On a voice vote, the House has passed Rep. Scott Syme’s resolution honoring “Chicken Dinner Road” in Caldwell for its historic name, and urging that the name never be changed. “This resolution is not about chickens,” Syme told the House, after reading the resolution; you can read it here. “This is about preserving history in our state.”
The Idaho Press reports there was an outcry last July that went viral when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, requested that the road name be changed because it contended the current one wasn’t sufficiently respectful to chickens. In a letter sent to Caldwell Mayor Garret Nancolas in July, PETA condemned the name of the road, saying, “Chickens are intelligent, sensitive animals who feel pain and empathy and form strong bonds with one another, and they shouldn’t be considered ‘dinner.’”
Caldwell didn’t change the name.
Syme told the House, “As some of you know, there was an effort to change the name of ‘Chicken Dinner Road’ to ‘Chicken Road.’ And that effort didn’t bother to try and find out why it was called Chicken Dinner Road.”
“So we have a lot of people that move here and that come and visit our state because it’s a beautiful state,” Syme said. “And sometimes it’s hard to accept all the changes that are happening, and we’re a very friendly people. And everyone that moves here that I talk to says how friendly we are. But when you try and change our history or events that create historical significance … that just goes too far. So with that, Mr. Speaker, I’m asking for a green light on preserving Idaho history.”
Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, spoke out in favor of the resolution. “When I first heard about this, I chuckled a little bit,” he said, “but this is very important and something serious that I think this Legislature and all governments should do, and that is preserve our history. History helps us understand where we came from, how we got here, and how we learn from past mistakes. Chicken Dinner Road is not about chickens. It’s about a time when eating a chicken dinner was a big deal,” he said, during the Great Depression.
At the time, he said, “Farm foreclosures were rampant throughout Idaho, throughout the nation. So the Idaho Legislature passed a law that said you could not foreclose for 60 days, regardless of what the mortgage agreement said, you can’t do it.”
Then-Gov. C. Ben Ross, in a stump speech in Jerome in 1934, defended the moratorium law, saying “Two or three courts have declared my moratoriums unconstitutional, but that doesn’t make any difference to me. I’m still issuing moratoriums.”
“That was the kind of place that Idaho was back in the 1930s,” Gannon said, urging support for the resolution. It now moves to the Senate side.
Written by Betsy Z. Russell, the Boise bureau chief and state capitol reporter for the Idaho Press
