Quilts are utilitarian objects in that they serve a practical purpose.  But they are not limited to this role as the ability to provide warmth, which is what is ultimately desired, is not determined by the quilt’s design or level of intricacy.[2] There are several ways of ‘reading’ quilts and interpreting the effort of quilt makers that can convey cultural meaning.

Often quilt making was (and is) a product of a collaborative effort between women in a community.  Friendship panels are types of quilts that are made through the cooperation of many women.  We can study the ties between the makers as specific to their particular circumstances, whether it be women of a nuclear family, or women of an extended family, or women of a particular church or neighborhood organization, it is through act of creating the quilt itself that they share their experience and develop a trade, passing it on through generations and through these community bonds.  Each of these connections are confined to a specific time and space and are influenced by their environment as “physical details produced by a culture.”[3] In this way communal relationships can be discovered through the development of recurring designs, and the status of the givers and receivers represented through meaning in patterns.

It is known and accepted by the quilting community that there are certain patterns that convey specific meaning. [4] Often certain quilt types were given as gifts; the wedding ring and log cabin designs were popular patterns given to newly married couples.  In either of these, strips of fabric, identical in size and shape, emanate from a central square or ring.  Each subsequent layer is built upon the first.  The colors and patterns vary, contributing to its uniqueness, though they are constructed through a repetition of strips, similar in size and shape.  Often they were ornamental to the couples’ intimate space.  These quilts were meant to convey a solid foundation from which a future could be built.

Not only do quilts convey meaning, but they also provided women with a respectable medium through which they might make a public demonstration of their “capacity” or talent.[5] The amount of planning, and the creativity expressed through the intricate patterns are certainly not of a whimsical nature.  The time and labor required to create a quilt can ultimately be viewed as an expression of care and love that was and is extended to the receiver, whether it be a gift for an occasion, or for the everyday use of a family member.   Often, it is through these intimate connections that quilts overcome the public recognition and begin to convey personal meaning.  Often they provide an opportunity at private reminiscences not readily accessible to the public.  For this reason quilts are often saved and passed down as part of a family history, and have become part of a family’s cherished heirlooms.

Boise’s quilting culture is alive and well in the 21^st century.  BOISE 150 has been proud to present several quilting projects from the Boise Valley.  Artisans4Hope has given refugees in Boise the opportunity to tell their story and display their creative ability.  Last week the BOISE 150 Sesqui-Shop hosted a two day exhibit of the Boise Basin Quilters.  For more information on local quilters visit Boise Basin Quilter’s Guild, or the Boise Art Museum’s exhibit on quilts.

How to cite this article:

The Boise City Department of Arts & History (A & H) owns all content on the A & H website. All materials, including essays and images, may not be reproduced in print or electronically without written permission from A & H. If an article is being used as a source for original research it must be cited in the bibliography. To cite an article follow these general citation guidelines:

A & H Staff, “Title of the Essay” Boise City Department of Arts & History. URL, accessed [date].

Example:

A & H Staff, “Link’s Modern Business College” Boise City Department of Arts & History.http://www.boiseartsandhistory.org/history/research-collection/enterprise/business-industry/link’s-modern-business-college/, accessed 25 March 2013.

Resources

Barre Toelken, “The Use of Artifacts in Cultural Research: A Folklorist Perspective” Interpreting Local Culture and History Ed. J. Sanford Rikoon and Judith Austin (Idaho State Historical Society and University of Idaho Press, 1991) pp. 11-18

Bettina Aptheker, Tapestries of Life: Women’s Work, Women’s Consciousness, and the Meaning of Daily Experience (University of Massachusetts Press, 1989)

John Forrest, and Deborah Blincoe, The Natural History of the Traditional Quilt (University of Texas Press, 1995)

In 1925 Varney had been awarded the first private air mail contract after the United States military quit the practice of delivering this nation’s mail.  Three pilots were responsible for the ‘Sagebrush Route’ servicing Boise, Elko, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Chicago, and even New York City, later the crew doubled to six.[2] By the 1930s Varney Airlines was also the first to offer commercial flights for passengers, as Varney had long envisioned a future where airplanes would be the primary mode of cross country travel.[3] In order to see this vision turned reality, Varney had to convince Boise’s business and civic leaders that it was a feasible venture.  Boise City had reluctantly granted him the use of the area south of the river and Varney called on volunteers from the American Legion, Rotary, Kiwanis, and even the Boy Scouts to help clear brush and rocks from what would become Boise’s first airstrip.[4]

