For My Idaho Homeschooler Readers: "History of Idaho" by Leonard J. Arrington

Like most states, Idaho requires K-12 students to have at least one year of Idaho history classes. I don't know in what year it is taught now, but when I was a kid, it was the Fourth Grade. We spent some time learning a bit about pre-history Idaho before moving on to the exploration and settlement of Idaho--most of which was spent studying about the Lewis and Clark Expedition--before finishing with the gold and silver rushes and statehood. This was interspersed with a field trip to the Idaho Historical Museum (as it was called then) and another to Idaho City where you can still see some of the old mining equipment in one of the parks and tour the original Territorial Prison. We probably also toured the Old State Penitentiary and the State House. 

    But it is hard to find a modern textbook version of Idaho history, or even any sort of comprehensive history of Idaho at all. I recently came across a free to download PDF of the two-volume History of Idaho (Volume 1) (Volume 2) by Leonard J. Arrington which apparently was commissioned as part of Idaho's Centennial in the 1990s. The first volume traces Idaho's history up through the gold and silver rush period, statehood, and into the 1920s. The second volume takes the reader from the 1920s and into the 1990s when the book was published. 

    These books are probably too detailed for a fourth grade class, but I'm sure that lessons could be developed from these books suitable for an elementary age student.