Boise in the Western U.S. During the Frontier Expansion

The Boise River watershed region was an important stop in the seasonal migrations of the Northern Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock Tribes.  This rendezvous site, or meeting ground, was known for its geothermal springs, and served as a reliable source of food and shelter. European explorers found the valley and its people to be a good source of supplies and trade, especially after traversing the dry and inhospitable Snake River Plains of Southern Idaho.  The first of several forts to take the name, Ft. Boise was first established by Wilson Price Hunt, in 1811. The successive forts were trading posts that would later serve as a desperately needed midway point to travelers on the Oregon Trail between Fort Hall and the Oregon interior.

Boise City was established in 1863 under the guidance and protection of the United States Military after gold was discovered in the Boise Basin the preceding year.  The Military established Fort Boise July 3, and the city incorporated just days after on July 7. Major Pinkney Lugenbeel surveyed the original town site, legitimizing and affirming the colonizing presence of the United States government in the Boise Valley.  This nation-building act represents an investment in ‘securing’ resources of the west, and directly applied ideas of ownership and productivity in the realignment of public and private land. 

In 1868 the United States Geological Survey (USGS) began applying the Jeffersonian land grid to Boise and its surrounding areas, drawing lines on a map and creating geophysical boundaries in order to appropriate the land and its resources.  The Public Land Survey System, initiated by the Public Land Ordinance of 1785, provided a way of measuring, dividing, and selling land obtained by the American Colonies after the Revolutionary War. The survey system organized the continental US into 36 one-square-mile sections, called Townships.  Each one-mile square section contained 640 acres. The land that was turned over to settlers via The Homestead Act of 1862 was based on this standardized form of measurement and division, ultimately defining the shape of the communities that developed hereafter. It was during this Late Territorial period that the Bench as we know it really began to take shape. 

Because the grid remains intact and continues to be used to track land ownership, this map provides a convenient and reliable framework for tracking change over time.  Between 1870 and 1900 we can see the footprint of territorial travel networks (stage, post), federal and municipal boundaries, and irrigation projects that inspired advanced bio-engineering in the form of large-scale irrigation projects in the early twentieth century.  

The popular understanding about Idaho’s early history is that the Boise Basin gold rush brought mining camp settlements to the area, creating transient communities, but the development of agriculture to support those mining communities made those settlements permanent. A primary tool for expanding agricultural output, irrigation is acknowledged by political, environmental, agricultural, and historical communities to be the primary factor for the development of the entire Boise River Valley. Agriculture played a significant role in developing the cultural landscape on the Boise Bench, and provides an important backdrop to the history of the community.

According to Idaho History authors, the space outside of the city was once considered wild and dangerous. The Boise River was often viewed as an obstacle, and crossing it could be costly. In 1871 freighting agent William B. Morris purchased the 9th Street toll bridge and old Isaacs brothers mill and immediately began digging a canal in order to produce wheat on the Bench.  The Mills, as it was known, was on Boise’s periphery, traditionally the processing site of Old West Industries such as lumber and wheat, which both relied on the extraction and exploitation of natural resources, and directly supported development and settlement in the area by supplying these goods locally. 

At the time of Morris' death in 1878,  his privately-funded canal provided incentive for agricultural and speculative development on the Bench, but ultimately federal programs such as the Public Land Ordinance (1785), the Homestead Act (1862), the Desert Land Act (1877), and the Reclamation Act (1902) provided the institutional authority that not only facilitated, but encouraged both.  Through the application of government policy, the United States established the conditions under which the Boise Bench would  develop, determining settlement patterns in both form and function, applying its present geophysical boundaries, and establishing the foundation for its historical socio-economic nature. 

The 1900 census shows that Bench settlers and their domestic laborers and boarders, who  made up the Franklin and Whitney Bench communities, came from diverse geographic and ethnic backgrounds. Many were born in countries such as (but not limited to) China, Germany, England, France, Ireland, Norway, Nova Scotia, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland. Many of these emigrants were skilled in agricultural trades such as farming, dairying and millinery, and they relied on the productivity of the land. Many participated in cottage industries - wherein products of personal labor and skill were contracted out piecemeal. The growing agricultural presence is typified by the focus on the economic productivity of land, nearness of family, and churches and schools as community centers.

The completion of the transcontinental railroad between 1863 and 1869 provided faster and safer access to the vast western territories. It drew the attention of speculative developers of railroad towns, like Caldwell, that popped up around these lines and stations.  The first Union Pacific mainline in Southern Idaho bypassed the capital city, making the Kuna stop the closest passenger station. With the completion of the railroad came an influx of Victorian influence to Boise, which emphasized pastoral visions of leisure in the countryside and man’s ability to overcome nature.  Electric power generated at the Mills would light Boise's downtown streets, and electric trolley lines increased the means of mobility and expanded social and recreational access to 'wild' spaces according to the new pastoral vision. 

© Angie K. Davis 2020

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