotel chain constructing a 53-room hotel in Soda Springs, tucked away in southeastern Idaho?
Why not?
Pretty much each of Cobblestone Hotels' 70 properties is in a city far, far off the radar for savvy travelers and likely even for most residents in the 14 states where the Neenah, Wisc., hotelier has locations. The possible exception is the Cobblestone Inn in Punxsutawney, Penn., home to a famous Groundhog Day tradition.
Cobblestone Hotels places its establishments in places like Eads, Colo., Guernsey, Wyo., and Gering, Neb. Why not Soda Springs, Idaho?
The $5 million Cobblestone Inn that started earthwork in fall will have nearly double the rooms of Soda Springs' largest hotel, the 28-room Enders Hotel. Built in 1917, the Enders Hotel is the only one of the city's four lodging establishments with a functioning website. Soda Springs has a population of just under 3,000.
The Cobblestone Inn would be the largest hotel in Caribou County and also the largest on the 87-mile stretch between Pocatello and Montpelier.
The hotel is expected to open this fall, said Mick McCullough, a Soda Springs resident who heads up the franchise ownership group.
After more than 20 years of driving through southeastern Colorado on the way to Texas, McCullough came upon a new, two-story, 33-room Cobblestone Inn hotel in Eades, population 600, 60 miles from the nearest freeway.
"I just slammed on the brakes, went in, and asked, 'How did you do this?'" McCullough recalled. "I had been looking...