Lewiston, Idaho

“ Fortunately in those early days requirements for securing a teacher's certificate were not rigid, so teachers were plentiful but none qualified to teach beyond the grammar school work, necessitating a removal for high school work which could be ill afforded at that time. At Lewiston, Idaho, about twenty miles distant the Methodist Church established a so-called college which flourished for a time. Many of the young men and women of Asotin County availed themselves of the educational advantages offered by it. ”

“ Winter here is a most charming season, and the long sunny days of summer are succeeded by cool nights. Aided by irrigation, immense quantities of fruit are raised yearly. Across the Snake river, which is spanned by a long steel bridge, is the town of Clarkston, Washington, with Asotin a short distance up the river. These are fruit sections. Southeast on the elevated bench lands, is the town of Grangeville, in the wheat section.
Lewiston is the out-fitting and business city for the mines of Central Idaho, and the location of the State Normal School. ”

“ That is, the junction of the Snake and Clearwater rivers.
[107] Red Wolf crossing of the Snake river, at mouth of Alpown creek Garfield country, Washington. Col. E. J. Steptoe's expedition crossed here in the year 1858 on its disastrous expedition.
[108] John Work's corruption of the Indian family name Shahaptin.
[109] The Palouse and the Cayuse tribes. Not unlike Lewis and Clark Mr. Work was "something of a speller."
[110] Where Lewiston, Idaho, now stands. See page 128 of Vol. 2 of "Trail of Lewis & Clark" (Wheeler) for photo and description of this site. ”

“ Several thousand dollars have lately been invested by the people of Idaho in young trees, imported from the East. In connection with these observations of our own, we clip the following from an Oregon paper:
"Mr. D. P. Thompson, the surveyor, was in town during the forepart of the week. In a conversation with him he informed us, that, in surveying north of Lewiston, this last summer, he was much surprised to find it such a beautiful agricultural country. He says, it contains more land adapted to agriculture than is embraced in the entire Wallamet Valley, including all its tributaries. ”

“ E. of Lewiston, in Nez Perce county. Of these tribes, the Nez Perce and Cœur d’Alene were self-supporting; the other tribes were in 1900 dependent upon the United States government for 30% of their rations. Of the 24,604 foreign-born inhabitants of the state, 3943 were from England, 2974 were from Germany, 2528 were Canadian English, 2822 were from Sweden, and 1633 were from Ireland, various other countries being represented by smaller numbers. The urban population of Idaho in 1900 (i.e. the population of places having 4000 or more inhabitants) was 6.2% of the whole. ”

“ But this is the day of good roads. (Lewiston is located on both the Idaho and Washington Highways.) The auto, the jitney bus, the gasoline truck, and hundreds of passengers and thousands of tons of freight will reach the river by these means. It is estimated in the eight counties above mentioned that there are grown annually about 16,000,000 bushels of wheat, about 5,250,000 bushels of barley, 5,750,000 bushels of oats, and about 20,000 tons of hay. There are in this section also about 100,000 head of cattle, 75,000 horses, and 150,000 head of sheep, and many hogs. ”

“ In fact, aU the early acts of the Idaho legis- lature, while Lewiston was the capital, were technically in- valid because enacted upon land that did not belong to the Territory or to the United States. In May, 1863, the Nez Perces chief agreed to a new division of their lands, but the treaty was not confirmed at Washington and proclaimed until April, 1867. It was very necessary to secure a title and, according to the official Government reports, one of the most influential men in that negotiation was Dr. Robert Newell. ”

“ Nature has been lavish in this land of promise. She has given us soil for the plow and water enough for the harvest. Timber enough for our homes and power for our factories. Iron for industry and copper for the arts. Gold for a Nation's commerce and lead for a Nation's defense. Wilderness enough for recreation and winter enough for vigor. Scenery enough for sentiment and sunshine enough for some.
Of the early settlement of Idaho I will say but little. She is a young State, and age has not yet clothed her early history with romance. ”

