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Communities
The Treasure Valley is composed of the major community of Boise with outlying communities in Ada, Canyon and Elmore counties. These include Mountain Home, home of one of the largest Air Force bases in the United States; Nampa, site of the Snake River Stampede, one of America’s top 25 rodeos; Caldwell, home to Albertson College; and the communities of Meridian, Kuna, Eagle, Star, Emmett, Weiser, Parma, Wilder, and Marsing, Idaho and Ontario and Payette, Oregon. The Boise Metropolitan Statistical area of Ada and Canyon counties has a population of 465,000.
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 Education
One reason for Idaho’s economic success is its strong educational system. The Treasure Valley is the home of Boise State University, with an enrollment of 18,000. Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa provides undergraduate and graduate degrees to its 1500 students. In Caldwell, Albertson College of Idaho is a small, prestigious private college boasting several Rhodes scholars as graduates. Treasure Valley Community College has campuses in Ontario and Nampa. Idaho State University and the University of Idaho also maintain active satellite campuses in the valley.
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 Boise History
Boise’s trees in the high desert setting inspired French Canadian fur trappers to name the river and valley after them (boise translates to wooded in English). The Boise valley remained merely a corridor through which emigrants passed until gold was discovered in 1862. Enterprising developers established the town to supply the many nearby mining camps, and to serve as a governmental center. A fort was built in 1863, and in 1864 Boise was made the territorial capital. Railroads arrived in the 1880’s, an irrigation system in the early 1900’s, and the rest is history.
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