CLEAR CUTTING IDAHO

    The gold rush in 1863 brought a flood of prospectors to Idaho territory and intense pressure on the Indian tribes to give up more of their land. This led to the Indian wars in the 1870s. In order to feed the miners more farm land was needed, and the railroad began clear cutting timber in accordance with the 1864 Northern Pacific Railroad Land Grant Act which granted the company forty million acres of public land. The wealth of the state was extracted (timber, potatoes, minerals) and shipped elsewhere. Not that all the money left the state, but the communities I visited faced the challenge of redefining themselves as the timber industry cut back after cutting down all they wanted from the surrounding countryside and closed plants. The mining industry had shrunk which meant loss of jobs, tax revenues, and net migration out of small towns. In agriculture the consolidation of farms, the growing scale of operations and automation, and the aging of farm families resulted in fewer farms and more people looking for work in town. Between 1990 and 2000 the state grew in population 28.5%, making it the fifth fastest growing in the country, yet many of these small towns did not benefit from that growth. In fact thirty-five of Idaho's forty-four counties suffer from low income and high unemployment. Some years ago, conservative Congresswoman Helen Chenowith made the following statement, hoping to discourage minority recruitment in her district, "The warmer-climate community just hasn't found the colder climate that attractive. It's an area of America that has simply never attracted the Afro-American or the Hispanic." The 2000 census revealed a large surge in Latino residents who now make over 7% of the population of Idaho.