Idaho Map 1890 State Print - Boise, Pocatello, Nampa

Rand McNally & Company published this map of Idaho in Chicago around 1890, capturing the territory at the exact moment it achieved statehood, its fortieth admission to the Union. Issued in the firm's New Family Atlas of the World, the map bears an 1888 copyright in its margin even though its internal county boundaries clearly reflect legislation passed in early 1889, a small discrepancy that shows how closely Rand McNally worked to keep its wax-engraved plates current with the rapidly shifting political geography of the American West during the statehood rush of 1889 and 1890.

Southern Idaho's counties had just undergone a contentious reorganization: following a bitter February 1889 legislative fight, the massive Alturas County, once nicknamed the Empire of Alturas for its size and political weight, was split to create Elmore and Logan counties, both shown here in their newly formed configuration alongside a much-diminished Alturas, itself destined to be abolished and merged into Blaine County by 1895. The Union Pacific's Oregon Short Line crosses the southern plains through Pocatello, Shoshone, and Nampa, while the Northern Pacific cuts through the rugged panhandle connecting the mining hubs of Kootenai and Shoshone counties, and the map further marks the Coeur d'Alene, Nez Perces, Lemhi, and Fort Hall Indian Reservations alongside the vast Rocky Desert, Lava Fields, and Sage Brush Plains of the southern river valleys.

This map is a fitting gift for a family with Idaho roots, for a transplant now settled in Boise or the Snake River valley, or for a collector of statehood-year Rand McNally maps. It is offered unframed in a range of sizes.