Why Nobody Wants To Visit Lewiston, Idaho Anymore

In 1870, Lewiston, Idaho had 1,560 people. Seattle had 1,151. The little town at the bottom of a canyon had already been the capital of a territory larger than Texas. Ten years later, more than half its people were gone. So how does a place that began with a gold rush and a capitol building become the town people hurry through with the windows up? And why are visitors now stepping off riverboats onto its banks for the very first time? In this story, we follow Lewiston from the illegal gold rush supply camp on Nez Perce land, through the night the territorial seal was carried off to Boise, the Magruder murders, and the rise of the Potlatch mill, to the long fight over the Snake River dams, the collapse of the port’s container business, and the 2025 arrival of Idaho’s first river cruise.