Idaho Historical Society Chairman Martain Stinnett (Documentary Photo #ff342): We have absolutely no record of such an act taking place. |
One of the requirements for statehood is a population of
eighty thousand. In 1888, when the petition for statehood was sent to the federal
government, Idaho only had a population of sixty-three thousand four hundred. The
territorial governor, the soon to be killed Governor Steunenberg, didn’t want to wait
five to fifteen years for the necessary increase, so invented some towns, Bone and Spots
for example, and packed each with nonexistent inhabitants. Now Idaho had the right amount
of people. Ever since then, based in part on this incorrect census information and a
disinclination to report a radical population decrease, the official population of Idaho
has been off by twenty to twenty-five thousand people.
One of the imaginary towns, located by longitude and latitude, is on top of Table Rock. The name of the town is Vision. Evidence at the site: none. |
My Mother Deborah Blackburn (Documentary Photo #56y3y): I like to think of imaginary towns out there with imaginary people. All you have to do is pretend their lives and make them happy. |
