Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Weiser Weiser, ID

Weiser is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Idaho, sitting at the confluence of the Weiser River with the Snake River, which marks the border with Oregon.

Weiser was named after the nearby Weiser River, though who the river was named for is not known; one version credits Peter M. Weiser, a soldier on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and another credits Jacob Weiser, a trapper-turned-miner.

William Logan and his wife Nancy were the first white settlers in the vicinity of Weiser in 1863, and a post office was established in 1866 as Weiser Ranch before being renamed Weiser in 1871.

Weiser reached its height of prosperity when a railroad station was established and the city became a transportation hub, and many original buildings from the 1890s and early 1900s are on the National Register of Historic Places.

The 2020 census counted 5,630 people in Weiser, up from 5,507 in 2010.

The 2020 census counted 2,173 households and 2,329 housing units in Weiser, and the median age of residents was 42.4 years.

Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson played semi-pro baseball for the Weiser Kids in 1906 and 1907, and while in Weiser he once pitched 84 consecutive scoreless innings before departing for the major leagues at age nineteen in July 1907.

Weiser bills itself as the "Fiddling Capital of the World," and the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest has been held there each year since 1953, drawing over 7,000 people to the area.

Weiser supports farm, orchard, and livestock industries, and for many years its location as the last city upriver from Hells Canyon made it the jump-off point for wilderness raft tours down the gorge.

U.S. Route 95 runs through Weiser, connecting the city to Oregon and British Columbia.