By 1931 Varney’s flights were capable of taking passengers from one coast to the other in a single day.  The municipal airstrip began to outgrow its location next to the river; the airstrip was too small and obstructed by urban expansion.  In 1939 the hangar that Varney constructed at the east end of the runway, where Bronco Stadium is now, was relocated to the new airport, south of Boise, next to the newly formed Gowen Field military base.  The hangar was still in use as part of the Boise air terminal in 2003, when the airport was remodeled; for more than 70 years it stood as a testament to Varney’s daring attempt to create a reality that few others could envision.  His determination drew the interest of several companies that are today’s technology giants, and his vision carved out a place for commercial airlines in America.

Additional Resources

Hart, Arthur. Wings Over Idaho: An Aviation History (University of Nebraska Press, 1991)

Pilot Harold Buck, Varney Airlines

How to cite this article:

The Boise City Department of Arts & History (A & H) owns all content on the A & H website. All materials, including essays and images, may not be reproduced in print or electronically without written permission from A & H. If an article is being used as a source for original research it must be cited in the bibliography. To cite an article follow these general citation guidelines:

A & H Staff, “Title of the Essay” Boise City Department of Arts & History. URL, accessed [date].

Example:

A & H Staff, “Link’s Modern Business College” Boise City Department of Arts & History.http://www.boiseartsandhistory.org/history/research-collection/enterprise/business-industry/link’s-modern-business-college/, accessed 25 March 2013.

ACTUAL SIZE ARTWORKS (Stoughton, WI)
Brilliant
View: Proposal | PowerPoint Presentation
___________________

VOLKAN ALKANOGLU DESIGN LLC (Atlanta, GA)
Boise Globe
View: Proposal | Video Animation
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RE:SITE AND METALAB (Houston, TX)
Eyrie
View: Proposal | Presentation Board
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Boise City’s public art collection of over ninety works can be found on downtown plazas and streets and in public facilities such as City Hall, Boise Airport, parks and Public Library branches. 1.4% of all eligible Boise City capital projects are set aside to invest in site-specific artwork, with all artworks chosen through a democratic selection process. Public art invigorates residential and commercial zones, developing new places of beauty and interest and adding to civic vitality.

For Questions on this and other public artworks in Boise, Idaho please contact Karen Bubb (kbubb@cityofboise.org).

________________________________________________________________

BELINDA ISLEY
Are We There Yet?
View proposal

______________________________

ANNE PETERSON KLAHR
Along the River’s Edge
View proposal

________________________________ 

SUZANNE LEE CHETWOOD
A.) Idaho, Enduring Spirit
B.) Ascend
View proposal

_________________________________

Boise City’s public art collection of over ninety works can be found on downtown plazas and streets and in public facilities such as City Hall, Boise Airport, parks and Public Library branches. 1.4% of all eligible Boise City capital projects are set aside to invest in site-specific artwork, with all artworks chosen through a democratic selection process. Public art invigorates residential and commercial zones, developing new places of beauty and interest and adding to civic vitality.

For Questions on this and other public artworks in Boise, Idaho please contact Karen Bubb, kbubb@cityofboise.org)

Subsequent celebrations have followed in a similar vein, altering the traditions but a little to suit changing social structures.  In the post-Roman Middle Ages processions and parades were held, garlands and branches were carried by the young women, and an honorary court was held to honor and crown the year’s May King and Queen, who were selected by the community.  The season was one of courtship for young folks, who had the pleasure of exchanging flowers, and may baskets.  The maypole was central to May Day celebrations in western European regions, as a tradition, the youth would start out in the early morning to cut down a tree and return it to the community center, where the main celebration took place. [2] The maypole was decorated it in celebration of the coming harvest and to honor the past seasons of plenty with the hope of more to follow.  In the centuries that followed, the coming of May has been celebrated as a day to play in the outdoors and revel in the passing of winter.

