Idaho Panhandle - History

History

The Idaho Panhandle region was part of Washington Territory from its founding in 1853 until the formation of Idaho Territory in 1863. The Territory of Idaho was much larger than the later state of Idaho, including all of modern Montana and most of modern Wyoming. The panhandle was created when the Montana Territory was organized from the Idaho Territory in 1864.

When the seat of territorial government was moved to Boise from Lewiston in late 1864, it was thought that the panhandle region was hard to govern. Early attempts were made to rejoin the Idaho Panhandle to Washington, one being the 1878 Washington State Constitution, which specified boundaries for the proposed state of Washington that included the part of Idaho Territory north of 45° N latitude. A proposal was made to make the northern part of the state its own state. The proposal failed, but was attempted again in 1901. This time it was proposed to join the panhandle with eastern Washington to form the "State of Lincoln", but failed a second time. To this day there is a once-per-generation talk of either the Panhandle joining Washington or the combining of the Panhandle, eastern Washington, and possibly eastern Oregon to form a 51st state. As an olive branch to North Idaho, the University of Idaho was placed in Moscow in 1889, the largest city in the north at the time.