Considerations more political than practical left Idaho strange in shape—like a pregnant capital L, as one observer said. With the state’s southeastern residents oriented toward Salt Lake City, Utah, and residents of the Idaho panhandle oriented toward Spokane, Washington, often it has seemed that only the capital at Boise and the Snake River system have held the state together. More than half of Idaho is owned by an outsider—the federal government—and the rest has never been densely populated. From Lewis and Clark on, early travelers to the region found its deserts and mountains forbiddingly inhospitable. But the mountains have yielded timber and rich mineral mines. The deserts have become productive farms through reclamation and irrigation projects of enormous magnitude. A kind of “irrigation democracy” also has won attention for the state beyond its borders, as has the awe-inspiring beauty that makes Idaho an attractive place to live.

General editor: James Morton Smith