Western Heritage Historic Byway

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Your Pathway to Adventure

To drive the Western Heritage Historic Byway is to experience living history—a look back in time to when Idaho was a vast frontier territory.  

The Western Heritage Foundation organized in 2000 to create the Western Heritage Historic Byway. 

Well known points of interest along the byway include the Snake River Canyon, the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (NCA), Swan Falls Dam, Celebration (Archeological) Park and petroglyphs carved by prehistoric hunter-gatherers.  

Human history in the Snake River Canyon dates back nearly 9,000 years ago when the first people inscribed their artwork on canyon rocks.  

Evidence of one of the largest floods in geologic history that reshaped the entire canyon across Idaho is strikingly visible today at Dedication point and Celebration Park.  

The 485,000-acre Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area is the byway’s primary attraction.  

More than 100,000 visitors travel annually from throughout the nation and the world to view the densest concentrations of nesting birds of prey in the world.  

The NCA is home to 24 species of birds including: eagles, falcons, hawks and osprey.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recognized the historic and cultural value that the byway has to offer not only to Idaho but to the nation as well.  

During September of 2005, the FHWA bestowed the Western Heritage Historic Byway the coveted designation as a National Scenic Byway—one of only four byways in Idaho to achieve the America’s Byways designation.