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IDAHO
IDAHO, sandwiched in between Washington,
Oregon and Montana, was the last of the states
to be penetrated by whites, and rivals Alaska
in the sheer scale of its barely explored wilderness
areas. Though much of its scenery amply deserves
national park status, its citizens have long been
suspicious of encroachment by federal government
and tourism alike, and only now is its potential
for adventurous travel being appreciated.
With a marked absence of urban centers (the pleasant
state capital Boise, in the south, being the only
real exception), Idaho is very much a destination
for the outdoors enthusiast. Natural wonders in
its five-hundred-mile stretch include Hell's Canyon,
America's deepest river gorge, the dramatic Sawtooth
National Recreation Area and the black, barren
Craters of the Moon. Beyond these, hikers and
backpackers have the choice of no fewer than 81
mountain ranges, interspersed with virgin forest
and lava plateau, while the mighty Snake and Salmon
rivers offer endless scope for fishing and whitewater
rafting. In 1805, Lewis and Clark declared central
Idaho's bewildering labyrinth of razor-edge peaks
and wild waterways to be the most difficult leg
of their mammoth journey from St Louis to the
Pacific. Only their Shoshone guides enabled them
to get through; to this day, there is no east–west
road across the heart of the state.
Reports of game animals tripping over each other
in their profusion attracted the usual legions
of itinerant trappers, but the Gold Rush of the
1860s and white pressure for land hastened the
violent end of traditional life: four hundred
Shoshone men, women and children were killed along
the Bear River in 1863, the Nez Percé were driven
out, and by the end of the 1870s the "Indian problem"
had been eradicated.
The name "Idaho," incidentally, was invented by
a mining lobbyist, who felt it sounded Indian;
it was originally proposed for what is now Colorado.
The central wilderness still divides the state
into two distinct halves. The heavily forested
north, interspersed with glacial lakes now fronted
by resorts like Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, has
always had strong trading links with Spokane in
Washington; in the south, irrigation programs
begun in the 1880s – partly instigated by Mormons
– have transformed the scrubland to either side
of the Snake River into the fertile fields responsible
for the state's license-plate tag of "Famous Potatoes."
Idaho's isolation, and small (1 million) population,
have kept it largely out of the mainstream of
recent US history; indeed, its remoteness has
attracted assorted unwelcome guests – neo-Nazi
survivalists awaiting the Second Coming and/or
nuclear holocaust.
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