Lewiston is a city and the county chair of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state’s north central region. It is the second-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Coeur d’Alene, and ninth-largest in the state. Lewiston is the principal city of the Lewiston, ID-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes whatever of Nez Perce County and Asotin County, Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population of Lewiston was 34,203 taking place from 31,894 in 2010.

Lewiston is located at the confluence of the Snake River and Clearwater River, thirty miles (50 km) upstream and southeast of the Lower Granite Dam. Because of dams (and their locks) on the Snake and Columbia River, Lewiston is clear by some ocean-going vessels. The Port of Lewiston (Idaho’s only seaport) has the distinction of living thing the farthest inland harbor east of the West Coast. The Lewiston-Nez Perce County Airport serves the city by air.

Lewiston was founded in 1861 in the wake of a gold rush which began the previous year close Pierce, northeast of Lewiston. The city was incorporated by the Washington Territorial Legislature in January 1863. In March 1863, Lewiston became the first capital of the newly created Idaho Territory. Its stint as seat of the additional territory’s dealing out was short-lived, as a resolved to have the capital moved south to Boise was passed by the Idaho Territorial Legislature on December 7, 1864.

Lewiston’s main industries are agriculture, paper, and timber products, and lively manufacturing. Ammunition manufacturing maintains a entirely important and growing presence in Lewiston, being the headquarters of ammunition makers CCI and Speer Bullet. The city is the primary regional transportation, retail, health care, and entertainment middle of the surrounding Place and serves as a recreation destination for the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.