New Book Releases

We’re always on the hunt for the next great American history book. When we find it, you’ll see about it here, with our new book releases. We release new history books each month in a variety of subjects and series. Browse through all of our newest titles below, and discover your next favorite history book at Arcadia Publishing! [View all New Book Releases]

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Moscow

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The Silver Valley

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Jefferson County

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Idaho Falls Post Register

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Idaho Falls

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Kuna

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Preston

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Hailey

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Priest River and Priest Lake

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Eagle

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Lewiston

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Pocatello

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Emmett and Gem County

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Meridian

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Boise

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Twin Falls

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Boise

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Jerome

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Owyhee County

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Nampa

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The Harrison Area

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Moscow

9780738548685

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Each spring for centuries, the Nez Perce Indians visited the area they called Taxt-hinma (place of the spotted deer) to harvest the camas root. Today Taxt-hinma is Moscow, Idaho, a forward-looking university community dedicated to preserving the spirit of place that attracted the area's first permanent settlers in 1871. Originally known as Paradise, Moscow started out as a trading center serving homesteaders settling the prodigiously fertile Palouse. Since its incorporation as a city in 1887, Moscow has grown steadily upon a foundation of education and agriculture. From its central core of notable commercial and public buildings to the splendid houses that once sheltered its founders to the scenic University of Idaho campus, Moscow is clearly a community that values its cultural, economic, architectural, and natural heritage.

The Silver Valley

9780738581750

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The descent into Idaho from the Montana border down Lookout Pass on Interstate 90 largely follows the trail Capt. John Mullan blazed over 150 years ago. The Silver Valley is home to Shoshone County's seat, the historic silver-mining city of Wallace, which has been something of a phoenix rising out of the ashes of two great fires.
Along with Wallace, the valley encompasses many other small mining towns, such as Mullan, Silverton, Osburn, Kellogg, Smelterville, Pinehurst, and Kingston, with diverse histories that are both humorous and heartbreaking. It also surrounds the Cataldo Mission, Idaho's oldest standing building, built by the Jesuits and the Coeur d'Alene tribe in 1848.

Jefferson County

9780738559988

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Established in 1913, Jefferson County has a rich and varied history, spanning more time and growth than this date might suggest. The area was first a hunting ground for the Shoshone and Bannock tribes, then a range for hundreds of sheep and cattle. After the Utah-Northern Railroad arrived in 1879, word quickly spread of the region's fertile soil and plentiful water. While Jefferson County became an agricultural hub through unprecedented irrigation developments, it also nourished the minds of children; several famous innovators, scientists, and authors call Jefferson County home. This volume is based on church records, family and community histories, newspaper articles, government records, and oral histories, reflecting the forces that brought the county together in 1913 and its continuing growth and change.

Idaho Falls Post Register

9780738559681

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This once-rowdy railroad town completed its metamorphosis into a real city--with paved streets, lights, and a firm foothold on law and order--only after decades of struggle and tumultuous, sweeping social change. In the middle of the fray were three distinctly different newspapers, which often took opposing sides, acting as both contestants and self-appointed referees. The Register, with its dapper editor, William Wheeler, at the helm, was an upright proponent of Republican principles and agricultural expansion. The feisty, financially unstable Times was usually a Democratic Party organ and prone to fighting lost causes. The Daily Post, a brash newcomer arriving in 1905, challenged the establishment with a progressive, pro-labor outlook. All eventually combined to become the independent and still locally owned Post Register.

Idaho Falls

9780738548708

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Taylor's Crossing began as a wooden toll bridge over a narrow spot on the Snake River for travelers along the Old Montana Trail. By 1883, it was known as Eagle Rock, a dusty outpost for railroad workers, bullwhackers, and miners. "We can not claim an orderly town," the newspaper reported. "The reckless firing of firearms at all hours of the day and night is a nuisance that should be stopped." When the railroad pulled out its shops, the town almost died. Following statehood and another name change, Idaho Falls transformed itself into an agricultural center and outfitting point for visitors to Yellowstone Park. In 1949, the Atomic Energy Commission arrived, and the nearby desert became a training ground for the nuclear navy, the test site for a new "inherently safe" boiling-water reactor design and the location of the world's first fatal nuclear accident.

