Boise, Idaho

Visited Oct. 7-13, 2021

By Janell

Our last Idaho stop was Boise. We always enjoy looking at murals, and Boise had their fair share.

 

 

 

 

This mural is presumably of the Boise River, as that's what runs right through the city of Boise.

 

 

 

 

 

Freak Alley Gallery in Boise, is the northwest's largest open-air, multi-artist mural gallery. The mural above and the following six were taken in Freak Alley Gallery.

Imagine finding a San Francisco Giants logo in Boise, Idaho! At the time the above photo was taken, the Giants were in contention with the LA Dodgers for the National League Division Series championship.

 

 

 

 

 

 Okay, so some of the art was kind of creepy, but you can't deny the talent! It was fascinating!

 

We walked through one of Boise's very nice neighborhoods, called Harrison Boulevard. I think the neighborhood may be going downhill however; take a look at the frightening characters we saw there!

These guys aside, it was a very enjoyable walk, looking at all the different houses (small and large) amidst the fall colors.

We hiked 4 1/2 miles on the Hulls Gulch Trail. It was quite cold and windy, but also very scenic. In the above photo, if you look closely at the dark hillside you might be able to see snowflakes! It lasted but a minute, but it snowed on our hike that day!

Looking out over all of Boise from our hike.

Our RV park was located adjacent to the Boise River Greenbelt, a 46-mile paved path which runs on both sides of the Boise River and right into downtown Boise. We pedaled 26.5 miles (round trip), crossed the river a few times, had lunch downtown, and then returned to our RV park. It was a very enjoyable ride! 

It's not very often that we can pedal right out of our campsite, but it's a treat -- especially for Marty, as he's the one who has to load the bikes on the back of our car.

 The Boise River

 

 

 

 

Along the bike path was the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial.

We thought the artwork on this hotel was very unique. Unveiled in 1999, it's titled "River Sculpture" and is the work of artist Alison Sky. I believe it lights up after dark, but we didn't know that at the time.

We hiked about 3 miles on the Table Rock Mountain Trail, overlooking the Old Idaho Penitentiary (right foreground) and downtown Boise (background).

Here's a mind bender for you: 

Marty is standing atop Table Rock Mountain. 

Table Rock was the bottom of the old Lake Idaho.

Say what?! How can this mountain (elevation 3,650') have once been a lake bottom?

According to an informational sign at the top of Table Rock:

The flat sandstone top of Table Rock is a remnant of the bottom of old Lake Idaho. The sand was cemented by silica-laden hot spring waters that came up along faults, spread out in the soft sand, and discharged into the lake near its shoreline, between about 8 million and 3 million years ago. 

 

 

 

 

After our hike at Table Rock we went down the hill to visit the Old Idaho State Penitentiary. It was a functional prison from 1872-1973. The first structure, built in 1870, was known as the Territorial Prison, because it was built two decades before Idaho's statehood -- when the area was known as the Territory of Idaho. Over time they added structures, with the last one being built in the 1950's. All of the structures were built from sandstone that was quarried from the nearby ridges by the convicts. Convicts also assisted with the construction.  

 

During its 101 years of operation the penitentiary received more than 13,000 inmates, with a maximum population at one time of about 600.

The prison complex was surrounded by a 17' high sandstone wall. Each of the four corners had a guard's tower, and there was a walkway between the towers on top of the walls for the use of the guards.

 

The prison grounds did not look so nice as this back in the day. Instead of this beautiful green lawn, there was dirt. However, they did have a rose garden. It started as a test garden in the late 1800's for a rose company called Jackson & Perkins (which is still in business today). The rose garden was entirely tended by the prisoners.

 

The penitentiary held up to 600 prisoners at one time, and the living conditions were inhuman. The sandstone walls intensified the temperatures inside the cells. In the hot Boise summers, the sandstone retained the heat, creating a stifling oven effect; in winters, the walls held the bitter cold, chilling the prisoners.

Instead of proper plumbing, the earlier cell houses contained “honey buckets”, and two to four inmates shared one honey bucket. There were multiple honey buckets in the cell house for the hundred +/- inmates housed there. The inmates were locked up in the cell house with those honey buckets from 5:00pm until 7:00am. You can imagine how ripe the place smelled by morning.

In addition to all of the above, there wasn’t adequate ventilation in the cell houses. These were extremely unpleasant conditions, to say the least, but they also contributed to the spread of disease.

These conditions were among the things that pushed the inmates to the edge, and riots broke out. The most serious riots were in 1952, 1971 and 1973. The 1973 riot was the most severe. Prisoners burned the chapel and dining hall and damaged many other buildings. Shortly after the 1973 riot, all of the prisoners (416 at the time) were moved to the new Idaho State Correctional Institution south of Boise, and the Old Idaho Penitentiary closed on Dec. 3, 1973.

The shell of the dining hall after the 1973 riot. Notice the blackened stone from the fire.

A two-man cell. Notice the cubby where the honey bucket would be kept when not in use.

216 of the 13,000 inmates were women. Initially the women were housed inside the main complex, but it soon became clear that it would be better to keep the women separated from the men. So in 1920 the Womens Ward was built outside of the prison walls. This building housed seven tiny double-occupancy cells. The most common crime of the women was forgery.