Boise, Idaho

Boise (pronounced Boy-see not Boy-zee) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho as well as the county seat of Ada County. French trappers, the first white people in the area, allegedly referred to the Boise River as "La rivière boisée" and the name stuck. As of the 2008 Census Bureau estimates, Boise's city population was 205,314, making it the third largest city in the Pacific Northwest.

Boise is the headquarters for several major companies, such as URS Corp., Boise Cascade LLC, Albertsons LLC, J.R. Simplot Company, Idaho Pacific Lumber Company, Idaho Timber, WinCo Foods, Bodybuilding.com, and Clearwater Analytics. Other major industries are headquartered in Boise or have large manufacturing facilities present. The state government is also one of the city's largest employers.

Technology investment and the high-tech industry have become increasingly important to the city, with businesses including Healthwise, Bodybuilding.com, Crucial.com, MobileDataForce, MarkMonitor, Sybase, Balihoo.com and Microsoft. The call center industry is also a major source of employment.