3rd July: Idaho

On this day in 1890, Idaho became the 43rd state in the USA.

1. Nobody knows for sure what the origin of the name of the state was. It's even possible that a man called George Willing simply made it up, as he claimed to have done. Alternatively, it could have derived from a number of Native American words meaning "gem of the mountains", "the sun comes from the mountains", "enemy" or "land of many waters." The latter would be particularly appropriate as Idaho has 3,100 miles of rivers, more than any other state. The total length of Idaho's rivers and waterways (over 107,000 miles) could stretch across the US thirty-eight times. It also has 340 geothermal hot springs and the state capitol building is the only one heated by geothermal Water.
2. Idaho has a lot of wilderness (Rhode Island, Delaware, and Connecticut put together cover less area than Idaho's wilderness) and two canyons which are deeper than the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is about 6,000 feet deep; Hell's Canyon in Idaho is 7,993 feet deep, and Salmon River Gorge, is 7,000 feet deep. Not only that, but Idaho’s Shoshone Falls drops 212 feet, 45 feet more than Niagara Falls.
3. America's first Ski resort, Sun Valley was in Idaho, with America's first chair lift. When it was first used in 1936, the fare was 25 cents a ride. Another Idaho ski resort, McCall, has a bra tree - it's traditional for women to lob their Bras onto the tree from a passing chair lift.
4. Idaho is famous for Potatoes. It grows 27 billion of them a year, mostly for export to other states. Idaho grows one third of America’s potatoes. There is a museum in Blackfoot dedicated to the potato. The museum is the home of the world's largest potato chip (or crisp, if you live on the other side of the pond), which measures 25 inches by 14 inches. At new year, the capital, Boise, drops a 17ft potato from the ski at midnight.
5. The potato, not surprisingly, is the state vegetable. The State bird is the Mountain Bluebird; State flower, Syringa; State tree, Western White Pine State raptor, Peregrine Falcon; State Fish, cutthroat Trout; State insect, Monarch butterfly; The state Horse, the Appaloosa; State amphibian, Idaho Giant Salamander; State dance, square dance; State fossil, Hagerman horse; State motto: Esto perpetua ("Let it be perpetual"); State song: "Here We Have Idaho"; State fruit: huckleberry; State gem, star garnet, which is only found in two places in the world, Idaho and India.
6. Idaho has the only state seal in the US to be designed by a woman. Her name was Emma Edwards Green, and she submitted her design to the state seal competition in 1891, using only her initials. The seal depicts a miner, a woman and various natural resources of Idaho. Green won a $100 prize.
7. As well as potatoes and star garnets, 72 different types of gemstone are mined here, hence the nickname, "the Gem State". The state is also a top producer of Lentils (Moscow, Idaho claims to be the lentil capital of the world) and hops (Elk Mountain Farm is the largest hop farm in the world).
8. Idaho is one of the least obese states in America. The fact that it's illegal for a man to give his girlfriend a box of candy weighing more than 50lb may have helped. It's also illegal there to fish from the back of a Camel or a Giraffe, or appear in public in Pocatello without a smile on your face.
9. Famous people from Idaho include Philo T. Farnsworth, a pioneer of television; Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul; poet Ezra Pound; Lewis and Clark's Native American guide Sacagawea; and Sarah Palin, who moved to Alaska at some point. Ernest Hemingway lived there for many years, having visited in 1939 hoping the open air would inspire him to write For Whom the Bell Tolls. He returned 20 years later and bought a house, where he spent the last two years of his life. Hemingway's favourite picture of himself showed him kicking a can on an Idaho street.
10. Idaho also has the world's only Blue football field which belongs to the Boise State University Broncos who call it The Smurf Turf. Idaho also has the world's largest horseshoe shaped town (New Plymouth) and the centre of the universe (Wallace, Idaho). The Mayor of Wallace said it was in 2004 and had a plaque installed, so it must be true.