50 States of Generosity: Idaho

We’re continuing a series at Tweetspeak — 50 States of Generosity, in which we highlight the 50 states of America and give people beautiful ways to understand and be generous with one another by noticing the unique and poetic things each state brings to the country. A more generous people in the States can become a more generous people in the world. We continue with Idaho.

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State motto: Esto perpetua (“Let it be perpetual” or “It is forever”) State song: “Here We Have Idaho” Nickname: The Gem State State amphibian: Idaho giant salamander State bird: Mountain bluebird State fish: Cutthroat trout State flower: Syringa State horse: Appaloosa  State fossil: Hagerman horse State Dinosaur: Oryctodromeus AKA “Orycto” State fruit: Huckleberry State Dance: Square Dance State gem: Star garnet State insect: Monarch butterfly State tree: Western white pine State vegetable: Potato. Read more about Idaho’s state emblems here.

The most I knew about Idaho is that its last name is “Potato,” its capital is Boise, and it has one of the most recognizable shapes on the map. It’s got a vertical panhandle (as opposed to Florida’s horizontal one). It borders six states (Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington) plus shares a 45-mile border with Canada. Some say tipped on its side, Idaho looks like a handgun. Others say it looks like fisted hand with the index finger pointed up. Maybe those are the folks who believe their state is Number One. Author Rick Just describes it as a shape that “just wants to be noticed. It has that gnome sitting-in-a-chair thing going for it. Its face stares into Montana while Montana, rudely, stares into Idaho’s belly.” And now I can’t unsee that image—like I can’t unsee the image of an upside-down state of Florida that looks like the Grinch. Idaho is the 14^th largest state by land area, the 13^th least populated and shares two time zones—Pacific Time in the Panhandle and Mountain Time in the rest of the state.

Idaho has an interesting history. Excavations have revealed some of the oldest dated artifacts in North America, proving that humans lived in the area possibly as long as 16,000 years ago. Native American tribes included the Nez Perce, Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai, Shoshone, Bannock and Blackfeet. (There are towns or counties that carry each of these tribal names.) Lewis and Clark were the first non-natives known to reach the area and arrived in 1805. Both the United States and Great Britain claimed the land until signing the Oregon Treaty in 1846. It was known as the Oregon Territory, then part of the Washington Territory, and then the Idaho Territory. It finally found its final shape and became the 43^rd state in 1890. The original Great Seal was designed in 1891 by Emma Edwards Green, the only woman to design a state seal.

Idaho consists of three primary geographic regions. The Rocky Mountains are in the north and central parts where Borah Peak rises at over 12,000 feet. Hell’s Canyon, carved by the great Snake River, is the deepest gorge in North America and dives deeper than even the Grand Canyon. The Columbia Plateau extends across the south and was formed from lava flows. Here lies Craters of the Moon National Monument where the Apollo 14 astronauts trained for their mission to the moon. The Owyhee Desert, nicknamed “The Big Quiet,” on the south edge of the plateau is the most remote region in the lower 48. The Basin and Range in the south central part is where one could visit the town of Twin Falls and see Shoshone Falls, known as “The Niagara of the West.”

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Idaho is the most heavily forested state in the Rocky Mountains and hosts the largest stand of western white pine in North America, including the world’s tallest at 219 feet. There are over 2000 lakes, Lake Pend Orieille being the deepest and longest. The Snake River is the longest and most famous of over 100,000 miles of rivers. The state teems with black bear, moose, bighorn sheep, woodland caribou, 400 species of birds, and not an alligator to be found. Of course, there are potatoes. Lots of them. And about 72 different kinds of gemstones, including the rare star garnet. One can enjoy skiing and swimming and boating and tubing and fishing and hunting and hiking and more.

Idaho has been described as captivating, a place of unexpected beauty, a stunning state of wonders, and “a place where you can feel nothing but where you are.” “When you are tired of Idaho,” someone added, “you are tired of wonder.” It’s a place of both adventure and solitude.

