Today, after a quick tour of 2 university campuses, I drove through a tiny piece of an enormous agricultural area known as the Palouse.
After spending the night in Moscow, Idaho (pronounced “moss-koe”) by its residents. I made a quick tour of the University of Idaho, home of the Vandals. The Vandals are proud of their award winning quonset-style arena that uses continuous bowed wooden supports. Another impressive building on campus is the gothic-style administration building, complete with clock tower. There is a Starbucks on campus in the bookstore but there is also a coffee and sandwich place run by a local co-op. Students can get a law degree here, or engineering, music, teaching, and many others. I spoke with a freshman football player who said that several players here hail from the San Diego area. The Vandals have an ambitious schedule, but they don’t play the top NCAA Division 1 schools like Boise State. There is a serious rivalry between the U of I and Boise State. One University student (a campus bookstore employee) said, “Boise is NOT a state!”
My second stop in Moscow was the Appaloosa Museum. This museum is dedicated to this native breed of horse, favored by the Nez Perce Native Americans. Appaloosas are gentle, smart and responsive to training. They are also fast and agile, competing at both rodeos and racetracks. The docent was knowledgeable, and a retired mare named Nikki represented the equine branch of the outfit. Nikki was friendly and likes carrots.
Various combinations of colors are found on Appaloosas, but one giveaway is a vitiligo sometimes (but not always) found on their rump or muzzle. The museum tells the breed’s story well, with various examples of saddles, bridles, etc. The Appaloosa Hall of Fame is on the premises.
Then, on to the Palouse, with a brief stop at Pullman, home of the Washington State University Cougars. Pullman is only eight miles from Moscow. As part of its academic programs, WSU has a bear center with several grizzly bears that originated in Yellowstone Park (lots of information is available about this project online) I picked up a book about the Palouse region at Brused Books in Pullman. Brused Books is a well-established used bookstore with a large inventory of books on ornithology and natural history, among other topics.
The large farming region known as the Palouse covers 18,100 square miles, and is one of our major breadbaskets. It is centered on the Palouse River in Washington State, but it extends into both Idaho and Oregon. It is characterized by a fertile rich soil called loess that is good for growing legumes (such as peas) wheat and other crops. The Palouse isn’t flat but consists of thousands of hills that are usually just a couple of hundred feet high. As one might expect, this sort of place makes for great photographs. The small town of Palouse is located just north of Pullman, Washington, and Palouse State Park is perhaps 50 miles to the Southwest.
Quicktrips 