The Treasure Valley is the area of the Western United States

Western United States

.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...

 where the Payette

Payette River

The Payette River is an river in southwestern Idaho and is a major tributary of the Snake River.Its headwaters originate in the Sawtooth and Salmon River Mountains at elevations over...

, Boise

Boise River

The Boise River is a tributary of the Snake River in the northwestern United States. It drains a rugged portion of the Sawtooth Range in southwestern Idaho northeast of Boise, as well as part of the western Snake River Plain...

, Weiser

Weiser River

The Weiser River is a tributary of the Snake River in western Idaho in the United States. It drains a mountainous area of consisting primarily of low rolling foothills intersected by small streams south and east of Hells Canyon along the Idaho-Oregon border....

, Malheur

Malheur River

The Malheur River is a tributary of the Snake River in eastern Oregon in the United States. It drains a high desert area, between the Harney Basin and the Blue Mountains and the Snake....

, Owyhee

Owyhee River

The Owyhee River is a tributary of the Snake River located in northern Nevada, southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon in the United States. It is long. The river's drainage basin is in area, one of the largest subbasins of the Columbia Basin...

, and Burnt

Burnt River (Oregon)

The Burnt River is a tributary of the Snake River in eastern Oregon, United States. It enters the Snake near Huntington, Oregon, at a point upstream of the Powder River and downstream of the Malheur River, slightly more than from the Snake's confluence with the Columbia River...

 rivers drain into the Snake River

Snake River

The Snake is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...

. Treasure Valley includes all the lowland areas from Vale, Oregon

Vale, Oregon

Vale is a city in Malheur County, Oregon, United States, about west of the Idaho border. It is at the intersection of U.S. Routes 20 and 26, on the Malheur River.Vale was selected as Malheur's county seat in 1955, 68 years after the county was founded...

 on the west to Boise, Idaho

Boise, Idaho

Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...

 on the east. Formerly, the valley had been known as the Lower Snake River Valley or the Boise River Valley until 1959. That's when Pete Olesen, president of the valley's association of local Chambers of Commerce, first coined the name Treasure Valley. Olesen said the name reflected the treasure chest of resources and opportunities in the region.

Settling the region

The tribes that roamed the area, specifically, were the Northern Paiute and Shoshone

Shoshone

The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....

. In 1834, Thomas McKay

Thomas McKay (fur trader)

Thomas McKay was a Anglo-Métis Canadian Fur trader who worked mainly in the Pacific Northwest for the Pacific Fur Company , the North West Company , and the Hudson's Bay Company . He was a fur brigade leader and explorer of the Columbia District and later became a U.S. citizen and an early settler...

 built the original Fort Boise

Fort Boise

Fort Boise refers to two different locations in southwestern Idaho. The first was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post near the Snake River on the Oregon border, dating from the era when Idaho was part of the fur company's Columbia District. After several rebuilds, it was ultimately abandoned in...

, which was run for a time by François Payette

Francois Payette

Francois Payette was a fur trader. Born near Montreal, he began his career as a canoeman, was hired by John Jacob Astor and shipped to the Oregon Country aboard the Beaver, entering the mouth of the Columbia River on May 9, 1812...

 in the area near the present-day city of Parma

Parma, Idaho

Parma is a city in Canyon County, Idaho, United States. The population was 1,771 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Boise City–Nampa, Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Parma is located at ....

. It later was moved because of flooding troubles. The area was settled for the most part by ranchers and farmers. In 1883, the Northern Pacific Railroad reached the Treasure Valley, creating a thriving community.

Basque immigration

Many Basques

Basque people

The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...

 came to the area looking for gold, but meeting discrimination, it seemed to many that a better occupation was shepherding, familiar from their homeland. Over 50,000 Basques came to the Treasure Valley area, making it the largest community of Basques outside of Europe.

Farming

As Boise began to grow, so did the riches of large planters, such as Thomas and Frank Davis. They moved to Idaho in 1862 for mining. They homesteaded right below the Boise Bench on the Boise River

Boise River

The Boise River is a tributary of the Snake River in the northwestern United States. It drains a rugged portion of the Sawtooth Range in southwestern Idaho northeast of Boise, as well as part of the western Snake River Plain...

. Tom Davis became very successful at growing fruit, as he made over $10,000 on one year's apple crop . He later purchased more land for orchards and horses. In 1907, he donated much of this land as Julia Davis Park

Julia Davis park

Julia Davis Park is the first park in the "string of pearls", the public park system found running through the middle of Boise, Idaho. It is centrally located within the city of Boise and is bordered by Broadway Avenue to the east, Capital Boulevard to the west, the Boise River to the south, and...

 in honor of his wife.

The Owyhee Project was one of the most influential developments of the area. It essentially began in 1903, when surveyors began investigating a site on the Owyhee River

Owyhee River

The Owyhee River is a tributary of the Snake River located in northern Nevada, southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon in the United States. It is long. The river's drainage basin is in area, one of the largest subbasins of the Columbia Basin...

 for the construction of a dam, to impound water for irrigation. The Owyhee project received official Congressional sanction on December 5, 1924. The Owyhee Dam

Owyhee Dam

Owyhee Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Owyhee River in Eastern Oregon near Adrian, Oregon, United States. Completed in 1932 during the Great Depression, the dam generates electricity and provides irrigation water for several irrigation districts in Oregon and neighboring Idaho...

 was completed on September 16, 1932. While the dam was under construction, over 98.5 miles (158.5 km) of irrigation canals were being dug to the north and south. The main purpose of the Owyhee Project was irrigation. By 1965, over 111000 acres (449.2 km²) were being irrigated for a value of more than $23 million.

In 1941, J. R. Simplot

J. R. Simplot

John Richard Simplot was the founder of the J. R. Simplot Company, an agricultural supplier specializing in potato products, based in Boise, Idaho. In 2007 he was estimated to be the 89th-richest person in America, at $3.6 billion...

 built a dehydrator and began processing large quantities of dehydrated potatoes and onions at a plant near Caldwell, Idaho. His business thrived selling potatoes to the government and fertilizer to local farmers.

Technology

In 1973 Hewlett Packard purchased a 150 acre site for a future peripherals plant in Boise. In 1978 Micron Technology

Micron Technology

Micron Technology, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Boise, Idaho, USA, best known for producing many forms of semiconductor devices. This includes DRAM, SDRAM, flash memory, SSD and CMOS image sensing chips. Consumers may be more familiar with its consumer brand Crucial...

 was founded, creating an additional, local industry aside from farming and potato packaging. Since then, Boise has boomed with technological industries.

Geographic features

• Lucky Peak Reservoir
• Shaffer Butte
• Table Rock