The Wood River Valley is a region in south-central Idaho. Located in Blaine County, it is named after the Big Wood and Little Wood Rivers, [1] which flow through the area.
The valley has four incorporated cities: Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum, and Sun Valley. It is considered part of the larger Magic Valley region, but differs economically due to its ties to the tourism industry, with less of a dependence on agriculture than in the southern Magic Valley proper.
The Sun Valley Resort is at the north end of the valley; the region also includes large portions of the Sawtooth National Forest and Sawtooth National Recreation Area.
The primary roadway is State Highway 75, the Sawtooth Scenic Byway. Friedman Memorial Airport and Wood River High School serve the valley and are both located in Hailey, the county seat of Blaine County, Idaho.
Blaine County is a county in the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 24,272. The county seat and largest city is Hailey. It is also home to the Sun Valley ski resort, adjacent to Ketchum.
Bellevue is a city in Blaine County in the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho. The population was 2,287 at the 2010 census, up from 1,876 in 2000.
Hailey is a city in and the county seat of Blaine County, in the Wood River Valley of the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho. The population was 7,960 at the 2010 census, up from 6,200 in 2000. Hailey is the site of Friedman Memorial Airport (SUN), the airport for the resort area of Sun Valley/Ketchum, 12 miles (19 km) north. The town of Bellevue is a few miles south. From 1882 to 1895, Hailey was the county seat of now-defunct Alturas County.
Ketchum is a city in Blaine County, Idaho, United States. Located in the central part of the state, the population was 3,555 at the 2020 census, up from 2,689 in 2010. Located in the Wood River Valley, Ketchum is adjacent to Sun Valley and the communities share many resources: both sit in the same valley beneath Bald Mountain, with its skiing. The city also draws tourists to its fishing, hiking, trail riding, tennis, shopping, art galleries, and more. The airport for Ketchum, Friedman Memorial Airport, is approximately 15 miles (24 km) south in Hailey.
Sun Valley is a resort city in the western United States, in Blaine County, Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in the Wood River valley. The population was 1,783 at the 2020 census. The elevation of Sun Valley is 5,920 feet (1,805 m) above sea level.
Shoshone is the county seat and largest city of Lincoln County, Idaho, United States. The population was 1,461 at the 2010 census. In contrast to the Shoshone Native American tribe for which it is named, the city's name is correctly pronounced "Show-shown", with a silent "e".
Galena Summit is a high mountain pass in the western United States in central Idaho, at an elevation of 8,701 feet (2,652 m) above sea level. The pass is located in the Boulder Mountains, in the northwest corner of Blaine County, within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area of the Sawtooth National Forest.
The Magic Valley, also known as South Central Idaho, is a region in south-central Idaho constituting Blaine, Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka, and Twin Falls counties. It is particularly associated with the agricultural region in the Snake River Plain located in the area. The northern Magic Valley region — particularly Blaine and Camas Counties — is also known as the Wood River Valley after the Big Wood River.
Bald Mountain is a mountain in the western United States in south central Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in Blaine County. The mountain has one of the higher summits of the Smoky Mountains of Idaho, located in the Sawtooth National Forest. The forested Smoky Mountains were named for their propensity for summer forest fires.
Sawtooth National Forest is a National Forest that covers 2,110,408 acres in the U.S. states of Idaho and Utah. Managed by the U.S. Forest Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it was originally named the Sawtooth Forest Reserve in a proclamation issued by President Theodore Roosevelt on May 29, 1905. On August 22, 1972, a portion of the forest was designated as the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA), which includes the Sawtooth, Cecil D. Andrus–White Clouds, and Hemingway–Boulders wilderness areas. The forest is managed as four units: the SNRA and the Fairfield, Ketchum, and Minidoka Ranger Districts.
Wood River High School is a public secondary school in Hailey, Idaho, one of two traditional high schools operated by the Blaine County School District #61. Wood River High School serves the communities of Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum, and Sun Valley, all in the valley of the Big Wood River, and the current campus opened in August 2003. The school colors are green and white and the mascot is a wolverine.
Central Idaho is a geographical term for the region located northeast of Boise and southeast of Lewiston in the U.S. state of Idaho. It is dominated by federal lands administered by the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Idaho's tallest mountain, Borah Peak, is located in this region. A large part of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area is within Central Idaho.
The Big Wood River is a 137-mile-long (220 km) river in central Idaho, United States, that is a tributary of the Malad River.
KECH-FM is a radio station broadcasting a classic rock format. Licensed to Sun Valley, Idaho, United States, the station serves the Twin Falls area. The station is currently owned by Richard Mecham, through licensee Woods River Media, LLC.
State Highway 75 is a two-lane highway in the western United States that travels through the Sawtooth Valley of central Idaho. The highway's southern terminus is in Shoshone, and its northern is near Challis. It is designated as one of Idaho's scenic byways and provides access to Sawtooth National Recreation Area and primarily follows the Big Wood River in the south and the main Salmon River in the north, divided by Galena Summit.
Beaudry Robert "Bowe" Bergdahl is a former United States Army soldier who was held captive from 2009 to 2014 by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Sun Valley Museum of Art (SVMoA) is the oldest arts organization in central Idaho’s Wood River Valley. Founded in 1971 as the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, the museum has grown from a few people presenting classes and events to an organization which has over 20,000 people attend events annually.
The Smoky Mountains are part of the Rocky Mountains and located on the west side of the Wood River Valley near Sun Valley, Idaho, in the Western United States. The range is within Sawtooth National Forest, while part of it is within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. The highest point in the range is Saviers Peak at 10,441 ft (3,182 m).
Gimlet is an unincorporated community in Blaine County in the U.S. state of Idaho.
Galena Lodge is a Nordic skiing and mountain biking recreation area in Blaine County, Idaho. It was established in 1976 at the location of the former mining town of Galena (1876–1890). The lodge operation is based on a special-use permit from the US Forest Service, the first one issued in the US for the Nordic ski resort. With almost 100 miles of trails for skiing and snowshoeing, the Ketchum/Sun Valley Nordic system is one of the largest ones in the United States.
Bergdahl, of Wood River Valley, Idaho, appeared in diminished health in a video that the U.S. military obtained in January.
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