|
"Furby, the insanely popular
interactive furball from Tiger Electronics, has Idaho roots. Tiger bought the
the company in the late 1990s.
63% of Idaho is public land
managed by the federal government. The Frank Church River of No Return
Wilderness is the largest wilderness area in the 48 contiguous states - 2.3
million acres of rugged, unspoiled back country.
The world's first alpine skiing
chairlift was (and still is) located in Sun Valley. Built by Union Pacific
Railroad engineers, it was designed after a banana-boat loading device. The 1936
fee: 25 cents per ride.
The world's first nuclear power
plant is located at the Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory
(INEEL), near Arco, Idaho. The Atomic Energy Commission offered the town of Arco
electricity generated by atomic energy in 1953.
The deepest river gorge in the
North American Continent is Idaho's Hells Canyon - 7,900 feet deep. Yes, it's
deeper than the Grand Canyon.
Sacajawea, a Lemhi Shoshoni from
an area now on the Montana/Idaho border, escorted Meriwether Lewis and William
Clark through northern Idaho to the mouth of the Columbia River drainage. Today,
Highway 12 follows the old Lewis and Clark Trail along the Lochsa (pronounced
lock-saw) and Clearwater Rivers until they merge with the Snake and continue
their journey to the Pacific Ocean.
Five of history's pioneer trails,
including the Oregon Trail and the California Trail, cross Southern Idaho. Wagon
ruts are still visible all along the rugged terrain.
The Scott Ski Pole, an invention
which helped revolutionize skiing, was invented by Ketchum's Edward Scott in
1958.
Nearly 85 percent of all the
commercial trout sold in the United States is produced in the Hagerman Valley
near Twin Falls.
Butch Cassidy , a.k.a - George
Leroy Parker, robbed the bank in Montpelier, Idaho, on August 13, 1896. He got
away with $7,165, allegedly to hire a lawyer for his partner Matt Warner, who
was awaiting trial for murder in Ogden, Utah.
Shoshone Falls (212 feet), near
Twin Falls, Idaho, drops 52 feet further than Niagara Falls.
The Snake River Birds of Prey
Natural Area, near Kuna, is the location of the largest concentration of nesting
raptors in North America. Thousands of visitors travel to the site each year,
from March through August, to observe the birds.
Wilson Butte Cave, near Twin
Falls, was excavated in 1959 and found to contain bones of bison and antelope,
as well as some arrowheads and other artifacts that were carbon-dated to be
14,500 years old. This makes them "among the oldest definitely dated
artifacts in the New World."
Craters of the Moon National
Monument in southeast Idaho contains nearly 40 separate lava flows, some formed
as recently as 250 years ago. The other-worldly area was used as a training
ground for early astronauts. The lavish June display of wild flowers adds to the
surreal quality of the landscape.
"Coeur d'Alene" means
"heart of an awl" in French.
Between 1863 (when Abraham
Lincoln signed the bill making Idaho a Territory) and statehood (27 years
later), the Idaho Territory had 16 governors, four who never set foot in Idaho.
Appropriately named the "Gem
State," Idaho produces 72 types of precious and semi-precious stones, some
of which can be found nowhere else in the world.
The Silver Valley in northern
Idaho has produced more than $4 billion in precious metals since 1884, making
the area one of the top 10 mining districts in the world.
One of the largest diamonds ever
found in the United States, nearly 20 carats, was discovered near McCall, Idaho.
In 1953, the engineering
prototype of the first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, was built and tested in
the Idaho desert on the Snake River Plain near Arco.
Idaho's Salmon River, known as
the "River of No Return" because of its difficult passage, is the
nation's longest free-flowing river that heads and flows within a single state.
Did you know that Idaho has a
seaport? The Port of Lewiston allows the exportation of millions of bushels of
grain down the Snake and Columbia Rivers for overseas shipment.
After the great Wallace fire of
1910, the Pulaski, a mattock-axe tool used in fire fighting, was invented in
Idaho.
When Bernard DeVoto, author of
the 1948 Pulitzer Prize winning history Across the Wide Missouri, died in 1955,
the U.S. Forest Service saw to DeVoto's wish that his ashes be scattered over
Idaho's Bitterroot Wilderness.
The Statehouse in Boise and
dozens of other buildings in the city are geothermally heated from underground
hot springs. In fact, Idaho is well sprinkled with public and private hot
springs.
- From the VisitID.org website
To learn more about Idaho visit http://www.visitid.org
|