Boise has, through much of its the past, celebrated May Day with picnics, parades, and maypoles.    As early as 1866 the ladies of the city held a May Day picnic, complete with flowers and dancing, in order to raise money for the completion of a new Episcopal church building.[3] In 1870s the Turnverein society held very well attended May Day picnics, complete with displays of gymnastic tumbling, a flowery May Day procession, as well as the crowning of the honorary May Queen.[4] Boise High School held an annual May Day court for several decades, selecting a spring May King and Queen.[4a]

So what happened to May Day as a popularly celebrated spring holiday?  Beginning shortly after the French Revolution in 1790, May Day began to take on new significance.  As the industrial era wore on and anti-labor violence increased, labor unions began using the popular day of relaxation and revelry to protest what it saw as unfair labor practices.[5] The First International May Day was celebrated in 1890.  It was organized by the American Federation of Labor in conjunction with the Federation of Trade Unions and Workmen’s Associations of France, and the Marxist’s International Socialist Congress’ centennial celebration of the French Revolution in Europe.[6] The first ever international May Day celebration was organized as a day for widespread labor agitation with the expressed goal of achieving the eight hour workday.

‘Green’ or a ‘Red’ May Day in Boise?

Green rooted May Day celebrations stem from those ancient Pagan origins of the holiday, and the Red roots of May Day indicate solidarity with the labor movement.  After the anti-Marxist sentiment of the Cold War, May Day fell out of favor as an American day of celebration.[7] The anti-labor movement briefly tried to re-appropriate May Day by returning to its festive qualities, reasoning that if workers had the day off for holiday, then labor strikes would be less disruptive and less effective.  More recently in Boise May Day has been seized by the International Workers and Immigration Rights movements, who held a march to the Idaho Capitol in 2011 to protest immigration reform, and the Occupy Wall Street movement chose May 1st to protest fair wages in Idaho, showing that the struggle over meaning continues.[8]

The first factor in the creation and longevity of Boise as a successful, yet isolated regional metropolis is the environmental conditions and geophysical location of the place itself.  The same factors that once drew Native Americans to the region for thousands of years also attracted adventurers, pioneers, and immigrants as the United States expanded west in the nineteenth century.  As newcomers arrived in the region they molded the environment to suite their purposes, transforming the arid high-desert with their entrepreneurial spirit, technological wonders, and cultural traditions to shape the Boise community.  The tour pays special attention to ethnic enclaves that have since been absorbed into the wider community, along with the creation of particular business and residential areas that emerged as Boise’s population grew.  Part of this legacy includes all that has been lost as the city’s needs grew.

Viewers at the exhibit were encouraged to browse Old Boise’s architectural artifacts and to have their say on which historic building stood out as ‘Boise’s Greatest Architectural Loss’ by placing a nail in a jar. During this particular visit the old Natatorium was the clear winner, beating the Royal Block, the Eastman Building, the Pinney Theater, Boise’s old City Hall, and the Old Soldier’s Home as Boise’s most regretful and unfortunate loss.

The best part of attending the live exhibit was listening to the number of folks reminiscing about their own Boise experience, and of recollections from days gone by.  “That’s where I met [my husband] Mark, I was working the ticket booth” and “I used to work at the Golden Rule Store, it was criminal when they tore it down.”  Anthony, the Sesqui-Shop’s overseer that day, commented on how often he wished for a voice recorder, as hundreds of visitors shared their story with him.  For many Remnants was a fascinating trip down memory lane, and  for the rest of us it was exciting to see the history of what has become our place, and our time.  A celebration of life in Boise would be incomplete without acknowledging how we got here.

Go visit Remnants of Boise online and take the 360 degree digital tour of Boise through the last 150 years.  Special thanks to Brandi Burns for making history easy for the rest of us.

How to cite this article:

The Boise City Department of Arts & History (A & H) owns all content on the A & H website. All materials, including essays and images, may not be reproduced in print or electronically without written permission from A & H. If an article is being used as a source for original research it must be cited in the bibliography. To cite an article follow these general citation guidelines:

A & H Staff, “Title of the Essay” Boise City Department of Arts & History. URL, accessed [date].

Example:

A & H Staff, “Link’s Modern Business College” Boise City Department of Arts & History.http://www.boiseartsandhistory.org/history/research-collection/enterprise/business-industry/link’s-modern-business-college/, accessed 25 March 2013.

