100 Fun Facts About Idaho

What is the official state flower of Idaho?

Syringa (Philadelphus lewisii), also called mock orange, became Idaho's state flower in 1931; its Latin name honours Meriwether Lewis, who collected it on the expedition's 1806 return trip.

Which bird is recognized as Idaho's official state bird?

The Mountain Bluebird became Idaho's state bird in 1931; Nevada adopted the same species in 1967. The migrants arrive in late February or March and leave by October.

What is the official state tree of Idaho?

The Western White Pine (Pinus monticola) was adopted as Idaho's state tree in 1935; the species was devastated in the 20th century by white pine blister rust, an introduced fungus.

Idaho is known by what nickname, reflecting its geological riches?

Idaho produces 72 varieties of precious and semi-precious stones, which earned it The Gem State; the unofficial rival nickname is, inevitably, the Potato State.

What is the capital and most populous city in Idaho?

Boise is the capital and largest city in Idaho, located in the southwestern part of the state along the Boise River. It developed near Fort Boise along the Oregon Trail.

In what year did Idaho become the 43rd state?

Statehood came on 3 July 1890, a year after neighbouring Washington. Along the way a federal attempt was made to split the territory between Washington and Nevada.

How many other U.S. states share a border with Idaho?

Six: Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, plus a short international border with British Columbia.

What is the highest point in Idaho?

Borah Peak, standing at 12,662 feet (3,859 meters) in the Lost River Range, is the highest point in Idaho.

The Snake River, Idaho's most important waterway, is a major tributary of which river?

The Snake rises in Yellowstone, crosses southern Idaho and joins the Columbia near the Tri-Cities of Washington; dams and locks let barges run from Lewiston, Idaho, to Portland.

Which gemstone is Idaho's official state gem?

The Star Garnet was designated Idaho's state gem in 1967; needle-like rutile inclusions produce its four- or six-rayed star, and gem-quality stones are mined in quantity only in Idaho and India.

What is the vast protected wilderness area in central Idaho called?

The Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area, at 2.3 million acres, is one of the largest contiguous areas of protected wilderness in the continental United States.

Which Idaho lake straddles the state's border with Utah?

Bear Lake straddles the Idaho-Utah line; suspended limestone particles give it a turquoise colour that earned the nickname 'Caribbean of the Rockies'.

The state of Idaho spans across how many time zones?

Idaho keeps two time zones: areas north of the Salmon River, including Coeur d'Alene and Moscow, use Pacific time, while the south, with Boise, Idaho Falls and Pocatello, uses Mountain time.

What major agricultural product is Idaho most famously associated with?

Idaho is widely known for its potato production, although agriculture in the state is diverse and includes a variety of crops and livestock.

Who designed the official state seal of Idaho, making it the only state seal created by a woman?

Emma Edwards Green won the 1891 contest to design the Great Seal of the State of Idaho; hers is the only U.S. state seal designed by a woman.

Which Idaho resort installed the world's first chairlift in 1936?

Sun Valley Resort's single-seat chairlifts were designed at Union Pacific's Omaha headquarters that summer and installed on Proctor and Dollar mountains that autumn.

What is Idaho's official state fruit?

The huckleberry became Idaho's state fruit in 2000 after schoolchildren proposed it; the wild plants can take 15 years to mature, grow only at certain elevations and usually die when transplanted.

What is Idaho's official state raptor?

The Peregrine Falcon became Idaho's state raptor in 2004 and appears on the 2007 Idaho state quarter; Boise hosts the World Center for Birds of Prey, headquarters of The Peregrine Fund.

Which fish is designated as Idaho's official state fish?

The Cutthroat Trout was designated Idaho's state fish in 1990; named for the red slash under its jaw, it is native to Idaho waters such as the Snake and Clearwater drainages.

Which body of water in northern Idaho is the largest and deepest lake in the state?

Lake Pend Oreille reaches about 1,150 feet deep, the fifth-deepest lake in the United States; during World War II its south end hosted Farragut Naval Training Station, the second-largest in the world.

What is North America's deepest river gorge, partly along Idaho's western border?

Hells Canyon, carved by the Snake River along the Idaho-Oregon line, drops 7,993 feet from He Devil peak to the river, making it deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Idaho's first state governor, George L. Shoup, resigned after a few weeks in 1890 to do what?

George L. Shoup, also Idaho's last territorial governor, resigned in December 1890 to take a seat in the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1901.

Which U.S. President signed the act admitting Idaho into the Union?

Benjamin Harrison signed the Idaho statehood act on 3 July 1890; the new state counted just 88,548 residents in that year's census.

