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IDAHO, sandwiched in between
Washington, Oregon and Montana, was the last
of the states to be penetrated by whites,
and rivals Alaska in the sheer scale of its
barely explored wilderness areas.
Though much of its scenery amply deserves
national park status, its citizens have long
been suspicious of encroachment by federal
government and tourism alike, and only now
is its potential for adventurous travel
being appreciated.
With a marked absence of urban centers
(the pleasant state capital Boise, in
the south, being the only real exception),
Idaho is very much a destination for the
outdoors enthusiast. Natural wonders in its
five-hundred-mile stretch include Hell’s
Canyon, America’s deepest river gorge,
the dramatic Sawtooth National Recreation
Area and the black, barren Craters of
the Moon. Beyond these, hikers
and backpackers have the choice of no
fewer than 81 mountain ranges, interspersed
with virgin forest and lava plateau, while
the mighty Snake and Salmon rivers
offer endless scope for fishing and whitewater
rafting.
In 1805, Lewis and Clark declared
central Idaho’s bewildering labyrinth of
razor-edge peaks and wild waterways to be
the most difficult leg of their mammoth
journey from St Louis to the Pacific. Only
their Shoshoni guides enabled them to get
through; to this day, there is no
east–west road across the heart of the
state. Reports of game animals tripping over
each other in their profusion attracted the
usual legions of itinerant trappers, but the
Gold Rush of the 1860s and white pressure
for land hastened the violent end of
traditional life: four hundred Shoshoni men,
women and children were killed along the
Bear River in 1863, the Nez Percé were
driven out, and by the end of the 1870s the
“Indian problem” had been eradicated.
The name “Idaho,” incidentally, was
invented by a mining lobbyist, who felt it
sounded Indian; it was originally proposed
for what is now Colorado.
The central wilderness still divides the
state into two distinct halves. The heavily
forested north, interspersed with
glacial lakes now fronted by resorts like Sandpoint
and Coeur d’Alene, has always had
strong trading links with Spokane in
Washington; in the south, irrigation
programs begun in the 1880s – partly
instigated by Mormons – have transformed
the scrubland to either side of the Snake
River into the fertile fields responsible
for the state’s license-plate tag of
“Famous Potatoes.” Idaho’s isolation,
and small (1 million) population, have kept
it largely out of the mainstream of recent
US history; indeed, its remoteness has
attracted assorted unwelcome guests –
neo-Nazi survivalists awaiting the Second
Coming and/or nuclear holocaust.
Click here to go to Idaho State
web page |
