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Idaho
Boise, the capital city of Idaho
Founded 1863 Incorporated 1864 Elevation 2,730 ft (830 m) Population 205,671
Metro 664,422
Boise, which lies on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, is the capital and largest city in Idaho. Boise is the third most populous metro area in the United States’ Pacific Northwest region, behind Seattle, and Portland.
The name is probably from French fur trappers, because the area by the river is well wooded, as opposed to the more dry scrub nearby. The French for woods is ‘bois’.
To understand Boise, you have to know that in 1862 there was the Boise Basin Gold Rush. It was the largest since the California Gold Rush of 1848. A whole clutch of settlements grew up to provide services for the miners (Idaho City, Placerville, Pioneerville, and Centerville). During the mid- 1860s, there were hundreds of businesses in these towns. Idaho City, for example, had a population of 7,000 in 1864, making it the largest city in the Northwest.
During this boom, the greater Boise Basin population was in the tens of thousands. But like all booms, it was short-lived and a few years later many miners left again. Idaho City’s population was a mere 104 by 1920.
Boise is near the place where the Boise River joins the Snake River on the Oregon border. A fort was built by the Hudson’s Bay Company in the 1830s while this was still disputed territory between the U.S. and Britain. Boise is on the Oregon Trail, so as people began the long pioneering
trek west, they impacted on the Native Americans and there were many skirmishes. Further skirmishes occurred as gold was discovered in the area and a great surge of prospectors flooded in. To control the area, in 1863 the U.S. Army built a fort where the Oregon Trail crossed a trail linking the Boise Basin (Idaho City) and the Owyhee (Silver City) mining areas. At this time both areas were boom towns because of the placer mining.
Boise was a central supply stop for these boom towns. Fort Boise, as it was first called, grew rapidly and
Boise 1911