Roughly what was Idaho's population according to 2024 Census Bureau estimates?

The Census Bureau estimated Idaho's population at just over 2 million in 2024; growth of 17.3% between 2010 and 2020 was the second fastest of any state that decade, behind Utah.

What did lobbyist George M. Willing later claim about 'Idaho', sold to Congress as Shoshone for 'gem of the mountains'?

Willing later admitted he had invented the name himself. Congress balked in 1861 and called that territory Colorado, but a Columbia River steamboat and Idaho Springs already bore the name, and it went to Idaho Territory in 1863.

Which city overtook Pocatello and Idaho Falls in the late 1990s as Idaho's second-largest?

Nampa grew from under 29,000 people in 1990 to almost 52,000 in 2000, edging past Pocatello and Idaho Falls; neighbouring Meridian grew faster still and overtook Nampa in the 2010s.

Which central Idaho mountain range towers over Redfish Lake and the town of Stanley?

The Sawtooth Range rises directly above Redfish Lake and Stanley; its jagged granite peaks anchor the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, created by Congress in 1972.

What was the primary attraction that led to large-scale settlement in Idaho after 1860?

The first strike came at Pierce in 1860, and by 1862 mining camps had sprung up in both north and south. From 1860 to 1866 the territory produced 19% of all the gold mined in the United States.

The state of Idaho has approximately how many miles of rivers and streams?

The state also has more than 2,000 lakes, 1,228 of them named, according to the Department of Water Resources.

Which 1846 agreement with Britain made the future Idaho part of the United States?

The 1846 Oregon Treaty set the boundary with British North America at the 49th parallel, ending joint occupation of the Oregon Country; Idaho Territory was organized from that land in 1863.

Kullyspell House, the first non-indigenous settlement in what is now Idaho, was built in 1809 as what?

David Thompson of the North West Company built Kullyspell House in 1809 as a fur-trading post on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille, four years after Lewis and Clark crossed the region.

Idaho is part of which two U.S. subregions?

Idaho belongs to the Pacific Northwest, sharing the Columbia River drainage with Washington and Oregon, and to the Mountain West as a Rocky Mountain state bordering Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada.

What is Idaho's official state dance?

Square dancing became Idaho's official state folk dance in 1989; so many states chose the same American folk dance that it is one of the least distinctive of Idaho's emblems.

By 1870, immigrants from which country made up about 28.5% of Idaho Territory's population?

Most came to work the gold fields after the 1860 rush. Their share later fell sharply as anti-Chinese laws and violence spread across the West.

Which Idaho waterfall, the 'Niagara of the West', drops from a greater height than its namesake?

Shoshone Falls, near Twin Falls, plunges 212 feet, about 45 feet more than Niagara; the Bonneville megaflood some 14,500 years ago carved the falls and the Snake River Canyon around them.

What is the official state fossil of Idaho?

The Hagerman Horse (Equus simplicidens), a 3.5-million-year-old Pliocene species, became Idaho's state fossil in 1988; the quarry near Hagerman, found in 1928, yielded some 20 complete skeletons.

Idaho's isolated northern Panhandle is closely linked, culturally and by the clock, with the eastern part of which neighbouring state?

Idaho's Panhandle runs on Pacific Time with Eastern Washington, while the rest of the state uses Mountain Time.

What state song did Idaho's legislature adopt in 1931?

'Here We Have Idaho' began as Sallie Hume Douglas's 1915 tune 'Garden of Paradise'; with McKinley Helm's words it became the University of Idaho's 'Our Idaho', and the legislature adopted it with new verses in 1931.

In what year did the federal Reclamation Service complete the New York Canal near Boise?

New York investors started the canal in 1882, but money ran out and hard rock in the canyon stalled work for decades; the Reclamation Service completed the New York Canal in 1909 to feed Deer Flat Reservoir.

Which supermarket chain was founded in Boise, Idaho, in 1939?

Joe Albertson opened the first Albertsons store in Boise in 1939 after leaving Safeway; the chain grew into one of the largest grocers in the United States.

Which faceting pattern by Quincy Douglas Howell became the state's official gemstone 'cut' in 2022?

The Idaho Cut, a gemstone faceting design created by Idaho lapidary Quincy Douglas Howell, was designated the state's official gemstone cut by the legislature in 2022.

Idaho's lowest point in elevation is found in which city?

Idaho's lowest point, at 710 feet, is in Lewiston, where the Clearwater River joins the Snake River.

Which species became Idaho's official state amphibian in 2015?

The Idaho Giant Salamander became the state amphibian in 2015; the species (Dicamptodon aterrimus) ranges almost entirely within Idaho, with only a small population in western Montana.

