Education.—The public schools in 1905-1906 had an enrolment of 62,726, or 81.5% of the population between 5 and 21 years of age. The average length of school term was 6-8 months, the average expenditure (year ending Aug. 31, 1906) for instruction for each child was $19.29, and the expenditure for all school purposes was $1,008,481. There was a compulsory attendance law, which, however, was not enforced. Higher education is provided by the University of Idaho, established in 1899 at Moscow, Latah county, which confers degrees in arts, science, music and engineering, and offers free tuition. In 1907-1908 the institution had 41 instructors and 426 regular and 58 special students. In 1901 the Academy of Idaho, another state institution with industrial and technical courses and a preparatory department, was established at Pocatello, Bannock county, to be a connecting link between the public schools and the university. There are two state normal schools, one at Lewiston and the other at Albion. The only private institution of college rank in 1908 was the College of Caldwell (Presbyterian, opened 1891) at Caldwell, Canyon county, with 65 students in 1906-1907. There are Catholic academies at Boisé and Cœur d’Alene and a convent, Our Lady of Lourdes, at Wallace, Shoshone county, opened in 1905; Mormon schools at Paris (Bear Lake county), Preston (Oneida county), Rexburg (Fremont county), and Oakley (Cassia county); a Methodist Episcopal school (1906) at Weiser (Washington county); and a Protestant Episcopal school at Boisé (1892). The Idaho Industrial Institute (non-denominational; incorporated in 1899) is at Weiser.
Finance.—The finances of Idaho are in excellent condition. The bonded debt on the 30th of September 1908 was $1,364,000. The revenue system is based on the general property tax and there is a State Board of Equalization. Each year $100,000 is set aside for the sinking fund for the payment of outstanding bonds as fast as they become due. The constitution provides that the rate of taxation shall never exceed 10 mills for each dollar of assessed valuation, that when the taxable property amounts to $50,000,000 the rate shall not exceed 5 mills, when it reaches $100,000,000, 3 mills shall be the limit, and when it reaches $300,000,000 the rate shall not exceed 1½ mills; but a greater rate may be established by a vote of the people. No public debt (exclusive of the debt of the Territory of Idaho at the date of its admission to the Union as a state) may be created that exceeds 1½% of the assessed valuation (except in case of war, &c.); the state cannot lend its credit to any corporation, municipality or individual; nor can any county, city or town lend its credit or become a stockholder in any company (except for municipal works).
History.—The first recorded exploration of Idaho by white men was made by Lewis and Clark, who passed along the Snake river to its junction with the Columbia; in 1805 the site of Fort Lemhi in Lemhi county was a rendezvous for two divisions of the Lewis and Clark expedition; later, the united divisions reached a village of the Nez Perce Indians near the south fork of the Clearwater river, where they found traces of visits by other white men. In 1810 Fort Henry, on the Snake river, was established by the Missouri Fur Company, and in the following year a party under the auspices of the Pacific Fur Company descended the Snake river to the Columbia. In 1834 Fort Hall in E. Idaho (Bingham county) was founded. It acquired prominence as the meeting-point of a number of trails to the extreme western parts of North America. Missions to the Indians were also established, both by the Catholics and by the Protestants. But the permanent settlements date from the revelation of Idaho’s mineral resources in 1860, when the Cœur d’Alene, Palouses and Nez Perces were in the North, and the Blackfoots, Bannocks and Shoshones in the South. While trading with these Indians, Capt. Pierce learned in the summer of 1860 that there was gold in Idaho. He found it on Orofino Creek, and a great influx followed—coming to Orofino, Newsome, Elk City, Florence, where the ore was especially rich, and Warren. The news of the discovery of the Boisé Basin spread far and wide, and Idaho City, Placerville, Buena Vista, Centreville and Pioneerville grew up. The territory now constituting Idaho was comprised in the Territory of Oregon from 1848 to 1853; from 1853 to 1859 the southern portion of the present state was a part of Oregon, the northern a part of Washington Territory; from 1859 to 1863 the territory was within the bounds of Washington Territory. In 1863 the Territory of Idaho was organized; it included Montana until 1864, and a part of Wyoming until 1868, when the area of the Territory of Idaho was practically the same as that of the present state. Idaho was admitted into the Union as a state in 1890. There have been a few serious Indian outbreaks in Idaho. In 1856 the Cœur d’Alenes, Palouses and Spokanes went on the war-path; in April 1857 they put to flight a small force under Col. Edward Tenner Steptoe; but the punitive expedition led by Col. George Wright (1803-1865) was a success. In 1877 the Nez Perces, led by Chief Joseph, refused to go on the reservation set apart for them, defeated a small body of regulars, were pursued by Major-General O. O. Howard, reinforced by frontier volunteers, and in September and October were defeated and retreated into Northern Montana, where they were captured by Major-General Nelson A. Miles. Occasional labour troubles have been very severe in the Cœur d’Alene region, where the attempt in 1892 of the Mine Owners’ Association to discriminate in wages between miners and surfacemen brought on a union strike. Rioting followed the introduction of non-union men, the Frisco Mill was blown up, and many non-union miners were killed. The militia was called out and regular troops were hurried to Shoshone county from Fort Sherman, Idaho and Fort Missoula, Montana. These soon quieted the district. But the restlessness of the region caused more trouble in 1899. The famous Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines were wrecked, late in April, by union men. Federal troops, called for by Governor Frank Steunenberg, again took charge, and about 800 suspected men in the district were arrested and shut up in a stockade known as the “bull-pen.” Ten prisoners, convicted of destroying the property of the mine-owners, were sentenced to twenty-two months in jail. The feeling among the union men was bitter against Steunenberg, who was assassinated on the 30th of December 1905. The trial in 1907 of Charles H. Haywood, secretary of the Western Federation of Miners, who was charged with conspiracy in connexion with the murder, attracted national attention; it resulted in Haywood’s acquittal. Before 1897 the administration of the state was controlled by the Republican party; but in 1896 Democrats, Populists and those Republicans who believed in free coinage of silver united, and until 1902 elected a majority of all candidates for state offices. In 1902, 1904, 1906 and 1908 a Republican state ticket was elected.
