THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



" The Baby State " is a title conferred upon Idaho by 

 its World's Fair Commissioner, Captain James M. Wells, 

 in his official report. While it is not the latest acces- 

 sion to the Union, nor the smallest in population, there 

 is a certain element of just characterization in the 

 name, though it can be but temporary. The impression 

 which Idaho makes upon the observer is that of crude, 

 undeveloped strength. Utah is newer to statehood, 

 Nevada and Wyoming smaller in population, yet Idaho 

 seems more like a lusty infant than either of these. It 

 is such in the fact that its character is less fixed, and 

 that the current of population which is to make its en- 

 during institutions has but begun to flow in upon the 

 fertile valleys which will dominate its life, because of 

 their capacity to sustain dense communities. 



Already there have been four periods in the history of 

 Idaho. The first was that of the explorer, when Lewis 

 and Clarke, and later Bonneville, came to look over the 

 country and report upon its possibilities. The second 

 was that of the trapper, when the Hudson Bay Company 

 established its supremacy after a brief struggle with 

 American hunters. The third was that of the mission- 

 ary, who established the first feeble beginnings of civ- 

 ilization, then pushed westward for the historic conquest 

 of Oregon. The fourth was that of the miner, who 

 gained a lasting foothold in the mountains and along 

 the streams. The fifth era is now in progress, and has 

 been, after a fashion, since the early sixties. This is the 

 era of agricultural settlement and of town-building. It 

 amounted to little until the railways wore built across 

 the northern and southern extremities of the State, and 

 until enterprise was attracted by the possibilities of irriga- 



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