Talk:Idaho

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I'm sure the folks in Germany would like the same deal. No need to keep mentioning the pesky Nazi thing...right.

Idaho folks are more open-minded than the rest of US gives credit. Rest of US perceives Idahoans as intolerant. Not true. Idaho had first Jewish Govenor. Idaho has oldest continuing Jewish community.

Please consider editing the paragraph about the Neo Nazis. They were very small part of Idaho history and not representative of Idahoans in general.

In spring 2005, Inc. Magazine and Forbes Magazine both ranked Boise, Idaho as #1, or #2 Best Place to live / start a business. There are many good reasons why the population continues to grow faster than other areas. Perhaps you could replace the Nazi comment with something more positive?

Contents

[edit] History of Idaho

I'm seeing a contradiction in the Economy section of the article, with the following excerpt:

"In recent years, Idaho has changed itself from an agricultural and tourism state into a science and technology center. Science and technology has become the largest single economic center (over 25% of the State's total revenue) within the State and is greater than agriculture, forestry and mining combined. However, potatoes are still the best source of wealth to its economy."

I'm not really clear on how potatoes can be the best source of wealth to Idaho's economy if agriculture isn't the largest economic center--particularly if, as the article states, the Science and Technology sector is larger than agri, forestry, and mining put together. Could someone clarify this? Do they mean the largest single source of wealth? --phreyan 13:44, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Nevermind. I went ahead and removed the last statement about potatoes. Aside from having no reference and contradicting the entire paragraph it concludes, it would belong more in the Economy section. Perhaps a separate or less contradictory statement recognizing the history of growing potatoes in Idaho could work here, but since it is mentioned other places in the article I don't know if it is necessary. --phreyan 14:29, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Wondering how to edit this State Entry?
The WikiProject U.S. States standards might help.

"Soda Springs is the world's only captive geyser"? Do other geysers run around?--65.16.61.35 15:04, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

"The coolest kid that lives there is named Justin." I really don't think it should be here.

More info on editing this page can be found here: WikiProject U.S. States

There's a lot more to do.

It seems like there is a typo in the elevation statistics. The mean elevation should not be higher than the maximum elevation!

I switched it. --mav 05:10 Mar 16, 2003 (UTC)

The values for the mean and the max elevation can't be right, they are much to high, aren't they ? --80.131.94.110 16:45, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I'm wondering about the paragraph about the name. A little rewriting might make it a bit more clear, but since the hoax is totally new to me, I'll not be qualified to alter it. Maybe if I get some more info about that under my belt. ;Bear 03:59, 2004 Aug 16 (UTC)

When it mentions the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it should be spelled "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Just thought I'd let someone know. :P --Parlod 15:07, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I really don't think the last paragraph in the history section is important enough to be listed within an encyclopedia.


Maddox at thebestpageintheuniverse.net has recently written an article about Idaho. Isn't that neat? It should have a link on the Idaho page here.

No, the Maddox page was not neat, it was totally pointless and provided no relevant information about Idaho, I removed it.

I've found various sources attesting to the hoax story, but none of them mentions the "I the ho" derivation, which only appears in modern jokes. Is there a citation for this? --Matt McIrvin 15:51, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

This has been a slippery topic for over 100 years. In the late 1850s there was a steamboat on the Columbia River named Idaho. Idaho County, which was then part of Washington Territory, was named after that. I've heard the name Idaho was originally proposed for Colorado in the 1870s, but obviously not used there. Where the name came from previous to all that is subject to a plethora of conflicting sources and local legends. --Faustus37 15:10, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History

I've been doing a lot of work on the History section. I think the territorial history here is pretty good. The history after statehood in 1890 is a bit, um, lacking. Let's do some work on that. --Faustus37 15:12, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I did more. There's more to do. It's getting rather long. I suggested we split it off into a new article --Faustus37 17:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

If you do split it be sure to put a link to it in the regular Idaho page


Transferring the History section to a new article "History of Idaho" did'nt work out well. All of the links, stubs, ETC. disappeared. Maybe a Wikipedia knowledgeable person could either correct the errors or change it back the way it was.


BOY I did it Now!

Sugested that someone fix the IDAHO HISTORY section and now I'm blocked from editing by BorgQueen. Such is life.

"Your user name or IP address has been blocked from editing. You were blocked by BorgQueen for the following reason (see our blocking policy): "persistent vandalism - 3rd unique block" Your IP address is 67.72.98.86."

You use AT&T Worldnet Service and have implemented the AT&T Worldnet Accelerator feature. You & perhaps several other hundred people have IP Address 67.72.98.86. Disable the Accelerator option and your IP Address will change.

