Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Is Lewiston, Idaho an OK place to live?

I heard someone call it the armpit of Idaho.

Opinion?

The Potlatch paper mill there certainly made it a hell hole years ago. The EPA finally forced them to clean it up and it's much better now. You don't drop off Lewiston hill into a fogbank of stench like you used to. I haven't been through there in a long time and can't speak for the current living conditions.

It's central to a lot of great fishing and hunting, just downstream from Hells Canyon. It's the lowest place in Idaho at about 700'. Only 30 miles away, the elevation is about 2200 and it goes up from there.

They grow potatos up there?

Not any potatoes that I’m aware of in the Lewiston area. I live 35 miles from Lewiston up on the Camas Prairie. Mostly wheat, canola, cattle, hay and such.

I go to Lewiston/Clarkston for my shopping. If I had to live in a big town Lewiston wouldn’t be bad. I like our small town though.

Gets a bit warm in the summer. I stepped off a plane there on August 14, 1983 into well over 100 degree temps. Bit of a shock and adjustment for a young Dutch kid fresh off the farm......

I'd rather live in Craigmont..... .

No, Kentucky is nice though.

Might change when they breach the dams!

Rocky , thanks, it would just be a place to live until i can find a town about 1/10th the size of Lewiston.
The rivers there look good -i like to fish/hunt/camp with my little gheenoe boat.
Orofino/Kamiah/etc. are a better fit but it's nearly impossible to find a place to rent until i get settled in.

Mart , are there any ground squirrel shooting spots around the region?

Mtn.Boomer , yes Kentucky is nice especially the Blue Grass Region. Plus folks there can connect the dots.

tripod3 , will I be able to walk across the Snake & Clearwater Rivers and not get my bloomers wet ?

ol_mike

Didn't you just recently move to Arkansas, or am I remembering that incorrectly?

I like Lewiston! Reasonably low elevation location, so weather isn't too bad in winter. Furthest inland deep water port in the US, for what it's worth. I think only 10 or so inches of precip per year, IIRC. Home base for a number of ammo manufacturers. You will definitely want a jet boat to access the Snake. You'll see a lot of game, catch a lot of fish. I've thought about moving there myself.

In my short stay there, it looked like a nice town that I could live in. I just have no reason to move. I was disappointed that CCI Speer did not have a factory outlet ammo store.

I like Lewiston well enough. Thats where we went for bar wars, Idaho was 19 to drink if memory serves, we were 21 to drink. Lots of good fishing. Took an eight day canoe trip, deer hunting on Dworshak(sp) Reservoir. Brother and I, we each got our bucks. Thats was a couple decades ago. Nice country lots of good people!

Only thing wrong with Lewiston is heat in the summer. Boise Metro is the armpit thanks to rampant developement and [bleep] moving in.

I have passed through Lewiston once, three years ago. We began to smell the armpit about three miles out of town.

Now I have spent my life in a beet sugar factory. And that ranks right up there with stink production. But the smell of the paper mill was much more prevalent. As the town is located in a narrow hole in the Earth, the stench settled and permeated the entire city.

I would definitely find which is the prevailing wind direction in the city and look for property upwind.

One drive through town and you’ll know why it’s called the armpit of Idaho. Smells like spoiled broccoli.

longarm , howdy , I've been here 3 years 8 months. Pertaining to Arkansas - i moved here contemplating buying 15-20-30 acres of land.
Covid ruined that - land prices sky-rocketed and it still sold. Not very good hunting here, small amount of public land and people come from everywhere to hunt it.

I lived in Meridian, connected to Boise, 07-09 - wow has it grown- subdivisions galore. Started ADA Exteriors construction got it up and going then >Obama did what Democrats do.

Lewiston area -- is a dry heat right?

In the 60's, I went to college in Moscow. Highway 95 went south went through Lewiston. That was before they cleaned up the paper mill...or reconstructed the 'hill'. The hill was 30-40 mph around all the curves. Now you can run it at 70 if you have had power without overheating. Back then, you'd drop down the hill into a solid mass of smog. It was kind of a yellow color and your eyes would water just thinking about it.

Back then there were 3 miserable hills between Moscow and Boise - Lewiston, Whitebird, and Horseshoe Bend. They were all very steep, curvy, and slow. Whitebird was the worst with 21 switchbacks. Passing was impossible on any of them so when you got behind someone slow, you just settled in for a very long ride. Since then, they're rebuilt all 3 hills. That cut 30 to 45 min off the trip from Moscow to Boise. They also bypassed Lawyers Canyon between Lewiston and Grangeville. That stretch of road went through a narrow canyon along a river. In the winter, it was always ice, fog, and deer on the road. The road was narrow and winding. Eventually, they moved the highway up out of the canyon so it now runs along the rim. BIG improvement.

This old photo only shows half the Whitebird switchbacks.



this was the old Lewiston grade. This photo was taken on a windy day that cleared out some of the smog. Most days you couldn't see the bottom like this.

Have you tried the area around mt view AR I really like it there.

I don't know about now but used to be that Lewiston Orchards was a better place to live. It was a little higher and because of the wind, the air was a bit cleaner.

There are ground squirrels from what I’m told. I’ve done little hunting here because my wife cannot be alone for extended periods. Her dementia ties me pretty close to home.

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