BOISE, Idaho — Since 2014, Idahoans have celebrated Idaho Day every year on March 4. But what makes March 4 so special in Idaho's history? To find out, you'd have to go back eight score and 15 years ago (that's 175 years) when Idaho was still part of the Oregon territory, which spanned much of the West.
By the mid-1800s, silver and gold were found in the Northwest and Oregon became a state, leaving the Idaho territory looking much different than what the state now looks like.
On March 4, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed congressional action that would create the Idaho territory, which covered all of present-day Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
The next year, Montana received its own territory status and Wyoming did so four years later.
However, Idaho's shape was still set to be determined.
In 1887, Congress passed legislation that would cut Idaho in half and adding the panhandle to Washington but President Grover Cleveland refused to sign it as part of a favor for Vice President Adlai Stevenson's cousin, Idaho Territorial Governor Edward Stevenson.
Thanks fam, nepotism is nice!
Two years later, in the summer of 1889, the Idaho Constitution was drafted. On July 3, 1890, Idaho was formally made the 43rd state in the Union.
March 3, 2021, also marks the 100th anniversary of the completion of the Idaho State Capitol Building and when it was dedicated to the people of the Gem State in 1921.
In 2014, then-Governor Butch Otter signed House Bill 378 into law, which formally made March 4 Idaho Day.
On Thursday night the Idaho State Historical Society will hold a virtual happy hour to talk about how the Capitol has shaped how legislation is passed now.
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