Kuna

9780738595405

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Kuna owes its existence to an accident of geography. People settled in it in the mid-19th century based on its location near the Snake River, populated it due to mining south of the area, and built a railroad station because it was easier to do so there than near Boise. The Snake River Canyon itself was carved by a prehistoric flood. That close relationship to the earth still continues. Even the school sports teams have a geographic connection: they are known as the Kavemen, named after the Kuna Cave, a lava tube south of town. Today, Kuna is the gateway city to the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, and in recent years, it was the fastest-growing city in Idaho.

Preston

9781467132824

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Known first as Worm Creek because of a stream winding through dry bluffs, Preston, Idaho, blossomed as its first residents harnessed life-giving waters from surrounding mountains. The first homesteaders, who arrived in 1866, hauled lots of water, often wondering if their efforts to tame Mother Nature would ever pay off. On his way to Bear Lake, Brigham Young, colonizer of the West and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had his driver stop near the present business district of Preston. Placing his cane to the ground, he said, "There will be a great city built here." Today, Preston is a pretty great place.

Hailey

9780738588995

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When Hailey was founded in 1881, it was one of many boomtowns that sprang up as a result of the lead-silver rush in the northwestern United States. The city was named for John Hailey, a successful entrepreneur who operated a freight hauling business before the railroad reached the Wood River Valley. The new town's strategic location--in proximity to surrounding, rich lead-silver deposits and at the junction of the Wood River and Croy and Quigley Canyons--allowed Hailey to become a bustling center of commerce and mining. Over the years, Hailey grew and changed with the rise and fall of the local mining and sheepherding industries. In recent years, Hailey has reinvented itself yet again, with tourism as the mainstay of the local economy. More than 130 years after its founding, Hailey remains a vibrant and energetic community in the heart of the Wood River Valley.

Priest River and Priest Lake

9780738589190

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The first permanent settlers of Kaniksu County filtered into the Priest River and Priest Lake area of northern Idaho's panhandle in the late 1880s. Some came to build homes, farms, and businesses in an area where none had existed before. Others were more interested in trapping and prospecting; they sought to lead solitary and eccentric lives away from civilization. Most settlers learned quickly that harvesting the vast timber wealth of the heavily forested mountains was the best way to earn a livelihood. For almost 50 years, millions of logs and cedar poles were sent down the tumultuous Priest River to its confluence with the larger Pend Oreille. This was believed to be the second-to-last log drive to end in the lower 48 states. Construction of the Great Northern Railroad in 1892 spurred both industry and settlement, opening the way for sawmills downstream to service their markets until modern roads and trucking came into existence.

Eagle

9780738595375

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Eagle may be the only city in the arid American West that was first settled on an island. Four young miners left Idaho's gold fields in 1863 to farm what is today called Eagle Island, between the Boise River's north and south channels. Not easily accessed by Indian raiding parties, the island also allowed ready irrigation of the first croplands. It was an island farming couple, Tom and Mary Aiken, that founded the village of Eagle on the north "mainland" starting in 1895. An interurban trolley in 1907 greatly stimulated the growth of the township, which became a service and food processing center for a large, rural hinterland. Nevertheless, Eagle was still a small farming town when it finally incorporated in 1971. During subsequent decades, though, it was transformed by explosive growth and upscale development into one of the wealthiest communities in the Pacific Northwest. Golf courses, hobby farms, a preoccupation with the arts, and foothill vineyards all attest to Eagle's modern affluence. However, this history largely focuses on Eagle's modest agricultural yesteryear.

