Emida, Idaho — Three Surnames Compressed Into Five Letters

Emida sits along State Highway 6 in the forested eastern part of Benewah County.

Its name is generally traced to three early settlers—East, Miller and Dawson—whose surnames were combined into a single word. It may be one of northern Idaho's more efficient acts of community naming: three people, five letters.

The surrounding country lies within the homeland of the Coeur d'Alene people and was later shaped heavily by timber. Logging, rural roads and small farms supported households scattered through the hills.

Emida never needed much of a downtown. Homes and properties remain spread through country where forest sets the scale.

The invented word outlasted the people whose names supplied it. What began as shorthand became geography.