The population of Franklin, Idaho was 641 at the 2000 census. Founded by Mormon pioneers led by Thomas S. Smart on April 14, 1860 in what was then Washington Territory. The town received its name after Franklin Richards, an Apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Franklin is the first permanent European settlement in present-day Idaho. However, the town’s founders believed the town site was in Utah Territory. Its political status remained ambiguous until an 1872 survey determined the town site was in Idaho Territory about 1 mile (0.6 kilometers) north of the Utah Territory border.
Franklin is the location of a portion of the filming of the movie Napoleon Dynamite. The chicken farm scenes of the movie were filmed on Ritewood Egg Farms property, with the supervisor being loosely based on Marlow Woodward, the deceased founder of the farm.