Rick Just
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On the Road Again

1/25/2020

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I’m an Idaho native. My family came here about six weeks after it became a territory in 1863. I have some pride in my roots, but I’ve never thought it gave me any special status. How smart was I to be born here?
 
I’ve met many Idahoans who were born somewhere else but moved here on purpose and came to be as Idaho as you can get. Merle Wells, Cort Conley, Robert E. Smylie, Cecil Andrus, and Tom Trusky spring immediately to mind. So does Alan Minskoff.
 
Alan was born in New York. He moved to Idaho in 1970 after dropping out of grad school. The night he arrived he drove up to Bogus Basin and saw his first coyote. He fell in love with the place and by 1974 was the editor of the newly formed Idaho Heritage Magazine. He would later run Boise Magazine. Today he is a writer and journalism professor at the College of Idaho.
 
When he was running Idaho Heritage, a non-profit, Minskoff received a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council for a project called A Future for the Small Town in Idaho. As a part of that project he visited 24 small Idaho towns and learned about their histories and what made them tick. That was in 1976 and 1977. The magazine did a couple of special editions based on the project.
 
Then, more than 40 years later, Minskoff had an idea. What if he went back to those towns to reprise the project, looking for changes and for things that had not changed? Oh, and sampling the best pie in Idaho along the way.
 
The result of this little brainstorm is a new book called The IDAHO TRAVELER,* published by the legendary Caxton Press in Caldwell. It’s part autobiography, part travel guide, and part pie joint review. It’s about the small towns, but also includes things you didn’t know about Boise, Pocatello, Coeur d’Alene, Moscow, and Meridian.
 
You’ll meet the fascinating people that live in small town Idaho and begin to understand why they do. You’ll also meet Minskoff, an Idahoan who just happened to be born in New York.

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Alan Minskoff
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Speaking of Idaho history posts are copyright © 2020 by Rick Just. Sharing is encouraged. If you don’t find a button that lets you do that, find the post on Speaking of Idaho. If you’re missing my daily posts, select the RSS button, or select See it First under the Facebook Following tab.
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    The first book in the Speaking of Idaho series is out. Ask for it at your local Idaho bookstore, find it on Amazon, or, if you want a signed copy, click the button.
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    The second book in the Speaking of Idaho series is out. Ask for it at your local Idaho bookstore, find it on Amazon, or, if you want a signed copy, click the button.
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    Rick's book about Fearless Farris is available on Amazon! Click the picture above to be taken to Amazon. If you'd like an autographed copy, click the button below.

    Author, Speaker

    Rick Just has been writing about Idaho history since 1989 when he wrote and recorded scripts for the Idaho Centennial Commission’s daily radio program, Idaho Snapshots. One of his Idaho books explores the history of Idaho's state parks: Images of America, Idaho State Parks. Rick also writes a regular column for Boise Weekly.

    Rick does public presentations on Idaho's state park history and the history of the Morrisite war for the Idaho Humanities Council's Speakers Bureau.idahohumanities.org/programs/inquiring-idaho/
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    Check out Rick's history of Idaho State Parks.

    The audio link below is to Rick's Story Story Night set called "Someplace Not Firth"

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Speaking of Idaho history posts are copyright © 2025 by Rick Just. Sharing is encouraged. If you’re missing my daily posts, select the RSS button, or select See it First under the Facebook Following tab.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. That means if you follow a link (generally to a book) from my page to an Amazon page, I get a tiny percentage of any purchase you may make.