Big change afoot for Boise’s Simplot Hill, home of sledding, sunsets and iconic flag
This story was updated Tuesday, April 1, to add two paragraphs of comment from the city of Boise.
Change may be coming soon to Simplot Hill, the site just off Bogus Basin Road where the mansion belonging to the late Idaho potato and agriculture titan J.R. Simplot once stood — and where its iconic flag still waves.
The Simplot Family Foundation said Monday that it plans to turn the 200-acre Boise Highlands property into a park with a hilltop viewing pavilion, a grand staircase, winding paths and “secret” ponds, a play area for children, an outdoor picnic area and water features.
The hill is a popular place for children and families to sled in winter and ride chunks of ice down the slope in summer. Those would continue.
The park would be named Jack’s Park, for John Richard Simplot’s nickname. And, like the Simplot family’s JUMP center downtown — Jack’s Urban Meeting Place — it would honor Simplot’s agricultural role with an interactive museum called Jack’s Shed.
“The hill has always attracted Boise’s kids,” said Scott Simplot, one of J.R. Simplot’s sons and the chairman of Boise’s J.R. Simplot Co. In a news release, he said, “For years, families have used the slope for ice blocking and sunset watching. We want to keep what people already love, and give them just a little bit more.”
J.R. Simplot built a nearly 7,400-square-foot mansion atop the hill in 1979. Neighbors initially complained about the gunshot-style sound of the flag flapping in the wind and keeping them awake at night. Simplot responded by making the flagpole taller to reduce its flapping noise.
He and his second wife, Esther, lived there until the early 2000s, when they moved into an apartment in the Grove Hotel in downtown Boise. “We moved, frankly, because I got tired of taking care” of the mansion, she said in 2004.
That was the year the couple donated the house, just 25 years old, to the state for use as a governor’s mansion. “As governors go and come, I hope they enjoy it,” J.R. Simplot said.
No governor ever did. Then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne accepted the gift gratefully. The expectation was that Kempthorne, who was living in a downtown condo, and his successors would live there.
But the place needed work. Kempthorne stepped down in 2006 before his term ended without moving in. Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, who held the governor’s job for just seven months afterward, did not occupy the house. Nor did Butch Otter, who won the first of his three terms in the 2006 election. Otter’s first marriage had been to Gay Simplot, J.R.’s daughter; they later divorced. He had no interest in living in the Simplot house and stayed on his ranch in Star.
The state couldn’t figure out what to do with the property. The house sat vacant for years, though the state spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain it. The state faithfully kept the 30-by-50-foot flag flying on its 200-foot flagpole, replacing it several times a year as the wind ripped the fabric.
J.R. Simplot died in 2008 at age 99. The state returned the house and land to his family in 2013. No family members moved into it either, and in 2016, the family demolished it.
Simplots help pay for city park, build JUMP
The Simplot family is already associated with outdoor and creativity-minded places in the city.
Boise has a park named for Esther Simplot along the Boise River in the West End. J.R. and Esther Simplot donated $1 million to the city in 2003 to help it buy riverfront property for the park.
The family in 2015 opened JUMP at 1000 W. Myrtle St., adjacent to the Simplot Co.’s headquarters. JUMP is a center for events, exhibitions, and creative activities such as art, cooking and performances. It includes a display of vintage tractors and other farm equipment.
The Simplot name is also attached to a decades-old city park near the Columbia Village subdivision in Southeast Boise. The Simplot Sports Complex is known especially for its soccer fields.
The family foundation approached City Hall in April 2024 to share ideas about the proposed park, said Maria Ortega, a spokesperson for Mayor Lauren McLean. The city’s only recommendation was to submit a master site plan to show the park’s features, Ortega told the Statesman by email on Tuesday.
“Once they do, it will go through the design-review process before being approved,” Ortega said. No rezoning or special permit is required, and no public hearings or City Council approvals are needed, she said.
Simplot Family Foundation to own, maintain park
The foundation said it would submit a request on Tuesday to City Hall for approval of the park. The foundation said it would bear the costs of designing, landscaping, construction pavilions and play structures, and it would retain ownership of the land and responsibility for its upkeep and maintenance. The park would be built in four phases over 10 to 15 years.
Scott Simplot said the family’s planning team envisions a park that inspires people to see beauty and opportunity. “We noticed that people naturally find their place here on the slope as they take in the views,” he said in the release. “We want to encourage that.”
Through it all, the family promises, the flag will fly.
This story was originally published March 31, 2025 at 6:27 PM.
