Boise has been known as the City of Trees since its founding in 1863, but it was a generation before the name began to fit.
“Boise” derives from the French word for “wooded,” the name French-speaking fur trappers from eastern Canada gave to our “wooded” river, and is only one of the French names given to places in Idaho.
When the town of Boise was first platted in the summer of 1863, it was located on a dry sagebrush plain that sloped gently toward the tree-lined river. Owners of those first lots needed to improve their property with shade trees and the water to make them grow, and Oregon nurseries were soon advertising trees for sale.
An ad in the Idaho Tri-weekly Statesman of Sept. 1, 1864, read: “Boise Nursery, branch of Willamette Nursery, Oregon, Walling & Cisco, proprietors. The above nursery, located two miles east of Boise City, is now prepared to furnish all kinds of Fruit and Ornamental Trees and Shrubbery, in quantities to suit purchasers. G.W. Walling & A. Cisco.”
In the next issue of the paper an ad told readers that “123,000 Trees and Plants of the finest growth, grown at the Columbia Valley Nursery near Walla Walla, W.T. would be delivered to parties in Boise Valley in November. Send in your orders early by mail. Signed, Philip Ritz, proprietor.”
On Feb. 16, 1865, a full column editorial in the Statesman urged readers to plant trees. The paper would thereafter praise those who did, as on Feb. 9, 1869: “The proprietor of Hart’s Exchange made a little improvement yesterday by setting out a line of shade trees along the front of the hotel.” In March: “A GREEN SPOT. We notice the planting of many trees about residences and hotels in Boise City. Messrs. Griffin & Barber are looking to it that the Overland shall be no exception, having placed a row of neat young Cottonwoods and quaking aspens around the front on each street. Boise will ere long rival her great wicked but beautiful sister of the plains.” The Statesman considered Salt Lake City “wicked” because polygamy was practiced there by some Mormons.
“The TREE MANIA prevails in this city,” noted the paper a few weeks later. “Almost every street is already ornamented with poplar, cottonwood, and willow trees, and as but few men are in the tree business they observe a strict system of setting them out in a true line, and of the proper depth to make them live with a good supply of water. We flatter ourselves that we will be the premium or star city of the plains, when the water ditch is completed, and the street shrubbery abundantly supplied. The trees already set out make a marked change in the appearance of our city.”
In June, however, the Statesman wrote: “We have noticed in several cases horses tied to young shade trees. The trees are entirely too young for such treatment. They are being raised at great expense and trouble. Give them a chance, and in four or five years they will be strong enough to hold horses.”
In February 1870 the Statesman observed: “The virgin soil of capital square is innocent of a single tree, except a few scattering sage brush. A few dollars expended now, in setting a row of Cottonwoods or other rapidly growing trees around the square would add much to the beauty of the city and pleasure of the citizens.”
In May 1874, the Statesman’s campaign for planting trees continued: “Every dollar thus expended will eventually return many fold, in the enhanced value of the property, and in the comfort and enjoyment produced. By the time the railroad reaches here, (and it looks now as though it was bound to come), we ought to have one of the most beautiful cities in the United States. We can make it strike the eye of the traveler like a scene of enchantment, after his going through the weary wastes between here and the Overland Railroad, and we ought to do it.”
The first train would not arrive in Boise until 1887, on a branch line from Nampa.
Arthur Hart writes this column on Idaho history for the Idaho Statesman each Sunday. Email histnart@gmail.com.
This story was originally published September 24, 2018 1:08 AM.