John Collias first came to Boise in the 1940s when he was stationed at Gowen Field.  The Indiana native studied art at Ohio State before his father (a first generation Greek immigrant) discouraged the profession for its impracticality, and for years afterwards Collias worked odd jobs in and around the family home in Fort Wayne.  John and his brother Nick enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and that is how they ended up just outside of Boise working on war posters and cartoon strips for the base’s newspaper, The Gowen Field Beacon. Their posters exhibit the familiar and dramatic aesthetic of wartime propaganda produced during that period, but the Collias’ portraiture in the “Soldier of the Week” and “Gowen Honor Roll” segments portray a more honest, if not raw, aesthetic.[2] The work that was produced during the 1940s embodies the wider American epoch and also manages to capture the individual men and women who were working and living at Gowen Field while the big war raged on.

After returning from the European theater Collias married a Boise girl he met while stationed at Gowen Field, Lily Kepros.  After the war they moved to Chicago where John graduated from the American Academy of Art.  He was hoping perhaps, for a promising future as a commercial artist in illustration and advertising, while staying close to his own family in Indiana.  His work from this time exhibits those nostalgic traits of the 1950s, the so-called “golden age” of American advertising, that was dominated by the likes of Norman Rockwell and his classic Americana found on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.  The works from this period exhibit a charming realism, that is now sentimental, and immediately identifiable.  Some might say ‘illustration’ is not ‘art’ because it falls into the ‘popular’ use rather than evoking an emotional, cerebral, evocative, or cathartic response.  But as time has passed, and digital illustration has become pervasive, perhaps we recognize now that classic illustration by hand is still, by any other name, art.  During his time in Chicago Collias also turned to painting family portraits while in the privacy of their home.  These works prove that his artistic ability also had range and depth; they portray an intimate and impressionistic quality that classic Pop-Americana apparently lacks.

The young Collias family spent ten years in and around Chicago before returning to Boise in 1962 when George Kepros lost his sight and needed help running the Kepros’ sheep and cattle ranch. That is when Margaret Cobb-Ailshie, editor of the Idaho Daily Statesman, hired Collias as the first and only “artist-reporter.”[3] Round About the Boise Valley was a weekly segment that allowed Boise’s “wandering artist-at-large” to report on current happenings, random quips, and overheard oddities alongside a sketch of a single Boise resident John had decided to highlight. The segment ran for 50 weeks, each week gives us a glimpse of what life what like in post-war Boise.  The column emitted something of a comic-strip aesthetic, and the new editor, James Brown preferred to cut out the witticism and focus on the portraits of good citizenship.

Frank Church

A Portrait of a Distinguished Citizen featured a weekly portrait and short biographical sketch that highlighted a member of the community for their contributions and service.  These 11″ x 15″ sketches were done in grease pencil on coquille board –“a rather unforgiving medium that produced print-quality black and white tones.”[4] They portray a far more serious quality than many of his previous styles, as he managed to capture the essence of an individual through tedious shading and careful cross-hatching.  In total, he managed to produce over two thousand sketches for the Distinguished Citizen, but it did not take long for Boise’s citizens to call on John Collias for personal portraits of their own.  Since 1951 he has been Boise’s “artist on call” and managed to keep busy painting folks like the Simplots, Senator Borah, Governors Robert Smylie, D.W. Davis, and Moses Alexander, among many, and finally, his father, who had come to accept his son’s passion and talent for what it was.[5]

The Distinquished Citizen segment ran for thirty years, from 1963 to 1993.  Between segments and commissioned portraits, Collias worked on the paintings in the St. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, he captured the color of the Boise  City streets and traveled to secluded landscapes and Idaho ghost towns.  He continued to produce portraiture for Boise Chamber of Commerce, the Boise State and College of Idaho athletic halls of fame, and the Boise State President’s Gallery.  He was the artist behind the first official Boise State logo that was retired in 2001 as BSU became a part of the national consciousness and needed a ‘modern’ look.  Overall his body of work tells a story of Boise’s history and exemplifies a range of stylistic eras, evidence of the evolution of a committed and talented artist.  Mr. Collias is a notorious regular at Boise’s downtown coffee shops, and can still be found working in his studio on State Street.

