The United States Department of Agriculture estimates were first made for the state of Idaho in 1882, and that year they recorded that 2,000 acres were harvested at the average price of $1.67. The total value of the potato market in Idaho that first year was $250,000.

It was in 1904 when the value of potatoes in Idaho went over the million mark with $1,328,000. The price average for the season was down from that first year by 62 cents, but the 17,000 acres harvested made the difference.

The harvest was 33,000 acres when the potato value was estimated at more than three million dollars in 1915. The unit price was 65 cents that year and the following year advanced to $1.32 and the potato industry recorded a seven million dollar value on 33,000 harvested acres of potatoes.

In 1885, after the Oregon Short Line Railroad was completed across Southern Idaho, the Boise newspaper was encouraging Idahoans to plant potatoes by calling the attention of farmers to the "possible advantages of raising potatoes for the Eastern market."

In 1890, Idaho was admitted to the Union as the 43rd state. And, by fall of 1890, Idaho® potatoes were becoming well known in produce circles. Frank Drake of Hailey was awarded $125 as a prize for the third-heaviest yield of one acre of potatoes in the United States! Drake was a prominent rancher living just out of Hailey, and he also developed a seed potato that was claimed to be the "most prolific known." Drake decided to name it "The Idaho" but the Wood River Times of October 17, 1890, decided it would always be called "Drake's Idaho."

And then came news that Thomas Wend of Shoup had received a $100 award offered by a Philadelphia seed dealer for the heaviest potatoes raised from seed purchased from him in 1890. The six potatoes weighed 17 pounds.