Idaho's Most Historic Towns

Idaho's history is defined by the Nez Perce Nation's deep occupation of the region, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the gold rush era, and the mining towns of the Silver Valley.

Lewiston
Idaho's oldest non-mission town — founded during the 1860 gold rush, Lewiston was Idaho's first territorial capital. The confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers made Lewiston a trade hub; it remains Idaho's only seaport (470 miles from the Pacific via the Snake-Columbia waterway, navigable by barge). The Nez Perce National Historical Park visitor center is here; the Nez Perce people were the dominant culture of the region for thousands of years before European contact. The Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and the Hells Canyon jetboat tours leave from the Lewiston waterfront.

Wallace (Silver Valley)
The center of Idaho's legendary silver mining district — Wallace is a remarkably well-preserved 1890s mining town with the finest collection of late-Victorian commercial architecture in Idaho. The Sierra Silver Mine Tour descends into a working silver mine. Wallace famously declared itself the center of the universe (a manhole cover marks the spot). The Bunker Hill Superfund Site adjacent to Wallace is the largest environmental remediation project in US history.

Idaho City
A gold rush boomtown from 1862 — once the largest city in the Pacific Northwest with 30,000 residents, Idaho City is now a quiet historic town 40 miles from Boise. The Pioneer Cemetery (the largest in Idaho, with graves from the gold rush era), the Idaho City Historic District, and the surrounding Boise National Forest ponderosa pines give it character.

Franklin
Idaho's oldest permanent settlement (1860) — a Mormon pioneer agricultural community in the Cache Valley near the Utah border. Franklin's Pioneer Relic Hall and the original settlement buildings predate the Lewiston gold rush.

Fort Hall (Pocatello area)
The site of Fort Hall (1834) — a key fur trading post and resupply point on the Oregon Trail. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes' Fort Hall Indian Reservation preserves this history. The annual Shoshone-Bannock Indian Festival is one of the largest Native American powwows in the West.