Boise is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon. Boise passed Spokane in city population in 2001 census estimates and is now the third-largest in the northwest U.S., behind Seattle and Portland. Boise serves as the primary government, economic, cultural, and transportation center for the area.
Economy:
Boise is the headquarters for several major companies, such as URS Corp. Washington Division (formerly Washington Group International, formerly Morrison-Knudsen), Boise Cascade LLC, New Albertsons Inc., Albertsons LLC, J.R. Simplot Company, Idaho Pacific Lumber Company, Idaho Timber, and WinCo Foods. Other major industries are headquartered in Boise or have large manufacturing facilities present. The state government is also one of the city’s largest employers.
The area’s largest private employer[18] publicly traded and headquartered company in Boise is Micron Technology (NYSE: MU). Others include IDACORP, Inc. (NYSE: ida), the parent company of Idaho Power, Idaho Bancorp (NYSE: IDA), Boise, Inc. (NYSE: BZ), American Ecology Corp. (NASDAQ: ECOL), PCS Edventures.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCSV) and Syringa Bancorp.
Technology investment and the high-tech industry have become increasingly important to the city, with businesses including Bodybuilding.com, Crucial.com, MobileDataForce, MarkMonitor, Sybase, Balihoo.com and Microsoft. The call center industry is also a major source of employment; there are over 20 call centers in the city employing more than 7,000 people, including WDS Global, EDS, Teleperformance, DIRECTV and T-Mobile.
Varney Air Service, founded by Walter Varney, was formed in Boise, though headquarted at Pasco, Washington. The original air mail contract was from Pasco to Elko, Nevada with stops in Boise in both directions. The company is the root of present day United Airlines, which still serves the city at the newly renovated and upgraded Boise Airport.
Education:
The Boise School District includes 31 elementary schools, 8 junior high schools, 5 high schools and 2 specialty schools. Part of the Meridian School District (the largest district in Idaho) overlaps into Boise city limits. The city is home to six public high schools: Boise High School, Borah High School, Capital High School, Timberline High School as well as Meridian School District’s Centennial High School and the alternative Frank Church High School. Boise’s private schools include Catholic Bishop Kelly High School, Foothills School of Arts and Sciences and Baccalaureate accredited Riverstone International School.
Post-secondary educational options in Boise include Boise State University as well as a wide range of technical schools. University of Idaho (UI) and Idaho State University each maintain a satellite campus in Boise. As of 2009, the city did not have any law schools. UI plans to open a third-year law program in 2010 and Concordia University plans to open the Concordia University School of Law in 2011 in the city. Boise is home to Boise Bible College, an undergraduate degree-granting college that exists to train leaders for churches as well as missionaries for the world.
Culture:
Numbering about 15,000, Boise’s ethnic Basque community is the second largest such community in the United States after Bakersfield, California and the fifth largest in the world outside Argentina, Chile and the Basque Country in Spain and France.[21] A large Basque festival known as Jaialdi is held once every five years (next in 2010). Downtown Boise features a vibrant section known as the “Basque Block”. Boise’s mayor, David H. Bieter, is of Basque descent.
Boise is also a regional hub for jazz and theater. The Gene Harris Jazz Festival is hosted in Boise each spring. The city is also home to a number of museums, including the Boise Art Museum, Idaho Historical Museum, the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, Idaho Black History Museum, Boise WaterShed and the Discovery Center of Idaho. Several theater groups operate in the city, including the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Boise Little Theatre, Boise Contemporary Theater, and Prairie Dog Productions. On the first Thursday of each month, a gallery stroll is hosted in the city’s core business district by the Downtown Boise Association. The city also has the Egyptian Theatre as a renovated venue. In the fall, Downtown Boise hosts a film festival called Idaho International Film Festival.
The Boise Centre on the Grove is an 85,000-square-foot (7,900 m2) convention center that hosts a variety of events, including international, national, and regional conventions, conferences, banquets, and consumer shows. It is located in the heart of downtown Boise and borders the Grove Plaza, which hosts numerous outdoor functions throughout the year.
