If you poll Americans who don’t live there about the state of Idaho, chances are the answers will be comically simplistic. “Potatoes, right?” Some who recall their fifth grade educations could tell you that the capital was Boise. But beyond that? I’m guessing you wouldn’t get much.

I pride myself in my knowledge of history, and my answer wouldn’t have been a lot more than those. How was Idaho formed? It has a weird shape, after all, in an era in which state lines were drawn as straight as possible. When did it become a state and why was Boise chosen as the capital? Did anything of note happen between then and now that might affect how Idaho has progressed and its identity? I knew nothing of any of these.

So today, let’s delve a bit into the history of Idaho, and how one can explore it from the state’s capital and largest city, Boise.

Our story begins all the way back in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln signed an act creating Idaho territory, carved out of the area of Washington and Dakota territories. The town of Boise was founded in the same year, as gold was discovered in the area. But the new territory included much of what would also be Wyoming and Montana, and had its capital at Lewiston, a few hundred miles north, at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. The total population of Idaho territory at the time of its creation was about 17,000.

(I realize that I am skipping over the native history of the area here. That is not meant to minimize it, and actually the Idaho State Museum, which we will talk about later, has a truly wonderful series of short animations of native creation stories from the region, which I can’t recommend highly enough. But to me, that history deserves its own dedicated article or set of articles, and I’m not able to do it justice here based on the experiences I had. I do intend one day to write about the Nez Perce people – at least – from elsewhere in the state, but it will have to wait for another trip.)

In 1868, the boundaries of what would become the state of Idaho were finalized, with largely straight lines on the west and south, as well as the southeast, but a boundary established in the east by tracing one of the sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains, hence the jagged border with what would become Montana. It is that decision, using the mountains (which makes sense as there were no roads or rail lines through them back in the 1860s) that left Idaho with its narrow panhandle in the north.

But in the meantime, in 1864, the capital moved from Lewiston to the growing city of Boise. And that sparked some drama. As with many gold rush territories, miners and the support needed to feed, house, and entertain them, soon outnumbered the population that had existed. And with that came voting power in the territorial legislature, who voted to move the capital south to Boise. Northerners were displeased, but with no territorial Supreme Court to help, there was nothing they could do… except lock the documents and the territorial seal in a safe to keep these necessary means of governance in Lewiston. Well, they were stolen from there in the middle of the night, and taken down to Boise. End of debate.

Idaho became the 43rd US state in 1890 with its capital in Boise. Construction on a monumental capitol building began in 1905, and in 1912 the building opened, although the wings would be completed in 1920. At more than 200 feet tall, the Idaho Capitol is a stunning domed building that can be seen from all over downtown Boise. It is open and free to enter, although it is one of the few state capitol buildings I’ve visited that did not allow admission into the legislative chambers while they were not being used.

The easy highlight of the interior is looking up at the dome, with its fields of 13 (for the colonies) and 43 (states at the time of Idaho’s admission) stars.

The Idaho State Museum sits on the other side of downtown Boise, a roughly twenty minute walk from the capitol. As far as state museums go (and I’ve visited quite a few), it is excellent, well worth the admission fee. Exhibits range from the aforementioned native history to the geography and climates of the state, industries found here, and some fun stories. (Make sure you learn about the parachuting beaver. Yes, really.)

Gold was the primary driver of Idaho’s early years, but post-gold rush, the state has been mainly an agricultural one. Potatoes (you knew this one!) are one of the most important crops, but wheat, cattle (beef and dairy), grapes, and sugar beets also play important roles. And the state has a growing tech scene in Boise, with Micron being headquartered here.

But Idaho is known for, possibly more than anything else, its love of public lands, balancing environmental protections with recreation. And one event in 1910 perhaps played a more important role in management of public lands than almost any other, and it happened right here in Idaho.

The spring and summer of 1910 were extremely dry in Idaho (and all of the northwest), and by August, there were an estimated 2-3,000 individual small fires burning in the state. It had gotten so bad that the new US Forest Service, formed only five years prior, was overwhelmed, and President William Howard Taft sent 4,000 members of the Buffalo Soldiers to help fight these and other fires in the Rockies. But on Saturday, August 20, 1910, hurricane force winds caused many of these fires to be brought together in what would become known as the Big Burn.

Over just two days before mainly being extinguished by a cold front, the Big Burn consumed a mind-boggling 3 million acres of mainly pine forests. Nearly 80 fire fighters were killed, including the entire 28 member “Lost Crew.” (The only incident in US history to have more fire fighting casualties is September 11 at the Twin Towers.) The event cemented the need for the Forest Service, and led to the passage of the Weeks Act, which governs cooperation between local, state, and federal efforts fighting fires to this day.

Other exhibits at the Idaho State Museum talk about mining, and its impacts both on the environment as well as on the labor movement as miners gradually unionized. Still others discuss Idaho’s renewable energy projects. (It just goes to show that while Idaho voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, not all Conservatism is created equal, and things like this are incredibly popular parts of the Libertarian-bent Republican platform here. We don’t talk about social issues, though, where Idaho is about as bad as it gets.)

For a slightly darker take on Idaho’s more modern history, but one with a good ending, one can visit the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, or its attached Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial, which sits along the Boise River Greenbelt. Funding for these things came from lawsuits against Idaho’s Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi group, from the 1980s to early 2000s. White nationalist groups still play a role here in Idaho, especially in the northern part of the state, but Boise reminds us that love and acceptance can win out.

Before coming to Boise, I knew basically nothing of the history of Idaho. And while I am still far from an expert, after visiting the Idaho Capitol, the Anne Frank Memorial, and especially the Idaho State Museum, I have a bit of that knowledge gap filled in. It is a start.

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