Quick, when is Idaho's Statehood Day? Don't know, do you?

They know when statehood day is in Nevada, though.

There, it's a state holiday - and a statehood event unlike any other in the United States. This year's drew an estimated 30,000 people, from as far away as Pennsylvania. That's more than half of the population of Carson City, where Nevada Day is held.

There by coincidence for something else, my wife and I spent Nevada Day enjoying the state's best party and wondering why so many other states, including Idaho, are missing out.

Nevada became a state on Halloween - you have to like that - in 1864. Halloween is celebrated a day early in Carson City, so it doesn't conflict with the really fun day.

The first clue that it was going to be unusual came at a little after 7 a.m., when we looked out our motel room window and saw clowns. Soon the sky was filled with hot-air balloons. By 8:30, a fusion band was playing in the motel driveway.

The parade began at 10, with two F-18s screaming over the main street. By then we were seated in some invitation-only bleachers. An invited couple didn't show up so their friends spontaneously invited us - complete strangers. People are nothing if not friendly in Carson City.

It was a parade anyone could love. They had to cut it down to 200 entries. They included the Reno Roller Girls, submarine veterans, marching bands, gymnasts, ice skaters, politicians, a Burning Man controlled burn, the Red Hat Society and the "Wild Ass Women."

Really.

The three-hour parade was just one of the events. Some of the others were: a beard contest, a Bloody Mary contest, a rock-drilling contest, a carnival, tours of state buildings, a show by Antsy McClain and the Trailer Park Troubadours and a free chili feed hosted by the lieutenant governor.

It was like the Fourth of July combined with Mardi Gras. Motels, restaurants and bars were packed. Motel rooms with a view of the parade were booked a year in advance. Schools and government offices closed.

All this begged the obvious question: Why don't more states take advantage of such a historical, and lucrative, opportunity?

Candace Duncan, executive director of the Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, told me that Nevada and Hawaii are the only states that celebrate their statehood days. (Idaho's, for those of you still wondering, is July 3.)

The closest thing Boise has had to Carson City's annual bash was the Boise River Festival. A lot of Boiseans had problems with that. It was a made-up event with no historical connection, it damaged the river banks and it lost money. But its demise left an economic void for some local businesses that has yet to be filled.

"Nothing has really taken its place," said Bobbie Patterson, executive director of the Boise Convention Center and Visitors Bureau.

"There were those who loved the river festival and those who said good riddance. But we still have people who say it was an icon for Boise and businesses who still say they miss it," Patterson said. "I think it would be a good thing for them and for the community if we had the right kind of event to take its place and the people it would take to make it work."

In Carson City, most of those people are volunteers.

"It's a grassroots effort," Duncan said. "A committee works on it all year. The community recognizes that it's a huge benefit to us, not only economically but as a matter of civic pride. We do it because we love it."

It was hard to be there for Nevada day without thinking of the late Merle Wells, Idaho's historian emeritus. Every year, he'd call and ask me to do a story reminding people about Idaho's statehood day. I dutifully did the stories - which virtually everyone ignored, along with Statehood Day itself.

Give the people of Carson City credit. They value their history, and do they ever know how to throw a party.

We could learn something from them.

Tim Woodward: 377-6409