The Pending Idaho-Montana Border War
Who knows, maybe a shooting war is brewing.
Idaho and Montana have a festering border dispute. Over an estimated 14 acres, although some believe it may be nearly three times as much! O.K., it’s apparently a smaller matter.
It won’t happen in our lifetimes but someday Montana will abut Spokane and then all Hades will break loose.
The Missoulian reports it got started when Interstate 90 replaced the old highway from North Idaho into Northwestern Montana. Toss in a skiing area and somehow Idaho has benefited from some mistaken tax maps, reaping well over $200 a year in taxes Montana should be collecting! This somewhat insignificant number will be growing, however. Expansion of the recreational property is expected to create more tax revenue and now a county in Montana wants its share.
At the moment, it looks as if the Idahoans are more than willing to cooperate and share the wealth.
This brings up another issue. As the mapmaker drew almost rectangular lines for the Dakotas, Wyoming and Colorado, lobbyists from Montana were able to carve a western line according to mountains and rivers. These geographic features do tend to shift. This means Montana is growing larger and from what I can see, nobody there is doing much to fill the new territory. It won’t happen in our lifetimes but someday Montana will abut Spokane and then all Hades will break loose.
I’m not sure the Spokies will get on well with anyone from Missoula. Aside from the university types.
If Governor Little would lead a pre-dawn raid on the tacky tourist traps at St. Regis, we could bring our neighbors back to the bargaining table.