According to the State Symbols USA website, Idaho is known as the Gem State because of "the abundance of natural resources and scenic areas that include snow–capped mountain ranges, rapids, vast lakes and steep canyons." Among these natural resources, it lists "gold, silver, lead, zinc, cobalt, copper, ... star garnets (Idaho's state gem), jasper, opal, jade, topaz, zircon, and tourmaline."
This suggestion is not helped, however, by the fact that the first six items on this list are not actually gems.
A more likely explanation – reported on several websites, including Access Genealogy – may be that Idaho is known as "the Gem of the Mountains". This epithet appears to arise from a belief that the name Idaho itself comes from a Native American language, and that 'Gem of the Mountains' is a loose translation of its meaning into English. According to an essay published on the Digital Atlas of Idaho website (and cited by Wikipedia), however, this is a complete fabrication; the word 'Idaho' was made up by supporters of the creation of the territory that would become known as Colorado – but rejected for that very reason.
To cut a long story short: having been rejected in that place, 'Idaho' was seen as an ideal choice for the territory that was created some distance to the north and west, some three years later – in 1863. And the idea of its purported meaning in some unspecified Native American language seems to have stuck.
Colorado became a US state in 1876, and Idaho in 1890.
Idaho is bordered to the west by Washington and Oregon (both of which have shores on the Pacific ocean) and to the east by Wyoming and Montana. Its border with the latter is formed by part of the Rocky Mountains. Much of its territory is mountainous, but (according to Wikipedia) "the vast majority" of its population lives on the Snake River Plain, which runs across the southern part of the state from east to west. "The plain served as an easy pass through the Rocky Mountains for westward–bound settlers on the Oregon Trail, and many [of them] chose to settle [there] rather than [risk] the treacherous route through the Blue Mountains and the Cascade Range to the west."
With a land area of 83,569 square miles (216,443 square kilometres), Idaho is the 14th largest US state – and the closest in size to Great Britain (80,823 square miles, 209,331 square kilometres). But its estimated population (in 2020) was only 1,826,913, compared with 60.8 million (in 2011); that's about 33.3 times less. (Idaho ranks only 39th amongst the US states by population.)
© Haydn Thompson 2021