Idaho Trivia & Tidbits - Page 16

Looking for Idaho trivia? Try our list Idaho little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Sacajawea, the Shoshone Indian woman who became a legendary member of the historic Lewis and Clark expedition in the early 1800s, was named the state’s first-ever businesswoman by the Idaho Federation of Business and Professional Women. The honor, bestowed in March of 2001, salutes Sacajawea’s skills as a horse trader.

first appeared: 1/27/2002

St. Paul Baptist Church was the first African-American Baptist congregation in Boise. When the church moved out of its original building in 1994, it donated the structure for use as the Idaho Black History Museum. The building was moved to Julia Davis Park in Boise, before opening as a museum in 1999.

first appeared: 1/20/2002

The Birch Creek Conservation Area near Salmon (pop. 3,122) is the site where 50 springs come together in a valley to form the headwaters of Birch Creek. This 1,160-acre area, surrounded by the Beaverhead and Lemhi mountains, is protected by an arrangement between The Nature Conservancy and the Bureau of Land Management.

first appeared: 1/13/2002

Idaho has seen great temperature extremes since weather records have been kept. The highest recorded temperature is 118 degrees at Orofino (pop. 3,247) on July 28, 1934. The lowest recorded temperature is minus 60 degrees at Island Park Dam on Jan. 18, 1943.

first appeared: 1/6/2002

The 1872 Assay Office in Boise, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is considered one of the most important historic buildings in the state. An estimated $75 million in gold and silver passed through the building before it closed in 1933.

first appeared: 12/30/2001

Some of the granite rock formations in the City of Rocks National Reserve in the Albion Mountains are 2.5 billion years old, making them some of the oldest formations in the United States. The area is popular among rock climbers for several 100- to 300-foot spires and even some 600-foot towers.

first appeared: 12/23/2001

Rock hounds visit the Emerald Creek Garnet Area near St. Maries (pop. 2,652) to look for the rare star garnet found only in Idaho and India. The precious stone—a 12-sided crystal that is sometimes larger than a golf ball—is Idaho’s state gem.

first appeared: 12/16/2001

Legendary World War II flying ace Lt. Col. Gregory “Pappy” Boyington was born in Coeur d’Alene (pop. 34,514). He won the Medal of Honor after shooting down 28 Japanese planes, a Marine Corps record, and organizing the Black Sheep Squadron in the South Pacific in 1943.

first appeared: 12/9/2001

Famous explorer and fur trader David Thompson established the first trading post in what would become Idaho. Thompson explored the entire length of the Columbia River and founded Kullyspell House by Lake Pend Oreille for the Northwest Fur Co. in 1809.

first appeared: 12/9/2001

Now a ghost town, Burke, in the Silver Valley, was a boomtown in the 1880s after the discovery of lead and silver in the area. Soon hundreds of miners settled in a canyon almost too narrow to be a town. When the railroad came through, it was said that merchants had to roll back their awnings for trains to pass. The Tiger Hotel was built straddling the tracks.

first appeared: 12/2/2001

On Sept. 20, 1805, six men from the Lewis and Clark expedition had their first encounter with the Nez Perce Indians in Weippe Prairie, near what is now the town of Weippe (pop. 416). The Nez Perce gave the explorers food and directions during the two weeks they spent in the area.

first appeared: 11/25/2001

Olympic skier Picabo Street, a native of Triumph near Sun Valley (pop. 1,427), is no stranger to triumph on the slopes. Street won a gold medal at the Olympics in the Super G (formerly known as the Giant Slalom event) in 1998 and a silver (in the Downhill) in the 1994 Games. In 1995, she was the first U.S. woman to win the World Cup Downhill series title, which she won again in 1996.

first appeared: 11/18/2001

Heyburn State Park, south of Lake Coeur d’Alene near Plummer (pop. 990), is the oldest state park in the Pacific Northwest. Many of the park’s structures were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, beginning in 1934.

first appeared: 11/11/2001

The Idaho State Library is marking its centennial this year, a century after the State Traveling Library Commission sent books by stagecoach to communities and mining camps around Idaho.

first appeared: 11/4/2001

One of the most glamorous movie stars of the 1940s and ’50s was a daughter of Idaho. Julia Jean Mildred Francis Turner of Wallace (pop. 960) went on to fame as Lana Turner after beginning her Hollywood career in 1937. Turner, who starred in more than 60 movies, died June 29, 1995, in Los Angeles.

first appeared: 10/28/2001

Farragut State Park in northern Idaho was a training ground for almost 300,000 sailors during World War II. It was the second largest such training center in the world. The land was then converted into a park, offering splendid mountains and forests, as well as fishing, sailing, and swimming in Lake Pend Oreille.

first appeared: 10/21/2001

A trip to Winchester Lake State Park near Winchester (pop. 308) can yield a large catch of rainbow trout and bass, since the lake covering more than 100 acres is stocked annually and known for excellent fishing. In winter, ice fishing, cross-country skiing, and ice skating are popular.

first appeared: 10/14/2001

If you’ve ever put your right hand in and then put your right hand out and then put it back in before shaking it all about, you’ve done the Hokey Pokey—and you have Roland Lawrence LaPrise to thank for it. LaPrise and two other musicians came up with the ditty in the late 1940s for the ski crowd in Sun Valley. LaPrise and his Ram Trio recorded the song in 1949. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Chubby Checker, among others, have since recorded the catchy favorite.

first appeared: 10/7/2001

Philo T. Farnsworth of Rigby (pop. 2,998) transmitted the first electronic television image in history—in 1927 at age 20. He’d come up with the idea at age 14. The Farnsworth TV and Pioneer Museum in Rigby has a collection dedicated to Farnsworth.

first appeared: 9/30/2001

Shoshone Ice Caves, near Shoshone (pop. 1,398), give visitors a look at ice sculptures formed by air currents in a chilly cave three blocks long and 90 feet below ground.

first appeared: 9/23/2001

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