North vs South - Relocating

[Mister Torgue]

Originally Posted by banjomike

Idaho is a big state, and the growth spurts never happened everywhere here all at once.

In my lifetime, here are some of the most notable growth:
-Pocatello tripled in size during WWII after a huge plant that bored and rifled naval gun barrels was built there.

- During the same time, Boise enlarged due to the war effort too. Morrison-Knutson, and largest construction company in the world at that time, was headquartered there.

- the Naval Training Center in the panhandle caused Sandpoint and CDA to boom, along with war industries in Spokane.

During the 50s, Idaho Falls boomed when construction on the Palisades Dam began, then a few years later, boomed again when I.F. became the headquarters city for the AEC's materials testing site on the Arco Desert.

"The Site", as it became known locally became S.E. Idaho's 2nd largest employer over time, starting several population booms as it waxed and waned throughout the cold war decades.

Boise and the Treasure Valley's population booms were similar but always larger. For decades, Boise was about twice as large as all other cities in Idaho.

The panhandle began to lose population once the NID mines started running out and logging cease to be profitable. This left a lot of empty housing and commercial space available at very cheap prices.

In late 1980s, a group of investors who were cruising NID, looking to build a winter resort, decided to snap up the empty real estate instead to market to retirees, especially retired cops, throughout California.

This marketing caused the panhandle boom that hasn't let up yet.


It should be noted that all of the boom times mentioned above were different. Not all of them lasted, for example. Pocatello lost population after the war factory closed, and NID lost even more population over several different time periods to different bad times and problems.

All of the cities that have grown the most recently benefitted from slower and steadier growth during past boom times. Idaho Falls is a good example of this, as is Nampa.


Another note: There are many very small villages that have never boomed, and many others that were much larger 100 years ago when they were railroad towns.
One example is Ririe, a small farm town east of Idaho Falls. 100 years ago, in 1923, Ririe was thriving. It's railhead had over 4 large grain elevators that bought wheat from the local farmers for General Mills and the other national baking companies.
Ririe had a movie theater, 2 groceries, a general mercantile, blacksmith, drug store with a fountain, a bus depot, train depot, service stations, cafés, a large Co-Op store, implement and truck dealerships, a ladies' fashion store, 3 saloons, and a bank.
There was also a Kraft Cheese factory in Ririe, and by the late 1950s, a local ski resort just outside of town.

Ririe grew like topsy until the trains stopped. Once the railroad left, Ririe's population collapsed, and almost all those businesses disappeared.

Good stuff!!

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to banjomike again"

[labellavita116]

I moved from GA to N ID last year. I absolutely LOVE it! I was missing four seasons and was so tired of the heat and humidity of the south. Even if we have a 95 degree day up here, it is so much more pleasant to deal with than an 85 degree day in GA. I live in CDA (for now) and found the streets fine in the winter, they were maintained well. We spent some time in Anchorage the winter before our move and I was so disappointed at how poorly parking lots were maintained, literal ice skating rinks, sheets of ice. We had to help an elderly man with a prosthetic foot stand back up after he slipped and fell in the post office parking lot. Why wasn't the post office parking lot better maintained? SMH

Dark winter nights do not bother me, I lived in AK as a kid so I walked home from school when it was already getting dark. It is just something that I learned to deal with. YMMV. Visit in the winter if you have any concerns about that to see how you and your wife feel about it, it is one of the most common complains that I hear about living up here. It did not bother us.

I want to purchase in Bonner or Boundary, we just landed in CDA for the time being as it just made things easier at the time.

Not impressed with Kootenai Health, they dropped the ball on me royally. Found help in Spokane Valley. Naturopathic/functional medical doctors have appointments months out. Well, even regular doctors often do too. I think this area just grew faster than the support network. A nurse told me that the demographic has changed a lot over the years too, they now have a sizeable elderly population and their medical services have had to adapt to that.

People up here are wonderful, everyone that I've met is friendly. Have only met one person so far who was born and raised here, both of my neighbors are from CA, they came years ago (like 10). Have met a few people who moved here as kids/teens. No one has ever given me a hard time about moving here, they are actually curious as everyone they meet is from CA and I came from GA. So I get questions.

I know you want to be left alone and I get that, but it would be great to get involved in the community on some level if you can. I joined a homesteading group for ladies and I really enjoy it. Might be something your wife can do if she's interested in that sort of thing to get connected with the local ladies. There is a preparedness expo in Bonners Ferry and the homesteading ladies have a conference in Wallace in October. In July I attended the homesteading conference in CDA, had a great time. It featured many top homesteaders in the movement, like Joel Salatin and others. Next one is summer 2024. It has already started, but a gentleman was teaching a ham radio class for free to prepare you for the exam, you just buy the book (it was on Zoom), so people here are a good bunch IMHO.

People here are also involved locally in trying to keep the area from going downhill, which I appreciate too.

I have no experience in S ID. I've heard good things about it but no personal experience. I do love the landscape in N ID and I found last winter to be pretty easy TBH. I was preparing myself for a harsh winter since I had been away from a true winter in many years, I found it just fine and my kids (young adults) oved it. They were actually hoping it was colder.

As for crime, I feel safe here. I have heard Spokane isn't doing well crime-wise. I do want to move out of CDA before there is a big spillover (tough economic times = more well, you know). But people here don't seem to just acquiesce, which is one of the things that attracted me to this area. In GA where I was at, there was no backbone.

Don't know if I covered all of the important details... JLMK if you have any questions.

[stealheadrun23]

Originally Posted by labellavita116

I moved from GA to N ID last year. I absolutely LOVE it! I was missing four seasons and was so tired of the heat and humidity of the south...

Which part of Georgia were you coming from if you don't mind me asking?

[labellavita116]

Originally Posted by stealheadrun23

Which part of Georgia were you coming from if you don't mind me asking?

The metro Atlanta area. I also love not living with so much traffic and with 6 million people.