“ The evil, lumpish spirit of man's aspirations, man's hopes and faith!
Once that part of Idaho had been famed for its rich placer claims that had washed every day into the thousands; then a misleading and glittering outcropping of gold-studded quartz, and a mad wave of adventurers, Americans, Canadians, Englishmen, Scots, and Scandinavians, surging in and making the gaunt hillsides ring with the staccato thud of pickaxe and the dull, minatory rumble of powder and dynamite. ”

“ Probably no state in the union is less known than Idaho. Wyoming has her “Buffalo Bill,” Colorado her Pike’s Peak, Nevada her far, but ill-famed Reno; Utah her famous salt lake; all known throughout the English speaking world. But Idaho, rich in natural resources, fertile and prosperous, has furnished no wild-west tragedy like that of Custer in Wyoming, to attract the attention of writers. She possesses no natural wonder to rival the Niagara Falls or Grand Canyon; she has produced no Kit Carson or Daniel Boone to fire the adventurous blood of ten-year-olds. ”

“ You wake up 'most any man you know in the middle of the night, and ask him quick to tell you the number of bones in the human skeleton exclusive of the teeth, or what percentage of the vote of the Nebraska Legislature overrules a veto. Will he tell you? Try him and see.
About what benefit Idaho got out of his poetry book I didn't exactly know. Idaho boosted the wine-agent every time he opened his mouth; but I wasn't so sure.
This Homer K. M., from what leaked out of his libretto through Idaho, seemed to me to be a kind of a dog who looked at life like it was a tin can tied to his tail. ”

“ Gallop your horse, as I have a hundred times, against the rising sun. As you climb the Sweetwater mountains, far away to your right, you will see the name Idaho written on the mountain top, at least, you will see a peculiar and beautiful light at sunrise, a sort of diadem on two grand clusters of mountains that bear away under the clouds fifty miles distant. ”

“ A land of fertile valleys, of magnificent streams, of broad ranges, of mountains whose everlasting snows have challenged the rising sun since the morning stars first sang together, of lakes whose placid bosoms reflect back the fragrant forests and the summer skies, of forest and field and waterfall, of blue skies and bountiful sunshine—such is Idaho, Gem of the Mountains, Land of Opportunity. ”

“ This much one sees clearly enough eastward of Chicago. Westward it becomes more and more the fact. In Idaho, at last, comes the untouched and perhaps invincible desert, plain and continuous through the long hours of travel. ”

“ This shifting of population caused the removal of the State capital to its present location at Boise in 1864.
By an act of Congress creating the territories of Montana and Wyoming, Idaho was reduced to its present boundaries in 1868.
On July 3, 1890, Idaho passed from a territorial form of government to that of a state, being the forty-third State to join the great Federal Union. Since that time her growth and development have been continuous and rapid.
Mining, lumbering, manufacturing, and agricultural pursuits are the principal resources of the State. ”

“ Idaho, which its boldly prophetic inhabitants call the Saratoga of the West, and which is just now full of visitors, lies comfortably at large on the level floor of a broad and long valley. The houses are of wood, shingle-roofed, most of them neat, many of them pretty. The hills around rise to the height of a thousand feet; and as little mining has been attempted on them, they are delightfully green, and their timber has not been felled. ”

“ There are snow-topped mountains on every side of you. Where we are right now is the upper line of the state of Idaho. Idaho sticks up in here in a sort of pocket—swings up to the north and then back again. The crest of the Divide is what makes the state line between Montana and Idaho. Four feet that way we are on Idaho ground, but there’s Montana east of us, north of us, and west of us.
“Over southwest, where you came over the Red Rock Pass, is the head of the Missouri. On north of here is the Madison River; it comes in, running northwest out of the upper corner of Yellowstone Park. ”

“ The south-eastern part of this vast area occupying Southern Idaho is mainly an arid plain; arid, indeed, in its natural condition, but, when touched by the vivifying waters in union with the ardent sun, it blossoms like a garden of the Lord. ”

“ You, perhaps, have no very great acquaintance with Idaho. This, in my opinion, should induce you to select a committee to visit the state incognito to examine and report on its resources. You will find that it is capable of supporting a population of 10,000,000 18people. These can engage in manufacture, farming, grazing, fruit culture, mining, wool growing and all the pursuits followed by the people of Pennsylvania or New England. The climate is not so warm as that of Tennessee, but in my judgment that is an advantage. ”

