If You Live In Idaho, You’re Living One Big Lie

As we wrap up the year, a lot of us are thinking about our New Year resolutions. Some people want to live a more active lifestyle, some want to do more traveling, and others... well, they just want a clean slate.

And there is no better way to give yourself a clean slate than to face reality and stop living a lie.

Spoiler: if you live in Idaho, you're living a lie

If you live in Idaho, you have a lot to be proud of: the great outdoors, the people, the food, the views, and heck - you even get to tell people that you live in "the Gem State."

A state with a rich Native American history that is even found in the name "Idaho"... or is it?

We hate to burst your bubble here but it turns out that it's all a lie. According to a February 2005 edition of Prospector, a historical Idaho newsletter archived on the government's history of Idaho, the popular belief that "Idaho" is a Native American word is all a sham.

It was made up in the mid-1800's as the newsletter explained:

By 1860, just before the Civil War, mining in the West had led to the need for lots of new names for towns and camps. Names were also needed for territories that were to become states.

When people ran out of names, someone had a brilliant idea:

When the Colorado region needed a name in 1860, a leader from that part of the country thought up the name 'Idaho.' He told everyone that it meant 'gem of the mountains.'

That's right... someone made it up

It turns out that the word doesn't mean anything and sorry if we were the ones to burst your bubble, but this is absolutely hilarious. The visual of this historical moment taking place sounds like something out of a comedy movie.

You've got a ton of Western miners and pioneers, paving the way for our future, and then you have the person who named Idaho making stuff up and calling it fact.

And look - we get it, people make names up all the time and they eventually catch on. What makes this funny (at least to us) is that this person essentially said: "Idaho means 'gem of the mountains'" and had to know they were full of it.

Do you think the person behind it got a good laugh out of it? Do you think they actually believed what they were telling everyone?

Regardless, we wouldn't have it any other way and like a lot of people, are extremely proud of our state.

That being said - you can't tell us that if you took a time machine back to the exact moment they were naming Idaho, you wouldn't have a good chuckle.