Idaho i/ˈaɪdəhoʊ/ is a state in the Northwestern United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state.
Idaho is a mostly mountainous state, and is the 14th largest state by land area, with an area larger than that of all of New England. It is landlocked, surrounded by the states of Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and the Canadian province of British Columbia. However, the network of dams and locks on the Columbia River and Snake River make the city of Lewiston the farthest inland seaport on the Pacific coast of the contiguous United States.
According to the United States Census 2010, Idaho had a population of 1,567,582. The state's postal abbreviation is ID. Idaho's nickname is the Gem State, because nearly every known gemstone has been found there. In addition, Idaho is one of only two places in the world where star garnets can be found (the other is the Himalaya Mountains, in Pakistan and India), and is the only place six-pointed star garnets have been found. Additionally Idaho is sometimes called the Potato State due to its popular crop. The state motto is Esto Perpetua (Latin for "Let it be forever").
The exact origin of the name remains a mystery. In the early 1860s, when the United States Congress was considering organizing a new territory in the Rocky Mountains, eccentric lobbyist George M. Willing suggested the name "Idaho," which he claimed was derived from a Shoshone languageterm meaning "the sun comes from the mountains" or "gem of the mountains". Willing later claimed that he had made up the name himself. Congress ultimately decided to name the area Colorado Territory when it was created in February 1861. Thinking they would get a jump on the name, locals named a community in Colorado "Idaho Springs".
However, the name "Idaho" did not go away. The same year Congress created Colorado Territory, a county called Idaho County was created in easternWashington Territory. The county was named after a steamship named Idaho, which was launched on the Columbia River in 1860. It is unclear whether the steamship was named before or after Willing's claim was revealed. Regardless, a portion of Washington Territory, including Idaho County, was used to create Idaho Territory in 1863.
Despite this lack of evidence for the origin of the name, many textbooks well into the 20th century repeated as fact Willing's account that the name "Idaho" derived from the Shoshone term "ee-da-how".
The name "Idaho" may be derived from the Plains Apache word "ídaahę" which means "enemy." The Comanches used this word to refer to the Idaho Territory.
An excerpt from an Idaho History Textbook:
"Idaho" is a Shoshoni Indian exclamation. The word consists of three parts. The first is "Ee", which in English conveys the idea of "coming down". The second is "dah" which is the Shoshoni stem or root for both "sun" and "mountain". The third syllable, "how", denotes the exclamation and stands for the same thing in Shoshoni that the exclamation mark (!) does in the English language. The Shoshoni word is "Ee-dah-how", and the Indian thought thus conveyed when translated into English means, "Behold! the sun coming down the mountain".
Idaho borders six states and one Canadian province. The states of Washington and Oregon are to the west, Nevada and Utah are to the south, and Montana andWyoming are to the east. Idaho also shares a short border with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north. The landscape is rugged with some of the largest unspoiled natural areas in the United States. For example, at 2.3 million acres (9,300 km²), the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area is the largest contiguous area of protected wilderness in the continental United States. Idaho is a Rocky Mountain state with abundant natural resources and scenic areas. The state has snow-capped mountain ranges, rapids, vast lakes and steep canyons. The waters of the Snake River rush through Hells Canyon, the deepest gorge in the United States.
Shoshone Falls plunges down rugged cliffs from a height greater than that of Niagara Falls. The major rivers in Idaho are the Snake River, the Clark Fork/Pend Oreille River, the Clearwater River, the Salmon River. Other significant rivers include the Coeur d'Alene River, the Spokane River, the Boise River, and the Payette River. The Salmon River empties into the Snake in Hells Canyon and forms the southern boundary of Nez Perce County on its north shore, of which Lewiston is the county seat. The Port of Lewiston, at the confluence of the Clearwater and the Snake Rivers is the farthest inland seaport on the West Coast at 465 river miles from the Pacific at Astoria, Oregon.
Idaho's highest point is Borah Peak, 12,662 ft (3,859 m), in the Lost River Range north of Mackay. Idaho's lowest point, 710 ft (216 m), is in Lewiston, where theClearwater River joins the Snake River and continues into Washington. The Sawtooth Range is often considered Idaho's most famous mountain range. Other mountain ranges in Idaho include the Bitterroot Range, the White Cloud Mountains, the Lost River Range, the Clearwater Mountains, and the Salmon River Mountains.