The Morrison-Knudsen Nature Center offers water features and wildlife experiences just east of downtown. It is located adjacent to Municipal Park.[22] It features live fish and wildlife exhibits, viewing areas into the water, bird and butterfly gardens, waterfalls and a free visitor’s center.
Boise has a diverse and vibrant religious community. The Jewish community’s Ahavath Beth Israel Temple, completed 1896, is the nation’s oldest continually-used temple west of the Mississippi. The Boise Hare Krishna Temple opened in August 1999. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has over 60 congregations in Boise and dedicated a temple there in 1984, the first of 6 temples dedicated that year.
Boise (along with Valley and Boise Counties) hosted the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games. More than 2,500 athletes from over 85 countries participated.
Major Attractions:
A number of recreational opportunities are available in Boise, including extensive hiking and biking in the foothills to the immediate north of downtown. Much of this trail network is part of Hull’s Gulch and can be accessed by 8th street. An extensive urban trail system called the Boise River Greenbelt runs along the river. The Boise River itself is a common destination for fishing, swimming and rafting.
In Julia Davis Park is Zoo Boise, which has over 200 animals representing over 80 species from around the world. An Africa exhibit, completed in 2008, is the most recent addition.
The Bogus Basin ski area opened in 1942 and hosts multiple winter activities, primarily alpine skiing and snowboarding, but also cross-country skiing and snow tubing. “Bogus” is 16 miles (26 km) from the city limits (less than an hour drive from downtown) on a twisty paved road which climbs 3400 vertical feet (1036 m) through sagebrush and forest.
Professional sports teams in Boise include the Boise Hawks of the short-season Class A Northwest League (minor league baseball), the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL (minor league hockey), and the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League (minor league basketball). An arenafootball2 franchise, the Boise Burn, began play in 2007 but is now extinct.
On the sports entertainment front, Boise is also the home of a DIY all-female, flat track roller derby league, the Treasure Valley Rollergirls.
The Boise State University campus is home to Velma V. Morrison Center for the Performing Arts, which hosts local and national fine arts performances; Bronco Stadium, the 32,000 seat football and track stadium known for its blue Field Turf field; and Taco Bell Arena, a 12,000 seat basketball and entertainment venue which opened in 1982 as the BSU Pavilion. Boise State University is known primarily for the recent successes of its football team, although it is also a fairly well-regarded commuter school for undergraduate students.
The Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl football game (formerly known as the Humanitarian Bowl and later the MPC Computers Bowl) is held in late December each year, and pairs a team from the Western Athletic Conference with a Mountain West Conference team.
The World Center for Birds of Prey is located just outside city limits, and is a key part of the re-establishment of the Peregrine Falcon and the subsequent removal from the Endangered Species list. The center is currently breeding the very rare California condor, among many other rare and endangered species.
The city has been cited by publications like Forbes, Fortune and Sunset for its quality of life.
The cornerstone mall in Boise, Boise Towne Square Mall, is also a major shopping attraction for Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, and surrounding areas and has recently been through an upgrade along with adding new retailers.
The state’s largest giant sequoia can be found near St. Lukes Hospital.
Fun Trivia:
Forget the potatoes! There are plenty of other fun and interesting things about Idaho and its capital city. Did you know that…
● The Statehouse in Boise and dozens of other buildings in the city are geo-thermally heated from underground hot springs. In fact, Idaho is well sprinkled with public and private hot springs.
● Boise was once a key trading post for the Hudson Bay Trading Company and a key point along the Oregon Trail. It is now the capital of Idaho and home to Gowen Field Air Base.
● Bruneau Dunes State Park has the tallest single structured sand dune in North America.
● One of the largest diamonds ever found in the United States, nearly 20 carats, was discovered near McCall, Idaho.
We have some crazy laws in Idaho that were made a very long time ago and have never been changed…you better watch yourself or you just may get arrested for fishing from that Giraffe’s back!
● A person may not be seen in public without a smile on their face in Pocatello, Idaho.
● In Idaho, riding a merry-go-round on Sundays is considered a crime.
● In Boise, residents may not fish from a giraffe’s back.
● In Idaho, it’s against the law for anyone over the age of 88 to ride a motorcycle.
