MODULE 4 Chapter 1

Module 4 Chapter 1

Student Page

Idaho Believe-It-Or-Not

A Sketch Book Activity

Hi Students!

The purpose of this activity is to help you become interested about Idaho subjects by showing you some cool information about our state. You might also want to learn more about Idaho outside of school. You can visit the library, read an Idaho newspaper, and explore the Internet. You can also ask your teacher to send to the Idaho Department of Commerce for Idaho maps and brochures.

People love to hear unusual, strange, and amazing facts. Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not has amazed and thrilled people for many years. Perhaps you have read one of Ripley's books---or visited the Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not Museum at the Wharf in San Francisco. Ripley traveled around the world gathering strange and amazing facts, pictures, and artifacts.

Let us travel around Idaho and make our own Idaho Believe-It-Or-Not. Even if you can't actually leave home, you can do your traveling through books and newspapers. Keep a sharp eye for interesting, strange, surprising, or amazing things as you study about Idaho. You will find plenty if you watch for them.

When you make your Idaho Sketch Book, you can have great fun scattering Idaho Believe-It-Or-Not items through its pages. (Remember that you should use art sketches to illustrate your Believe-It-Or-Not items.) Below are some of the author's Idaho Believe-It-Or-Not items you may use to start your own collection.

BELIEVE-IT-OR-NOT. Kelley was an Irish fiddler who worked in a saloon in Idaho City during the gold rush. He became afraid of the miners, however, because they would often shoot without thinking. Kelley was afraid he might get shot by accident. Then he thought up a clever idea. He had a platform built that could be lifted up when the miners began shooting their guns. This way, Kelley could keep fiddling on his platform above the crowd without worrying about what the miners were doing down below.

BELIEVE-IT-OR-NOT. James Hawley went to China and became mixed up in the Taiping Rebellion. He came to Idaho later as a prospector, and then become a lawyer in Boise. As a lawyer, he worked in more than 300 murder cases. James Hawley was elected Governor of Idaho in 1910.

BELIEVE IT-OR-NOT. Sheepherder's Delight was the name of a drink served in an Idaho gold camp in the 1860's. The recipe called for clear alcohol, plug tobacco, strychnine (which is a poison), and prune juice for color and taste.

BELIEVE-IT-OR-NOT. The first use made of the Shoshone Ice Caves by white men was to supply ice to saloons in the town of Shoshone.

BELIEVE-IT-OR-NOT. Buhl, Idaho, has the world's largest trout hatchery.

BELIEVE-IT-OR-NOT. The St. Joe River flows right through Lake Chatcolet. It has natural banks that separate it from the lake.

BELIEVE-IT-OR-NOT. Twenty-seven years after the Nez Perce War, Chief Joseph and his old enemy, General Howard, sat at the same banquet table and toasted each other in friendship.

BELIEVE-IT-OR-NOT. You can add many more amazing facts to your own Idaho Believe-It-Or-Not.

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