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The
History of Idaho is an examination of the
human
history and social activity
within the state of Idaho, a
geographical area in the
Pacific Northwest
area on or near the west coast of
United States and
Canada. Other associated areas
include southern Alaska, all
of British Columbia,
Washington,
Oregon, western
Montana and northern
California and
Nevada.
Humans may
have been present in the Idaho area as long as 14,500 years.
Excavations at Wilson Butte
Cave near Twin Falls in
1959 revealed evidence of human
activity, including arrowheads, that rank among the oldest
dated artifacts in North America.
Native
American tribes predominant in the area included the
Nez Perce and the
Coeur d'Alene in the
north; as well as Northern and Western
Shoshone and Bannock
peoples in the south.
The
Idaho State
Historical Society is responsible for preserving Idaho's
history and cultural heritage with hundreds of thousands of
primary sources relating to the history of
Idaho.
European exploration
Idaho was
the last of the 50 states explored by people of European
descent. The Lewis and Clark
expedition entered present-day Idaho on
August 12, 1805, at
Lemhi Pass. The first expedition
to enter southern Idaho is believed to be a group led by
Wilson Price Hunt,
which navigated the Snake River
while attempting to blaze an all-water trail westward from
St. Louis, Missouri, to
Astoria, Oregon, in
1811 and 1812. At
that time, approximately 8,000 Native Americans lived in the
region.
Fur trading and
missionary work attracted the
first settlers to the region. In 1809,
Kullyspell House, the first
white-owned establishment and first trading post in Idaho,
was constructed. In 1836,
Henry H. Spalding
established a mission near Lapwai,
where he printed the Northwest's first book, established
Idaho's first school, developed its first
irrigation system, and grew the
state's first potatoes.
Narcissa Whitman and
Eliza Hart Spalding were
the first non-native women to enter present-day Idaho.
Cataldo Mission,
the oldest standing building in Idaho, was constructed at
Cataldo by the
Coeur d'Alene and
Catholic missionaries
between 1848 and 1853.
During this
time, the Idaho region was part of an unorganized territory
known as Oregon Country,
claimed by both the United States and
Great Britain. The United
States gained undisputed jurisdiction over the region in the
Oregon Treaty of
1846. The original boundaries of
Oregon Territory in
1848 included all three of the
present-day Pacific Northwest states and extended eastward
to the Continental Divide.
In 1853, areas north of the
46th Parallel
became Washington Territory,
splitting what is now Idaho in two. The future state was
reunited in 1859 after
Oregon became a state and the boundaries of Washington
Territory were redrawn.
While
thousands passed through Idaho on the
Oregon Trail or during the
California gold rush of
1849, few people settled there. In 1860
the first of several gold rushes in
Idaho began at Pierce in
present-day Clearwater
County. By 1862, settlements in both
the north and south had formed around the mining boom.
Settlement
Mormon Settlement
The first
organized town in Idaho was
Franklin, settled in April 1860 by
Mormon pioneers who believed
they were in Utah Territory;
although a later survey determined they had in fact crossed
the border. Mormon pioneers
would go on to settle the majority of Southeastern Idaho,
reaching the area near the current day
Grand Teton National
Park in Wyoming. This area of
Idaho is predominantly
LDS, and many church leaders have come from this area.
Mormons settled in other areas of Idaho as well, but never
with the same numbers as in the
Southeast region of the state.
Irish people
emigrated to North America after
the Potato Famine and some
migrated west searching for land for
agriculture. Many ended up in Montana and Southern
Idaho. Because the Catholic church already had a presence in
the state, many Irish Catholics settled in Boise and
Great Falls, Montana.
York was
the first recorded African American in Idaho and he was the
helper of Lewis and Clark on their expedition to the
Pacific. There is a significant African American population
made up of those who came west after the
abolition of slavery. Many settled near
Pocatello and were
ranchers, entertainers, and farmers.
Although free, many Blacks suffered
discrimination in the early to mid-late
20th century. The Black
population of the state continues to grow as many come to
the state because of educational opportunities, to serve in
the military,
and for other employment opportunities. There is a Black
History Museum in Boise Idaho with an exhibit known as the
"Invisible Idahoan", which chronicles the first
African-Americans in the state. Blacks are the fourth
largest ethnic group in Idaho according to the
2000 census.
Mountain Home,
Boise, and Garden City have
decent African-American populations.
Basque
The
Basque people from the
Iberian peninsula in
Spain and southern
France were traditionally shepherds
in Europe. They came to Idaho, offering hard work and
perseverance, in exchange for opportunity.[5]
One of the largest Basque communities in the US is in Boise
, with a Basque museum and festival held annually in
the city.
Chinese Settlement
Chinese Americans in the mid
1800's came to America through
San Fransisco to
work on the railroad and open
businesses. They suffered discrimination due to the
Anti-Chinese League in the 1800's
which sought to limit the rights and opportunities of
Chinese emmigrants. Today Asians are third in population
demographically after Whites and Hispanics. Chinese made up
33 percent of Idaho in the 1880's.
Idaho Territory
On March 4, 1863, President
Abraham Lincoln signed an act
creating Idaho Territory from
portions of Washington
Territory and Dakota
Territory with its capital at
Lewiston. The original Idaho Territory included most of
the areas that later became the states of Idaho,
Montana and
Wyoming, and had a population of under 17,000. Idaho
Territory assumed the boundaries of the modern state in
1868 and was admitted as a state in
1890.
Statehood
When
President Benjamin Harrison
signed the law admitting Idaho as a
U.S. state on July 3,
1890, the population was 88,548.
George L. Shoup became the
state's first governor, but resigned after only a few weeks
in office to take a seat in the
United States Senate.
