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This collection contains a digitized photograph album from the Betty M. Foster collection on Save Eagle/Castle Rock. The album consists of a brochure from the Idaho Foundation of Parks and Lands, photographs, and Betty’s written memories of the area and the community efforts to preserve the land.

Betty M. Foster relocated to Boise, Idaho, in 1957, and moved into a house on Hillview Drive in the East End Neighborhood with her family. In 1990, she became aware of Morningside Heights, a proposed 177-unit subdivision along Castle Rock Ridge, north of her neighborhood. Betty, along with members of the East End Neighborhood Association (EENA), opposed the development due to worries about school overcrowding, traffic, geologic problems on the hillside, and the area’s importance to native tribes. The Shoshone-Bannock and Shoshone-Paiute tribes opposed development on the ridge near a rock outcropping—known to the tribes as Eagle Rock after Chief Eagle Eye—because of the area's importance as an ancestral burial ground and place of spiritual significance. 

After several years of negotiations, the developer, Boise City, the EENA, and the tribes agreed to a settlement in 1993 to allow 34 acres of the ridge to be developed while preserving 50 acres as open space. The settlement required the city to pay a $500,000 down payment for the 50 acres, with the EENA responsible for raising the remaining $75,000.

Betty created the Save Castle Rock fundraising committee to collect donations by the January 1996 deadline to secure the purchase. After the land purchase, the committee continued collecting donations, which were eventually used for trail signage. In 2009, Betty raised money to purchase a tribute stone at Chief Eagle Eye Reserve, formerly Quarry View Park.

Image credit: Betty M. Foster collection on Save Eagle/Castle Rock, MS116-B02, Boise City Archives

Interested in researching the Betty M. Foster Collection on Save Eagle/Castle Rock?  Click on "Find out More" below to review the finding aid or reach out to artsandhistory@cityofboise.org.