BOISE, Idaho — Thanks to a Boise resident asking about Idaho's lone glacier, it has been formally recognized and named by the United States Geological Survey.
The glacier, now named Borah Glacier, is only about 30 acres in size and is found on the north slope of Mount Borah. The glacier was first documented by Bruce Otto in 1974 and is the only documented active glacier found in the Gem State.
Collin Sloan contacted the Forest Service in 2015 about documenting the glacier and by the summer of 2016, Joshua Kelley, a Salmon-Challis National Forest employee and Mathew Warbritton, a student conservation intern, visited the glacier.
In November 2016, Kelley published a research paper on the state of Idaho's only glacier.
His report said, in part, "Our survey confirmed the continued presence of the perennial ice mass originally identified in 1974 and concluded that the ice mass is indeed a glacier that continues to move under its own weight, based on measurements described herein in conjunction with results from the initial investigations in the 1970s."
In 2019, Sloan submitted their proposed name for the glacier to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names.
The board approved the name of Borah Glacier on Feb. 11, 2021.
