In 2016, the US Census Bureau estimated the population of Idaho as 1,683,140. Meanwhile, the Idaho Transportation Department registered 1.7 million vehicles that same year. So, every man, woman, and child in the state could, theoretically, have their own set of wheels. Yet, it wasn’t that long ago there wasn’t a single wheel in sight.
The first wheel to enter what is now Idaho, was probably one of four on what was the first wagon to come here. That was in 1836, when the Reverend and Mrs. Henry Spalding (Eliza), accompanied by Dr. and Mrs. Marcus Whitman arrived in this land. They had run out of road when they hit the Green River in Wyoming, then struck out across country on their mission to spread their religion.
The missionaries got the wagon nearly to where Fort Hall had been established as a trading post two years earlier. The going got tougher, so they abandoned two of the wheels and converted their wagon into a cart. That got them at least to Fort Boise (the early version of same, which was also a fur trading establishment).
We’re only concerned with that first wheel today, so won’t tell more about the Spaldings and the Lapwai Mission printing press, or the demise of the Whitmans, which discouraged the Spaldings out of almost-Idaho in 1847. Not this time.
The first wheel to enter what is now Idaho, was probably one of four on what was the first wagon to come here. That was in 1836, when the Reverend and Mrs. Henry Spalding (Eliza), accompanied by Dr. and Mrs. Marcus Whitman arrived in this land. They had run out of road when they hit the Green River in Wyoming, then struck out across country on their mission to spread their religion.
The missionaries got the wagon nearly to where Fort Hall had been established as a trading post two years earlier. The going got tougher, so they abandoned two of the wheels and converted their wagon into a cart. That got them at least to Fort Boise (the early version of same, which was also a fur trading establishment).
We’re only concerned with that first wheel today, so won’t tell more about the Spaldings and the Lapwai Mission printing press, or the demise of the Whitmans, which discouraged the Spaldings out of almost-Idaho in 1847. Not this time.
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