By DAN GALLAGHER
The Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho -- The capital city of Idaho is in between things: the Great Basin high desert and the Northern Rockies, a rural background and a microchip future, a small town and an expanding urban center.
Boise's growing employment and cultural offerings, combined with quick access to four seasons of outdoor recreation, are the reasons its population has more than doubled to 167,000 since 1970.
Boise has never depended entirely on any one industry but remains a trading post to move products and administer the state.
A major supplier
''We have been the supplier to those coming across the plains and Oregon Trail, the gold fields. Now we're suppliers with Micron Technology with their chips, or Hewlett-Packard,'' says Shirl Boyce of the Area Economic Development office.
The Boise River, lined by cottonwoods -- after crossing hundreds of miles of sagebrush desert -- evoked the description ''boissie'' or ''wooded'' from explorer Peter Skene Ogden and his French-Canadian trappers in 1824.
The so-called ''City of Trees'' eventually popped up at the crossroads of the Oregon Trail with the supply route between the Boise Basin mines north of town to Silver City in the Owyhee Mountains to the south.
It was the 1860s, and federal agents were concerned about the Southern sympathizers coming to Idaho and erecting mining towns like Atlanta and Leesburg, said Arthur Hart, retired director of the Idaho State Historical Society.
In 1863, a government fort was authorized to monitor the area and the town started to grow along the river. A year later, it was declared the capital of the Idaho Territory.
Suffered in the '80s
Boise languished through the recession of the early 1980s.
The very center of town had been razed for redevelopment, but no one wanted to take the plunge and rebuild there. That eventually changed with the advent of several corporate skyscrapers, hotels and a convention center.
Mr. Hart says Boise was settled so recently that most people didn't consider the architecture of historic value.
That has changed as residents renovate older buildings into residences and offices.
Boise remains a good place to do business. It is the corporate headquarters of computer chip maker Micron Technology Inc., agribusiness' J.R. Simplot Co., Hoover Dam builder Morrison-Knudsen Co., Inc., and the Albertson's Inc. supermarket chain.
It also has a Hewlett-Packard electronics plant that's involved in research and development.
J.R. Simplot, one of the 100 richest people in America, made his fortune with horse sense.
He invented frozen french fries, and his cattle herd was in the top 10 largest in the country.
The 90-year-old potato baron makes his Boise presence known with a hilltop mansion and a huge American flag flapping in the wind.
He went from potato chips to microchips when he put up much of the investment money to create Micron Technology, Idaho's largest private employer with 8,500 workers. California-based Hewlett-Packard employs 3,700, and there are about 50 other small electronics firms producing circuit boards, fish finders and other products.
Albertson's Inc.'s pending merger with American Stores will make it the second-largest grocery chain in the nation. It currently employs about 3,000 people.
Remote urban area
Boise is the most remote urban area in the lower 48 states. Salt Lake City, 330 miles away, is the closest metropolis.
Residents from central Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Nevada drive substantial distances to Boise for shopping, entertainment and professional services.
As with other Western states, Idaho has been a magnet for people who want to escape the crowds.
The heated in-migration has slowed a bit from the mid-1990s, but the metropolitan area has still been growing at nearly 3 percent a year.
Boise has been a bargain for newcomers, but the price is climbing. The average cost of a home is $109,000. That compares with a nationwide average $129,000, according to Standard & Poors.
Annual average taxes in 1996 totaled $10,133, making Boise 31st among 50 selected larger cities around the country. The average income is about $27,000.
Those seeking a respite from work have any number of outdoor sports awaiting them.
The river through town is a thriving trout stream. The Greenbelt along both shores provides more than 25 miles of paved and graveled paths for walking, running or bicycling.
Overlooking Boise from 16 miles away is the Bogus Basin Ski Area, which features a half-dozen chairlifts and one of the largest night-skiing operations in the Northwest. About 120 miles to the east is the venerable Sun Valley resort.
The nearby Payette River offers some of the best white-water rafting in the nation, and not much farther away is the famed Salmon River.
If there was any complaint about Boise in the past, it was that the city offered few entertainment and cultural options.
Plenty to do
''It's turned 180 degrees around,'' says Alan Minskoff, editor of Boise Magazine. ''It used to be there were only a few things to do. Now you end up with more things than you can do.''
Boise State University, with the largest enrollment in Idaho at more than 15,000 students, is the venue for concerts and collegiate athletics. The Idaho Stampede of the Continental Basketball Association, the Boise Hawks in A-league baseball and the Idaho Steelheads hockey team are the local professional, albeit minor-league, organizations. And an indoor football league team is scheduled to debut this spring.
In the first half of the century, thousands of Basques came from Spain and France to Idaho to work as sheepherders. Boise now has the largest Basque enclave in North America. As a result, Basque cuisine is featured in several restaurants, and the community holds annual celebrations of its culture.
The city's showcase event is the Boise River Festival in late June, which draws tens of thousands of spectators for a night parade, hot air balloon rally and musical performances.
While Boise may not be a town that never sleeps, it boasts a growing number of ways to work and play.
''The community is certainly evolving,'' Mr. Minskoff says. ''Boise has become a much richer place to be.''
IF YOU GO
Getting there: Boise is located on Interstate 84, the main route through southern Idaho, as well as Idaho 55 and 21, headed to the central Idaho mountains. It is 336 miles from Salt Lake City, 517 from Seattle and 432 from Portland, Ore. Seven airlines serve the Boise Air Terminal.
Weather: Boise's weather is very mild compared with towns even 100 miles to the east and north. The temperature varies from about 20 degrees in January to the 100s in July. The average annual rainfall is 12 inches and average yearly snowfall is 21 inches.
Great outdoors: Visitors are advised to bring all the recreational equipment they can carry. It's possible to ski at Bogus Basin Ski Area on a spring morning and play golf or fish in the afternoon. Mountain bikers can view the entire valley from the Boise foothills. Some of the best white-water rafting around is less than an hour away on the Payette River, or you can join the flotillas of thousands of people who cruise down the gentle Boise River on their inner tubes in the summer.
Lodging: Local hotels and motels have more than 4,000 rooms in about 50 different accommodations ranging from bed-and-breakfasts to all the major chain lodgings to the historic Idanha Hotel.
Dining: Boise features a sizeable spectrum of restaurants for a town its size, from coffee houses such as the Flying M to upscale continental eateries such as the Gamekeeper Restaurant and Peter Schott's. The TableRock Brewpub and the Harrison Hollow Brew House feature microbrewed beer and food. Outdoor dining is the key at several restaurants in the Hyde Park neighborhood. The population of Basques from Spain flock to the Onati Restaurant for family dining and the Gernika bar for a wide range of beers, wines and entrees.
Nightlife: Boise's nighttime offerings are on the rise, but night owls may be disappointed. Visitors can take in the sports events, the Boise Philharmonic, outdoor Idaho Shakespeare Festival summer plays, or Alive at Five, live music after work from May through September at the Grove. The Old Boise section has several busy nightclubs. Most close by about 1 a.m.
Information: The Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau: (800) 635-5240; www.boise.org.
-- The Associated Press
