Introduction

The state is appropriately shaped like a logger's boot, and logging as well as mining are big industries in the state. Boise is the capital and the state flower is the syringa.

Idaho is well known for its natural beauty and rugged landscape. The state's Sawtooth Mountains are a part of the Rocky Mountains. Another of Idaho's natural wonders is the Snake River. Mining and lumbering have been important for years. Idaho ranks high among the states in silver, antimony, lead, cobalt, garnet, phosphate rock, vanadium, zinc and mercury. Agriculture is a major industry: The state produces about one fourth of the nation's potato crop, as well as wheat, apples, corn, barley, sugar beets and hops. The 1990s have seen a remarkable growth in the high technology industries, concentrated in the metropolitan Boise area.

Points of interest are the Craters of the Moon National Monument; Nez Perc National Historic Park and the State Historical Museum in Boise. Other attractions are the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area south of Boise, Hells Canyon on the Idaho-Oregon border and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in south-central Idaho.

City List