The Treasure Valley is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

in the

western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

, primarily in

southwestern Idaho Southwestern Idaho is a geographical term for the area along the U.S. state of Idaho's borders with Oregon and Nevada. It includes the populous areas of the Boise metropolitan area and the Treasure Valley. The counties of Ada, Adams, Boise, ...

, where the Payette,

Boise Boise ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and nor ...

, Weiser, Malheur, and Owyhee rivers drain into the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river in the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States. About long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, which is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. Begin ...

. It includes all the lowland areas from

Vale A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municip ...

in rural eastern Oregon to

, and is the most populated area in Idaho. Historically, the valley had been known as the Lower Snake River Valley or the Boise River Valley. Pete Olesen, president of the valley's association of local Chambers of Commerce, coined the name "Treasure Valley" in 1959 to reflect the treasure chest of resources and opportunities that the region offered. The valley has a very diverse terrain, from sage flatlands, to mesas, agricultural areas, and urbanized areas. As the Boise Metropolitan Area grows, more and more undeveloped and agricultural land is being urbanized.

History

Settling the region

The tribes that roamed the area, specifically, were the

Northern Paiute Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

and

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ), also known by the endonym Newe, are an Native Americans in the United States, Indigenous people of the United States with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshon ...

. In 1834, Thomas McKay built the original Fort Boise, in the area near present-day

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

, which was run for a time by Francois Payette. It later was moved because of flooding troubles and was abandoned in 1854. The

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what ...

runs through the Treasure Valley. The valley was settled for the most part by ranchers and farmers, initially to supply the

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and silver mining communities in the higher elevations nearby: Idaho City in the

Boise Basin Boise ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Idaho, most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Loca ...

and Silver City in the Owyhees. A new Fort Boise was constructed by the U.S. Army in 1863 in present-day Boise, from which the city grew. In 1883, the Oregon Short Line Railroad reached the Treasure Valley, creating a thriving community, with Nampa as the center of the area's rail activity.

Basque immigration

Many

Basques The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a Basque culture, common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous peoples, ...

, primarily from northern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, 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 15,000 Basques came to the Treasure Valley, 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 and homesteaded right below the Boise Bench on the

Boise River The Boise River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. , accessed May 3, 2011 tributary of the Snake River in the Northwestern United States. It drains a rugged portion of the Sawtooth Range in so ...

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

Owyhee River The Owyhee River is a tributary of the Snake River located in northern Nevada, southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon in the Western United States and its Pacific Northwest region. It is long.Owyhee Rive accessed November 3, 2019 The river' ...

for the construction of a dam, to impound water for irrigation. The Owyhee project received official Congressional sanction in 1924 on December 5 and the Owyhee Dam was completed on September 16, 1932. While the dam was under construction, over of irrigation canals were being dug to the north and south. The main purpose of the Owyhee Project was irrigation. By 1965, over were being irrigated for a value of more than $23 million. In 1941, J. R. Simplot built a dehydrator and began processing large quantities of dehydrated potatoes and onions at a plant near Caldwell. His business thrived, selling potatoes to the government and fertilizer to local farmers.

Technology

In 1973,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

purchased a site for a future peripherals plant in northwest Boise.

Micron Technology Micron Technology, Inc. is an American producer of computer memory and computer data storage including dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, and solid-state drives (SSDs). It is headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Micron's consumer produc ...

was founded in 1978, creating an additional, local industry aside from farming and potato packaging.

Geographic features

* Lucky Peak Lake * Shafer Butte * Table Rock

References

{{coord, 44, 02, 25, N, 116, 56, 00, W, format=dms, display=title, type:adm1st_region:US-ID Regions of Idaho Basque-American history