University of Idaho

  The University of Idaho sprawls across the west side of Moscow. It is a big campus in terms of acreage. It covers 1,585 acres (about 2 1/2 square miles), and stretches about 1 1/2 miles from north to south and nearly two miles from east to west.  Most of the buildings are on the eastern half of the campus and the western half is mostly undeveloped land, but there is also some farmland and a tree farm on the west side of the campus. The university even has its own golf course! It is on the south edge of campus. The football stadium is unusual looking. It is a dome, called the Kibbie Dome, that does not look like a typical domed stadium. The stadium was originally an outdoor facility and then it was enclosed sometime in the 1970s. It is elongated and sort of looks like a livestock exhibition hall. But they had to make do with an already existing stadium. It looks like something that might be seen at a fairgrounds. The Kibbie Dome holds 17,000 people, which makes it the smallest football stadium in Division I college football. There is talk of building a bigger stadium in order to attract more high profile teams to Moscow, but with the rural character of this area and the fact that there is a Pac 10 school just 8 miles away,  I doubt that there is the population to fill up two big stadiums. And the Pac 10 school nearby, Washington State, has one of the smaller stadiums in Division I football and the smallest in the Pac 10. Martin Stadium only holds 37,500 people. There has also been talk for years of building a stadium on the highway halfway between Moscow and Pullman that both teams could share. If this happens, the Idaho Vandals will play their home football games in Washington!
  The University of Idaho campus was designed by the two sons of reknowned architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Most universities have an architectural theme and, at U of I, it is the Tudor/Gothic style. The two best examples of this are the Administration Building and Memorial Gymnasium. This was the basketball venue until the mid 1970s when the football stadium was enclosed, so now the Kibbie Dome is both a football and basketball venue. However, the volleyball teams still play in Memorial Gymnasium, which has a capacity of 1,500. Memorial Gymnasium has gargoyles on the ledges around the exterior of the building. It also has a tall, gothic-style tower.  It is a real sight to behold.
  The university has about 13,000 students, which makes it the third largest in Idaho, behind Boise State University in Boise and Idaho State University in Pocatello. It is the location of the only law school in Idaho.
  An unusual aspect about the University of Idaho is the fact that the west boundary of the campus is at the Washington border. The campus goes right up to the fence that runs along the state border! The campus tree
farm is right next to the border fence. The University of Idaho is barely in Idaho!
  The university was located in Moscow to appease the people in the northern part of the state who, at the time, were talking about re-joining Washington or forming a new state because they are cut off from southern Idaho by a big expanse of unpopulated wilderness and also because they were still upset that the capital was moved from Lewiston to Boise.