With so many new residents popping up, I thought it might be helpful for them to learn some basics about the state. I'd first like to help them learn to identify Idaho by its unique shape. Can you identify Idaho by its shape? Check your answer by scrolling down.
| A  E  | B  F  | C  G  | D  H  |
Well, let's see how you did.
| | If you picked this one, check your calendar. If it’s 1863, then this one is correct. When President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill creating Idaho Territory on March 4, 1863, this is what it looked like. It included all of what would later become Montana and Wyoming. The territory was bigger than Texas and, for a few months, was the largest US Territory. |
| | This was right, once. In 1864, Idaho Territory went on a serious diet. Congress wisely decided that one Texas was plenty, thank you very much. Northeast Idaho Territory became Montana Territory that year. At the same time, Idaho lost most of Wyoming. |
| | Idaho Territory slimmed up again in 1868, losing the love handle on the east that would become part of Wyoming. This is what Idaho looks like today. Pat yourself on the back if you chose this one. |
| | This could be what Idaho looks like tomorrow if tomorrow is defined as “probably never.” When this book was written, there was something called the Greater Idaho Movement. Proponents, most of whom live in rural Oregon, so love Idaho’s scenic beauty that they just have to be a part of it. In writing circles, the preceding sentence is called a “lie.” Those secessionist Oregonians admire Idaho’s conservative politics and would love to thumb their collective noses at Salem, Oregon’s capital city, and the progressive politics in general on that side of the Cascades. Similar schemes to rejigger Idaho’s borders have popped up in the past. They have consistently failed because every state government involved in the proposal has to approve it, then Congress has to approve it. |
| | If you chose this as the shape of Idaho, you are geographically challenged, but you are not alone. This is Iowa. One would think Iowa would change its name since three of the letters it contains are currently in use by Idaho. Some wags might point out that Iowa had those letters first, which is technically correct. Idaho, indisputably, wears them better. Iowa, you should consider Cornucopia, a lovely name implying abundance. |
| | Please say you didn’t choose this one. That’s Ohio. It, too, shares three letters with the State of Idaho. Frankly, we’re getting a little tired of that. See above. Pick your own dang name. |
| | You could almost be forgiven for picking this shape. Montana is practically begging to stick its nose in this upside-down image of Florida. |
| | If you chose this map, you may be from Mayberry. An upside-down map of Idaho hung on the wall of the sheriff’s office in some of the old Andy Griffith shows on TV. It may have been meant to be the outline of the fictional town of Mayberry or the fictional county it was in. A map of Nevada got the same treatment in at least one episode. The map used most often for the background in those office scenes was one of Cincinnati. |
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