Which eastern Idaho dam failed in June 1976 while its reservoir was filling for the first time?

Teton Dam, an earthen dam on the Teton River in eastern Idaho, collapsed on 5 June 1976 as its reservoir filled for the first time, killing 11 people and about 13,000 cattle.

What is the official state insect of Idaho?

The Monarch Butterfly became Idaho's official state insect in 1992 after fourth-graders at Boise's Cole Elementary School proposed it to the legislature.

What is Idaho's official state horse?

The Appaloosa, the spotted horse bred by the Nez Perce, became Idaho's state horse in 1975; its name derives from the Palouse River country where the tribe raised the animals.

In what year was the Idaho Territory created?

Idaho Territory was established in March 1863 when President Lincoln signed its organic act; it originally stretched east to include present-day Montana and most of Wyoming.

The vast majority of Idaho's population lives in which geographic feature?

The vast majority of Idaho's population resides in the Snake River Plain, a valley running across southern Idaho that contains many of its major cities.

What state-record high temperature did Orofino, Idaho reach in July 1934?

Idaho's all-time highest temperature of 118 °F (48 °C) was recorded at Orofino on July 28, 1934.

What is the official state dinosaur of Idaho?

Oryctodromeus, a small burrowing plant-eater whose fossils were found in eastern Idaho's Wayan Formation, was designated Idaho's official state dinosaur in 2023.

Which Idaho town bills itself the "Fiddling Capital of the World"?

Weiser has hosted the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest since 1953, earning its 'Fiddling Capital of the World' title; the town's first fiddle contest was held in 1914.

The Idaho Potato Museum occupies an old railroad depot in which town?

Union Pacific gave Blackfoot its old depot, and locals decided a potato museum was the obvious thing to put in it.

What was the name of the rocket-powered vehicle Evel Knievel used for his 1974 canyon jump?

Knievel's steam-powered Skycycle X-2 launched on 8 September 1974, but its drogue parachute deployed on the rail and the craft drifted to the Snake River Canyon floor, leaving him with minor injuries.

Which Idaho town was the first community in the world lit solely by nuclear power?

Arco's feat lasted about an hour on July 17, 1955, powered by Argonne's BORAX-III reactor at the nearby testing station.

In 1951, the EBR-I reactor in Idaho first generated enough electricity to light how many bulbs?

The four 200-watt bulbs lit on December 20, 1951 made it one of the world's first electricity-producing nuclear plants.

Which experimental Idaho reactor's 1961 steam explosion killed its three operators?

SL-1 (Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One) went prompt-critical on 3 January 1961 when a control rod was withdrawn too far; the resulting steam explosion killed all three operators on duty.

Astronauts from which Apollo mission studied volcanic geology at Craters of the Moon in 1969?

Apollo 14 crew members Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell, with backups Eugene Cernan and Joe Engle, visited Craters of the Moon in August 1969 to learn to recognise volcanic rocks.

Ernest Hemingway died in 1961 at his home in which Idaho town?

Ernest Hemingway died on 2 July 1961 at the house above the Big Wood River in Ketchum that he had bought in 1959; he is buried in Ketchum Cemetery.

Sacagawea was born around 1788 near which present-day Idaho town?

Sacagawea was born about 1788 among the Lemhi Shoshone in the Lemhi River valley near present-day Salmon, Idaho; Hidatsa raiders captured her as a girl around 1800.

The January 1863 Bear River Massacre was an army attack on a winter camp of which people?

Colonel Patrick Connor's California Volunteers attacked a Northwestern Shoshone winter camp on the Bear River near present-day Preston on 29 January 1863, killing an estimated 250 to 490 people.

The 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff took place in which Idaho county?

Ruby Ridge, near Naples in Boundary County, Idaho's northernmost county, was the site of the August 1992 siege of Randy Weaver's cabin after a gunfight with a US Marshals surveillance team.

The Perrine Bridge at Twin Falls is world-famous for which activity?

BASE jumping is the draw at the 486-foot Perrine Bridge over the Snake River Canyon; Twin Falls has long allowed the sport there year-round without a permit, drawing jumpers from around the world.

A museum in which Idaho town displays an original TV tube developed by Philo Farnsworth?

Rigby's Farnsworth TV Pioneer Museum holds early equipment from Philo Farnsworth, who sketched his idea for electronic television as a Rigby High School student in 1922; the town calls itself the Birthplace of Television.

Hall of Fame slugger Harmon Killebrew was born and raised in which Idaho town?

Harmon Killebrew was born in Payette in 1936 and starred in several sports at Payette High School before the Washington Senators signed him at 17 in 1954; he hit 573 major-league home runs.

