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.
