Editing Lewiston, Idaho (section)

== History ==
[[File:Imnaha (sternwheeler) wooding up 1903.jpg|thumb|left|The Imnaha [[sternwheeler]] loading cordwood fuel, 1903]]
[[File:Bollinger Hotel, Lewiston, Idaho, 1905 (AL+CA 1518).jpg|thumb|The Bollinger Hotel in 1905. This building was destroyed by fire in 1997.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sorensen|first=Eric|year=1997|title=Lewiston Landmark Gutted By Morning Blaze; FBI Office Housed In Bollinger Building, But Arson Not Suspected By Officials|website=[[The Spokesman-Review]]|url=https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jun/19/lewiston-landmark-gutted-by-morning-blaze-fbi/|access-date=2020-12-12}}</ref>]]
[[File:Idaho - Lewiston - NARA - 23939447 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Lewiston, 1936]]

{{More citations needed section|date=May 2021}}
The [[Nimiipuu]] ([[Nez Perce people|Nez Perce]]) have inhabited the area around what is now Lewiston for thousands of years. 

The first people of European ancestry to visit the Lewiston area were members of the [[David Thompson (explorer)|David Thompson]] expedition of 1803. Thompson was looking to establish [[fur trade|fur trading]] posts for the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] of British North America (now Canada). Thompson established the first white settlement in Idaho, MacKenzie's Post. The settlement soon failed as the local Nez Perce tribe's men considered beaver trapping to be women's work, the tribe was migratory and apparently{{ww|date=January 2025}} women thought they already had enough to do. This was followed by the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] in October [[Timeline of the Lewis and Clark Expedition#1805|1805]]. At the future townsite, the expedition encountered settlements of the native Nez&nbsp;Perce, and they returned to the valley on their eastward trip from the Pacific in the spring of&nbsp;1806.

The town is believed to have been named after [[Meriwether Lewis]] and after Victor Trevitt's{{who|date=January 2025}} hometown of [[Lewiston, Maine]]. The town was founded {{Time ago|1861}} in 1861,<ref>{{cite web | title=History: Important Idaho Dates | website=The Official Website of the State of Idaho | date=September 19, 2019 | url=https://idaho.gov/about-idaho/history/ | access-date=February 11, 2021}}</ref> in the wake of a [[gold rush]] which began the previous year near [[Pierce, Idaho|Pierce]]. The first newspaper in present-day Idaho, ''The Golden Age'', began publication in the city of Lewiston, [[Washington Territory]] in 1862, and was joined by the ''Lewiston Morning Tribune'' in September 1892. In March 1863 Lewiston became the capital of the newly created [[Idaho Territory]]. Thomas J. Beall, one of the first three white settlers in Lewiston, wrote many of the ''Lewiston Tribune''{{'}}s first articles, and continued to do so until his death at the age of 89.

The city's stint as a seat of the new territory's government was short-lived. As the gold rush quieted in northern Idaho, a new rush in minerals began centered near [[Idaho City, Idaho|Idaho City]], which became the largest city in the Northwest in the mid-1860s. A resolution in late 1864 to have the capital moved from Lewiston to [[Boise, Idaho|Boise]] was passed by the Idaho Territorial Legislature on December 7, six weeks before the territorial legislature's session legally began, and after litigation, on a split decision decided by one vote on the territorial supreme court on geographic lines.

Boise became the capital in 1866; the move was very unpopular in northern Idaho and in violation of a court order. The territorial governor, [[Caleb Lyon]] and the territorial secretary, secretly took the territorial seal, archives, and treasury, and fled from Lewiston. Lyon went downriver to [[Portland, Oregon]], a trip marked by the alleged theft of the treasury from his steamship cabin. The territorial secretary departed southward for Boise to avoid public outrage.

North Idahoans were somewhat placated in 1889 when the [[University of Idaho]] was awarded to nearby [[Moscow, Idaho|Moscow]], {{convert|30|mi|-1|spell=in}} north, and began instruction in 1892. Lewiston State Normal School, now Lewis-Clark State College, was established in 1893, as well as another normal school in the south at [[Albion State Normal School|Albion]]. These were the state's first three institutions of higher education. Lewiston was the site of the first public school in Idaho, in 1862. In December 1880, the district was the first to be chartered by the Legislature and thus carries the designation of Lewiston Independent School District #1.

The City of Lewiston’s high reservoir failed on January 18, 2023. The failure caused flooding with the release of approximately three million gallons of water.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Moudy |first1=Shannon |last2=Perez |first2=Brianda |date=January 19, 2023 |title=City of Lewiston continues investigating reservoir failure that caused property damage |url=https://www.krem.com/article/news/local/lewiston-reservoir-failure-investigation/293-5bb6e694-55c0-4b3b-a8cd-3153e5feb464 |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=KREM2 |language=en}}</ref>