Ernest Hemingway loved Idaho. He visited the first time in 1939 on an invite to see the new Sun Valley Lodge. Hemingway was hooked and visited several times over the years. While there he worked on four of his books, including For Whom the Bell Tolls. He also wrote a poetic eulogy for his friend Gene Van Guilder that many think was also a eulogy for himself…

He loved the warm sun of summer and the high mountain meadows, the trails through the timber and the sudden clear blue of the lakes. He loved the hills in the winter when the snow comes. Best of all he loved the fall . . . the fall with the tawny and grey, the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods, leaves floating on the trout streams and above the hills the high blue windless skies. He loved to shoot, he loved to ride, and he loved to fish.”

—Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway and his 4^th fourth wife, Mary Welsh, moved to Ketchum, Idaho from Cuba in 1959. It was there after a battle with mental illness that he committed suicide in 1961. He is buried in the Ketchum Cemetery where many visit and leave “offerings.”

In 2011, the artist Mel Chin used every illustration extracted from the 1953-56 set of Funk & Wagnall’s encyclopedia to create 524 collages arranged in 25 floor-to-ceiling columns. Volume 12 of the set included an entry from Idaho, and poet Matthew Zapruder was asked to write a poem, which he did and titled it “Idaho.”

“I woke wanting
so much to go
inside the mountain
they call
The Cabinet
to find
a few bats
and the daughter
of the chambers
drawing ibex
on the walls . . .”

Visiting Idaho was never on my bucket list. Until now. And when I go, I might want to try some “ice cream potatoes”—vanilla ice cream coated with cocoa and slathered with whipped cream to look like a sour cream topped baked potato. Or maybe I’ll try an Idaho Spud—a marshmallow covered in chocolate and coconut. I’ll book a room in the historic Idaho Hotel, and maybe I’d also like to go inside the mountain they call the Chamber. Hold the bats, please.

Poetry Prompts: Idaho Generosities

1. Use any of the things you learned about Idaho (research more if you want) and put one or more of them into a poem. Weave in a little generosity if you like.

2. Check out this link to the Idaho Potato Museum to learn more. Write an ode to a potato.

More About Idaho: Poets & Writers + Landmarks

Rick Just – author
Kim Barnes – author and poet
Kerri Webster – author and poet – current “state writer in residence” (poet laureate)
Diane Raptosh – poet and state author-in-residence (2013-2016)

Idaho the Movie – written and narrated by Tim Woodward (This documentary is 47 minutes long and worth every second.)
Here We Have Idaho – Rick Pickren
Visit Idaho
Idaho By Region: Visit Idaho
The Wonders of Idaho Wildlife
Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument.
Idaho (Wikipedia)
Idaho Geography
Ten Towns in Idaho With Weird Names
Craters of the Moon National Monument
Old Idaho State Penitentiary
5 Reasons to Explore Idaho’s Owyhee Desert
Silver City
The Naming of Idaho
Ketchum Community Library – Hemingway in Idaho
More on Hemingway in Idaho from the JFK Library
Hemingway’s Idaho: 1939-1960
Tim Woodward – writer and journalist
Anthony Doerr – author of All the Light We Cannot See and others

Photo by Ashe Walker, Creative Commons, via Unsplash. Post by Sandra Heska King.

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Sandra Heska King

I’m a Michigan girl who left a 150-year-old family farmhouse on 60 acres to build a hummingbird-sized empty nest in Florida, right next to the Everglades. I thrive on a good dare and believe there’s no age-barrier to adventure—whether it’s kayaking with alligators, biking too close to a rattlesnake, riding a rollercoaster, or committing long poems near sleepy iguanas. I take lever harp lessons; buy more books than I own shelves to put them on; drink tea, tea, and more tea; and eat M&M’s the proper way (one sweet circle at a time). I’m also thinking to paint my front door chartreuse (don’t tell the HOA).

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