Idaho Trivia & Tidbits - Page 7

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

When the 1895 Oneida Stake Academy building, in Preston (pop. 4,682) was moved three blocks to the city’s Benson Park in 2003, the task required dozens of motorized hydraulic jacks supported by 344 tires. The Romanesque-style building is one of a few 19th-century Latter-day Saints academies left standing.

first appeared: 9/11/2005

Built to celebrate Idaho’s 1963 Centennial, the Old Fort Hall Replica in Pocatello (pop. 51,466) re-creates the fort established in 1834 by Nathaniel Wyeth as a supply center for fur traders. After its sale to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1838, Fort Hall became a stop for emigrants traveling the Oregon Trail until its closure in 1856.

first appeared: 8/28/2005

This March, Idaho National Guard biologists announced their discovery of a new type of fairy shrimp—at 3 inches long, one of the largest of 300 fairy shrimp species—in the state’s desert lakes. During dry periods, when the lakes disappear, the eggs of the shrimp become dormant, hatching only when the lakes re-fill with water.

first appeared: 8/14/2005

Known as the Horse Queen of Idaho, Kitty Wilkins (1857-1936) raised and sold horses to Midwestern markets and supplied thousands to the U.S. Army during World War I. Her Diamond Ranch was located near Bruneau, south of Mountain Home (pop. 11,143).

first appeared: 8/14/2005

Sylvan Hart (1906-1980), known as "Buckskin Bill," lived alone on the remote Five Mile Bar on the Salmon River, near Cascade (pop. 997). He moved to the area during the 1930s and made most of what he needed to survive, including his home, his moccasins and his rifles.

first appeared: 7/31/2005

Former Minnesota Lynx basketball player Andrea Lloyd Curry, who hails from Moscow (pop. 21,291), was a three-time state girls’ basketball player of the year. She also was part of the gold medal-winning U.S. women’s basketball team at the 1988 Olympics.

first appeared: 7/17/2005

Gracie Bowers Pfost (1906-1965) served in the U.S. Congress from 1953 to 1963. Raised on a farm in the Boise Valley, she campaigned on the rodeo circuit, always packing her cowboy boots in her car and competing in roping and riding events throughout the state.

first appeared: 7/17/2005

Football player Jerry Kramer, who grew up in Sandpoint (pop. 6,835), made the NFL’s all-pro team five times during his career from 1958 to 1968 with the Green Bay Packers. He made the famous block that helped quarterback Bart Starr score the winning touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys during the 1967 NFL championship game, known as the "Ice Bowl" for its frigid temperatures. Kramer now lives with his family near Parma (pop. 1,771).

first appeared: 6/19/2005

Five circular domed Mongolian-style tents, known as yurts, make up the Portneuf Range Yurt System, run by the Idaho State University Outdoor Program, near Pocatello (pop. 51,466). Each yurt boasts a skylight for stargazing, bunk beds, a wood-burning stove and Coleman lantern. The yurts allow backcountry skiers and snowshoers to travel from one to another for a respite or reserve them for an overnight stay. Other yurts in the state are located in Harriman, Winchester Lake, Ponderosa and Lake Cascade state parks, and along the Idaho City Area Trails.

first appeared: 6/5/2005

In 1969, Apollo astronauts traveled to Craters of the Moon National Monument near Arco (pop. 1,026) to examine the volcanic terrain, which is similar to the lunar landscape. Eugene Cernan, Joe Engle, Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard studied the lava formations to help them determine which of the moon’s rocks should be brought home for study. Shepard and Mitchell landed on the moon on Feb. 5, 1971, during the Apollo 14 mission.

first appeared: 5/22/2005

Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (1912-1988), born in Coeur d’Alene, resigned his Marine Corps commission in 1941 to join the American Volunteer Group, a unit of pilots known as the Flying Tigers who supported the Chinese military during China’s war with Japan. Rejoining the Marines, he was put in charge of the Black Sheep Squadron flying in World War II’s Pacific theater, a unit celebrated in the 1970s TV show Baa Baa Black Sheep.

first appeared: 5/8/2005

The mining boomtowns of Custer and Bonanza were founded in the late 1870s as gold seekers poured into central Idaho. The area grew rapidly with the good fortunes of miners at the Lucky Boy, General Custer and Montana mines. The gold played out by 1911, and today, ruins of the buildings and burial sites of former residents are all that remain of the towns in the Land of the Yankee Fork State Park between Sunbeam and Challis (pop. 909).

first appeared: 4/24/2005

Thousands of bright red Snake River sockeye salmon once made the annual 900-mile journey from the Pacific Ocean to Redfish Lake, near Stanley (pop. 100), to spawn. During the 1990s, however, only 16 wild sockeye returned to the lake. A fish hatchery now supports the salmon population, while wildlife officials continue to study how dams and reservoirs, habitat degradation, and other factors are harmful to the endangered fish.

first appeared: 3/27/2005

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated the value of Idaho’s 1882 potato crop at $250,000. By 1904, the value had increased to $1.3 million.

first appeared: 3/13/2005

At a height of 717 feet, the Dworshak Dam near Orofino (pop. 3,247) is the third highest dam in North America. In 1980, repairs on the gigantic dam—on the North Fork of the Clearwater River—cost $1 million.

first appeared: 2/27/2005

Water from the Lost River disappears underground near Arco (pop. 1,026) and reappears 90 miles away near Hagerman (pop. 656) in an area of crystal clear springs and waterfalls known as Thousand Springs. Between the two sites, the water flows through a natural underground reservoir formed by layers of lava thousands of feet thick.

first appeared: 2/13/2005

The federal government owns 66 percent of Idaho land. Most is designated national forest, but the Bureau of Land Management, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Bureau of Indian Affairs also control millions of acres.

first appeared: 2/13/2005

Known as the "mail-order prophet," Frank Robinson (1880-1948) began advertising his Psychiana movement—promising health, wealth and happiness, with a money-back guarantee—in 1929. At the movement’s peak, 60,000 pieces of mail arrived at Robinson’s office in Moscow (pop. 21,291) daily, and he employed 100 workers to send replies and Psychiana lessons to people in 67 countries. The movement lasted more than 20 years.

first appeared: 1/30/2005

The 18-hole golf course at the Coeur d’Alene Resort in Coeur d’Alene (pop. 34, 514) features a 15,000-square-foot, 5 million-pound floating, movable island green accessible by boat. A computer repositions the green in Lake Coeur d’Alene daily, and the distance to the hole, which varies from 100 to 200 yards or more, is displayed at the 14th tee.

first appeared: 1/16/2005

In the early 1950s, Norman Herrett of Twin Falls (pop. 34,469)constructed an observatory by rigging a canvas curtain around home-built telescopes.By the late 1960s, his expanded planetarium and museum were attracting 10,000schoolchildren annually. In 1972, he donated his collections-art, gems and meteorites-tothe College of Southern Idaho in return for a promise to construct a building,which today is the Herrett Center for Arts and Science, to house them.

first appeared: 1/2/2005

jump to page: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18

newspaper partner login create account

Recent

Popular

Recipes

Below are the most recent American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile recipes:

Relish

Spry

Below are the most recent articles from our Relish sister site. Click on the "Spry" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.

Below are the most recent articles from our Spry sister site. Click on the "Relish" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.