Rick Just
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The Oldest Idaho Counties

10/18/2023

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People were soooo determined to use the name “Idaho” for something that it now seems almost inevitable. As you probably know, the name was also considered for Colorado and Montana territories. Did you know that a county in Washington Territory had the name, too?
 
Idaho County, Washington Territory, was created on December 20, 1861. It was named after the steamboat Idaho. You might have missed that because that county ended up in the new Idaho Territory in 1863 when the boundaries were drawn. Nez Perce and Shoshone counties were also originally counties in Washington Territory for a short time.
 
If you want to step back a few years, all of you living in Idaho today would have been living in either Walla Walla County, Washington Territory, or Skamania County, Washington Territory. They were created in 1854. The former included all of present-day Idaho above the 46th parallel, and the latter the rest of it.
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    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. His latest book on Idaho history is Images of America, Idaho State Parks. Rick also writes a regular column for the Idaho Press.

    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.
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    Check out Rick's history of Idaho State Parks.
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