Each of these images has been used with the permission of the Collias family.  The book John Collias: An Artist’s Journey Through Idaho History by Nick Collias, is for sale at the Boise Art Museum, Rediscovered Books, and the Idaho State Historical Museum.  If you would like a signed copy, email Nick at woolblind@gmail.com, and he’d be happy to send you one.

How to cite this article:

The Boise City Department of Arts & History (A & H) owns all content on the A & H website. All materials, including essays and images, may not be reproduced in print or electronically without written permission from A & H. If an article is being used as a source for original research it must be cited in the bibliography. To cite an article follow these general citation guidelines:

A & H Staff, “Title of the Essay” Boise City Department of Arts & History. URL, accessed [date].

Example:

A & H Staff, “Link’s Modern Business College” Boise City Department of Arts & History.http://www.boiseartsandhistory.org/history/research-collection/enterprise/business-industry/link’s-modern-business-college/, accessed 25 March 2013.

Political tension in the homeland encouraged Basque migration to the United States, and to Boise, in the 19th century.  Young, single Basque men immigrated in the thousands, finding work in Idaho as sheepherders and sheep men.  The peak of Basque migration came in 1920 when Congress passed an anti-immigration act that meant to protect American jobs.  But by then the Basque people were pretty well established in Boise and in the American north west.  At the turn of the century successful Basque laborers began investing their earnings in ways that met their fellow countryman’s needs in an unfamiliar place.  Boarding homes and Inns are part of the history of the American West, and for nearly one hundred years the Basque operated well more than a dozen successful hotels in Boise.

By 1910, at least six Basque boarding houses were listed in the city directory.[1] [#1-8] There was an increase in migration again after WWI and II when the agricultural industry experienced labor shortages, again Basque’s were coming to Idaho to work as sheepmen.  By the 1940s  there were 10-15 Basque boarding houses located in and around Boise. [#9-17]

#1 & 1a. Built in 1890-1895, the Aguirre House at 918 Idaho Street was owned and operated by Frank Aguirre and his wife for several decades. [google maps]

The Star Rooming House, at 512 West Idaho Street, was also built in 1895 and was open until 1973.  It has since been preserved and renovated. [google maps]

#2. Between 1905 to 1912 Mateo and Adriana Arregui ran the Capitol Boardinghouse at 706 ½ Idaho Street.  It was run together by two families for another fifty years.  The building was demolished in 1965.[2] [google maps]

#3. In 1909 Juan Anduiza’s City Lodging House was located on North 9^th Street, and later in 1912 at  216 South 9^th Street, where 42 ‘residents’ were listed.[3] [google maps]

#4. In 1910 the historical Cyrus Jacobs house, one of Boise’s earliest homes, was turned into a boarding house by Simόn and Josefa Galdos, who ran it until 1918 when it became the Uberuaga’s.  It was open for another fifty years, and the house stands a central element to the Basque Center downtown.[4] [google maps]

#5. In 1911 Juan Uberuaga ran Saracondi’s Boarding House, located at 211 South Sixth Street.  The Uberuaga family continued to run the house over the next decade.  Today there is a tattoo shop on the ground floor and a residence above. [google maps]

#6. In 1912 there were 238 Basque ‘residents’ living at Barbero’s, also known as the Modern Hotel, located at 613 1/2 West Idaho Street.[5] The Modern Hotel was later run by Benito and Asuncion Ysursa, and then by Tomas and Antonia Usursa from 1927 to 1940.  The building was demolished in the 1970s and replaced with the current City Hall building.[6] [google maps]

#7. In 1912 there were 43 ‘residents’ at the DeLamar Rooming House (the old CW Moore mansion) at 807 Grove Street.  Antonio Letemendi managed the DeLamar for many years.[7] It operated from 1912 until it was demolished in the 1970s despite local attempts to save it. [google maps]

#8. In 1914 a new boarding house at 614 Grove Street was opened, it reportedly had an indoor jai alai court. [google maps]

#9. In 1939 Antonio and Leandra Letemendi, who had operated the DeLamar for years, moved to 521 Grove Street, where they operated Letemendi’s, owned by Gus Urresti, who was at that time police captain.[8] The building was demolished in 1972.  [google maps]

