Fantastic Idaho! (Mythras)

[Toadmaster]

Idaho has an abundance of ghost towns, haunted mines, abandoned building that are now haunted, ghosts on the highways, cowboy ghosts, I could go on it actually continues in this vein for quite a while. In my research for other states (new york, new jersey, delaware, conneticut) the "weird" folklore is spread over a couple of different themes. Not Idaho, Idaho happily goes into great detail of the ghostly occurences of any manmade structure left idle for time.
I'm just using the state's natural resources and tying it to Edison's ghost phone. As to why have mad science in Idaho? cheap land plus a lot of privacy are very attractive selling points for a long term research facility.

Ah, so literally ghost towns, I wasn't aware they had a higher spooky story to ghost town ratio. There are loads of ghost towns in the west, but most are simply abandoned towns without much supernatural lore attached to them.

While not ghost specific Idaho was in the path of "The Big Burn" of 1910, at least 78 men died fighting the fire, many in Idaho. It is unknown for sure how many others were killed. The total number varies from 85-90 but it was likely much higher. Records were poor, Native Americans and recent immigrants were rarely included (nobody reported them missing) and isolated settlers were often never found (moved on or died in the fire?). Entire towns were leveled.

One of the legends of firefighting came out of that fire as well. Ed Pulaski led his crew into an abandoned mine near Wallace, ID and held them there at gun point until the fire passed over, saving 39 of his 45 man crew. His name was later attached to the Pulaski, a staple firefighting tool.

The Big Blow Up

 

[FeralToaster]

And the "Devil's Broom Fire" goes in the word bank for future use.

Yeah I think the rise of youtube and those ghost adventures shows is responsible. Most of the ghost stories have a kind forced generic feel that you don't see in more naturally grown folklore.

 

[FeralToaster]

Week 4

well hopefully by posting on friday I'll be able to get add more details over the weekend.

Intro

okay I danced around it long enough time to start doing the the work on research and setting up Boise and figure out which facts are important.

Statistics, geography and history

The Boise- Nampa metropolitan area is known as “Treasure Valley” comprised of Ada, Boise, Canyon, Gem, and Owyhee and in 2017 the population of Treasure Valley was estimated to be 709,845
(hmm I put some of treasure valley in central region (land of no return) and some in southern region (yet to be named )).The treasure valley is has three major cities Boise, Nampa, and Meridan.

Boise, county seat of Ada county, capital of Idaho
last estimated population (2016) 223,154

history of Boise

Boise (incorporated 1863) name seems to come from French trappers calling the region "La rivière boisée” the wooded river there was a fort established in the 1830’s by the hudson bay company later disbanded but the us army established a new one in 1863 after massacres in the Oregon trail area. The city was a major road to the Owyhee area which had a silver mine. the city itself is 64 square miles. the wikipedia entry points out that downtown Boise lacks a central shopping/dining area (I imagine the nightlife is then spread over the suburbs and exurbs and local neighborhoods). The cityscape is kind of clusters of squat building amid a just giant sea of trees. the climate seems to be kinda mild with the summer months not going above 89 and the winter months not going subzero, there are few tornados in the area and no documented injuries or fatalities from tornadoes. in 2016 a subway was built the UPT hub.three miles south of Boise is the Boise International Airport.
Outside the city there is a world center for birds of prey that was integral for getting the peregrine falcon off the endangered species list and is involved with the saving the california condor.

List of Boise Neighborhoods

Downtown Boise- has the Egyptian Theatre, inaugurated in 1927 added to the national register of historic places 1974, it is the oldest theatre in the city, decorated after the Karnak temple complex ( sadly the Boris Karloff mummy movie came out in 1932) this was during the Egyptian revival period.

Boise State University- founded 1932 is also in the downtown area.home to the Taco Bell arena 12,380 seats

The North End- in 2008 got listed as one of the 10 great neighborhoods by the american planning association.

Boise Highlands- suburbs dating back to the 1970s

Southwest Boise- dates back to the 1960’s more suburban in development tried to resist the urban sprawl of Boise

Northwest Boise- has a mix of old and new style buildings

Warm Springs and East End- has natural hot springS from a near by fault line and is home to the wealthiest homes in Boise

East Boise and Harris Ranch- once known as barber town leads to the mountains and is still kind more nature then city

Southeast Boise- has the sport complexes built over garbage dumps and planned communities

Boise Bench- sort of a small elevated plateau. home to the boise union pacific depot and is the closet to the boise international airport

West Boise- latest section of the city. has Boise towne square mall borders city of meridian

 

[FeralToaster]

WEEK 4 PART 2

Nampa
largest city in Canyon county

Name comes from Shoshone word for moccasin or footprint. Originally called new Jerusalem by the first homesteaders. Founded in the 1880s (incorporated in 1891) by alexander Duffes to connect Oregon to Wyoming by rail. It originally bypassed by train Boise entirely. the entry says that Nampa has the fanciest train depots in the area. sometimes story hooks write themselves

"Colonel William H. Dewey, a man who made a fortune mining in Silver City, seeing the advantage of 4 railroad lines, built the elegant Dewey Palace Hotel in 1902 for a quarter of a million dollars. Colonel Dewey died in his hotel in 1903, leaving his son a million dollars. The hotel survived the great fire of 1909, which burned several blocks of downtown Nampa, but was razed in 1963 because no one wanted to invest in renovating the grand structure. Relics from the hotel, such as the chandelier and the hotel safe can be found at the Canyon County Historical Museum, which is housed in the old train depot on Front Street and Nampa City Hall."So a ghost hotel, two spooky relics, and a heist storytelling hook, my cup runneth over.

has a municipal airport and a bus line but no subway. The Idaho Center arena is best known for hosting the Snake River Stampede Rodeo during the third week of July every year. The Snake River Stampede is considered one of the nation's top rodeos.

 

[FeralToaster]

WEEK 4 PART 3

Meridan
Ada county

3rd largest city after boise and Nampa this is now in dispute since the city population has gone up a 1000 percent since 1990. It occupies 26.84 square miles and lies between the two other cities.Originally established in 1891 on the Onweiler Fam and called hunter name was changed two years later when the I.O.O.F. was organized in town and the name was changed to Meridan becuase it was on the Boise meridian. the region went from arid to good farm through the settler’s irrigation ditch system. It seems to be really overlapping with Boise at this point that is enjoying a long running growth period.

Outro

Okay so these three cities are the main focus for the metropolitan area. Although really the entire Treasure Valley together has population make it fit a Metropolis setting. I’m going be going through the local cities area finding landmarks and historic building for good story ideas hopeful I’ll be able to add more this weekend.

 

[Raleel]

I will note that the most recent total eclipse passed over the area just north of there and south of McCall. We stayed in Boise for a couple of days before and then went and saw it. I could see an eclipse causing all kind of havoc.

Edit: if this is in the future at all, these three should probably grow together into some giant BoMeNa complex. There is little incentive to not grow out.

 

[FeralToaster]

eh, I was planning on a sort of five minutes to minute and a five minutes after minute genre thing but yeah thta does seem to be the the region is developing. Oh Raleel have you been to the Egyptian Theatre? I couldn't tell from my research if the original Egyptian revival interior was still there or if it had been redone over the years into something less impressive? sometimes with historical commercial building they only preserve the exterior.

 

[Raleel]

i have not, and if i had known about it, i would have forced my family to go. next time!