(Draft 0.0)

The concluding page

I have no idea what will be in this... and I don't want to force the ending til the rest of it is done and shared with a few folks. But public lands is a key element of what Outdoor Idaho has been. Let's keep it in the public's hands. Too many billionaires in the world that would gobble it up, fence it off, cut & run to the next piece of property.

And more about the importance of having a place to identify with, and what it does to your soul, etc.

 

I've often wondered if Idaho's view of itself would be different if it didn't look so damned different/strange. It looks like something that was picked apart by other states, like something left as an after thought. What makes it worse is that Idaho -- or Idaho Territory, to be exact -- was the largest chunk of land in the country, larger even than Texas, until 1875?? By then it had become obvious that Idaho Territory was too large to govern properly. Congress then carved it up, created Montana and much of Wyoming.. and ..  1819 to 1868  when it was created by lincoln idaho territory was rectangular... "a state parcelled from many"... but more picked apart and cut up

 

Some people are still trying to carve it up. Eastern Oregon wants to join Idaho, and some folks in northern Idaho want to join the state of Washington. Until that happens, Idaho will continue to look like a logger's boot, or a gun or frying pan. The states all around it look "normal"

 

Use the Eclipse, another of my favorite OI segments, bringing everyone together. Who could argue with it?  come up with different 'facts' about it? the power of it affected every Idahoan who made it a special moment  7? minute in their lives.

A few more of these celestial moments... Idaho has a few places that can do that to a soul. I can list probably list a few of them. We did a show 2 shows? Idaho's special places. I watched it the other day, hadn't seen it for a bunch of years.... list them...