estled against picturesque foothills, Boise is one of the last American metro areas where a large city has the heart of a small town, where cowboys are icons of the present, where the companies of today develop the technologies of the future, and where the frontier begins within city limits.

Historically, Idaho and the West have been the land of opportunity. From the early settlers who arrived to mine their fortunes, to the homesteaders who cultivated the lands, much of Idaho's beginnings were not unlike the stories written in dime store cowboy novels.

And still today, many fantasize about making a fresh start in a place with affordable housing, minimal traffic and limitless access to the outdoors-somewhere almost iconic in stature. There are many who dream about this, yet there are few who succeed like those who have made Boise their home.

From its beginnings more than 100 years ago, Boise has always been the cultural, economic and political center of a vast region comprised of southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. It has fulfilled that role admirably through the years and continues to do so today. Developing along the banks of the Boise River, the city has maintained an environmentally sound relationship with its setting, at the same time it has developed recreational and economic possibilities to their fullest.

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