“ It will not be denied that the people are satisfied with their individual prospects and with the prospects of their country. The utterances of its statesmen, the voice of its legislature, the language of its press, all show how firmly, intelligently and successfully the people of Idaho are working unitedly together for the benefit of the entire state. ”

“ She invites the tourist and points to her great natural beauties of river and mountain and forest and lake. She invites the invalid, for whom in a more rigorous climate, a lower altitude or a more humid atmosphere there is no hope of health, and, last, but not least, she invites the laborer, for labor is the basis of all prosperity. And the people are answering the call. They are coming to Idaho. In the past ten years they have doubled our population and quadrupled the amount of land under irrigation. They are transforming the State. ”

“ The great state which we occupy is entirely under the control of the Co-opolitan Association. It contains four million people and two and a half million active members of the Industrial Army. Its inhabitants are all in cities, but no city is greater than one hundred and fifty thousand persons, except Idaho Falls and Shoshone, where the great water power, generating electricity, gives exceptional advantages for manufactures. Idaho Falls contains three hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants and Shoshone two hundred and twenty-one thousand. ”

“ The soil is very fertile and the water supply abundant. The principal irrigated sections of the State are in the Bear, Snake, Boisé, Payette and Weiser river valleys. These valleys lie at an altitude of from 700 to 5,000 feet. The Snake river, a tributary of the Columbia, and the Wood, Bruneau, Boisé, Payette, Weiser and Salmon rivers, its principal branches, form the drainage system of the S. portion of the State; the principal rivers of the N. part are the Spokane, St. Joe, St. Mary's, Clearwater, Cœur d'Alêne, Priest, and North Fork of the Columbia. ”

“ Our car had been left in the garage at Mammoth. On leaving we found there was no charge for the four days’ storage. It seemed like home to be back in our own car104 again. We followed the same route that we took to Old Faithful until we reached Gibbon Falls, then turned west along the Madison River to the western gate at Yellowstone, and so out of the park into Idaho.
If there are worse roads anywhere on earth than in Idaho, I hope we may never see them! It had grown hot, and every mile of the way was hotter. Sand, dust, ruts three feet deep, and chuck-holes at every turn! ”

“ Though classed as an arid State, Idaho is by far the best watered of the arid States and one of the best watered in the Union. It is the only State, with the possible exception of Washington, which has a river of the magnitude of the Snake flowing 1,000 miles within its own territories. This river has numerous large and important tributaries all available for irrigation. Idaho has the greatest natural water power of any State in the Union, and this time we will not except Washington nor even New York, which has the American Falls of Niagara. ”

“ Senator Wilson's amendment was agreed to and when the bill went back to the House it was concurred in and the new territory was henceforth designated Idaho.
Thus Senator Wilson selected the name Idaho, whilst Sen- ator Harding was instrumental in continuing its meaning. How the Shoshoni Indian word "Ee-dah-how" was eventually transformed into the English word "Idaho" is a task for the etymologist; but, whatever may be its etymology, the word "Idaho" and its meaning, "Gem of the Mountains," are forever fixed as correlated terms in the vocabulary of the people of Idaho. ”

“ In addition to his extensive holdings in Washington he owns a quarter section of land in Idaho which is also well improved. He possesses great energy and is a hard worker, giving the most careful personal supervision to all phases of his extensive agricultural operations. ”

“ Bear Lake, in the extreme S.E., lies partly in Utah. Mineral springs and hot springs are also a notable feature of Idaho’s physiography, being found in Washington, Ada, Blaine, Bannock, Cassia, Owyhee, Oneida, Nez Perce, Kootenai, Shoshone and Fremont counties. At Soda Springs in Bannock county are scores of springs whose waters, some ice cold and some warm, contain magnesia, soda, iron, sulphur, &c.; near Hailey, Blaine county, water with a temperature of 144° F. is discharged from numerous springs; and at Boisé, water with a temperature of 165° is obtained from wells. ”