Southern Idaho, including the Boise metropolitan area, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, and Twin Falls are in the Mountain Time Zone. (A legislative oddity (15 U.S.C. ch.6§264) theoretically placed this region in the Central Time Zone, but this error was corrected with a 2007 Amendment.) Areas north of the Salmon River, includingCoeur d'Alene, Moscow, Lewiston, and Sandpoint are in the Pacific Time Zone and revolve commercially and culturally around Washington State through the second largest city, Spokane, Washington.
Idaho has much variation in its climate. Although the state's western border is located about 350 miles (560 km) from the Pacific Ocean, the maritime influence is still felt in Idaho, especially in the winter when cloud cover, humidity, and precipitation are at their maximum extent. This influence has a moderating effect in the winter where temperatures are not as low as would otherwise be expected for a northern state with a predominantly elevated altitude. The maritime influence is the least prominement in the eastern part of the state where the precipitation patterns are often reversed, with wetter summers and drier winters, and seasonal temperature differences more extreme, showing a more semi-arid continental climate.
Climate in Idaho can be hot, although extended periods over 100 °F (38 °C) for the maximum temperature are rare, except for the lowest point in elevation, Lewiston, which correspondingly sees very little snow. Hot summer days are tempered by the low relative humidity and cooler evenings during summer months since, for most of the state, the highest diurnal difference in temperature is often in the summer. Winters can be cold, although extended periods of bitter cold weather below zero are unusual. This is what led the railroad tycoon Harriman family to develop the most famous ski resort, Sun Valley. Idaho's all time highest temperature of 118 °F (48 °C) was recorded at Orofino on July 28, 1934; the all time lowest temperature of −60 °F (−51 °C) was recorded atIsland Park Dam on January 18, 1943.
|
Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Various Idaho Cities. (F) |
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|
City |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
|
Boise |
37/24 |
44/29 |
54/34 |
62/39 |
71/47 |
80/54 |
89/60 |
88/60 |
77/51 |
64/41 |
48/32 |
37/24 |
|
Lewiston |
39/28 |
46/31 |
54/36 |
62/41 |
70/47 |
78/54 |
88/59 |
88/59 |
77/51 |
62/41 |
47/34 |
39/28 |
|
Pocatello |
32/16 |
39/21 |
48/27 |
58/33 |
68/39 |
78/46 |
88/51 |
87/50 |
76/42 |
62/33 |
44/25 |
34/17 |
|
|
||||||||||||
Lakes:
Alturas Lake
Bear Lake (Idaho-Utah)
Hayden Lake
Henry's Lake
Hidden Lake
Lake Cascade
Lake Coeur d'Alene
Lake Lowell
Lake Ruvet
Lake Walcott
Payette Lake (McCall)
Pend Oreille
Little Redfish Lake
Lucky Peak Lake
Pettit Lake
Priest Lake
Redfish Lake
Sawtooth Lake
Stanley Lake
Warm Lake
Williams Lake (Salmon)
Humans may have been present in the Idaho area as long as 14,500 years ago. Excavations at Wilson Butte Cavenear Twin Falls in 1959 revealed evidence of human activity, including arrowheads, that rank among the oldest dated artifacts in North America. American Indian tribes predominant in the area included the Nez Perce in the north and the Northern and Western Shoshone in the south.
A early presence of French-Canadian trappers is visible in names and toponyms that have survived to this day: Nez Percé, Coeur d'Alène, Boisé, Payette, some preexisting the Lewis and Clark and Astorian expeditions which themselves included significant numbers of French and Metis guides recruited for their familiarity with the terrain.
Idaho, as part of the Oregon Country, was claimed by both the United States and Great Britain until the United States gained undisputed jurisdiction in 1846. From 1843 to 1849 present-day Idaho was under the de factojurisdiction of the Provisional Government of Oregon. When Oregon became a state, what is now Idaho was in what was left of the original Oregon Territory not part of the new state, and designated as the Washington Territory.
Between then and the creation of the Idaho Territory on July 4, 1863 at Lewiston, parts of the present-day state were included in the Oregon, Washington, and Dakota Territories. The new territory included present-day Idaho, Montana, and most of Wyoming. The Lewis and Clark expedition crossed Idaho in 1805 on the way to the Pacific and in 1806 on the return, largely following the Clearwater River both directions. The first non-indigenous settlement was Kullyspell House, established on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille for fur trading in 1809 by David Thompson of the North West Company. In 1812 Donald Mackenzie, working for the Pacific Fur Company at the time, established a post on the lower Clearwater River near present-day Lewiston. This post, known as "MacKenzie's Post" or "Clearwater", operated until the Pacific Fur Company was bought out by the North West Company in 1813, after which it was abandoned. The first attempts at organized communities, within the present borders of Idaho, were established in 1860. The first permanent, substantial incorporated community was Lewiston in 1861.
