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The Treasure Valley is a
valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...
in the
western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...
, primarily in
southwestern Idaho Southwestern Idaho is a geographical term for the area along the U.S. state of Idaho's borders with Oregon and Nevada. It includes the populous areas of the Boise metropolitan area and Treasure Valley The Treasure Valley is a valley in the wes ...
, where the Payette,
Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area' ...
, Weiser, Malheur, Owyhee, and Burnt rivers drain into the
Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...
. It includes all the lowland areas from
Vale A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipa ...
in rural
eastern Oregon Eastern Oregon is the eastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is not an officially recognized geographic entity; thus, the boundaries of the region vary according to context. It is sometimes understood to include only the eight easternmost ...
to
Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area' ...
, and is the most populated area in Idaho. Historically, the valley had been known as the Lower Snake River Valley or the Boise River Valley. Pete Olesen, president of the valley's association of local Chambers of Commerce, coined the name "Treasure Valley" in 1959 to reflect the treasure chest of resources and opportunities that the region offered.


History


Settling the region

The tribes that roamed the area, specifically, were the
Northern Paiute Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...
and
Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easte ...
. In 1834,
Thomas McKay Thomas McKay (1 September 1792 – 9 October 1855) was a Canadian businessman who was one of the founders of the city of Ottawa, Ontario. Biography McKay was born in Perth, Scotland and became a skilled stonemason. He emigrated to the C ...
built the original Fort Boise, in the area near present-day
Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second m ...
, which was run for a time by
Francois Payette François Payette (1793 – post 1844) was a North American fur trader. Born near Montreal, he began his career as a canoeman, was hired by John Jacob Astor and shipped to the Oregon Country aboard the Tonquin, entering the mouth of the Columbia Ri ...
. It later was moved because of flooding troubles and was abandoned in 1854. The
Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what is now the state of Kans ...
runs through the Treasure Valley. The valley was settled for the most part by ranchers and farmers, initially to supply the
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
and
silver mining Silver mining is the extraction of silver from minerals, starting with mining. Because silver is often found in intimate combination with other metals, its extraction requires elaborate technologies. In 2008, ca.25,900 metric tons were consumed ...
communities in the higher elevations nearby: Idaho City in the
Boise Basin Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown ar ...
and Silver City in the Owyhees. A new Fort Boise was constructed by the
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
in 1863 in present-day Boise, from which the city grew. In 1883, the
Oregon Short Line Railroad The Oregon Short Line Railroad was a railroad in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana and Oregon in the United States. The line was organized as the Oregon Short Line Railway in 1881 as a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railway. The Union Pacific int ...
reached the Treasure Valley, creating a thriving community, with
Nampa The Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) is the national news agency of the Republic of Namibia. It was founded in 1987 under the name Namibia Press Association as a SWAPO partisan press agency, and resuscitated after independence under its current name ...
as the center of the area's rail activity.


Basque immigration

Many
Basques The Basques ( or ; eu, euskaldunak ; es, vascos ; french: basques ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Ba ...
, primarily from northern
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
, came to the area looking for gold but, meeting discrimination, it seemed to many that a better occupation was shepherding, familiar from their homeland. Over 15,000 Basques came to the Treasure Valley, making it the largest community of Basques outside of Europe.


Farming

As Boise began to grow, so did the riches of large planters such as Thomas and Frank Davis. They moved to Idaho in 1862 for mining and homesteaded right below the Boise Bench on the
Boise River The Boise River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. , accessed May 3, 2011 tributary of the Snake River in the Northwestern United States. It drains a rugged portion of the Sawtooth Range in sou ...
. Tom Davis became very successful at growing fruit, as he made over $10,000 on one year's apple crop. He later purchased more land for orchards and horses. In 1907, he donated much of this land as
Julia Davis Park Julia Davis Park is a municipal park in the downtown region of Boise, Idaho. Created in 1907 with a land donation from Thomas Jefferson Davis, it is the first park in the "String of Pearls", the group of parks operated by the Boise Parks and Recre ...
in honor of his wife. The Owyhee Project was one of the most influential developments of the area. It began in 1903, when surveyors began investigating a site on the
Owyhee River The Owyhee River is a tributary of the Snake River located in northern Nevada, southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon in the United States. It is long.Owyhee Rive accessed November 3, 2019 The river's drainage basin is in area, one of the l ...
for the construction of a dam, to impound water for irrigation. The Owyhee project received official Congressional sanction in 1924 on December 5 and the
Owyhee Dam Owyhee Dam (National ID # OR00582) is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Owyhee River in Eastern Oregon near Adrian, Oregon, United States. Completed in 1932 during the Great Depression, the dam generates electricity and provides irrigation wate ...
was completed on September 16, 1932. While the dam was under construction, over of irrigation canals were being dug to the north and south. The main purpose of the Owyhee Project was irrigation. By 1965, over were being irrigated for a value of more than $23 million. In 1941,
J. R. Simplot John Richard Simplot (; January 4, 1909 – May 25, 2008) was an American entrepreneur and businessman best known as the founder of the J. R. Simplot Company, a Soda Springs, Idaho-based agricultural supplier specializing in potato products. In ...
built a dehydrator and began processing large quantities of dehydrated potatoes and onions at a plant near
Caldwell Caldwell may refer to: People * Caldwell (surname) * Caldwell (given name) * Caldwell First Nation, a federally recognized Indian band in southern Ontario, Canada Places Great Britain * Caldwell, Derbyshire, a hamlet * Caldwell, Eas ...
. His business thrived, selling potatoes to the government and fertilizer to local farmers.


Technology

In 1973,
Hewlett Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
purchased a site for a future peripherals plant in northwest Boise.
Micron Technology Micron Technology, Inc. is an American producer of computer memory and computer data storage including dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, and USB flash drives. It is headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Its consumer products, includin ...
was founded in 1978, creating an additional, local industry aside from farming and potato packaging.


Geographic features

*
Lucky Peak Lake Lucky Peak Reservoir (also known as Lucky Peak Lake) is a reservoir on the Boise River in the U.S. state of Idaho. It is located mainly in Ada County, extending into Boise County and Elmore County. It was created in 1955 with the construction ...
* Shafer Butte * Table Rock


See also

*
Magic Valley The Magic Valley is a region in south-central Idaho constituting Blaine, Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka, and Twin Falls counties. It is particularly associated with the agricultural region in the Snake River Plain located ...
* Sun Valley


References

{{coord, 44, 02, 25, N, 116, 56, 00, W, format=dms, display=title, type:adm1st_region:US-ID Regions of Idaho Basque-American history