Lewiston

9781467127073

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Lewiston, Idaho, started with wild beginnings and stayed that way for generations. Officially founded in 1861, its origins are born from a gold rush. When gold was discovered up the river in a neighboring town called Pierce, it brought hopeful miners from near and far panning up and down the river. From that population sprang a tent city that would become Lewiston, along with the stories that informed of Lewiston's early history and growth, full of gambling, drinking, wild women, and the occasional murder. This volume covers Lewiston's history, beginning with its official founding in 1861 and expanding the history through the early 1970s, while focusing on the town's heyday in the 1950s.

Pocatello

9780738596457

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Pocatello, named in honor of a Shoshoni tribal chief, began as a stage station between Salt Lake City and the gold mines in Montana. By 1878, tracks of the Utah & Northern Railway were laid through the valley, and a narrow strip of shops and living quarters built alongside them became known as Pocatello Junction. From its beginnings, Pocatello demonstrated its distinction as an economic hub after the Oregon Short Line Railroad moved its main operations there from Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls). This further facilitated the growth of Pocatello, which incorporated as a city in 1893. The establishment of the Academy of Idaho (now Idaho State University) signaled the growing importance of Pocatello as a center of learning. The town's influence as a cultural headquarters is evidenced by the top-level talent that was attracted to local theaters. The continued growth of Pocatello, fueled by its significance as a rail junction, led to the city becoming the major metropolitan area in southeastern Idaho.

Emmett and Gem County

9781467132442

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The Payette River and some of its tributaries serve Gem County from border to border. An abundance of water, a mild climate with protected valley floors, and natural vegetation beckoned to those on Placerville's Umatilla Trail. Having reached the ocean, many of those who had not found their utopia were on the move again, looking with an experienced eye for a place to settle with their families. These valleys had blessed the Shoshoni Indians, as well as the fur trappers and enterprising people providing services to early travelers. As communities progressed, the timber industry, railroads, highways, agriculture, horticulture, and ranching matured to meet demand. This growth, with only occasional setbacks, is documented by this collection of photographs.

Meridian

9780738580128

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Eight miles west of Idaho's capital city, Boise, the first settlers in what became Meridian found only arid land, sagebrush, and jackrabbits. The lone tree in the area was another 8 miles west in what became Nampa. Originally called Hunter, after a railroad superintendent, Meridian was initially a railway postal drop where workers tossed and hooked mailbags as the train passed through before the arrival of passenger service. By 1893, residents called the village Meridian, after the north-south prime meridian running through Meridian Road. In 1903, the village incorporated but still had a population of only a few hundred with grocery and harness shops and more churches than saloons. Village merchants and residents experienced orchard and dairy/creamery eras that ended in, respectively, the 1940s and 1970. Meridian became a city in the 1940s but 50 years later had a population of only 10,000. That number quadrupled over the next decade and today has nearly doubled again to around 80,000, as Meridian has evolved into the transportation and commercial hub of the Treasure Valley, especially in electronics and health care.

Boise

9780738559896

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On a high-desert plateau of the Snake River Plain in southwestern Idaho, Boise, the "City of Trees," began as an encampment on the Oregon Trail along the Boise River. Natives were soon after displaced, and by 1864, a town site was platted north of the river, abutting the garrison at Fort Boise. Early settlers found livelihoods as merchants, supplying miners in the Boise Basin, where gold was discovered in 1862. Boiseans experienced difficulty accepting a municipal government and had to wrest territorial status from Lewiston in northern Idaho. Through decades of irrigation and commerce, they grappled with isolation and a scarcity of goods and amenities, which produced a remarkably resilient and vibrant population. From the railroad in 1880s to statehood in 1890, the interurban, and the airplane, rocket, and computer chip-making eras, Boise continues to grow and thrive.

