HISTORY MOMENTS The Idaho State Historical Society reports that during this week in history: On March 21, 1864, a contract was signed by the Territory of Washington with Captain John Mullan to carry mail from Walla Walla to Lewiston, Oro Fino, Florence, Colville and Helgate. Between 1859 and 1862, Mullan had been in charge of the construction of a new military road from Fort Benton, Montana, to Walla Walla. That route later become known as the Mullan Road. The new territorial penitentiary in Boise opened on March 21, 1872, after receiving eleven prisoners from the Boise County Jail in Idaho City. Upon his return to Idaho City, one of the men who helped transport the inmates reported to the Idaho World Newspaper, "After our arrival with the prisoners, some of our Radical friends desired to know if we had brought down these fellows as delegates to a Democratic Convention, but we consoled them that they were all radicals except one, and that they had better call their Republican Territorial Convention at once, as we believed they would now have a quorum." U.S. journalist Terry Anderson was kidnapped in Beirut on March 16, 1985. He was not released until December 4, 1991, after 2454 days in captivity. On March 16, 1988, the Hagerman Horse (also known as Plesippus shoshnesis) was designated and declared to be the State Fossil of Idaho. A year later, on March 17, 1989, the Square Dance was declared as the official American folk dance of the Gem State. On March 19, 1963, the Legislature passed an act requiring a permit be issued by the Idaho State Historical Society before excavation of an archaeological site could take place on public lands in the state. On March 19, 1976, the first session of the 43rd Legislature concluded, ending a 76-day deliberation that up until that time was the fourth longest to be held since Idaho became a state in 1890.