A decade ago, Idaho was watching its young people flee from one of the worst recessions the state had ever experienced.
The dramatic contraction in fundamental resource sectors like timber and mining sent shock waves throughout small-town Idaho. More than 6,500 jobs disappeared during the fall and winter of 1982-1983 as the unemployment rate hit double digits.A stagnant performance over the next three years disintegrated into the loss of nearly 8,000 more jobs during just a nine-month period.
The malaise drove 50,000 people out of Idaho, and policymakers feared the state would never benefit from the economic surge that had gripped much of the rest of the nation while Ronald Reagan was president.
But in 1987, the tide began to turn as the Gem State committed to fostering economic expansion. A million dollars was pumped into a Department of Commerce that had been nothing more than a facade, and Idaho began actively promoting its prime asset - quality of life.
Today, a state once known only for its potatoes is one of the few bright spots on a dreary national economic landscape. It has become a magnet for businessmen frustrated with red tape, high costs and a troublesome lifestyle.
"Once I discovered that there was more to Idaho than its potatoes - beautiful mountains, beautiful forests, beautiful lakes, great people, a relatively conservative government - I decided on Idaho," said Ritch Bonkowski, who moved Fabra-Dyne Inc., an electrical connector manufacturer, to Idaho from Southern California two years ago.
"There's absolutely no comparison," Bonkowski said.
In the past six years, Idaho has been producing new jobs faster than nearly any other state. Over 33,000 more people are at work than in early 1987. Employment hit a record 500,000 this fall.
Business leaders have been successful in diversifying the state's economic activity so it can ride out the cyclical problems inherent in every sector. The role resource industries like timber once played has declined, giving way to one of the strongest manufacturing expansions in the West, led by the computer industry.
The mining industry remains the one dark spot. But an indifferent international economy has all but eliminated its economic influence statewide, although the Panhandle's Silver Valley has been left with severe financial problems.
"The fact is we've been very aggressive in going after employers to come into the state, and we've encouraged expansion of existing operations," Gov. Cecil Andrus said.
New businesses have been starting at one of the briskest paces in America, while business bankruptcies have been relatively limited.
"It has to do with a business environment that is very favorable to clean businesses, a very supportive community and state, a consistent and stable tax structure and a very available and very committed work force," said Don Curtis, general manager of Hewlett-Pack-ard's Boise Division.
"There is a quality of life here in Idaho that is a real credit to the natives of Idaho and to how they've operated over the years," Curtis said.
Initially, the economic renaissance was mostly limited to Boise, Coeur d'Alene and Idaho Falls. But over the past several years it has spread into nearly every other community.
"Broad public and private partnerships are working throughout the state," state Commerce Director Jim Hawkins said.
Idaho's seemingly unstinting economic vitality has turned into a beacon for families coping with layoffs, or the prospects of them, in other states. Since late 1989, when the population finally reached 1 million, more than 75,000 people have moved into the state.
Limnion Corp.'s Dave Murray, who moved his lakes and waterways restoration business from California in 1990, said living and working in Idaho are in stark contrast to life in some other parts of the country.
"It's a sense that, `I've got to get . . . out of where I am,' and this is naturally going to be high on everyone's list," Murray said.
The expansion has produced tax revenues well above expectations, allowing politicians the luxury of campaigning on other issues. The average annual wage has risen 25 percent since the boom began. And unemployment remains well below the national rate.
But the growth has put pressure on the state's public-school system, where officials estimate $700 million is needed just to upgrade facilities or build new ones.
The value of property - and the tax owed on it - has escalated. Local governments have increased rates to expand services to accommodate the population growth.
Moreover, confrontations between rural life and urban sprawl are on the rise as more and more pasture and cropland give way to home developers.
A Canyon County farmer was arrested this summer after homeowners near his field complained about the noise he made bailing hay.
The changes that recent growth have brought to the lives of many longtime Idahoans has not been universally accepted. And some ill feeling toward new immigrants, especially those from richer, more urbane California, has resulted.
Janet and Tom Wing returned to San Diego last month after living just 13 months in Coeur d'Alene.
"We've heard for the past year that strident voice - `We don't want you here,' " Janet Wing said. "It's a strident voice heard above all others."
Other newcomers are also concerned, and growth - and managing it - is gradually moving from the local to the state level as a major issue.
Spur Products President Dennis Hicks has been vocal about a statewide strategy to handle growth since he moved the world leader in manufacturing high-speed printer interfaces to Boise in 1991.
He believes the state has to lead the way to assure a relatively even distribution of the expansion and to blunt the kind of anti-growth sentiment that drove the Wings back to California.
"Just in the time I've been here, I think I can see the emergence of those extremes and a growing concern of business and others about a localized growth strategy," Hicks said.
But, he added, "There seems to be a nice, close coupling between the public sector and the private sector, and both are willing to step up to the difficult problems of managing growth and handling growth. That's a real healthy aspect.
"That means those things that attracted you here in the first place are more likely to be preserved and protected."