Basque Studies at Boise State University

Boise, the capital of Idaho that we Basques feel so close to and our own despite being far from the Basque Country, is a twinned city with Gernika-Lumo, known to us as the "eighth Basque province". Today, 12-15,000 people of Basque origin live in the state of Idaho. It can be unanimously said that the history of Boise and the history of the Basque diaspora have gone hand in hand since the discovery of gold in the American River in California in 1849. The first Basques arrived in Idaho in 1890, when silver was discovered in De Lamar and Silver City. Although they initially worked in mining, later they immersed themselves in shepherding.