BOISE, Idaho — Five years ago, Boise illustrator Kelly Knopp felt Idaho’s strangest stories deserved a visual treatment for future generations. He turned the state’s hidden history, including the parachuting beavers, a house full of pet bears and the ‘ugliest car ever built,’ into a colorful adventure guide for kids.
In 2025, Knopp’s stories have turned the page and made the jump from paper to pixels. It’s not a video game, and it’s not exactly homework either, but hand a kid an iPad with a talking beaver and suddenly, Idaho history might not seem so dull anymore.
The new “A While Ago in Idaho App” is a digital version of the children’s book series that Kelly Knopp wrote and illustrated. Ask him if he ever thought that his idea, five years later, would become an app, and he said no…