Olympic ski champion Picabo Street was born at home in which tiny Idaho town?

Picabo Street was born in 1971 in Triumph, a former mining hamlet southeast of Sun Valley; she won Olympic downhill silver at Lillehammer in 1994 and super-G gold at Nagano in 1998.

The 2004 cult film Napoleon Dynamite was shot on location in which southeastern Idaho town?

Napoleon Dynamite was filmed in and around Preston in July 2003; director Jared Hess had attended Preston High School, which appears in the film as Napoleon's school.

Which Idaho mining town proclaimed a sewer cover the "Center of the Universe" in 2004?

Wallace mayor Ron Garitone proclaimed a downtown manhole cover the Center of the Universe on 25 September 2004, reasoning that since no one could prove otherwise, the claim stood.

Poet Ezra Pound was born in 1885 in which Idaho Territory town?

Ezra Pound was born in Hailey on 30 October 1885; his father Homer had arrived in 1883 to run the US General Land Office there, and the family left for the East when Ezra was a toddler.

Sarah Palin was born in which northern Idaho town?

Sarah Palin was born in Sandpoint on 11 February 1964, the third of four children; her family moved to Skagway, Alaska, when she was about three months old.

Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul was born in 1979 in which Idaho town?

Aaron Paul was born Aaron Paul Sturtevant in Emmett on 27 August 1979, the son of a Baptist minister; he attended Centennial High School in Boise before moving to Los Angeles to act.

Which Idaho senator chaired the 1975 Senate committee that investigated CIA and FBI abuses?

Frank Church chaired the 1975-76 Senate select committee, known as the Church Committee, whose hearings exposed CIA assassination plots and FBI surveillance programs and led to permanent intelligence oversight committees.

Which Idaho governor served as US Secretary of the Interior under Jimmy Carter?

Cecil Andrus resigned as Idaho's governor in 1977 to become Jimmy Carter's Secretary of the Interior, serving until 1981, then won the governorship again in 1986 and 1990.

The Nez Perce fighting retreat of 1877 ended about 40 miles short of which border?

After a 1,170-mile fighting retreat, Chief Joseph's band surrendered on 5 October 1877 at the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana, about 40 miles short of the border with Canada and the safety it offered.

The Port of Lewiston, Idaho's only seaport, sits how many miles upstream from the Pacific?

The Port of Lewiston lies 465 river miles from the Pacific; barges reach it through eight locks on the Columbia and Snake rivers, making it the West Coast's farthest-inland seaport.

Which Boise River dam, finished in 1915, was the tallest dam in the world for nine years?

Arrowrock Dam, a roughly 350-foot concrete arch-gravity dam on the Boise River completed in 1915, was the world's tallest dam until Switzerland's Schräh Dam surpassed it in 1924.

The October 1983 Borah Peak earthquake in Idaho's Lost River Range had what magnitude?

The Borah Peak earthquake of 28 October 1983 measured magnitude 6.9, reached Mercalli intensity IX and killed two children in Challis when a storefront collapsed, leaving a 21-mile surface rupture along the Lost River fault.

Which memory-chip company was founded in Boise in 1978?

Micron Technology was founded in Boise in 1978 as a semiconductor design consultancy by Ward Parkinson, Joe Parkinson, Dennis Wilson and Doug Pitman; it shipped its first 64K DRAM chips in 1981.

Potato magnate J.R. Simplot sealed a 1960s handshake deal to supply frozen fries to which chain?

J.R. Simplot's handshake agreement with Ray Kroc made his company McDonald's main supplier of frozen french fries; by 1972 every fry the chain served was frozen.

The Old Idaho Penitentiary east of Boise closed in which year?

The Old Idaho Penitentiary closed on 3 December 1973 after riots in 1971 and 1973 over living conditions; its inmates moved to the new Idaho State Correctional Institution south of Boise.

Since 1982, what has heated Idaho's Capitol in Boise?

Geothermal water, piped from Boise's hot-water wells, has warmed Idaho's Capitol since 1982, a first among US statehouses; its sandstone came from nearby Table Rock, and the marble and scagliola interior earned it the nickname 'Capitol of Light'.

Built in 1850–53, what is the oldest standing building in Idaho?

Cataldo Mission, the Mission of the Sacred Heart near Cataldo, was built from 1850 to 1853 by Coeur d'Alene tribe members and Jesuits under Father Antonio Ravalli without nails, using wattle-and-daub walls.

Which Boise Basin gold town, founded as Bannock in 1862, briefly outgrew Portland?

