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is the county seat of and largest city in Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States. It is the second largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Coeur d'Alene. Lewiston is the principal city of the Lewiston, ID - Clarkston, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Nez Perce County and Asotin County, Washington. As of the 2000 census the population of Lewiston was 30,904 (2006 estimate: 31,293).
The first people of European ancestry to visit the Lewiston area were members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in October 1805. At the future townsite they encountered settlements of the native Nez Perce tribe.
Named after Meriwether Lewis, the town was founded in 1861 in the wake of a gold rush which began the previous year near Pierce, northeast of Lewiston. The first newspaper in present-day Idaho,
began publication in the city in 1862. In 1863 Lewiston became the capital of the newly-created Idaho Territory.
Lewiston's stint as a seat of the new territory's government was short-lived. As the gold rush quieted in northern Idaho, it heated up in southern Idaho, centered in Idaho City, which would become the largest city in the Northwest in the mid-1860s. A resolution to have the capital moved from Lewiston to Boise was passed by the Idaho Territorial Legislature on December 7, 1864, and the move was made in 1865. According to legend the move was very unpopular in northern Idaho, so government officials secretly took the territorial seal from Lewiston and immediately departed for Boise to avoid the public outrage that was sure to erupt. Alternately, they hired river pirates to steal it for them. North Idahoans were somewhat placated in 1889 when the University of Idaho was awarded to nearby Moscow.
Lewiston had a popular Northwest League professional baseball franchise from 1952-74. The Lewiston Broncos were affiliated with various major league parent clubs, including the Philadelphia Phillies, Kansas City Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, and Oakland Athletics. Reggie Jackson was perhaps the most famous Lewiston Bronc of all-time;