After some tribulation as a territory, including the illegal and chaotic transfer of the territorial capital from Lewiston in December 1864 to Boise in January 1865, disenfranchisement of Mormonpolygamists upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1877, and a federal attempt to split the territory between Washington Territory which gained statehood in 1889, a year before Idaho, and the state of Nevada which had been a state since 1863, Idaho achieved statehood in 1890. The economy of the state, which had been primarily supported by metal mining, shifted towards agriculture, forest products and tourism.
In recent years, Idaho has expanded its commercial base as a tourism and agricultural state to include science and technology industries. Science and technology have become the largest single economic center (over 25% of the state's total revenue) within the state and are greater than agriculture, forestry and mining combined.
The Idaho State Historical Society and numerous local historical societies and museums preserve and promote Idaho’s cultural heritage.
|
Historical populations |
|||
|
Census |
Pop. |
|
%± |
|
1870 |
14,999 |
|
— |
|
1880 |
32,610 |
|
117.4% |
|
1890 |
88,548 |
|
171.5% |
|
1900 |
161,772 |
|
82.7% |
|
1910 |
325,594 |
|
101.3% |
|
1920 |
431,866 |
|
32.6% |
|
1930 |
445,032 |
|
3.0% |
|
1940 |
524,873 |
|
17.9% |
|
1950 |
588,637 |
|
12.1% |
|
1960 |
667,191 |
|
13.3% |
|
1970 |
712,567 |
|
6.8% |
|
1980 |
943,935 |
|
32.5% |
|
1990 |
1,006,749 |
|
6.7% |
|
2000 |
1,293,953 |
|
28.5% |
|
2010 |
1,567,582 |
|
21.1% |
At the 2010 Census, 84.0% of the population was non-Hispanic White, 0.6% non-Hispanic Black or African American, 1.1% non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2% non-Hispanic Asian, 0.1% non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 0.1% from some other race (non-Hispanic) and 1.7% of two or more races (non-Hispanic). 11.2% of Idaho's population was of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin (they may be of any race).
As of 2005, Idaho has an estimated population of 1,429,096, which is an increase of 33,956, or 2.4%, from the prior year and an increase of 135,140, or 10.4%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 58,884 people (that is 111,131 births minus 52,247 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 75,795 people into the state. There are large numbers of Americans of English and German ancestry in Idaho. Immigrationfrom outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 14,522 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 61,273 people.
This made Idaho the sixth fastest-growing state after Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, and Utah. From 2004 to 2005, Idaho grew the third-fastest, surpassed only by Nevada and Arizona.
Nampa, the state's second largest city, has experienced particularly strong growth in recent years. According to census estimates Nampa has grown 22.1% to nearly 65,000 residents between 2000 and 2003. As of 2007, the population in Nampa was estimated at 84,000. Growth of 5% or more over the same period has also been observed in Caldwell, Coeur d'Alene, Meridian, Post Falls and Twin Falls.
Since 1990, Idaho's population has increased by 386,000 (38%).
The Boise Metropolitan Area (officially known as the Boise City-Nampa, ID Metropolitan Statistical Area) is Idaho's largest metropolitan area. Other metropolitan areas in order of size are Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Falls, Pocatello and Lewiston.
As of 2006, six official micropolitan statistical areas are based in Idaho. Twin Falls is the largest of these.
The center of population of Idaho is located in Custer County, in the town of Stanley.
The most common reported ancestries in the state are: German (18.9%), English (18.1%), Irish (10%), American (8.4%), Norwegian (3.6%), and Swedish (3.5%).
According to a report produced by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life the self-identified religious affiliations of Idahoans over the age of 18 as of 2008 are:
|
Denomination |
% |
|
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |
23 |
|
Evangelical Protestant |
22 |
|
Catholic |
18 |
|
Unaffiliated |
18 |
|
Mainline Protestant |
16 |
|
Other Faiths |
2 |
|
Jehovah's Witness |
1 |
|
Eastern Orthodox |
<0.5 |
|
Other Christian |
<0.5 |
|
Jewish |
<0.5 |
|
Muslim |
<0.5 |
|
Buddhist |
<0.5 |
|
Hindu |
<0.5 |
|
Other World |
<0.5 |
|
Don't know/refused |
<0.5 |