Meridian

Meridian is a city in the Treasure Valley of southwestern Idaho, west of Boise in Ada County. The name refers to the Boise Meridian, the survey line from which land in Idaho has been measured since the 1860s.

The area was settled by farm families from the Midwest in the 1890s, and the town grew around a schoolhouse and a railway stop on the Boise Meridian line. Irrigation canals from the Boise River watered orchards and pastures, and Meridian became a dairy town, with a creamery that shipped butter and cheese across the region. For most of the 20th century it remained a small farm town. From the 1990s it grew quickly into one of the main suburbs of Boise, with new neighborhoods built on the old farmland.

Scentsy, the maker of scented wax warmers sold through home parties, has its head office on a campus in Meridian. Blue Cross of Idaho, a health insurer, also has its headquarters in the city. Farms west of Meridian still grow sugar beets and seed crops on irrigated land.

The Village at Meridian, an outdoor shopping center, has fountains that dance to music in the evening. Roaring Springs, a water park on the west side of the city, has slides and a wave pool. Settlers Park has a playground, a splash pad and ponds along a walking path. Kleiner Park, near the Village, has a pond and an amphitheater for summer concerts. Each June the Meridian Dairy Days festival recalls the farm past of the town with a parade, a carnival and a milk-drinking contest.