Idaho

IDAHO HAS BEEN settled for at least 14,500 years. The first European contact with the state occurred during the Lewis and Clark Expedition, making it the last of the 50 states to be explored by Europeans. There were an estimated 8,000 Native Americans in the region, which was soon opened up for fur trading, and also began to attract missionaries. The first white-owned trading post was established in 1809. The border between British Canada and the United States was disputed for some years, with the current boundaries of Idaho with Oregon and Washington State organized in 1859.

The first major settlement in Idaho was Franklin, established in April 1860 by Mormons, who initially still believed that they were in Utah. On March 4, 1863 Abraham Lincoln established the Idaho Territory with its capital at Lewiston. Lincoln's major concern was the military protection of mail routes to the State of California and the other western territories during the American Civil War. The discovery of some gold in the region, as well as the opening up of the territory with the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 resulted in many new migrants moving to Idaho. In 1887, the territory was nearly split between Washington Territory and Nevada, but President Grover Cleveland refused to sign the legislation. On July 3, 1890, Idaho was granted statehood by President Benjamin Harrison with the last governor of the territory, George L. Shoup, a Republican, elected governor of the state in October 1890. Shoup resigned his position in December to become a member of the U.S. Senate, elected by the Idaho legislature. He was re-elected in 1894, and in 1900 was defeated by the Democrat Fred Dubois.

The second elected governor of Idaho was Norman B. Willey, who was born in New York, moved to California when he was 20, and then to Idaho during the Gold Rush in 1864. He had been an elected member of the Idaho Territory legislature and was elected lieutenant governor in October 1890, taking over from Shoup at the end of the year, and was ousted by factional intrigue two years later. His successor was William J. McCon-nell, also a Republican, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1890 until March 1891, and two years later won the Idaho gubernatorial elections. He was re-elected for his second two-year term in 1894.

The first elected Democratic governor of Idaho was Frank Steunenberg, who won the gubernatorial elections in 1896 with the support of both the Democrats and the Populists. He served from 1897 until 1901, during a period of great labor unrest, and Steunenberg, four years after leaving office, was assassinated by a paid informant of the Cripple Creek, Colorado, Mine Owners' Association. The assassin spent the rest of his life in jail, but the mine owners were found not guilty at their [Page 310]subsequent trial. His successor was Frank Hunt, a former captain in the Idaho Regiment of Volunteers during the Spanish-American War.

From the election of John T. Morrison in 1902, Idaho elected Republican governors for most of the period until 1971. During that time there were a number of major political figures, the earliest of whom was Frank R. Gooding, who dominated the Idaho Republican Party in the 1890s and 1900s, becoming governor for two terms, from January 1905 until January 1909. It was during his governorship that the Idaho State Capitol was built in Boise. In 1918, Gooding was defeated by John F Nugent when he tried to take a seat in the U.S. Senate to complete the term of James F Brady, who had just died. However, Gooding did defeat Nugent in 1920 and again in 1926.

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