Boise County County
Established February 4, 1864 with its county seat at Idaho City. Named for the Boise River, which was named by French-Canadian explorers and trappers for the great variety of trees growing along its banks. The Boise Basin, in which Idaho City lies, was one of the richest gold mining districts in the nation after the discovery of gold in 1862. At its peak in the 1860s and 1870s Idaho City was for a time the largest city in the Northwest, it was this great influx of people that led to the establishment of the Idaho Territory.
Mapped Location
Boise County: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.
Information
General information on Boise County
- Feature Type: County
- County Seat: City of Idaho City
- Established: Thursday, February 4, 1864
Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Boise County
A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Boise County | Official |
Origin Notes and History of Boise County
References to Boise County that document the origin of its place name
BOISE RIVER, Ada County.—Owing to the many whirlpools in this river, the Shoshonis called it the "Wihinast," meaning "boiling rapidly." In 1813, John Reed of the American Fur Company was murdered by the Indians while trapping along this stream, from which incident it was called Reed's River (q.v.). In 1819, Donald Mackenzie started to erect an establishment at the month of this stream, which river he called the Skamnaugh, for a tribe of the Nez Perce Indians of that name which then inhabited it, and it was always so called afterwards by the Hudson Bay Company and trappers. In 1834, some French-Canadian explorers, a part of Captain Bonneville's expedition, pitched camp on the mesa overlooking the site where Boise now stands, and looked down upon the valley thru which rippled a river of surpassing loveliness thru ranks of nodding poplars. They had traveled for many days thru the dust and sage-brush in the heat of summer; they had not seen a tree for hundreds of miles. When they saw the trees along the river they exclaimed, "Les bois, les bois! Voyez les vois!" meaning "The woods, the woods! See the woods!" This river was sometimes called the "wooded stream." The above circumstance occurred during Bonneville's itinerary (q.v.).—FRENCH, History of Idaho.
Boise County
- Banks
- Banner
- Big Eddy
- Brownlee
- Centerville
- City of Crouch
- Garden Valley
- Gardena
- Graham (historical)
- Granite
- Grimes Pass
- City of Horseshoe Bend
- Howell (historical)
- City of Idaho City
- Lowman
- New Centerville
- Pioneerville
- City of Placerville
- Quartzburg
- Twin Springs
- Washington Mill
Political Boundaries
Last updated: 2016-11-27