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Welcome
to
Idaho Genealogy
Trails Part
of the Genealogy Trails History Group
Our goal is to
help you track your ancestors
through time by transcribing genealogical and historical data and
placing it online for the free use of all researchers
If you have a love for history, a desire to help others, and basic
webpage-making
skills, consider joining us! Get the details on our Volunteer
Page.
[A
desire to transcribe data and knowledge of how to make a basic webpage
is required.]
If hosting isn't for you, we can use your help in other ways.
More information can be found on the Volunteer
Page.
 We
regret that we are unable to do personal research for anyone..
All data we come across will be added to this site.
We thank you for visiting and hope you'll come back again to view the
updates we make to this site.
Happy
Trails to you on your quest for your
ancestors.
Idaho Territory
Created:
March 4, 1863
Statehood: July 3, 1890
In the early 1860s,
when the United States Congress was considering organizing a new
territory in the Rocky Mountains, eccentric lobbyist George M. Willing
suggested the name "Idaho", which he claimed was derived from a
Shoshone language term meaning "the sun comes from the mountains"
or "gem of the mountains".
The creation of the Idaho Territory on March 4, 1863, at Lewiston,
parts of the present-day state were included in the Oregon, Washington,
and Dakota Territories. The new territory included present-day Idaho,
Montana, and most of Wyoming. The Lewis and Clark expedition crossed
Idaho in 1805
on the way to the Pacific and in 1806 on the return, largely following
the Clearwater River both directions. The first non-indigenous
settlement was Kullyspell House, established on the shore of
Lake Pend O'reille for fur trading in 1809 by David Thompson of the
North West Company. In 1812 Donald Mackenzie, working for the Pacific
Fur Company at the time, established a post on the lower Clearwater
River near present-day Lewiston. This post, known as "MacKenzie's Post"
or "Clearwater", operated until the Pacific Fur Company was bought out
by the North West Company in 1813, after which it was abandoned. The
first attempts at organized communities, within the present borders of
Idaho, were established in 1860. The first permanent, substantial
incorporated community
was Lewiston in 1861.
After some tribulation as a territory, including the chaotic transfer
of the territorial capital from Lewiston to Boise, disenfranchisement
of Mormon polygamists upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1877, and
a federal attempt to split the territory between Washington Territory
which gained statehood in 1889, a year before Idaho, and the state of
Nevada which had been a state since 1864, Idaho achieved statehood in
1890. The economy of the state, which had been primarily supported by
metal mining, shifted towards agriculture, forest products and tourism.
Idaho
Counties 
Select a County Site to visit:
County
Organization Dates
Check your attics!
Dust off your family
scrapbooks!
We're looking for DATA for this site!!!
If
you would like to submit data
for this site,
please Email
Us
with your submissions.
STATE DATA
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