Oregon Trail

Bonneville Point carries the story of how Boise got its name, and it is a story. By tradition, a party under Captain Benjamin Bonneville reached the bluff in 1833, saw the line of trees along the river and shouted in French, "Les bois!" But French-Canadian trappers working for the Hudson's Bay Company had already been calling it the wooded river in the 1820s. The road over the point followed a trail the Shoshone and Bannock used long before either. A stone monument went up there in 1927, and wagon ruts still drop from the bluff toward the river.

What the plaque says

Oregon Trail Indians, trappers, and emigrants who came this way before 1900 used a more direct route to get between Boise and Glenns Ferry. Their road still can be seen at Bonneville Point 5 miles from here. Following close to a line of hills bordering a broad, rolling plain, their route had water and grass essential for horses and oxen. It also gave them a spectacular view of Boise valley. To see that site, follow directional signs when you reach Interchange 64 at Blacks Creek, 1 mile beyond here. 375 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• World Center for Birds of Prey — 7.9 mi
  The hilltop where the peregrine falcon was bred back from DDT, and where condors for the Grand Canyon country still hatch.
• Old Idaho Penitentiary — 9.0 mi
  A territorial prison that ran for 101 years on conditions that barely changed, and closed the year its prisoners burned it.
• Basque Block — 11 mi
  A merchant's 1864 brick house became the boardinghouse where herders from the Basque Country found beds, meals and their own language.
• Idaho State Capitol — 11 mi
  Walls hauled from the prison quarry, heat pumped from 3,000 feet down, and its newest rooms built underground.

More markers nearby

• Basque Country — steps away
• Diversion Dam — 4.3 mi
• The Oregon Trail — 5.1 mi
• Beaver Dick's Ferry — 5.1 mi