| Governors | |
| Territorial. | |
| William H. Wallace | 1863 |
| W. B. Daniels, Secretary, Acting Governor | 1863-1864 |
| Caleb Lyon | 1864-1865 |
| C. de Witt Smith, Secretary, Acting Governor | 1865 |
| Horace C. Gilson ” ” | 1865-1866 |
| S. R. Howlett ” ” | 1866 |
| David W. Ballard | 1866-1870 |
| E. J. Curtis, Acting Governor | 1870 |
| Thomas W. Bennett | 1871-1875 |
| D. P. Thompson | 1875-1876 |
| Mason Brayman | 1876-1880 |
| John B. Neil | 1880-1883 |
| John N. Irwin | 1883-1884 |
| William M. Bunn | 1884-1885 |
| Edward A. Stevenson | 1885-1889 |
| George L. Shoup | 1889-1890 |
| State Governors | |
| George L. Shoup,[3] Republican | 1890 |
| Norman B. Wiley, Acting Governor | 1890-1892 |
| William J. McConnell, Republican | 1893-1897 |
| Frank Steunenberg, Democrat Populist | 1897-1901 |
| Frank W. Hunt, ” ” | 1901-1903 |
| John T. Morrison, Republican | 1903-1905 |
| Frank R. Gooding, ” | 1905-1909 |
| James H. Brady, ” | 1909- |
Bibliography.—The physical features and economic resources of Idaho are discussed in J. L. Onderdonk’s Idaho: Facts and Statistics (San Francisco, 1885), Israel C. Russell’s “Geology and Water Resources of the Snake River Plains of Idaho,” U.S. Geological Survey, Bulletin 199 (Washington, 1902), The State of Idaho (a pamphlet issued by the State Commissioner of Immigration), Waldmor Lindgren’s “Gold and Silver Veins of Silver City, De Lamar and other Mining Districts of Idaho,” U.S. Geological Survey, 20th Annual Report (Washington, 1900), and “The Mining Districts of the Idaho Basin and the Boisé Ridge, Idaho,” U.S. Geological Survey, 18th Annual Report (Washington, 1898). These reports should be supplemented by the information contained elsewhere in the publications of the Geological Survey (see the Indexes of the survey) and in various volumes of the United States Census. W. B. Hepburn’s Idaho Laws and Decisions, Annotated and Digested (Boisé, 1900), and H. H. Bancroft’s Washington, Idaho, and Montana (San Francisco, 1890) are the principal authorities for administration and history. The reports of the state’s various executive officers should be consulted also.
[1] Of these 80,000 acres are reached directly—72,000 N., and 8000 S. of the Snake river; and from 50,000 to 70,000 acres more are above the level of the canals and will have water pumped to them by the 11,000-30,000 h.p. developed.
[2] This disqualification and much other legislation were due to the large Mormon population in Idaho. In 1884-1885 all county and precinct officers were required to take a test oath abjuring bigamy, polygamy, or celestial marriage; and under this law in 1888 three members of the territorial legislature were deprived of their seats as ineligible. An act of 1889, when the Mormons constituted over 20% of the population, forbade in the case of any who had since the 1st of January 1888 practised, taught, aided or encouraged polygamy or bigamy, their registration or voting until two years after they had taken a test oath renouncing such practices, and until they had satisfied the District Court that in the two years preceding they had been guilty of no such practices. The Constitutional Convention which met at Boisé in July-August 1889 was strongly anti-Mormon, and the Constitution it framed was approved by a popular vote of 12,398 out of 14,184. The United States Supreme Court decided the anti-Mormon legislation case of Davis v. Beason in favour of the Idaho legislature. In 1893 the disqualification was made no longer retroactive, the two-year clause was omitted, and the test oath covered only present renunciation of polygamy.
[3] Governor Shoup resigned in December to take his seat in the U.S. Senate.