Wait… That’s Made in Idaho? 5 Things You Might Not Know Are Made Here

When people think about things made in Idaho, potatoes are probably one of the first things that come to mind.

And fair enough. We do grow a lot of potatoes.

But Idaho makes a whole lot more than that, and some of it might surprise you. We’re talking airplanes, energy bars, fragrance products, knives, and even cheese in quantities that feel a little ridiculous.

So this week, we went looking for a few things being made right here in Idaho that made us stop and think:

Wait… they make that here?

Turns out, quite a bit.

Yes, Actual Airplanes Are Built in Sandpoint

Let’s start with something small.

An airplane.

Up in Sandpoint, Daher designs and assembles Kodiak aircraft, rugged turboprop planes built to handle places where a nice, smooth runway isn’t always part of the plan.

The Kodiak 100 and Kodiak 900 are assembled at Daher’s Idaho facility and are used all over the world for passenger travel, medical missions, skydiving, government work, and getting into remote places that aren’t exactly easy to reach.

They can even be outfitted with floats.

So yes, people in North Idaho are going to work every day and building actual airplanes.

Not parts that eventually become airplanes somewhere else.

The whole airplane.

That feels like something we probably don’t talk about enough.

Some of Those CLIF Bars May Have Come From Twin Falls

You know that CLIF Bar you threw into your bag before a hike, road trip, soccer game, or one of those days when you suddenly realize it’s 2:00 and you never ate lunch?

There’s a chance Idaho helped make it.

CLIF has a bakery in Twin Falls, where bars are produced alongside another bakery in Indianapolis.

And these aren’t exactly small operations.

Mondelēz, which owns the CLIF brand, says the two bakeries together can produce around 30,000 bars in ten minutes.

Thirty thousand bars.

That’s a lot of snacks.

The Twin Falls bakery opened in 2016, and even the building itself is a little different from what you might picture when you hear “manufacturing plant.” It was designed with hundreds of windows, skylights, and other features meant to bring more natural light into the space.

So the next time you grab a CLIF Bar off the shelf, it might have a little Twin Falls connection behind it.

Meridian Smells Better Than We Realized

If you’ve ever driven past the huge Scentsy campus in Meridian and wondered what actually happens inside all those buildings, the short answer is:

A lot.

And apparently, quite a bit of it smells really good.

Scentsy is headquartered in Meridian and manufactures fragrance products there.

According to the company, its manufacturing operation produces more than 230,000 products a day.

That’s a whole lot of wax and fragrance.

What makes this one especially interesting is that Scentsy started small and grew into a company that sends products far beyond Idaho, while still keeping a major part of its operation right here in Meridian.

It’s one of those places a lot of us drive past all the time without really thinking about what’s being made inside.

Buck Knives Are Made in Post Falls

Here’s another Idaho-made product with a name a lot of people already know.

Buck Knives.

The company has been making knives for more than a century, and since 2005 its headquarters and manufacturing operation have been in Post Falls.

And if you’re curious about how they’re made, you can actually go watch.

Buck offers factory tours where visitors can see the knife-making process inside the Idaho facility.

There’s something kind of fun about that.

You can spend the morning looking at mountains, grab lunch somewhere in Post Falls, and then go watch one of the best-known knife brands in the country being made right there in Idaho.

Not a bad way to spend a day.

And Apparently Idaho Makes 540-Pound Cheese Barrels

And now we get to cheese.

Because apparently Idaho wasn’t done surprising us.

Glanbia operates several cheese facilities in the state, including locations in Blackfoot, Twin Falls, and Gooding.

At the Gooding facility, they produce something called a cheese barrel.

Now, “cheese barrel” sounds kind of charming.

Maybe something rustic sitting in the corner of an old cheese shop.

That is not what we’re talking about.

These barrels can weigh 540 pounds!

Five hundred and forty pounds of cheese!

At that point, I’m not sure “block of cheese” really covers it anymore.

The cheese is made for further processing and includes varieties such as cheddar and curd.

So somewhere in Gooding, people are producing cheese in quantities large enough that you’re definitely not carrying it to the kitchen by yourself.

Suddenly, the little block in the refrigerator seems a little underachieving.

Idaho Makes More Than We Notice

That might be the most interesting part of all of this.

Most of us drive past warehouses, manufacturing buildings, and business parks without giving them much thought.

They’re just part of the scenery.

But behind some of those walls, people in Idaho are building airplanes, baking energy bars, making fragrance products, manufacturing knives, and producing some truly enormous amounts of cheese.

And those products aren’t necessarily staying here. They’re being shipped all over the country and, in some cases, around the world.

According to Idaho Commerce, manufacturing is one of the state’s largest industries, with more than 70,000 jobs connected to everything from food and wood products to aerospace, machinery, electronics, and transportation equipment.

So yes, Idaho grows potatoes.

We’re definitely keeping that claim to fame.

But there’s a whole lot more being made here than most of us probably realize.

And now we want to know:

What have you found out was made in Idaho that completely surprised you?

Tell us in the comments below.

You might just send us down another rabbit hole.