#10, 11 & 12. Jayo’s was the name of a hotel that moved to several locations, the last was at 612 ½ Main Street, which became the Royal Hotel in the 1940s–it was demolished in 1970s. [google maps]

The Iberia Hotel, later known as the Overland Rooming House was between Front and Grove on 9^th Street. [google maps]

Arego’s was on Front across from the old train depot near 10^th Street. [google maps]

13. The Valencia, on Idaho Street between 6th and Capitol, was owned by Benito Ysursa, the boarding house was on the main floor and the restaurant was located upstairs.[9] [google maps]

14 & 15. The Del Rio, located at 716 ½ Main Street, was run by the Sabala family until it was demolished in the 1950s when Falk’s Department Store tore it down to expand their own building.  [google maps]

The Sabala family moved the Del Rio to 910 Grove, and worked their rooming house until 1969 when the city demolished it along with the Blue Bird Rooms and several other hotels downtown. [google maps]

16 & 17. In the 1970s the DeLamar was one of last remaining rooming hotels, along with the Viscaya, at 1311 W. Jefferson Street, the 2-story home of Juan and Christina Uscola and their two children.  5 rooms were “kept ready” where guests would be welcome to stay for days or weeks.[10] [google maps]

And finally, in 1980 Nicasio Berstain left his job as operations manager for Garret Freightlines to open a boarding house and traditional Basque restaurant at 6^th and Main Street in the old Statesman building.[11] It was not terribly long-lived but it is said to have revived the establishment of the familiar cuisine in Boise.[google maps]

Boise celebrates its rich Basque history, and recognizes that the Basque Center downtown represents only a small portion of the enormous historical contribution the Basques have in building Boise’s commerce, culture, and community.

The horse economy in Boise amounted to more than just the presence of teams and carriages for hire. Horses as living machines “required enormous inputs of land, labor, and capital.”[3] The first public hack stand at the old Overland Hotel was “the primary means of transportation” for travelers and residents alike.[4] As such, the horse-based economy drove a number of niche markets that tailored to the needs of a horse.  When Boise City was established in 1864 Main Street was home to several livery stables.  The Keystone Livery, Pioneer Livery Feed and Stables, and Dride’s Livery Stables were all located on Main Street between 6^th and 8^th Streets.  Shortly after another 30×60 wood livery stable was erected at Main and 9^th.[5] Indeed, Boise, like many western cities, was “made by building around the horse.” [6] The truth to this claim is supported by the basic city-scape and infrastructure in Boise, that beyond the presence of liveries, is found in the successful endeavors of the sellers of horse goods and services ranging from horse paraphernalia and mechanical attachments to the legal and environmental improvements made for the benefit of the beast of burden.

Water troughs were important for the health of a horse, and the commercial district offered a number of watering holes as well as tie-posts for safe parking.  In Boise there were laws restricting the number of hours a horse could be tied and posted on the city streets, which kept in mind the safety of the horse, and it surely didn’t hurt business at the livery stables, which by the turn of the century were numerous.  The stables cared for road-weary animals, feeding and grooming them during their owners’ stay, and they also hired out carriage service.  When Oric Cole, the homesteader for whom Cole Street is named, opened his horse cab service at the turn of the century there were already fourteen cabs operating under nine “well established” businesses at the time.[7] When the Koll brothers opened their Broadway Stables on South 8^th Street in the early 1900s, their nine carriages “were in great demand by Boise society folk” who used their services for business and leisurely pursuits alike.[8] The horses of Boise’s stables were well-groomed and cared for, working alternate days and limited by the number of hours they were allowed to labor, rain or shine.  The horses were faithful and well-trained, and the cab drivers deemed trustworthy by such high society elements.[9] Several carriage drivers are known by name for their exemplary service.

Julius “Shell” Shellworth, Andy Robinson, and Bill Atherton were three of Oric Cole’s finest and most high in demand drivers.  Others were popular around the city as well; Marian Kibble, Tom Wooden, Lee Spangler, Scotty Hanna, Ross Emerson, and J.H. McElroy have all been recorded in Boise’s history.

