A Note on the Sources By Brandon R. Schrand The following excerpt from Brandon Schrand’s introduction to his new book Psychiana Man: A Mail-Order Prophet, His Followers, and the Power of Belief in Hard Times, is printed here with permission … Continue reading
Pioneer Tough By Max Jenkins In April 1916, after enduring several years of drought in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Grandma and Granddad moved with their four children to Idaho. Grandma’s brothers and sisters had already purchased train tickets to Idaho, and … Continue reading
Boilers in the Mountains Story and Photos by Ray Brooks Idaho’s few high-mountain steam boilers left over from mining in the 1800s are interesting artifacts, but these rusty behemoths can present a danger to those who practice the arcane art … Continue reading
Boom! And Then Poof Story and Photos by Ray Brooks As a feet-on-the-ground amateur historian, I not only like to research the stories of Idaho mines and ore mills but to explore the sites, which often are deep in the … Continue reading
A Farmers’ Racetrack By Michael Vogt Photos Courtesy of Michael Vogt About a mile west of Farmway Road on Homedale Road near Huston—a farming community outside Caldwell that once was a center of Canyon County commerce—stood a racetrack named Sage … Continue reading
Idaho’s First Black Lawyer By Justin Vipperman When I grew up in rural Idaho, I had few opportunities to interact with African Americans on a day-to-day basis. Moving to Tennessee in 1999 provided me with ample opportunities to see that … Continue reading
By John W. Lundin Photos courtesy Center for Regional History, the Community Library, unless otherwise noted I first skied in the Wood River Valley in 1960, after a twenty-four-hour train ride from Seattle, when a week-long ski pass at Sun … Continue reading
Idaho’s Struggle with the 1918 Flu By Diana Hooley Idaho and Idahoans are full of stories, so it should not have surprised me to learn there are many compelling stories behind that other great flu pandemic to strike our state, … Continue reading
Secluded but Not Forgotten Story and photos by John J. O’Hagan As I travel up Mountain Cove Road into the Boise foothills, a cemetery suddenly looms to my left on a desolate hillside. Its brooding presence demands a closer look. … Continue reading
The Forgotten Lodes Story and photos by Ray Brooks “Rush for Boyle Mountain!” never became a slogan in big-city newspapers in the 1880s. The one-time mining area never enjoyed a post office, and it suffers from going almost unmentioned in … Continue reading
