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Fort Boise
"There was talk that we needed military help for the emigrants coming through. Nothing happened until after gold is discovered up in the Boise basin and then the movement really took hold and we have Fort Boise the military one founded on July 4th, 1863 to serve not only the miners and the new settlements starting to grow up but also the emigrants who were still coming through.
Fort Boise was originally constructed near the intersection of the Oregon Trail and the roads connecting the Silver City and Idaho City mining areas. Today, all around Boise you can find plaques marking the route of the Oregon Trail through the city. |
The city of Boise actually owes its beginnings to the United States Military’s Fort Boise.
While the original Hudson Bay’s Fort Boise was a trading post built years earlier on the Snake River, the military fort was constructed near the Boise River in 1863.
We still have some of the original buildings there from 1864 and 1865 and up to the turn of the century so it is a place where you can go over and see what a military encampment might have looked like – and Fort Boise was economically one of the boons for Boise city for many years