Lower Boise

The border war the sign mentions reached its worst in August 1863, when Union General Thomas Ewing's General Order No. 11 ordered everyone in the rural parts of four Missouri counties along the Kansas line who could not prove their loyalty to leave, after Quantrill's raid on Lawrence. Back home, the slaveholding Missouri River counties had long been nicknamed Little Dixie. Middleton, the first settlement in what became Canyon County, dates from 1863, but the valley stayed thinly settled until the railroad came: the 1880 census found 44 people at Middleton.

What the plaque says

Lower Boise Confederate refugees from Missouri started farming in this area in 1863 and 1864, when gold and silver mining camps created a great demand for flour and cattle. Driven out from their Missouri River homes below Kansas City by extremely bitter Civil War border warfare, they got a new start by digging riverside canals and planting crops. They helped make Idaho an overwhelming southern Democratic territory from 1864 to 1880. Settlements from Caldwell to Notus were known as Dixie, and those farther west were Lower Boise. 361 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Emigrant Crossing — 6.1 mi
• Old Fort Boise — 7.7 mi
• Marie Dorion — 7.7 mi
• The College of Idaho — 7.7 mi