Boise

In the 1970s, Boise City hired a director for the city park department whose previous experience with municipal parks was in the East and Midwest. After serving for a few years, he told the City Council at a budget presentation, "I can honestly say that Boise's park system is a twelve-month system. Even though we have four distinct seasons here, with a real winter, most of our city parks are in use all year long. This phenomenon is unprecedented in my experience." Whereupon he asked for the funds to experiment with solar-heated restrooms, a potentially inexpensive way to keep park restrooms open during the winter.

The solar method didn't pan out. It worked OK during mild winters, but not in typical ones. Still, the demand was there, so today, electric heaters dangle from the ceiling of park restrooms, especially along the Greenbelt, the string of parks next to the Boise River.

Plenty of other evidence indicates the outdoor-all-year lifestyle in the city. On the campus of Boise State University, for example, students wear shorts to class even when the temperatures are in the 20s. Coffeehouses like Moxie Java and Flying M never bring their cafe tables in for the winter. Too many people are sitting in them, bundled up, but soaking up the sun and the latte in the middle of January.

Situated as it is between the hills of the Boise Front (which are actually the foothills of the Sawtooth Mountains), and the deserts of the Great Basin, Boise is protected from the worst extremes of the summer and winter seasons. The town gets snow, but not much--the annual precipitation is only eleven or twelve inches. A few days each summer might have 100-degree weather, but the low humidity makes it tolerable. And, typical of arid climates, nightfall usually brings a temperature drop of thirty or forty degrees.

If you've taken many of the "tours" of Idaho available at this website or seen the PBS television program, Idaho, A Portrait, you've discovered the magnificent geologic gifts that make up the state of Idaho. People who chose to live in Boise also leave it frequently to hike, boat, ski, snowmobile, or just go for a drive. They hunt, fish, watch birds, or go rockhounding or berry picking. There are so many outdoor possibilities that people calibrate them to match their age, fitness level, and disposition. Cameras go everywhere. Each year at Boise's Western Idaho State Fair, one of the biggest attractions is the amateur photography contest, and one of the main subjects is Idaho.

The city was born in 1863, soon after gold was discovered in the mountains about thirty miles to the northeast. Some of the miners decided they could do better selling fruits and fresh vegetables to other miners than by working the placers themselves. They came down to the Boise Valley and diverted water from the Boise River to orchards and farms. The town grew rapidly, first on the north bank of the river and then on the south, and became the largest city in the state. The Oregon Trail passed through Boise, and many people simply stopped here, sensing (correctly) the opportunities.

Boise is the capital city of Idaho. It's the corporate center for nationally prominent businesses--mostly home-grown in Idaho: Boise Cascade, Micron Technology, Albertson's, J.R. Simplot Company, and Washington Group International (the new name for Morrison-Knudsen Company). The Idaho Candy Company produces the world famous Spud Bar here, and Hewlett-Packard produces world-famous printers.

Of Boise's many parks, the one that most accurately captures the outdoor lifestyle of the city's residents is the Greenbelt. This string of parks connected by miles of paths along both banks of the river is often the first place Boiseans think to take guests and visitors. The Greenbelt is a marketplace of life, and like most marketplaces, it's fun to be there. People play and exercise there, picnic there, study there, propose and get married there, have festivals there, embark and debark from float trips down the river there, listen to music at the bandshell there, watch for bald eagles there, go to the zoo there, feed the ducks there, watch Shakespeare plays there (under the stars), bike to work there... Working, ah yes, that is a necessity.