Idaho State University: From Academy to Bengals

Sitting on the eastern Snake River Plain in Pocatello, Idaho State University traces its roots to March eleven, nineteen oh one, when Governor Frank Hunt signed Senate Bill Fifty-Three into law. The bill was drafted by state senator and Pocatello mayor Theodore Turner, who is remembered as the father of Idaho State University. Turner donated Red Hill and a one-hundred-sixty-acre farm to seed the new institution, which opened its doors as the Academy of Idaho.

The school's mission was rooted in the practical needs of Idaho, agriculture, mining, engineering, and teacher education for a territory barely a decade into statehood. In nineteen twenty-seven it became the Southern Branch of the University of Idaho. It was elevated to Idaho State College in nineteen forty-seven, and finally to university status in nineteen sixty-three, reflecting decades of steady growth.

Today ISU enrolls roughly thirteen thousand students and anchors higher education for southeastern Idaho and the surrounding region. It is home to the only pharmacy school in Idaho, and its health sciences programs serve communities across a vast and rural state.

The university has sent notable graduates into public life. Actor William Petersen, best known as Gil Grissom on the long-running television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, earned his degree here before heading for the stage in Chicago and beyond.

For travelers passing through Pocatello on what was once the Lincoln Highway, Idaho State is a reminder that even in a state known for potatoes and wide-open spaces, the Morrill Land-Grant tradition planted deep academic roots more than a century ago.