HISTORICAL.
The country out of which Idaho was created, known as a part of the Oregon Country, was acquired by treaty with England in 1846. Long before this date, however, trappers, hunters, explorers, and sturdy pioneers had found their way across the Rocky Mountains into the fertile valleys drained by the tributaries of the Columbia.
The earliest white men in this region were undoubtedly the half-breed French-Canadian voyageurs and the trappers of the Hudson Bay Company, who opened the trails through all the great wilderness of the Pacific Northwest; but the honor of revealing to the world the first impressions of the natural beauty and boundless resources of this new country west of the Rockies rests with Lewis and Clark, who crossed the State on their voyage of exploration and discovery in August, 1805. They found the Indians in possession of articles of European manufacture which had been obtained from the trappers of the Hudson Bay Company.
The first white settlement in Idaho of which we have record was established in 1834 at Fort Hall, Bannock County. This fort was important in early Idaho history, being at the crossing of the Missouri-Oregon and the Utah-Canadian trails.
Fort Boise, established in 1836 near the junction of the Snake and Boise rivers, was a rendezvous for thousands of Indians, who gathered from all the country between the Pacific coast and the head waters of the Missouri River to trade and barter in horses, furs, and articles of adornment.
The discovery of gold in 1860 at a point on the Clear Water River in northern Idaho was followed by a vast immigration to that section; this led to the discovery of gold in other parts of the territory, and soon the placer mines in the vicinity of Boise and other places were developed.
The territory of Idaho, comprising what is now Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, was organized by the Federal Government, March 3, 1863, and Lewiston was made the temporary capital of the territory.
The placer mines of the Boise Basin proved richer than those of the north, and the bulk of the population rapidly drifted southward. 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.