Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Idaho's bizarre shape, forty-five miles wide at the top and over three hundred miles wide at the bottom, is the result of one man's political maneuvering. In 1863, Congress created Idaho Territory from parts of Washington and Dakota territories. It was enormous, encompassing present-day Idaho, Montana, and most of Wyoming. Gold had been discovered on the Clearwater River near Lewiston. Sidney Edgerton arrived at Bannack in what is now Montana as the newly appointed chief justice of Idaho Territory. He realized the mining camps around Bannack and Virginia City were too far from the capital at Lewiston to be governed. In January 1864, Edgerton traveled to Washington carrying gold nuggets to show Congress. His key maneuver: he lobbied Congress to draw Montana Territory's western boundary along the Bitterroot Mountains rather than the Continental Divide. This shifted Montana's border roughly 130 miles westward, taking a massive bite out of northern Idaho and creating the awkward panhandle. Congress created Montana Territory on May 26, 1864, and Lincoln appointed Edgerton its first governor. The panhandle's rich silver deposits around Coeur d'Alene, discovered later in the 1880s, had stronger ties to Spokane than to Boise. Multiple attempts were made to attach the panhandle to Washington. They all failed. Idaho entered the Union in 1890 with the strangest shape in the country.