Time Immemorial – Nez Perce, et al
Before Idaho was even named that (Idaho), the Nez Perce, Coeur d’Alene, Shoshone, Bannock, and other Indian tribes lived there.
Also the Boreal Woodland Caribou, Grizzled Bears, and Bald-headed Eagles.
When those people and critters looked around, they saw scenes like this:
Picture by Charles Knowles of Meridian, Idaho
1805 – Lewis & Clark Pass Through
In 1805, while making their way from Missouri to Oregon, the “Lewis & Clark Expedition” passed through Idaho. To be more specific, they traversed Lemhi Pass (which is situated on the Montana/Idaho border).
The term Lewis & Clark Expedition is quotified above because that wasn’t the official name of that operation. In the world of bureaucracy, the group was called The Core of Disco (very!). This was because Lewis & Clark were the originators of Disco (dancing and music); they were at the core of that artistic movement, and they were considered to be very good at it. These hikers made the Bee Gees look like pikers.
Illustrating that they were better disco dudes than travelers, this photo makes clear that had they just waited a few years, they could have taken the train, rather than walking and canoeing all that way:
1832 – Trapper’s Rendezvous
The huge 1832 rendezvous of trappers, Indians, mountain men, and real estate agents at Pierre’s Hole became known as the “Rendezvous of 1832.” This extended party (sort of like the “Burning Man” of the early 19th Century) was held at the west foot of the Three Tetons in Teton County, Idaho.
These large gatherings took place on a regular basis throughout the fur-trapping regions of the west, but the one in 1832 was at least one of the largest meet-ups ever held in the Rocky Mountains.
The Indians and trappers/mountain men arm-wrestled, played cribbage, Scrabble, Monopoly, “Go Fish,” had pony races, pitched horseshoes, discussed philosophy and poetry, told jokes, and sat around the campfire singing John Denver songs, passing the pipe around (but not smoking it – they just passed it around, and everybody “passed” on inhaling the toxic fumes).
A good time was had by all; love and peace was in the air. Actually, it was more like “Woodstock” than “Burning Man” in some ways.
Squeakinglemur must have been there, for he provides this memory of the occasion:
Notice the Indians hugging each other in the bottom middle of the frame; it was a “touchy-feely” gathering.
1836 – First Spuds
Idaho’s license plate should boast about being the Land of Napoleon (Dynamite), but instead they pat themselves on the back for their “Famous Spuds” of all things.
Everything must have its beginning. It was in 1836, four years after the “Woodstock of the Old Far-Out West” noted above, that Henry H. Spalding grew the first spuds in Idaho, near the bustling metropolis of Lapwai.
Here’s what the first Idaho Spud looked like; finding it too unmashable, unbakeable, unboilable, and unfriable, they later re-engineered it to be more kitchen-friendly:
1860 to 1863 – Gold!
There were four gold rushes in Idaho in the first part of the 1860s. In 1860 itself, the Clearwater Gold Rush came about when Humphrey Bogart, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Captain Cook moved there from El Cerrito, California and immediately had several gold records (Born on the Boise, Bad Spud Rising, Run Through the Potato Patch, I Put a Spud on You, Who’ll Stop the Flea Beetles, etc.).
The second gold rush was in 1862, and was called the Boise Basin Gold Rush. It was soon discovered that the spuds there were more plentiful and valuable than the gold, and the prospectors either skedaddled or took up the cultivation of spuds.
Another gold rush that began in 1862, and lasted until 1864, was the Confederate Gulch Gold Rush. This was brought about when Confederate soldiers who had gone AWOL saw somebody with a gold tooth and tried to take it out of his head by main force. They finally were able to yank it out, but only after a struggle lasting the best part of two years.
The final rush of the time period under examination was the Owyhee Gold Rush of 1863. This rush got its name from a disappointed prospector who, when he saw a rival had been the one to strike it rich, exclaimed, “Oh, why he!” (he thought it should have been himself that found the “color”).
Here is the mining town where Creedence Clearwater Revival, alluded to above, wrote their hit songs:
1860 – First organized town
The first organized town in Idaho was Franklin. It was founded in 1860 by Mormon settlers who thought they were in Utah; The Mormon community of Franklin in Cache Valley became the first permanent Euro-American settlement in Idaho.
Toxic Lake in the Sawtooths is not especially close to Franklin, but it’s much more scenic than Franklin, so for your viewing pleasure, here is a stereophonic recording of the wave ripples there:
By the way, Toxic Lake is not really all that toxic. It was named that to discourage and keep out the “riff-raff” (tourists)
1861 -- Lewiston Incorporated
In 1861, Lewiston (named for Jerry Lewis) became Idaho’s first incorporated town. Clarkton, named for Dick Clark, is across the state line in Oregon.
Lewiston is at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers.
This is how it looked back in 1569 (according to the date on the picture):
1863 – Massacre of 224 Shoshone
Only about sixty years after the Shoshone had aided, abetted, and assisted the Core of Disco (very!), in 1863, two hundred twenty four Shoshone Indians were massacred after being attacked by the Ewe-Knighted States army while camped at the confluence of Bear River and Battle Creek.
As everybody knows, Battle Creek is in Michigan (birthplace of cereal foods and serial killers), so this is a very long “confluence.”
It is easy to see from this portrait made at the time that the Shoshone felt no dread of the arriving army force, and were caught completely unaware by the ensuing attack:
1863 – Territoryhood
In 1863, Idaho was rewarded for finding gold and driving out the Indians by being made a Territory. The new Idaho Territory was created out of “extra bits” of Washington and Dakota Territories.
In 1864, the Montana Territory was cut away from the Idaho Territory. Getting continually smaller, in 1868, a small part of Idaho Territory was transferred to the new Wyoming Territory.
A Madison Avenue commercial artist was commissioned to make up a Coat of Arms for the new Idaho Territory. He made two mistakes: the first was, he thought Idaho was famous for onions rather than potatoes. His second mistake was he didn’t spell “onion” right:
1877 – Chief Joseph and Nez Perce Pass Through
In 1877, less than 75 years after the Nez Perce had helped out the Core of Disco (very!), one of their leaders, Chief Joseph, and his family and friends were chased all around the Pacific Northwest (including Idaho) by a bunch of soldiers who had gotten their ire and dander up because of the shellacking their boy George Strongarm Custer had gotten in Montana the year before.
Here’s the Treasure Map Captain Long John Silver-tongued Devil used to try to find the Nez Perce:
. . .
Each Saturday and Tuesday an excerpt of one State’s (satirized) history will be posted here, in alphabetical order (from Alabama to Wyoming).
The (32-page) complete book “The New All-too-True-Blue History of Idaho” is available here.
The regions of the U.S. have been combined into volumes, too; [State] is included in the volume The New All-too-True-Blue History of the American West
You can listen to this excerpt here:
Blackbird Crow Raven is also the author of the book “the Zany Time Travels of Warble McGorkle”