Updating the Year-Round Attractions of Idaho

Teddy Roosevelt strolled through the turreted Idanha Hotel in Boise. So did Presidents William Howard Taft and Benjamin Harrison.

Fan dancer Sally Rand made headlines at the Idanha when, at age 70, she displayed legs that were still eye-catching and told a reporter, “I love being a girl and a sex symbol.”

Ethel Barrymore brought her own maid when she occupied an Idanha suite. Jim Corbett, who won the heavyweight championship by knocking out John L. Sullivan, skipped rope in the hallway outside his room here while on a speaking tour to promote regular exercise.

Famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow fine-tuned his courtroom strategy in his corner suite at the Idanha while winning one of his most celebrated cases.

‘Guests and Ghosts’

These stories and more are told in the book by Boise author and former newspaperman, Dick d’Easum, entitled “The Idanha--Guests and Ghosts of a Historic Idaho Inn.”

The book and its tales underscore a paradox in U.S. vacation travel: Despite the area’s history, cultural attractions and scenic wonders, Boise and southwest Idaho remain a destination undiscovered by most travelers.

The Southwest Idaho Travel Assn. and the Boise Convention & Visitors Bureau have mounted a campaign to make their four-seasons vacationland “a secret that’s impossible to keep.”

Expo 86 in Vancouver, B.C., is helping put an end to the secret by stimulating travel throughout the West. The panhandle of Idaho shares a border with British Columbia. The state capital of Boise is 631 miles from Vancouver, 849 miles from Los Angeles.

Sun Valley Celebrates

This is also the year of the 50th birthday of Sun Valley, which draws summer as well as winter visitors. Boise is 154 miles west of Sun Valley.

We were exploring southern Idaho on a family camping vacation, more than 20 years ago, when we first visited Boise. We had driven over the 8,429-foot Teton Pass between Wyoming and Idaho.

At Swan Valley on Idaho’s Snake River we boated, fished and listened to tales of Buell Warner, a Big Sky legend whose escapades undoubtedly fined-tuned our senses for D’Easum’s stories about the Idanha.

The drive across southern Idaho from Swan Valley to Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Twin Falls and Boise, following the Snake River along Interstate 86 and Interstate 84, parallels part of the route westward pioneered by Lewis and Clark in 1805.

Ever-Changing Land

From Boise, trails lead in all directions to a variety of travel experiences. Mountain wilderness areas are contrasted by rich agricultural areas, deep gorges, vineyards and the highest sand dunes in North America. These are the Bruneau Dunes in the high desert just south of the Snake River, mounded to a height of 470 feet. Families stop so youngsters can slide down the dunes.

Idaho potatoes are household words, but you may not know that vineyards and wineries around Emmett and the South Slope area near Caldwell, about 20 miles west of Boise, produce award-winning wines. You are invited to stop and sample. Ste. Chapelle Winery offers internationally famed jazz pianist Gene Harris with your Sunday sipping and picnic lunches.

North of Caldwell, the Snake River has cut Hell’s Canyon, deepest gorge in North America, and the border between Idaho and Oregon. Raft and jet boat trips between Lewiston and Riggins are premier river runs. Miles of white-water alternate with tranquil stretches for watching and photographing wildlife.

The Boise, Payette, Owyhee and Bruneau rivers add to the whitewater options of southwestern Idaho. A score of lakes and reservoirs have facilities for power-boating, sailing, wind surfing, waterskiing, swimming and fishing. Fly fishing is a temptation on hundreds of wilderness streams.

Wilderness Galore

The McCall mountain resorts overlook Payette Lake. To the northeast of McCall, the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness preserves the largest U.S. wilderness area outside of Alaska. You can hike into it or explore it on horseback with the help of outfitters and guides. The Forest Service maintains campgrounds in the wilderness areas.

For backpackers, the Boise and Payette National Forests have more than 3,200 miles of trails through terrain that varies from old-growth forests to mountain ridges, rolling meadows and deep canyons.

On the banks of the Snake River not far from Boise is a sanctuary for studying such birds of prey as eagles, hawks, peregrine falcons.

Idaho City, 39 miles east of Boise on Highway 21, is a historic town that brings the Old West alive. In the 1860s it was one of the largest Gold Rush towns in the Pacific Northwest. Everything from the Boot Hill Cemetery to the Miner’s Exchange Saloon and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, established in 1863, has been carefully preserved.

Basquing in Boise

But it is in Boise itself, when you come here for the first time, that you will shake your head and ask: “How come it took me so long to follow Teddy Roosevelt, Clarence Darrow and Sally Rand to this capital city of Idaho?”

French-speaking trappers named this area La Riviere Boise, the wooded river. Today’s city of 102,000 inhabitants is the home of more Basques of Pyrenees heritage than any other place in the United States. There’s an annual Basque Picnic in July and the Basque Carnival and Bazaar in October.

Boise River flows through the center of the city, along 10 miles of trees and parks. Employees of major corporations headquartered here like to brown-bag it along the river banks at lunchtime during spring, summer and early autumn. You can river-raft through the heart of the city.

Julia Davis Park on the river is sought out for more than its shaded picnic areas and walking paths. It is the home of the Boise Gallery of Art, the State Historical Society Museum and the city zoo. Since Boise once had the nation’s largest Chinatown except for San Francisco, there’s a Chinese temple in the museum as well as Indian artifacts and pioneer buildings.

Downtown Boise is best explored afoot. The restored 19th-Century area houses galleries, shops, fine restaurants. The State Capitol Building is in the same classical style as the nation’s capitol, and is open for self-guided tours Mondays through Saturdays. The old Moorish-style Union Pacific Depot is preserved in a garden setting. Nearby are mansions built by mining tycoons of the last century.

From Bach to the Bard

Symphony, ballet, opera and theater are presented in the new Morrison Center for the Performing Arts. The Idaho Shakespeare Festival, starring nationally acclaimed performers, is held every summer in the outdoor theater-in-the-round at Parkcenter. This summer the festival has been extended into September.

The turreted Idanha Hotel was built downtown to replace the Overland, which had accumulated its own share of stories during the 19th Century. Idanha is an Indian word variously interpreted to mean healing or bubbling waters. The hotel opened in 1901 with bubbles of champagne.

Now a historical landmark, the Idanha is undergoing a renaissance. About 55 of its 140 rooms on six floors are welcoming guests and plans are proceeding for total restoration. Peter Schott’s Continental Restaurant in the hotel’s former coffee shop serves gourmet cuisine in the atmosphere of graciousness that he was noted for as an executive chef in Sun Valley.

Jazz pianist Harris entertains regularly in the lobby bar at the Idanha. Doubles at the hotel start at $34.75; phone (208) 342-3611. At the Red Lion Riverside Inn on the Boise River, doubles start at $71; phone (800) 547-8010.

Foliage in the Fall

Autumn could be the best-kept of all Idaho secrets. Foliage is especially spectacular in the canyons. The 22 public golf courses in the area are touched with a golden glow.

Because of the fame of Sun Valley, winter attractions are no secret around Boise. The six chairlifts of Bogus Basin Ski Resort are just 16 miles from downtown. The powder skiing of Brundage Mountain Ski Area is seven miles from McCall. Both areas have miles of groomed cross-country trails.

For help in planning a trip here, contact the Boise Convention & Visitors Bureau/Southwest Idaho Travel Assn. Inc., P.O. Box 2106, Boise, Ida. 83701, phone (800) 635-5240. “The Idanha--Guests and Ghosts of an Historic Inn” sells locally for $9.95.