From the dinosaurs who roamed prehistoric Idaho over 100 million years ago, to the Hagerman Horse who galloped across the plains of Idaho 3.5 million years ago during the Pliocene Epoch, to the Native Americans who have inhabited this region for thousands of years—Idaho has a rich and diverse archaeological history. Recent excavations have also uncovered information and relics from the Chinese miners who worked the placer mines of the Boise Basin in the 1800s. Look below to find a list of books about Idaho’s past and links to archaeology web sites.

Archaeology

• Butler, B. Robert. The quest for the historic Fremont and a guide to the prehistoric pottery of southern Idaho. Occasional papers of the Idaho Museum of Natural History ; no. 33. Pocatello, Idaho: Idaho State University Press, 1983.
• Erwin, Richard P. Indian Rock Writing in Idaho. Boise, Idaho: Idaho State Historical Society, 1930.
• Pavesic, Max; William Studebaker. Backtracking:  Ancient Art of Southern Idaho. Pocatello, Idaho: Idaho Museum of Natural History, 1993. – Contains info on petroglyphs and archeological sites of southwestern Idaho.
• Plew, Mark G. An Introduction to the Archaeology of Southern Idaho. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 1986.
• Plew, Mark G. The Archaeology of the Snake River Plain. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 2000.
• Tobias, Nelle. The Wees Bar Petroglyph Field, Southwestern Idaho. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 1981.
• Wegars, Priscilla. Uncovering a Chinese Legacy: Historical Archeology at Centerville, Idaho, Once the “Handsomest Town in the Basin.” Boise, Idaho: Idaho Bureau of Land Management, 2001.
• Yohe, Robert M.; Jame C. Woods. The First Idahoans: A Paleoindian Context for Idaho. Boise, Idaho: Idaho State Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office, 2002.

Paleontology

• Shallat, Tod, editor. Secrets of the Magic Valley and Hagerman’s Remarkable Horse. Boise, Idaho: Black Canyon Communications, 2002.
• Girty, George H.  The fauna of the phosphate beds of the Park City formation in Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910.
• Malde, Harold E. The Catastrophic Late Pleistocene Bonneville Flood in the Snake River Plain Idaho. Washington : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968. – Discover the history behind the boulders (known as “melon gravel”) found along the banks of the Snake River near Swan Falls Dam.
• Hagerman Fossil Council. Equus Evolves: The Story of the Hagerman Horse. Boise, Idaho: Black Canyon Communications, in cooperation with Hagerman Fossil Council, 2002.

Web Sites

• Affiliated with the Archaeological Institute of America archaeology.org has links to many different archaeological web sites.
• Discover Boise with the Boise City Department of Arts & History.
• Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, National Park Service –  Learn about Hagerman’s 3.5 million year old horse.
• Idaho Archaeological Society.
• Idaho Museum of Natural History Located on the campus of Idaho State University in Pocatello.
• Digital Atlas of Idaho ISU’s great site has extensive info about the prehistory of Idaho, as well as info on Idaho geology, climatology, biology, and geography.

Compiled by Ellen Druckenbrod, Boise Public Library, July 29, 2003. Updated by rjoiner on March 14, 2022.