Bruneau is about an hour southeast of Boise and it has two natural sites: sand dunes in the middle of a mountain range and the Bruneau Canyon. The canyon cradles the Bruneau River, named after Canadian trapper Pierre Bruneau. In the 1940s, the Mountain Home Air Force Base opened to train bombers for overseas missions in WWII.
Salmon migrate up the Snake River and Bruneau Valley as far as Nevada. The Shoshone, Paiute, and Bannock people fished here and hunted game in the mountains. Women gathered berries, seeds, and roots from over 100 plant species.
