Idaho Time Zones

Commenter pan answers my question about Idaho's weird time zones:

The panhandle of Idaho is geographically isolated from the rest of the state by lots of wilderness. Up there, they have a lot of activity with the cities on the Washington side of the border, like Spokane. It's a pain in the ass to change time zones everytime someone in Coeur D'Alene has to run over to Spokane to do some shopping.

And, indeed, as illustrated above there's an interstate link going from Coeur D'Alene into Washington, while the north-south road links aren't nearly as good. Thus, the northern bit of the state is more closely integrated with parts of Washington than with southern Idaho. You learn something new every day as a blogger.

Comments

Of course, the opposite is also true: Eastern Washington is at least as closely tied to Northern Idaho as it is to Western Washington.

(Favorite Washington Secessionist story: the most recent swell of secessionism, in the 90's, allegedly dissovled because the Eastern Washington town of George would have to change its name if the Eastern half split off to become the state of Lincoln.)

Posted by Warren Terra | January 15, 2008 12:58 PM

I really love the continuing series on this blog "A New Yorker discovers American Geography". Ok-- this one is not as funny as the discovery that Miami's eastward growth is hampered by blue wet stuff. Or that the water beside Chicago is eerily non-salty. But still....

Posted by Ikram | January 15, 2008 1:08 PM

You're livin in your own private Idaho, Idaho. You're out of control, the rivers that roll, you fell into the water and down to Idaho. Get out of that state, get out of that state you're in. You better beware.

Posted by rea | January 15, 2008 1:14 PM

Agree with Ikram. As superior as a New Yorker likes to feel, being a Midwesterner living in New York makes me feel even more superior. We know our American geography, and I laugh smugly at those who do not!

Posted by jhupp | January 15, 2008 1:15 PM

As one who grew up in Northern Idaho, I would like to congratulate Matthew on spelling "Coeur d'Alene" correctly. Well done.

Posted by Chip Hunter | January 15, 2008 1:22 PM

Coeur D'Alene didn't mean to reach into eastern Washington and mess around in their time zone. Idaho just has a wide stance.

Posted by Pesto | January 15, 2008 1:22 PM

In addition to having lots of militia dorks, Couer d'Alene sports a fine whorehouse off the interstate catering to the logging crowd. Don't ask me how I know.

Posted by Sporting Life | January 15, 2008 1:37 PM

So come to Indiana, Matt. The northwest corner is on Central Standard/Central Daylight time, because of the connections with Chicago. Prior to a couple of years ago, most of the state stayed on Eastern Standard time year-round, except fo a few parts that (near Cincinnati, near Louisville,...) switched to EDT in the summer. And there's a lot of sentiment to move back to that.

Posted by Donald A. Coffin | January 15, 2008 1:44 PM

Same deal on the Oregon/Idaho border. If you live in Nyssa or Ontario, Oregon, your "trip to the city" is to Boise, ID, not Portland, OR.

Posted by Laurie | January 15, 2008 1:47 PM

To be fair, my relatives in the Bay Area and friends in LA are equally clueless about the inland northwest. They don't get the climate either. There's an assumption that all of the northwest is wet (because people just see Seattle on tv) when a lot of eastern Washington and eastern Oregon is desert.

Posted by citizen (world) | January 15, 2008 2:12 PM

Ikram,

Man, the comments to that everglades post are HILARIOUS.

I keep chuckling all the way through.

I hope Matt keeps up these "gee whiz, different parts of america are different than what I know!" series.

If he doesn't mind the constant ribbing, it's actually:

a. Funny, for the comments.
b. Educational, as someone always says a few facts that I don't know.
c. A way to let off steam, sorta like the MY version of Cheers and Jeers (DailyKos)
d. the "gee whizness" of the comments are sorta cute.

So, I hope he continues this series, everytime he goes somewhere. His travelogues, from the "wiggers" in the south post from a couple of years ago to now, have an almost refreshing innocence to them.

Posted by JC | January 15, 2008 2:56 PM

Supposedly the extreme skinniness of the Idaho panhandle was caused by a surveying team losing the path of the Continental Divide (hence the 'Lost Trail Pass' in SW MT) and demarking the boundary incorrectly. Thus, most of Western MT (Missoula, the various Flathead Lake communities) should have been in Idaho, because the Divide runs just E of Butte and W of Helena!

Posted by The Sophist | January 15, 2008 3:27 PM

Somebody beat me to mentioning Indiana. Having gone to school right across the Ohio border, and having driven across it to get the the in-laws for many years, I'm well acquainted with their odd time zone policy. I once stayed at a Days Inn south of Indianapolis whose registration desk had a map clearly delineating all of Indiana's time zones. I can only assume they got a lot of questions about it.

But check out the wikipedia article on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Indiana

If it doesn't make your head hurt, you didn't understand it. I particularly love the maps on the left side of the page.

Posted by mwg | January 15, 2008 3:50 PM

Daylight time fracases in Arizona and Indiana aside, my favorite time zone oddity in the U.S. is that in 1999 the USDOT moved the Mountain/Pacific line west a little so that the city of West Wendover, Nevada --- and only the land within the city limits --- would be within Mountain Time, due to its connection with Utah. Indeed, visiting Salt Lake City one sees numerous billboards advertising casinos in West Wendover.

I have no idea what would happen if the City of West Wendover were to annex more territory --- would it automatically be included in the Mountain Time Zone? I doubt it.

Posted by Adam Villani | January 15, 2008 4:14 PM

Well Laurie made the point I would have, a portion of south-east Oregon effectively operates as a suburb of Boise and so runs on Mountain time.

Which sets up this odd trivia question. Which two coastal states, one Pacific and the other Atlantic are separated by just one hour?

The answer is clear enough on the original map, portions of the Florida panhandle are just one hour different from south-east Oregon. (On the flip side there are three hours difference between Miami and Portland)

Posted by Bruce Webb | January 15, 2008 5:47 PM

This just underscores how social-political geography is one of the most under-taught aspects of politics, much how the fact that Paris has narrow streets means that strikes can easily shut down the government because people can't get to and from work / government buildings.

Posted by Reality Man | January 16, 2008 4:09 AM