On a high-desert plateau of the Snake River Plain in southwestern Idaho, Boise, the "City of Trees," began as an encampment on the Oregon Trail along the Boise River. Natives were soon after displaced, and by 1864, a town site was platted north of the river, abutting the garrison at Fort Boise. Early settlers found livelihoods as merchants, supplying miners in the Boise Basin, where gold was discovered in 1862. Boiseans experienced difficulty accepting a municipal government and had to wrest territorial status from Lewiston in northern Idaho. Through decades of irrigation and commerce, they grappled with isolation and a scarcity of goods and amenities, which produced a remarkably resilient and vibrant population. From the railroad in 1880s to statehood in 1890, the interurban, and the airplane, rocket, and computer chip-making eras, Boise continues to grow and thrive.

The Encyclopedia of Politics in the American West is an A to Z reference work on the political development of one of America’s most politically distinct, not to mention its fastest growing, region. This work will cover not only the significant events and actors of Western politics, but also deal with key institutional, historical, environmental, and sociopolitical themes and concepts that are important to more fully understanding the politics of the West over the last century.

Famous for its bountiful potato crop, Idaho is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. In addition to its agricultural industry, Idaho is home to a burgeoning science and technology sector. This book will introduce the reader To The fascinating world of Idaho's facts-past and present. The state is proud of its history of supporting human rights, and was one of the first states to give women the right to vote. The narrative also provides an entrancing look at Idaho's natural splendor, which includes snow capped mountains, pristine lakes, and winding rivers. Rich in natural resources, Idaho has been nicknamed "The Gem State."

A directory of inmates of the Idaho State Penitentiary, Boise, Idaho, from 1864 to 1947, and a catalog of their files transferred by the Idaho Department of Corrrection to the Idaho State Historical Society's Public Archives and Research Library in 1995.

Lists news events, population figures, and miscellaneous data of an historic, economic, scientific and social nature.

When Americans migrated west, they carried with them not only their hopes for better lives but their religious traditions as well. Yet the importance of religion in the forging of a western identity has seldom been examined. In this first historical overview of religion in the modern American West, Ferenc Szasz shows the important role that organized religion played in the shaping of the region from the late-nineteenth to late-twentieth century. He traces the major faiths over that time span, analyzes the distinctive response of western religious institutions to national events, and shows how western cities became homes to a variety of organized faiths that cast only faint shadows back east. While many historians have minimized the importance of religion for the region, Szasz maintains that it lies at the very heart of the western experience. From the 1890s to the 1920s, churches and synagogues created institutions such as schools and hospitals that shaped their local communities; during the Great Depression, the Latter-day Saints introduced their innovative social welfare system; and in later years, Pentecostal groups carried their traditions to the Pacific coast and Southern Baptists (among others) set out in earnest to evangelize the Far West. Beginning in the 1960s, the arrival of Asian faiths, the revitalization of evangelical Protestantism, the ferment of post-Vatican II Catholicism, the rediscovery of Native American spirituality, and the emergence of New Age sects combined to make western cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco among the most religiously pluralistic in the world. Examining the careers of key figures in western religion, from Rabbi William Friedman to Reverend Robert H. Schuller, Szasz balances specific and general trends to weave the story of religion into a wider social and cultural context. Religion in the Modern American West calls attention to an often overlooked facet of regional history and broadens our understanding of the American experience.