Troy, ID

Troy began as Huff's Gulch in the Palouse country, then changed shape when John P. Vollmer brought the Spokane and Palouse Railway through in 1890. He renamed the place Vollmer, and it incorporated under that name in 1892. Seven years later, residents voted to call it Troy; local history credits a Greek railroad worker with suggesting the name and offering a drink to supporters. The railroad, flour mill, stores, and sawmills made Troy a working town at the edge of Latah County's farm country.

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The older commercial map still hangs together around the downtown historic district, whose buildings keep the early storefront-and-service center visible. Troy's story is in the name change as much as the buildings: a town that pushed back against a landowner's name, kept the rail corridor, and carried its early mill-and-market center into the present. The result is a small Idaho city with a specific origin story, a commercial downtown, and a place in the Palouse country that still makes sense when you follow the old rail line.