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1959 Completion of the Brownlee Dam on the Hell's Canyon stretch of the Snake River.
Idaho is fourth among states in irrigated acres—2,330,000—comprising 54 percent of the state's farmland.
1965 A state sales tax of three percent is adopted.
1972 May 2. A fire in the Sunshine Mine kills 91 miners.
1973 Completion of the Dworshak Dam on the Clearwater River.
1975 Lewiston becomes a seaport with the dedication of a $344-million deep-channel waterway linking the Snake and Columbia rivers to the Pacific Ocean.
1976 June 5. The Teton Dam on the Snake River collapses, killing 11 persons and causing at least $400 million in property damage.
1980 Creation of the 2.2-million-acre River of No Return Wilderness, the largest wilderness preserve in the United States outside of Alaska.
1982 The Sunshine Mine and Bunker Hill mine and smelter are closed because of low silver prices.
1985 Idaho accounts for 48 percent of national silver production. It also produces all the nation's antimony and ranks second among states in lead and vanadium production and third in phosphate rock and molybdenum. Record potato production of over 102 million hundredweight comprises one-fourth of all U.S. potatoes.
1986 Idaho voters adopt a right-to-work constitutional amendment prohibiting the payment of union dues as a condition for employment.
1992 Overcoming objections from state officials and tribal councils, the federal government ships nuclear waste to an Idaho Falls storage center for the first time in three years.Angus!. Governor Cecil Andrus declares a state of emergency as fires rage through the state.
SOME INFORMATION: The Idaho potato remains the state's most important cash crop, followed by wheat, sugar beets, alfalfa, beans, truck vegetables, and peas. Cattle are the main livestock. Total farm receipts were over $2.7 billion in 1989. Manufacturing in the state is centered around potato and beet-sugar processing, lumber products, and chemicals. Silver, lead, and zinc, sand, gravel, basalt, pumice, garnet, and phosphate are the principle mining products. As in many Western states, tourism is one of the fastest growing industries, as visitors flock to see Idaho's spectacular national and state parks.
Among states, Idaho ranks high in the generation of energy from renewable resources —mainly hydropower and woodburning. The Columbia and Snake River system, which passes through the state, is one of the most endangered in the nation, in part due to Idaho's heavy use of irrigation. In fact, Idahoans use more water per capita than the inhabitants of any other state. Among the species threatened by declining river levels is the sockeye salmon, which is nearly extinct in Idaho.
NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES
Idaho was formerly home to the Kalispel, Nehelem, Northern Paiute, Palouse, and Spokane tribes. Groups that continue to live there include the Bannock, Coeur d'Alene, Kootenay, Nez Perce, Northern Shoshoni, and Western Shoshoni. Native Americans were 1.4 percent of the population in 1990.
RELIGIONS, ETHNICITIES, AND LANGUAGES
More than half of Idaho's population was born in Idaho; the rest is drawn mainly from the western and north central states. There is also a large community of Basques, originally from Spain, who continue their tradition of sheep-herding. Among churchgoers, Mormons are the biggest group, followed by Catholics and Methodists. In 1990, 2.9 percent of the population was foreign-born, with the majority of immigrants coming from Mexico and Canada; 6.4 percent of the population spoke languages other than English at home, of which the ten most common were Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Shoshoni, Chinese, Basque, Thai (Laotian), Portuguese, and Italian. Catholics and Methodists. In 1990, 2.9 percent of the population was foreign-born, with the majority of immigrants coming from Mexico and Canada; 6.4 percent of the population spoke languages other than English at home, of which the ten most common were Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Shoshoni, Chinese, Basque, Thai (Laotian), Portuguese, and Italian.
MAJOR MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES
Boise Gallery of Art Idaho State Historical Museum, Boise
MAJOR ARTS ORGANIZATIONS
Boise Opera Boise Philharmonic Association
Idaho has the only state seal designed by a woman—Emma Sarah Edwards. The seal was officially adopted on March 14, 1891.
Democrat Moses Alexander, Idaho governor from 1915 to 1919, was the nation's first full-term Jewish governor.
Idaho's Craters of the Moon National Monument, a region of volcanic craters and ash-strewn low hills, was used by NASA as a training ground for Apollo astronauts.
The state's hydroelectric power plants, with 1 million-plus kilowatt capacity, use less than ten percent of Idaho's hydroelectric potential.
Idaho's stretch of U.S. Highway 12 runs along the route taken by the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805. Only one major highway runs north-south in the state; when that is blocked in winter, vehicular travel between the upper and lower parts of the state is nearly impossible.
MAJOR MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES Boise Gallery of Art Idaho State Historical Museum, Boise
MAJOR ARTS ORGANIZATIONS Boise Opera Boise Philharmonic Association.
SHORT: Throughout the 1860’s, Idaho experienced a gold rush that drew scores of prospectors but left a lot of ghost towns. These relics of instant communities are found in many parts of the state. Mining? However? Is still important. Idaho ranks first internationally in the production of silver? Lead? Zinc? Copper and cobalt.
The famed Sunshine Mince, a long and largest lode producer of silver in the United States? Is there. In May 1972. A fire in the Sunshine sent lethal carbon monoxide and smoke wafting through 100 miles of workings. The death toll of miners was a staggering 91 people.
Of all commercial activities in the state, Idaho leans most heavily on agriculture for its economic well-being. It is the tenth largest producer of wheat in the nation and the leader in potatoes.
The Idaho potato, like the Georgia peach, remains something of an American institution. But it is the cattle industry that is responsible for the largest single share in annual farm-marketing cash receipts. Tourism, now the third-ranked industry, is one the rise, with an estimated 6 million yearly visitors.
There are more than 25 established ski areas in Idaho, including that dowager of winter resorts, Sun Valley.
Celebrated in song and film, Sun Valley has worn its fame well down through the years.
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