Editing Weiser, Idaho (section)

==History==
[[File:Washington County Courthouse, Weiser.jpg|thumb|[[Washington County Courthouse (Idaho)|Washington County Courthouse]]]]
The city was named after the nearby [[Weiser River]], but exactly who that was named for is not precisely known. In one version it is for [[Peter M. Weiser]], a soldier and member of the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] of 1804–1806.  Another has it for Jacob Weiser, a trapper-turned-miner who struck it rich in Baboon Gulch in the Florence Basin of Idaho in 1861. 
 
William Logan and his wife Nancy were the first white settlers in the vicinity of Weiser in 1863 building a roadhouse in anticipation of the opening of Olds Ferry west of them on the [[Snake River]] across from [[Farewell Bend State Recreation Area|Farewell Bend]].  In 1863, Reuben Olds acquired a franchise from the Territorial Legislature and began operating Olds Ferry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patroloff.com/history.htm|title= Judge Frank Harris, THE HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, Weiser Signal-American, Weiser, 194?. Chapter 11|website=patroloff.com|access-date=13 January 2018}}</ref>  Olds ferry business did well (as did Logan's) as it diverted much of the traffic from the old Snake River crossing point at  [[Fort Boise#Old Fort Boise .281834-54.29|Old Fort Boise]].  Increasing settlement on the Weiser River valley increased Weiser's population.  A post office was established in 1866 as Weiser Ranch. In 1871, it was renamed Weiser.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://washington.idgenweb.org/postoffices.htm|title=Washington County Post Offices|website=washington.idgenweb.org|access-date=13 January 2018}}</ref>
 
Weiser reached its height of prosperity when a railroad way station was established and it became a transportation hub for travelers.  Its history is well represented by the great number of original buildings from the 1890s and early 1900s that are on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].

During the 1890s, the city had pretensions of becoming a major regional market and transportation center.  The Idaho Northern Railroad was built up the Weiser River with the intention of reaching Lewiston and river transportation to the ocean.  The dream ended among the lumber mills of central Idaho almost at the community of Meadows... not needing to actually go past the stock loading and lumber ponds outside the village, the terminus station was built there and a new city, New Meadows, came into being.  Likewise the Union Pacific, after taking over the Oregon Short Line chose not to locate its major section yards in the flats west of Weiser—probably due to inflated prices asked by land speculators—and built at [[Huntington, Oregon]] at the western edge of the [[Snake River]] valley.

[[Baseball Hall of Fame|Hall of Fame]] pitcher [[Walter Johnson]] played semi-pro baseball for the Weiser Kids as a young man in 1906–1907.  After high school in [[Fullerton, California]], the "Big Train" was lured to Weiser to play baseball and work for the local telephone company.  While in Weiser, he once pitched 84 consecutive scoreless innings.  His skills drew the attention of the [[Washington Nationals (1905–56)|Washington Nationals]], who sent scout [[Cliff Blankenship]] to offer Johnson a contract, and in July 1907 he departed Idaho for the [[Major League Baseball|major leagues]] at age nineteen.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=0ca-EYo-gY0C&pg=PA1&amp;source=gbs_toc_r&amp;cad=0_0 Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train], pages 17-32, by Henry W. Thomas, Published by U of Nebraska Press, 1998. On Google Books</ref>

[[U.S. Route 95 in Idaho|U.S. Route 95]] runs through the city, connecting to [[Oregon]] and [[British Columbia]].