Messy mob sparks wildfire, prompts Labor Day closure of 'The Dunes'

- photo courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Thousands descended on the Ilia Sand Dunes on the south bank of the Snake River below Lower Granite Dam Saturday in a bash that left the beach covered with trash and sparked a wildfire in the hills above.

A wild weekend party at the Ilia Dunes on the Snake River across from Almota left hundreds of rangeland acres charred and resulted in the closure of the sandy beach for clean-up of piles of trash.

Officials with the United States Army Corps of Engineers estimated some 3,300 people were at the Ilia sand dunes, aka “The Dunes”, Saturday.

They left b...