More than just a commodity, horses maintained an important role as a consumer of goods.  If we view the horse as a machine, then its most basic consumptive need was the requirement of fuel in the form of hay and oats.  But the operation and maintenance of a team of horses also required a number of tools and specialists to maintain the working condition of the animal such as reigns, harnesses, blankets, saddles, vehicles, and shoes to name but a few.  This role as consumer provided jobs for those who would supply these goods, and to those who would manage and maintain the horses required skilled trades; those who specialized in the “support industries”—blacksmiths and farriers, carriage and wagon makers, hostlers (groomers), teamsters, draymen, liverymen, wheelwrights, veterinarians and medical specialists.  The 1901 Telephone listing names 8 livery stables in Boise [9b].  In 1908 the residence of Boise veterinarian, Dr. Clarence E. Thayer, at 708 Front Street, was conveniently located near the livery stables for emergency calls.[10]

The horse industry was perhaps the most important industry of western living in the nineteenth century, and it continued to be the primary means of transportation and labor even after the steam engine was invented in the eighteenth century, and right up until the 1910s when motorized vehicles became more efficient and required a smaller investment than the horse.  Even today, our terms for strength and power of motor vehicles take on the familiar term “horse-power” as it was an easy way for horse owners to determine how many horses a single engine could replace.[11] The Koll brothers closed the Broadway Stables in 1918, retiring their last cab as the automobile became more prevalent.  The cab remained in Boise, however, operating in civic parades for the remainder of the century.

Basque migrants began leaving their homeland after having lost their bid for independence from Spanish rule in the nineteenth century, eventually they made their way to the American West.  Having realized the futility gold mining in California and desperate to earn a living, young Basque males took work as farm labor and then as herders, a job that while not a skilled trade, required hard work, responsibility, and determination.[1] The life of a sheepherder was comprised of lonely and monotonous days filled with hard work and constant vigilance.  The sheep Industry expanded into the high desert grasslands in central Idaho at the end of the nineteenth century, taking many Basques with it.[2]

For these young men, success meant moving on, and they did move on, just as another young man came to take his place.  It only took a herder two years of dutiful labor before most were able to move on to other jobs.[3] Juan or John Achabal, an early settler, owned his own ranch by the 1920s and became a wealthy man, with one of the largest herds in the sheep industry.[4] As the need for herders grew, successful settlers began sending for family, bringing scores of young Basque men who were coming of age and either not in a position to receive an inheritance, or hoping perhaps to evade Spain’s compulsory service in the army.[5] First generation Basque herders had also invested in local businesses, providing the growing migrant population with entertainment and food at boarding houses that provided a safe and secure place of employment for married and single Basque women, and a familiar environment where the lonely Basque men could feel closer to home, and maybe meet a girl during their short stays in town.

The conditions of a nomadic lifestyle were used in a derogatory treatment of the Basque sheepherder when they were referred to as ‘tramps.’[6] Anti-sheep herding laws of the later nineteenth century reflected the so-called fear that ‘foreigners’ were somehow exploiting public American land and were then sending their fortunes home to the Basque Country when in reality, most remained in America for several generations and returned only to visit.[7] The Basque immigrants faced another social stigma coming from a very Catholic community to a place with an overwhelmingly Protestant population.[8]

This xenophobia followed anti-sheep industry sentiment, but it probably didn’t drive it.  The battle was being waged by the cattlemen who had established a presence early in Idaho, and who then sought protective legislation against the competition of sheep grazing on public lands, and the migrant herders made an easy target.[9] None of the anti-sheep measures had slowed the immigration as Basques began to set up their own industry in Boise and in the Pacific Northwest.  Migration peaked in 1920, only as the United States finally passed restrictions on immigration numbers the following year.  Shortly after the Second World War began, demand for agricultural labor led to an act that made exceptions for the importation of sheepherders.  Up until the 1960s, most of these laborers were arriving from the Basque Country, as conditions there made it a reasonable alternative.  By the 1970s most of the shepherding immigration was by Peruvians and Mexicans.

The Basques had moved on from the lonely drives, finding new ways towards economic prosperity that the second and third generations Basques enjoy. Today they share the shepherding history as part of a collective past that embodies a tale of success and determination, and have preserved a community spirit built on this legacy.

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