History At The Barn talks about Basque Immigration

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —The Mountain View Barn in Jerome hosted the Preservation Twin Falls annual history at the the barn event. This Thursday’s topic was the story of the Basque migration to Idaho.

Dr. John Bieter, historian and faculty member of Boise State University was the guest speaker who would explain how the Basque people immigrated to Idaho.

He also explains the importance of talking about the Basque history in Idaho, “It’s part of the story of what makes Idaho, Idaho and a small part of the story of what makes America, America and it’s important to know that people that have formed this community in this state and one of those groups have been people from the Basque country and they’ve added this particular way of life some particular values into this mixture of immigrants.”

In the 1800′s Basques came to California seeking gold from the California Gold Rush, the plan was to come and then eventually go back home.

They soon realized sheep and feeding the people digging gold was better business.

Then, they started spreading a group reaching Idaho.

When World War I began there was approximately 3.2 million sheep in Idaho, alone.

Professor Russell Tremayne talks about the sheep industry at the time, “Over 3 million in Twin Falls, Rogerson, in Sun Valley Area all through Southern Idaho there was a major sheep business. it’s was an important part of the economy that was able to function because of the sheepherders.”

The Basque community is very close knit, they realized that sheepherding was a lonely life and they had an insurance plan that if something were to ever go wrong when sheepherding they would have funds available to you, so you can go to the Basque country and there would be someone to take care of you.

While the men herded sheep the women worked at boarding houses, where the men would stay in their travels.

As years pass, there was the second generation of Basques in Idaho.

The Basques established their place here in Idaho creating a Basque Center, and even creating their own defense group during WWII.

Many Basques are still here in Idaho, according to the north American Basque Association there are about 6,000.

The next History at the Barn is January 18th where the topic will be Latin immigration.

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