The Idaho State Historical Society is proud of its role in the envisioning and development of the Idaho Experience: Idaho’s Nuclear Navy, a documentary and partnership between the Idaho State Historical Society, the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program (NNPP), and Idaho Public Television. First premiered in Idaho Falls in November of 2023 and recently featured in March 2024 at Boise’s Egyptian Theater, the film shares the story of Idaho’s role in the genesis of the United States Nuclear Navy.

Beginning in 1949, the National Reactors Testing Station, now known as the Idaho National Laboratory, created unparalleled innovation in the nuclear energy industry including the first usable electricity generated by nuclear power at Experimental Breeder Reactor-1, and first nuclear propulsion systems for US Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. This exceptional 890 square mile windswept place in Idaho’s high desert and its history are vibrant, wrapped in the human memory of transformational technological innovation, family stories, tribal traditions, and the civic communities that surround it and consider it home.

The film chronicles the vision and tenacity of the leaders who served here in Idaho, advancing the use of nuclear power, which fostered our country’s leadership in wartime industries and trained 40,000 sailors in protocols, ensuring the Navy nuclear fleet’s safety, reliability, and precision. These leaders are our role models, and their work established the anchor upon which the nuclear Navy was built and, through 70 years of subsequent development, inspired what it is today. 

Notably, the documentary illuminates the vital role our Idaho State Historic Preservation Office plays within the context of our country’s and state’s leadership in preservation. Congress established the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966. For the first time in our country’s history, preservation of historic places was codified in public policy; it is the most far-reaching preservation legislation ever enacted in the United States.

The Act created a State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in every state and territory; our Idaho SHPO works, where possible, to protect, preserve, interpret, and reuse the state’s historic and archaeological properties. Our team carries out the provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act for the benefit of our state, its people, and its resources. The Act also created the National Register of Historic Places, which is the official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects worthy of preservation.

Among other things, the Act requires federal agencies to consider, in consultation with the SHPO, the impact of all federally funded or permitted projects on historic properties. When the team from the Naval Reactors Facility (NRF) invited the Idaho SHPO office to discuss the mission-critical need to decommission all three nuclear propulsion prototypes at their facility, this action began the formal process of consultation with our office which culminated in capturing the remarkable story of Idaho’s Nuclear Navy. 

Over the course of three years, our respective offices collaborated and agreed upon multi-layered mitigation for this decommissioning, to include photographic documentation, oral histories, artifact and archival preservation, and the documentary Idaho Experience: Idaho’s Nuclear Navy.

The Idaho State Historical Society is grateful for its partnership with the staff of the NRF, for their commitment to allowing this story to be told in film, providing broad access to the previously little-known history of this place and its people for Idahoans and all Americans.

We enjoy a wonderful alliance with Idaho Public Television for sharing Idaho stories in film, whose visual power touches us deeply and makes our viewing experience unforgettable. Their staff are remarkable storytellers and together we made history crafting this documentary and celebrating the amazing impact that Idaho has had on our national narrative.

In a remarkable nexus of the past to the present, the US Navy christened the new USS Idaho SSN 799 Virginia Class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine in Groton, Connecticut, on Saturday, March 16, 2024. With support from the USS Idaho Commissioning Foundation and Committee, the commissioning event included a uniquely Idaho approach to the traditional champagne bottle’s kiss on the boat’s hull. Sponsor Terry Stackley christened it instead with a bottle containing water from four of Idaho’s lakes: Lake Pend Oreille, Payette Lake, Henrys Lake, and Redfish Lake. Under the guidance of Nez Perce elder Wilfred Scott, Idaho’s tribes also blessed the boat through a traditional ceremony. 

The Idaho State Historical Society is currently working with the Commissioning Committee to plan for the long-term preservation of artifacts accompanying the USS Idaho. After the submarine’s 30 years of service, the artifacts will be returned safely to Idaho for their long-term preservation and educational value as part of the ISHS collection.

We are truly honored and privileged to preserve and promote Idaho’s history and ensure that Idaho’s legacy and its stories and collections remain secure under our stewardship, as our state motto evokes, Esto Perpetua.

Written by Executive Director Janet L. Gallimore