Miners' uprisings
During its
first years of statehood, Idaho was plagued by labor unrest
in the mining district of Coeur d'Alene. In 1892, miners
called a strike which
developed into a
shooting war between union miners and company guards.
Each side accused the other of starting the fight. The first
shots were exchanged at the Frisco mine in Frisco, in the
Burke-Canyon north and east of
Wallace. The Frisco mine was
blown up, and company guards were taken prisoner. The
violence soon spilled over into the nearby community of Gem,
where union miners attempted to locate a
Pinkerton
spy who had infiltrated their union and was passing
information to the mine operators. But agent
Charlie Siringo escaped by
cutting a hole in the floor of his room. Strikers forced the
Gem mine to close, then travelled west to the Bunker Hill
mining complex near Wardner,
and closed down that facility as well.
Several had
been killed in the Burke-Canyon fighting. The
Idaho National Guard and
federal troops were dispatched to the area, and union miners
and sympathizers were thrown into
bullpens.
Hostilities
would erupt at the Bunker Hill facility once again in 1899,
when seventeen union miners were fired for having joined the
union. Other union miners were likewise ordered to draw
their pay and leave. Angry members of the union converged on
the area and blew up the Bunker Hill Mill, killing two
company men.
In both
disputes, the union's complaints included pay, hours of
work, the right of miners to belong to the union, and the
mine owners' use of informants and
undercover agents. The violence committed by union
miners was answered with a brutal response in 1892 and in
1899.
Through the
Western Federation
of Miners (WFM) union, the battles in the mining
district became closely tied to a
major miners' strike in
Colorado. The struggle culminated in the December
1905 assassination of former Governor
Frank Steunenberg by
Harry Orchard (also known as
Albert Horsley), a member of the WFM. Orchard was allegedly
incensed by Steunenberg's efforts as governor to break an
1899 strike after being elected on a
pro-labor platform.
Pinkerton
detective James McParland
conducted the investigation into the assassination. In
1907, WFM Secretary Treasurer
"Big Bill" Haywood and two other
WFM leaders were tried on a charge of conspiracy to murder
Steunenberg, with Orchard testifying against them as part of
a deal made with McParland. The nationally publicized trial
featured Senator William E.
Borah as prosecuting attorney and
Clarence Darrow representing
the defendants. The defense team
presented evidence that
Orchard had been a Pinkerton agent and had acted as a paid
informant for the
Cripple
Creek Mine Owners' Association. Darrow argued that
Orchard's real motive in the assassination had been revenge
for a declaration of martial law by Steunenberg, which
prompted Orchard to gamble away a share in the
Hercules mine that would
otherwise have made him wealthy.
Two of the
WFM leaders were acquitted in two separate trials, and the
third was released. Orchard was convicted and sentenced to
death. His sentence was commuted, and he spent the rest of
his life in an Idaho prison.
Mining in Idaho
Mining in Idaho was a major
commercial venture, bring a great of attention to the state.
From 1860-1866 Idaho produced 19% of
all gold in the
United States, or 2.5 million ounces.
Progressive policies
Idaho
proved to be one of the more receptive states to the
progressive
agenda of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The state
embraced progressive policies such as
women's suffrage (1896)
and prohibition (1916)
before they became federal law. Idahoans were also strongly
supportive of Free Silver. The
pro-bimetallism
Populist and
Silver Republican
Parties of the late 1890s were particularly successful in
the state.
After
statehood, Idaho's economy began a gradual shift away from
mining toward agriculture, particularly in the south. Older
mining communities such as Silver City and
Rocky Bar gave way to
agricultural communities incorporated after statehood, such
as Nampa and
Twin Falls. Milner Dam on
the Snake River, completed in 1905,
allowed for the formation of many agricultural communities
in the Magic Valley region which
had previously been nearly unpopulated.
Meanwhile,
some of the mining towns were able to reinvent themselves as
resort communities, most notably in
Blaine County, where the
Sun Valley ski resort
opened in 1936. Others, such as Silver
City and Rocky Bar, became ghost towns.
1950s to present
In the
north, mining continued to be an important industry for
several more decades. The closure of the Bunker Hill Mine
complex in Shoshone County
in the early 1980s sent the region's economy into a
tailspin. Since that time, a substantial increase in
tourism in north Idaho has helped the
region to recover. Coeur
d'Alene, a lake-side resort town, is a destination for
visitors in the area.
Beginning
in the 1980s, there was a rise in North
Idaho of a few right-wing
extremist and "survivalist"
political groups, most notably one holding
Neo-Nazi views, the
Aryan Nations. These groups
were most heavily concentrated in the Panhandle region of
the state, particularly in the vicinity of Coeur d'Alene.
Although Idaho is a conservative
state politically the vast majority of its residents reject
such ideologies.
In
1992 a stand-off occurred between
U.S. Marshals, the
F.B.I., and
white separatist
Randy Weaver and his family at
their compound at Ruby Ridge,
located near the small, north Idaho town of Naples. The
ensuing fire-fight and deaths of a U.S. Marshall, and
Weaver's son and wife gained national attention, and raised
a considerable amount of controversy regarding the nature of
acceptable force by the federal government in such
situations.
In
2001, the Aryan Nations compound, which
had been located in Hayden
Lake, Idaho, was confiscated as a result of a court
case, and the organization moved out of state. About the
same time Boise installed an impressive stone Human Rights
Memorial featuring a bronze statue of
Anne Frank and quotations from her and many other
writers extolling human freedom and equality. A recent poll
found that Idaho citizens accept people of different
cultures and ethnicities and the demographics of the states
has changed as well as a surge in economic expansion due to
this growth in different groups, especially in Boise.
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