Twin Falls

9780738580272

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Images of America: Twin Falls tells the story of the transformation of a sagebrush plain into productive farmland at the beginning of the 20th century. Engineers and investors found a way to capture the water of the Snake River for extensive irrigation and completed Milner Dam and the related canal system in 1905. The success of the Twin Falls South Side Irrigation Tract was associated with other reclamation projects in the region, resulting in the permanent settlement of south-central Idaho. New residents built modern schools, fine homes, and imposing business blocks. Prosperous farms and orchards dotted the landscape. Twin Falls became a wholesale center for storing, processing, and shipping agricultural commodities in the United States and abroad.

Boise

9781467132565

$24.99

Boise was founded on the Oregon Trail in 1863, shortly after the opening of Fort Boise, which was built to protect the gold that had recently been discovered in the Boise Basin around Idaho City. By the late 1800s, Boise had a very large downtown infrastructure, and it saw the addition of many multistoried buildings after 1900. In the late 1960s though the 1970s, Boise experienced a major urban renewal project with many of the historic buildings being torn down to make way for a new downtown mall. Since the 1970s, many new buildings have filled in the lots created by the urban renewal. This book will give readers an idea of what Boise once looked like.

Jerome

9780738595184

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On June 30, 1907, Robert McCollum, Jerome Kuhn, and two other men rode in a horse-drawn wagon up the Blue Lakes Grade from Ira B. Perrine's Snake River Canyon ranch. Looking for the ideal spot to form a new town, they traveled 10 miles northwest through the sagebrush desert of Southern Idaho. By nightfall, they stopped to camp. The next morning, they awoke to a beautiful mountain vista and decided they had found the perfect spot for a town. Their campsite became the crossroads of West to East Main Streets and North to South Lincoln Streets--the exact center of Jerome, Idaho. From that humble beginning, Jerome has grown to 10,000 people with many sustained businesses and enterprises begun by new pioneers.

Owyhee County

9781467133098

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The sprawling high desert wilderness of southwestern Idaho was virtually unknown to whites in 1863, when Mike Jordan and a band of placer miners dipped their pans into the creek that bears his name and found gold. The electrifying news spread, and the people came. Towns sprang up overnight on the mountaintops. Some disappeared almost as quickly as they had appeared. "Men needed to work the mines!" cried Idaho's newspapers. The word went out, and the miners came from Nevada, California, Colorado, and across the West. Soon the great mines of War Eagle Mountain rivaled Nevada's fabled Comstock Lode. With the exception of Silver City, one of America's largest intact ghost towns, the boomtowns, as well as the mines, are gone; however, descendants of the miners remain. Owyhee County is the size of Delaware and Connecticut combined--7,679 square miles--with a population of only 11,500. It is a rarely visited land of few roads and fewer people, sagebrush desert, deep basalt canyons, romantic vistas, and mysterious mountains that still hide their gold and silver.

Nampa

9781467132121

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Nampa began as a railroad siding on the Idaho Central Railway in 1885. There was no town then, only a water tower and a few shacks. In 1886, however, Alexander Duffes incorporated the town of Nampa. A year later, the Boise & Idaho Railway was completed, and the town grew from 15 to 50 houses. By 1904, cultivated land reached 40,000 acres. The Deer Flat Reservoir, finished in 1909, irrigated 150,000 acres, and farms, livestock, and fruit orchards flourished across the desert. Canning and evaporating facilities were built to process local crops, and an iron foundry, lumber yards, and other industries helped the town grow to 1,500 people. Three railroads met in Nampa to transport local goods to the markets of the world. Today, Nampa is Idaho's second-largest city.

The Harrison Area

9780738574486

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Harrison dates to 1891, during the exciting days of the Northwest's expansion. The area's forests were full of old growth pine, fir, and cedar. Lakes and rivers provided transportation. Logging camps, sawmills, homesteads, and towns were springing up. Harrison was such a town, growing from a squatter homestead to a bustling city of 2,000 with stores, hotels, saloons, and churches in 12 short years. Mills lined the waterfront vying for space with the railroad and steamship docks. The boom did not last, but its legacy is a small, proud, picturesque city on the shore of beautiful Lake Coeur d'Alene.