The Incredible Shrinking County

No, Wallace was not the first county seat of Shoshone County. No, you are wrong again,.Not even Murray was the first county seat of Shoshone County, Idaho. Indeed, the first county seat of Shoshone County was not even in Idaho. It was -------drum roll please--------Colville, Washington.

Yes, Colville, Washington was the first county seat of Shoshone County, and what a whopper of an area it was! Created on January 28th, 1858 by the Washington territorial legislature which had control over what is now, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Shoshone Country was originally designated as "all of the territory north of the Snake and east of the Columbia rivers and west of the Rocky mountains"

 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19580131&id=Op9WAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KecDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5654,4456328&hl=en


The legislature then went on to designate Colville in northeastern Washington as the county seat.
Now, I have been up to Colville several times, and it is beautiful up there. but can you imagine the job the poor Shoshone county Sheriff's Department would have if they had to patrol all of that gigantic spread of real estate?