We’ve reached the final day of State Name Week, and I saved one of my favorites for last. Because Idaho’s name origin isn’t just interesting — it’s arguably one of the greatest cons in American geographic history.
Here’s the short version: the name Idaho was almost certainly invented by a lobbyist.
In the early 1860s, Congress was debating what to call the new territories being carved out of the American West. A mining advocate named George M. Willing stepped forward with a suggestion — “Idaho,” which he claimed was a Shoshone word meaning “gem of the mountains.” Congress was skeptical enough that they rejected it and named the territory Colorado instead in 1861.
But the name didn’t die. It had already started spreading informally through the region — a steamboat picked it up, then a town, then a county. By the time Congress needed a name for a new territory carved out of Washington in 1863, “Idaho” was already so stuck to the land that it was adopted almost by default.
Linguists later went looking for the word in Shoshone and came up empty. Willing could never produce a source for his claim. The consensus today is that he made it up — which makes Idaho arguably the only state in the union named after a fabricated word. The gem of the mountains, indeed.
Before it was Idaho, the region was considered part of the Oregon Country, a vast territory disputed between the United States and the British Empire in the early 19th century. The first non-Native people known to have passed through were Lewis and Clark, in 1805. The U.S. formally gained the territory with the Oregon Treaty of 1846, and Idaho was eventually admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, becoming the 43rd state.
Today it’s the 14th-largest state by land area, with a population of around two million — ranking among the least populous and least densely populated states in the country.
One quirky geographic footnote: Idaho is one of thirteen states split across two time zones. Most of the state runs on Mountain Time, but the narrow northern panhandle falls under Pacific Time — a detail that has caused more than a few scheduling headaches over the years.
The real story of Idaho, though, is its landscape. This is one of the most dramatically unspoiled places in the contiguous United States. The Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area covers 2.3 million acres, making it the largest contiguous protected wilderness in the lower 48. The U.S. Forest Service manages about 38% of Idaho’s total land — the highest proportion of any state in the country.
The Snake River runs through Hells Canyon, which at 7,993 feet deep is actually the deepest gorge in the United States — deeper than the Grand Canyon, which tops out just over 6,000 feet. Further along the same river, Shoshone Falls drops 212 feet — 45 feet higher than Niagara Falls — earning its nickname, “the Niagara of the West.”
Idaho’s official nickname is the Gem State, and it earns it. The state produces 72 varieties of precious and semi-precious stones. Among them is the star garnet — a rare stone found in abundance in only two places on Earth: Idaho and India.
Agriculture is the other pillar of Idaho’s identity. The state produces roughly one-third of all potatoes grown in the United States, and if you want to go deep on that legacy, there’s an entire Potato Museum in Blackfoot — home to, among other things, the World’s Largest Potato Chip, made by Pringles. Idaho also supplies the majority of the nation’s farmed trout.
The same rugged wilderness that defines Idaho’s geography has long drawn people in search of something elemental. Ernest Hemingway came to the region in the early 1960s and never really left — he’s buried in Ketchum. Outdoor enthusiasts continue to arrive for the camping, hunting, fishing, whitewater rafting, and skiing.
Central Idaho is home to Sun Valley, one of North America’s oldest ski resorts and the site of a genuine piece of winter sports history: the world’s first chairlift was installed there in 1936.
And that’s a wrap on State Name Week. We started with states whose names stretch back centuries through Native languages, colonial charters, and geographic description — and we’re ending with one that was quite possibly conjured out of thin air by a 19th-century lobbyist with a flair for the dramatic.
Idaho: the Gem State, the Potato State, and arguably the Made-Up-Word State. What a place.