A state in the Rocky Mountains; Also called: Gem State.
State of northwestern US; nicknamed Gem State
area 216,500 sq km/83,569 sq mi
capital Boise
towns and cities Pocatello, Idaho Falls
features Rocky Mountains; Sawtooth Mountains, with peaks up to 11,800 feet; Snake River, which runs through Hell’s Canyon (2,330 m/7,647 ft), the deepest gorge in North America, and has the National Reactor Testing Station on the plains of its upper reaches; Shoshone Falls; Salmon River; Craters of the Moon national monument; Lava Hot Springs; Coeur d’Alene Lake, with a large population of ospreys; Nez Percé national historic park; Old Mission at Cataldo (1850), the oldest building in the state; Chesterfield, founded 1880 by Mormons from Utah; Ernest Hemingway Memorial, Ketchum (he is buried in the town cemetery); Coeur d’Alene Native American reservation; EBR-1, the first nuclear reactor in the US to generate usable amounts of electricity, now a national historic landmark; Soda Springs, with the only artificial geyser in the world; Sun Valley, the first ski resort in the US (1935) and site of the world’s first chair lifts
industries potatoes, wheat, livestock, timber, silver, lead, zinc, antimony

history part of the Louisiana Purchase 1803; explored by Lewis and Clark 1805–06; first permanently settled by Mormons 1860, the same year gold was discovered. Settlement in the 1870s led to a series of battles between US forces and Indian tribes. Idaho became a state in 1890. The timber industry began 1906, and by World War I agriculture was a leading enterprise.