Idaho trivia (Clark Fork: legal, license plates, estimates)

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by Toyman at Jewel Lake

July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state.

OK, I cheated. I knew 1890, had to google the rest.

How far does the grade of the "old highway" (or for that matter, hwy 95) descend going south into Lewiston, AND, how many turns were in the old hwy, aka the spiral highway or goat trail.

We drove down that grade last year, and we had no idea what scenery awaited us--all of a sudden the land falls away, opens up, and you're on a roller coaster road going down 2000 ft, and 64 turns! Well, yes, I looked it up, but we've actually been there and tried to count the turns as we went down toward the Snake.

Okay, here's another Q: Once upon a time, at the end of the last ice age, there was a mighty lake covering most of Western Montana, Lake Missoula, and the waters were held in place by an enormous ice dam--which broke, several times, and spilled the lake waters out over Idaho and Washington, resulting in the Scablands. Great story! But where was the ice dam, and how tall was it?

[Mtn. States Resident]

Originally Posted by Clark Fork Fantast

Okay, here's another Q: Once upon a time, at the end of the last ice age, there was a mighty lake covering most of Western Montana, Lake Missoula, and the waters were held in place by an enormous ice dam--which broke, several times, and spilled the lake waters out over Idaho and Washington, resulting in the Scablands. Great story! But where was the ice dam, and how tall was it?

Would that be the Cordilleran Ice Sheet? I know it created a 610 meter near Hope, ID at what was called Purcell Trench Lobe. It also has a close connection to the name "Clark Fork."

Otherwise, I don't know.

MSR

[Mtn. States Resident]

Wow, I was a little too tired trying to write my Q sometime in the last 24 hrs. Let me try to make this much clearer.

One Governor of Idaho came from a town/city/county much smaller than others. What is the name of the town/city/county or the Gov?

MSR

[509]

Originally Posted by Toyman at Jewel Lake

July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state.

How far does the grade of the "old highway" (or for that matter, hwy 95) descend going south into Lewiston, AND, how many turns were in the old hwy, aka the spiral highway or goat trail.

That was a pretty straight road for Idaho.

In 1972, I drove south from Orofino and drove down the "old" White Bird grade in the dark. I had no idea what I was getting into. About halfway down I started laughing......was that 13 hairpin turns one after another??

[zedd]

Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle

Lowest point is where the Clearwater River goes through Lewiston, right?

Correct, the elevation there is 710'.

Mt Borah (aka Borah Pk) is the state's highest elevation (12662').

How about the year and location of Idaho's first railroad?

When and where was the first portion of the interstate freeway system in Idaho completed?

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by Mtn. States Resident

Would that be the Cordilleran Ice Sheet? I know it created a 610 meter near Hope, ID at what was called Purcell Trench Lobe. It also has a close connection to the name "Clark Fork."

Otherwise, I don't know.

MSR

Absolutely, it was the Purcell Trench Lobe at Clark Fork, and the water level behind the ice dam, roughly east of Cabinet Gorge, was 2000 ft high! It just so happened to sit right on top of where our property is now...we stand in our clearing and imagine a glacier with an ice dam stretching from the Cabinets to the Coeur d'Alenes, and Lake Missoula 2000 ft above our heads...it boggles the mind! You can see traces of the old glacier on the rocks south of the river.
Here's a great website, plus info placed, very thoughtfully, on Highway 200, just before you get to Clark Fork:
Ice Age Floods Tour Ice Dam and Glacial Lake Missoula

[pw72]

Originally Posted by zedd

Correct, the elevation there is 710'.

Mt Borah (aka Borah Pk) is the state's highest elevation (12662').

How about the year and location of Idaho's first railroad?

When and where was the first portion of the interstate freeway system in Idaho completed?

As to your Interstate question, there is a little secret hint that most people never even notice...the bridges over Interstates in Idaho, atleast the early ones, have dates imprinted in the cement. The earliest I have seen in Idaho is 1959, both south of Boise on I-84, (which originally was I-80N), and along I-15 between Pocatello and Blackfoot. So my guess would be one of those two stretches.

[elousv]

Here is one for y'all!

What is the origin of the name IDAHO?

[wildflower82]

"Idaho" is a Shoshoni Indian exclamation. The word consists of three parts. The first is "Ee", which in English conveys the idea of "coming down". The second is "dah" which is the Shoshoni stem or root for both "sun" and "mountain". The third syllable, "how", denotes the exclamation and stands for the same thing in Shoshoni that the exclamation mark (!) does in the English language. The Shoshoni word is "Ee-dah-how", and the Indian thought thus conveyed when translated into English means, "Behold! the sun coming down the mountain.

I learned this with my kids during history lesson on Idaho. Although there is a dispute that Idaho was named due to a hoax.



What famous outlaw robs.......... the bank in Montpelier and what year?

[Clark Fork Fantast]

1896! Butch Cassidy! Sorry it took a while to respond!

Here's one for you guys, and let's get the thread going again: Name a town, any town, that would have been in Idaho today and not in Montana, if the government survey crew had done their job right according to Congress longiture/latitude prescriptions, and hadn't gotten lost? True story, I read it over on the Montana forum on an old thread.