Have you ever noticed its always Boise never Twin Falls? (Pocatello: real estate, home)
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Have you ever noticed that anytime Idaho is mentioned in public on the web that its always Boise or Idaho Falls? Never Twin Falls? Or weather casts are always the bigger cities of our state, but never such places as American Falls, or Burley?
Noticed but that is normal for any state (at least any state I have lived in). It is always the bigger cities noted.
Utah...SLC or St. George
TN...Nashville, Knoxville, Memphis, Chattanooga (sometimes Cookeville)
MI....Detroit, Grand Rapids...sometimes Flint (less and less as the population shrunk)
NY....NYC, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany
One reason is all the major cities have a broadcast presence.
However, over on the eastern side...Poky is noted alnost as much as Idaho Falls.
Have you ever noticed that anytime Idaho is mentioned in public on the web that its always Boise or Idaho Falls? Never Twin Falls? Or weather casts are always the bigger cities of our state, but never such places as American Falls, or Burley?
Much of it comes from the nation's general ignorance of Idaho. All my life, anywhere outside of the mountain west, when I was anywhere east of Denver, people would think I was from Iowa. Lots didn't even know Idaho exists!
Those who did only knew of Boise, because its the capital. They learn it in school, and that's all they ever learn about my home state.
This change only began pretty recently. Much of it has only arisen when Idaho became a hot spot to move to and began attracting widespread attention.
Now that we are the Glamor Girl Of The West, I'm sure all our cities will get more attention in the national weather casts and in the general news of the day.
But even now, very few people in other places know very little about Idaho. I've been a regular on this forum for a very long time, and the most frequent questions outsiders ask still show huge ignorance of Old Mother Idaho's diversity.
I'm not sure I want to see the weather forecast on the Today Show displaying places like Mt. Home or Buhl on the map. We are growing fast enough as it is, and I think we really don't need more national attention.
Much of it comes from the nation's general ignorance of Idaho. All my life, anywhere outside of the mountain west, when I was anywhere east of Denver, people would think I was from Iowa. Lots didn't even know Idaho exists!
Those who did only knew of Boise, because its the capital. They learn it in school, and that's all they ever learn about my home state.
This change only began pretty recently. Much of it has only arisen when Idaho became a hot spot to move to and began attracting widespread attention.
Now that we are the Glamor Girl Of The West, I'm sure all our cities will get more attention in the national weather casts and in the general news of the day.
But even now, very few people in other places know very little about Idaho. I've been a regular on this forum for a very long time, and the most frequent questions outsiders ask still show huge ignorance of Old Mother Idaho's diversity.
I'm not sure I want to see the weather forecast on the Today Show displaying places like Mt. Home or Buhl on the map. We are growing fast enough as it is, and I think we really don't need more national attention.
There is alot of development going on in that area of Twin Falls?
That should change like everything else in time changes.
I'm not sure I get the gist of this thread. Are you talking about how Idaho is perceived nationally, or locally?
Yes, Boise will always be the center of attention nationally. Nobody even comes close in that regard. But within the State Twin, Idaho Falls, Pocatello are always mentioned in local coverage. Not sure I get what the point is here.
I do agree that when someone in South Carolina hears a story about something in Idaho they have no idea about the geography, as we perhaps have no idea about them either. Such is life.
Much of it comes from the nation's general ignorance of Idaho. All my life, anywhere outside of the mountain west, when I was anywhere east of Denver, people would think I was from Iowa. Lots didn't even know Idaho exists!
Those who did only knew of Boise, because its the capital. They learn it in school, and that's all they ever learn about my home state.
This change only began pretty recently. Much of it has only arisen when Idaho became a hot spot to move to and began attracting widespread attention.
Now that we are the Glamor Girl Of The West, I'm sure all our cities will get more attention in the national weather casts and in the general news of the day.
But even now, very few people in other places know very little about Idaho. I've been a regular on this forum for a very long time, and the most frequent questions outsiders ask still show huge ignorance of Old Mother Idaho's diversity.