I fixed it a few days ago. --Faustus37 00:10, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Prison

Is it true that one can be send to prison over homosexuality in Idaho? Migdejong 03:12, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm a native Idahoan, and I've never heard of anything like that. At most there might be an old law to that effect that's no longer enforced. --Faustus37 15:27, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
Sodomy_laws_in_the_United_States: 2003 - 5 years to life for any sexual orientation.
Whether this was ever enforced in recent history is another thing.
Further investigation shows this law to have been struck down as of 26th june 2003
and that the law applied to all but heterosexual married couples.
see [[1]]

I don't even think that's on the books- kind of illegal, given federal laws. Pajari 04:23, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vardis Fisher

I'm disappointed that Vardis Fisher is not listed in the category of Well-known Idahoans.

He is now. I added him to the People from Idaho category. --Faustus37 17:00, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Religion

I just inserted a space in front of LDS, indicating that LDS is a Christian religion. But now, the percentages don't add up correctly. Before, the Protestant and Catholic percentages added up correctly to the total Christian percentage, and the Christian, LDS, other religion, and non-religious added up correctly to 100%. But because LDS is a Christian religion, the LDS percentage, the Catholic percentage, and the Protestant percentage need to add up to the total Christian percentage, and the total 100% percentage needs to include Christian, other religion, non-religious, and nothing else. I don't know exactly what the correct percentages are, so someone needs to research and fix that. I assume the correct percentage is Christian - 79%, and everything else stays the same. --QQQ (3-19-06)

A person might,if so inclined,completely re-categorize the entire Idaho religion section. Reading the interview of Brigham Young (Profit, Seer and Revelator) of the Mormon Church by Horace Greeley (New York Tribune editor) in 1859, is certainly a religious enlightenment. New category's might include schismatic, heretical, and out of the way of salvation. Good Luck! It seems accuracy & truth are interwound. http://www.radford.edu/~wkovarik/class/history/300.Greeley.Young.html

I just changed Christianity - 65% to 79%, if no one minds, because I can't leave it the way it was. --QQQ (3-21-06)

There is a 2001 survey of religious affiliation at http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_studies/aris.pdf. If you impute the affiliation of the non-responders, you get the following breakdown for Idaho: -- JimIrwin 13:43, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name

Ee-dah-hoe or Ee-dah-how is what I learned was the origin in 4th grade Idaho History class.

What is the origin of the name? I can't find it anywhere! Fishhead64 07:44, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
I took that 4th grade Idaho History class too. A lot of it was, well, fanciful. I believe this ties into the George M. Willing hoax mentioned in the article. "Ee-da-how" in its various spellings is supposed to be the original Native American word for "gem of the mountains," but to my knowledge no such word exists in any Native American language. --Faustus37 22:24, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External Links

I removed a link to liberalidaho.org added by 15.235.137.71. I don't think that belongs on the list of links for a U.S. state. Maybe if there were a separate article "Politics in Idaho" or something similar, or if it were used to actually back up a claim in the article, it would fit. Here, it does not. Ufwuct 16:52, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Also, does the article really need 4 external links to environmental groups. They appear to be somewhat POV, which IS allowed externally, but when there are this many, it appears NPOV is not being upheld within the article. I'm also not sure what purpose they serve in support of the article. Maybe only the best and most relevant two should kept??? I'm open to comments. Thanks. Ufwuct 16:56, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Alright, it's been 1 month without comment. So, I've removed three of the environmental external links. The first two removed are mentioned in the collection of links at Protect Idaho Rivers Conservation Links, so they were redundant. The last one seemed far too shrill for an article simply about a U.S. state, so I just removed it. I wouldn't go quite as far as to say that the link isn't a reliable source for any Wikipedia article, but I certainly don't think it belongs in this article, especially without context. Thanks. Ufwuct 22:58, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hoax of a hoax??

I have read about the George Willing "hoax" before, on The Best Page in the Universe[2], Wikipedia, and elsewhere (when reading about the etymology of the names for all 50 states). So, I suppose I just accepted the "hoax" theory as fact. This article[3], which lists an excerpt from a 1951 book[4], suggests that the issue is not so clear. (By the way, the title of the excerpt and the title of the book on Amazon are NOT the same.) So, I have introduced a degree of skepticism into this section regarding the naming of Idaho. I could not find anything on Snopes when searching for "Idaho" or "George Willing" (let me know if any of you can find something). Hopefully, this is not just an urban legend or a hoax of a hoax. It feels reminiscent of the Chevy Nova story [5]. ANY new, reliable information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Ufwuct 17:55, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

How about comment on re-naming the state if it IS a hoax name. Jefferson is honestly the name it deserves if the Word Idaho is really a hoax. Honestly its only fair if we have no true Ameri-Indian or Spanish Name for it, why not use the name that would be most unifying, Jefferson, its been a debated re-name for Oregon and parts of the Oregon Territory for years. How about it? Or Lincoln? I mean this is something that needs to be discussed.

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