Idaho

Idaho is a western U.S. state located in the Pacific Northwest. A sliver of its northern Canadian border is shared with British Columbia. Eastern Montana and Wyoming, Nevada and Utah, as well as Western states of Oregon, Washington and Utah, form a boundary with the state. A city called Boise is the state's capital and most populous. While Idaho has a surface area of 216,400 km2 and a population of 1.8 million, it ranks as the 13th least populous and the 7th least densely inhabited among the 50 states in the United States..

Idaho has been inhabited by native peoples for thousands of years before European invasion. Idaho was formerly considered a part of the Oregon Country, a region contested by the United States and the British Empire in the early nineteenth century. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 established Idaho as a U.S. territory, although it was not constituted as a distinct Idaho Territory until 1863, instead being included in Oregon Territory and Washington Territory for periods.

At the heart of the Cascadia bioregion of the Pacific Northwest, Idaho is separated into numerous unique areas. With the exception of the Idaho Panhandle, which is located in the state's north, all of Idaho is in the Mountain Time Zone, which Eastern Washington shares. The Snake River Plain is to the south of the state (which has most of the population and agricultural land). Located in the state's southeast, the Great Basin is part of this region. The Rocky Mountains may be found throughout Idaho, which is a mountainous state. Approximately 38 percent of Idaho's land is owned by the United States Forest Service, the largest percentage of any state.

Manufacturing, agriculture, mining, forestry, and tourism are all important parts of the state's economy. One of the biggest Department of Energy facilities in the nation, Idaho's Idaho National Laboratory houses a number of research and technology companies, as well as a number of manufacturing facilities. Potatoes are the state's most famous crop, accounting for almost a third of the nation's total harvest in Idaho. In allusion to Idaho's natural beauty, the state is referred to as the "Gem State."