I'm not sure I want to see the weather forecast on the Today Show displaying places like Mt. Home or Buhl on the map. We are growing fast enough as it is, and I think we really don't need more national attention.
Lol. This reminds me when we moved in 1994 to Iowa from California and my husband informed me of the job relocation offer, my first question was “you mean Idaho?”
Lol. This reminds me when we moved in 1994 to Iowa from California and my husband informed me of the job relocation offer, my first question was “you mean Idaho?”
Idaho Falls' first name was Taylor's Crossing. The Taylor brothers built the first bridge here across the Snake River. The bridge was built in the narrowest spot that exists for 100 miles in either direction, at a time when the only way to cross the Snake was to ford it.
(The Shoshone had their own name for the spot that's much older. It's something like "the narrow spot in the river" in Shoshone.)
Since the Snake was a notorious drowner of horses, oxen, men, women, children, and wagons, the bridge became extremely popular in no time at all for the pilgrims on the Oregon Trail.
It became especially so after the Montana mineral fields were discovered. The bridge became the shortest and most direct route to the Montana silver, copper and gold fields on the other side of the Divide.
The Montana gold strike didn't help keep Idaho Falls a peaceful little trading and commerce village, though, as the bridge allowed every outlaw in the west to head to Montana, or come out of it on the run, with a posse behind him.
A lot of very ornery men with very bad reputations passed through here for a very long time. Some of them ended up staying forever in Rose Hill, and others in the jailhouse, where a few of them were executed.
They were the reason why Idaho Falls gained a reputation for hard lawmen. No outlaw ever wanted to see Fred Kiefer on their trail. He was only about 5'3", and his twin brother Frank was often on both sides of the law, but Fred was feared like Wyatt Earp in these parts.
( I knew them both. Frank died in his 60s, but Fred lived to be around 92, and even then, was no guy to fool around with, but he sure enjoyed polite company.)
When it grew large enough to be a town after the Taylor brothers sold the bridge, it called itself Eagle Rock for a long time.
Some big rocks in the middle of the cascade had a huge eagle nest that always had a family of bald eagles in it. They were the first national birds a lot of immigrants ever saw. The birds made it a notable landmark on all the railroad maps they used to get here.
Then a bunch of real estate guys decided there already too many Eagle Rocks in the United States, sometime around 1890 or thereabouts, so they got together and changed it to Idaho Falls, due to the famous local water feature.
Pretty much on their own. All they had to do was petition the Post Office to make the new name official.
They never consulted about it in advance of the name change, so a train-load of Swedish immigrants got dropped off at some other Eagle Rock by mistake, much to everyone's grand confusion. The Swedes didn't speak much English, but they knew that Eagle Rock sure wasn't Idaho.
There never was a true waterfall here like there is in Spokane or Twin Falls.
The river has a very long, very steep cascade that runs through the heart of town.
One side of the cascade is twice as deep as the other. It can pass for a waterfall in high water, though, and it was a spectacular cascade- easily as big and white as anything on the Colorado.
The cascade was tamed by a diversion weir, built over 100 years ago to supply a water feed to electrical generators. Idaho Falls was one of the first cities in the state to electrify; the cascade's power made electrification cheap and simple, but the weir robbed the cascades of a lot of their scenic glory.
(The Kiefer twins worked on that weir when they were teenagers.)
But I think they named it Idaho Falls because there was already one Cascade in Idaho, so they didn't want any more name repetition.
Last edited by banjomike; 07-01-2020 at 02:33 AM..
I'm not sure I get the gist of this thread. Are you talking about how Idaho is perceived nationally, or locally?
Yes, Boise will always be the center of attention nationally. Nobody even comes close in that regard. But within the State Twin, Idaho Falls, Pocatello are always mentioned in local coverage. Not sure I get what the point is here.
I do agree that when someone in South Carolina hears a story about something in Idaho they have no idea about the geography, as we perhaps have no idea about them either. Such is life.
This^^. On a national level, media will most often address major cities, places of industry, or capitols.
I would think media at a state or regional level is more inclusive of small cities and towns relevant to the region.
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