Idaho City, laid out as Bannock in 1862, reached about 7,000 people in 1864, making it briefly the largest town in the Pacific Northwest, ahead of Portland.

North America's tallest single-structured sand dune, about 470 feet high, is in which Idaho park?

Bruneau Dunes State Park's largest dune rises about 470 feet above its small lakes, the tallest single-structured sand dune in North America; the park also runs a public observatory.

At which Idaho site did California Trail emigrants write their names in axle grease on the granite?

At City of Rocks, near Almo in south-central Idaho, California Trail emigrants of the 1840s and 1850s wrote their names in axle grease on Register Rock, and their wagons wore ruts into the granite.

What does the US Navy test at its research detachment on Lake Pend Oreille?

The Navy's Acoustic Research Detachment at Bayview uses Lake Pend Oreille's 1,150-foot depth and quiet water to test submarine sonar and acoustic stealth on large-scale models.

How many sailors received basic training at Idaho's Farragut Naval Training Station in WWII?

Farragut Naval Training Station on Lake Pend Oreille trained over 293,000 recruits (293,381) between September 1942 and March 1945; decommissioned in 1946, the site became Farragut State Park in 1965.

More than how many Japanese Americans were imprisoned at Idaho's Minidoka camp during WWII?

More than 13,000 Japanese Americans, mostly from Washington, Oregon and Alaska, were held at Minidoka near Hunt, Idaho, from 1942 to 1945; the site became a national monument in 2001 and a National Historic Site in 2008.

The 1972 Sunshine Mine disaster killed 91 Idaho miners by what means?

A fire that broke out on 2 May 1972 in the Sunshine Mine near Kellogg filled the workings with smoke, and 91 miners died of carbon monoxide poisoning; two survivors were rescued a week later.

Which Silver Valley mine and smelter complex was added to the Superfund list in 1983?

The lead smelter had poisoned local soil and water, and cleanup across the Coeur d'Alene basin continues decades later.

Boise State's famous blue football turf was first installed in what year?

Boise State installed its blue AstroTurf at Bronco Stadium in 1986 after athletic director Gene Bleymaier argued that a $750,000 new surface should not be just another green field; it was the first non-green college football field.

Boise State beat Oklahoma in overtime at the 2007 Fiesta Bowl with a two-point conversion on which famous trick play?

On the two-point conversion in overtime, quarterback Jared Zabransky faked a pass and handed the ball behind his back to Ian Johnson on the Statue of Liberty play, called 'Statue Left', beating Oklahoma 43-42.

The Kibbie Dome in Moscow is the home stadium of which college team?

The Kibbie Dome is the home field of the University of Idaho Vandals; it opened in 1971 as an open concrete stadium and gained its barrel-arched wooden roof in 1975.

How many members sit in the Idaho Legislature?

The Idaho Legislature has 105 members: each of 35 districts elects one senator and two representatives, and all of them face voters every two years.

The "Idaho stop", letting cyclists treat stop signs as yields, became law in what year?

Idaho's 1982 law let cyclists treat stop signs as yield signs (and, from 2006, red lights as stop signs); no other state copied it until Delaware adopted a limited version in 2017.

The legal loophole called the "Zone of Death" lies in the Idaho section of which national park?

Yellowstone's uninhabited 50-square-mile Idaho strip has no residents to form a jury, which in theory makes a constitutional trial impossible.

Which Idaho resort town's ten-day Winter Carnival can draw more than 60,000 visitors?

McCall's Winter Carnival, held over ten days each late January and early February beside Payette Lake, is famous for its snow-sculpture contest; its roots go back to the 1924 Payette Lakes Winter Carnival.

What did the Atomic Energy Commission open in the desert west of Idaho Falls in 1949?

The Atomic Energy Commission established the National Reactor Testing Station on the Snake River Plain west of Idaho Falls in 1949; it was renamed Idaho National Engineering Laboratory in 1974 and Idaho National Laboratory in 2005.

The name Boise comes from a French word meaning what?

Boise derives from the French 'boisé', meaning wooded; legend has French-speaking trappers crying 'Les bois!' ('the woods!') at the sight of the tree-lined Boise River after crossing high desert.

The Coeur d'Alene Resort holds a world record for a 3,300-foot floating what?

The Coeur d'Alene Resort's 3,300-foot floating boardwalk, which encloses its marina on Lake Coeur d'Alene, is billed as the world's longest; the resort's golf course is also known for its movable floating green, opened in 1991.

Sun Valley Lodge, opened in 1936, was built of what material disguised to look like wood?

Sun Valley Lodge, opened in December 1936, was built of poured concrete cast against rough-sawn boards and stained brown so that it would look like a wooden lodge.