How Idaho Got Its Name: A Colorado Mix-Up and a Riverboat

The name first surfaced far from today’s Idaho

In the late 1850s, prospectors poured into the Pike’s Peak region of what is now Colorado. As settlers argued about how to organize a new territory, they also argued about what to call it. Among the possibilities were Jefferson, Colorado and Idaho. The mining settlement later known as Idaho Springs was an early place-name using a form of the word.

The Idaho Legal History Society traces the name to these territorial debates. George M. Willing, who promoted the interests of the Pike’s Peak region in Washington, is often credited with inventing it. But the society’s account is careful: Willing is a probable source, not a definitively proven one.

Colorado nearly inherited the name

The word “Idaho” appealed to people who believed it came from an Indigenous language and meant “gem of the mountains.” Beverly D. Williams, a delegate advocating for the Pike’s Peak region, supported it on that understanding.

According to the Idaho Legal History Society, Williams later learned the supposed translation was not genuine and asked Congress to use Colorado instead. Congress established Colorado Territory in 1861. The name Idaho did not disappear: Idaho Springs and other western uses had already helped it take hold.

A steamboat carried “Idaho” into the Northwest

Two steamboats named Idaho were reportedly launched in 1860. One was built for service connected to the Fraser River in British Columbia and was later renamed Fort Yale. Another, operated by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, traveled the Columbia River as mining activity accelerated in the Clearwater country.

The Columbia River boat carried miners toward the Orofino gold fields. Its name became familiar along a major route into the inland Northwest. The photograph accompanying this article shows the sidewheel steamboat Idaho, built in 1860, in an archival image reproduced in an 1895 maritime history. It is a tangible reminder that the word was circulating well before Idaho became a state.

That does not prove the steamboat single-handedly named the territory. It helps explain how a name first discussed around Pike’s Peak became familiar in another part of the West.

Congress considered “Montana,” too

When lawmakers proposed creating a new territory northwest of Colorado, the name was still unsettled. The Idaho Legal History Society reports that an 1862 bill initially using Idaho was changed to Montana before passing the House. Idaho was restored during the final stages of congressional consideration.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the legislation creating Idaho Territory in March 1863. The original territory extended beyond today’s Idaho, including large areas that later became Montana and Wyoming. Idaho entered the Union as the 43rd state on July 3, 1890, keeping the name that had survived the earlier debates.

Does 'Idaho' mean 'gem of the mountains'?

No reliable linguistic evidence establishes that “Idaho” is a Shoshone or other Indigenous-language phrase meaning “gem of the mountains.” That attractive explanation was repeated for generations, but historical research treats it as a mistaken claim rather than a verified translation.

Idaho is indeed called the Gem State, and its mining and mineral history makes the nickname fitting. A nickname that suits a place, however, is not proof of where its name came from. A U.S. congressional district’s Idaho fact sheet likewise describes Idaho as a coined or invented word, not a translation of the often-repeated phrase.

The remaining mystery

The most persuasive reconstruction links the name to the Pike’s Peak naming debate, then to western place names, steamboats and congressional decisions. But even that account leaves room for uncertainty about who first coined the word.

Other historical accounts credited Luzanne Wallace, wife of Idaho’s first territorial governor, with suggesting the name after a niece. The Idaho Legal History Society records that claim while stopping short of treating it as settled fact. Separating documented decisions from later family stories is part of what makes the history interesting.

The result is a distinctly Idaho story: a name that was nearly attached to Colorado, spread by travel and mining, survived a congressional switch to Montana, and ultimately stayed with the state. The name is certain. Its original inventor is not.