Local city information for Moscow, ID

Moscow () is a city in northern Idaho, along the Washington/Idaho border. It is the largest city and county seat of Latah County and the home of the University of Idaho, the land grant institution and primary research university for the state. Seven miles (11 km) to the west is Pullman, Washington and Washington State University, also a land grant university.

While the university is the dominant employer in Moscow, the city also serves as an agricultural and commercial hub for the Palouse region. The population was 21,291 at the 2000 census, with a 2007 estimate of 23,223.

Moscow is the principal city of the Moscow, Idaho Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Latah County. Moscow is the birthplace of writer Carol Ryrie Brink and singer Josh Ritter.

Along with the rest of northern Idaho, Moscow resides in the Pacific Time Zone. The elevation of its city center is 2579 feet (786 m) above sea level. Highways serving the city are US-95 (north-south) and Highway 8 (east-west), both of which are routed through the Moscow city center.

Miners and farmers began arriving in the northern Idaho area after the Civil War. The first permanent settlers came to the Moscow area in 1871. Due to the abundance of camas bulbs, a favorite fodder of pigs brought by the farmers, they informally named the vicinity Hog Heaven. When the first post office opened in 1872, the town was called Paradise Valley (Paradise Creek flows through town, westward to Pullman), but the name was changed to Moscow in 1875.

The precise origin of the name Moscow has been disputed, but there is no proof that it was named by a Russian or for the Russian city. It is reported by early settlers that five men in the area met to choose a proper name for the town, but could not come to consensus on a name. The postmaster Samuel Neff then completed the official papers for the town and selected the name Moscow. Interestingly, Neff was born in Moscow, Pennsylvania and later moved to Moscow, Iowa.

The business district was established by 1875 and the town was a center of commerce for the region. By 1890, the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company's rail line (later the Union Pacific) and the Northern Pacific railroad line helped to boost the town's population to 2000.

The capital of the Idaho Territory was relocated from Lewiston to Boise in December 1864. In the late 1880s, statehood for the Washington Territory was nearing. Because its commercial and transportation interests looked west, rather than south, the citizens of the Idaho Panhandle passionately lobbied for their region to join Washington, or to form an entirely separate state, rather than remain connected with the less accessible southern Idaho. To appease the residents of the north, the territorial legislature of Idaho in Boise placed the new land grant university in Moscow, which at the time was the largest city other than Boise in the state. The University of Idaho was chartered in January 1889, and first opened its doors to students in October 1892.

In March 1890 Moscow's neighboring city, Pullman, was selected as the home of Washington's land grant institution. The college which would eventually become Washington State University, opened its doors in January 1892. Washington entered the union as the 42nd state in November 1889. Idaho entered next, eight months later, in July 1890. To this day, Moscow and Pullman remain twin cities, with both approximately equal populations and even in the sizes of their universities (although Pullman and Washington State are slightly larger).

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