Weiser: The Safest City in Idaho!

Idaho’s claim to fame lies in potatoes, however, the first potato in America was planted in New Hampshire in 1719. Potatoes didn’t even reach Idaho until 1836. Still, Idaho produces approximately one-third of the potatoes in the United States. As a state, though, Idaho has much more to offer. The Idaho landscape is rugged and can be wild. It’s home to the deepest river gorge in North America: Hells Canyon. At 7,993 feet deep, Hells Canyon beats even the 6,000 foot depth of the Grand Canyon. In 1805-1806, while still a part of the Oregon country and jointly owned by the United States and Great Britain, this region was explored by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Idaho is known as the Gem State; as nearly every type of gemstone and more than seventy-two types of precious and semi- precious stones are mined there. Idaho is also one of only two places on the planet to find star garnets — India is the other. Idaho even derives its name from a mining lie. A mining lobbyist named George M. Willing presented the name to Congress claiming that it was a Shoshone word meaning “Gem of the Mountains” and by the time they found out that it was an invented word “Idaho” had already stuck.