A surprising number of intriguing and entertaining small-town museums stand along the routes to the Inland Northwest’s hiking, biking and boating destinations. These museums offer the outdoor enthusiast a new perspective on the natural areas to which they travel.

The region’s human history dates back thousands of years and is inextricably tied to the natural world. Our forests, waterways, fish and wildlife have supported indigenous communities, settlers, adventurers, towns, and industries.

As a matter of fact, it would be surprising to visit anywhere in the region that does not already have a human story attached to it. Those stories, when known, add depth, meaning, and greater connection to our favorite places.

The museums listed below are all worth a stop. Displays are arranged chronologically and in categories (think arrow heads, baskets, typewriters, household implements, and farm tools). Dioramas are packed with artifacts – sometimes to overflowing.

In addition, on the grounds of the museums below you’ll find cabins, a one-room schoolhouse, fire lookouts, sawmills, a chapel, and a full-sized 1910 house filled with original furnishings and décor.

Keep in mind that these facilities are largely operated on a shoestring budget and managed by volunteers. Small town museums typically begin with family collections and grow largely by happenstance and generosity. Exhibits and labels are crafted over decades, often by local old timers or volunteers, and reflect their own unique perspectives, interests, outlooks, and sensitivities.

Visitors may choose to view exhibits as a starting point for understanding timelines, themes, and historical figures of our region’s history, then take a deeper dive by reading some of the many well-written and researched articles and books out there.

Pend Oreille County Museum Historical Society (Newport, Wash.)

On the way from Spokane to Schweitzer, Sandpoint, Priest Lake, and Lake Pend Oreille, this museum is operated by the Pend Oreille County Historical Society.

It includes artifacts and antiques representing the region’s lifestyles and industry including needlework, household implements, typewriters, cash registers, musical instruments, tools, machinery, and vehicles. There is also an impressive and comprehensive collection of tools used for cutting and managing ice.

Don’t miss the mockups of a sawmill, cabin, fire lookout tower, schoolhouse, and chapel, all of which are walk-in and hands-on.

The museum is located in the historic I. & W.N. Depot Building at 402 S. Washington Ave. in Newport, Wash. Admission is $5 per adult (children free), and hours are Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sunday 1-4 p.m., and it’s open May 28 through September 5. More info at Pochsmuseum.org.

Wallace District Mining Museum (Wallace, Idaho)

This is a great stop on trips to Lookout Pass, the Route of the Hiawatha, Silver Mountain Bike Park, Fourth of July Pass, or adventures in Montana. The museum at 509 Bank Street is operated by the Wallace District Mining Museum.

Learn about mining history of the Coeur d’Alene Mining District (particularly the large silver mines), geology, methods used for mining over the past century, women and Black miners’ contributions, and the 1910 Big Burn. Cool artifacts include a mine “bicycle.”

Admission is $5 adults with discounts for families, and the museum is open daily from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. More info at Wallaceminingmuseum.com.

Spokane Valley Heritage Museum (Spokane Valley, Wash.)

Visit this museum in the Opportunity Township Hall building at E. 12114 Sprague Ave. as part of a day-trip to the Dishman Hills, Iller Creek, Saltese Uplands, or Antoine Peak trailheads.

Learn about namesakes of some of the area’s popular hiking destinations and natural areas; Hearts of Gold Cantaloupe; the pioneer towns of Opportunity and Spokane Bridge that were razed to make way for I-90; military, and telecommunications, railroads, and early-1900’s school- and home-life.

Don’t miss the 1899 mud shoes fabricated by Peter Morrison for his horses to wear to keep them from sinking into the mud while dredging canals that drained Saltese Lake.

Admission is $6 for adults (discounts for military, seniors, and children), and hours run Wednesday-Saturday from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. year-round. More info: Spokanevalleymuseum.com.

Keller Heritage Center (Colville, Wash.)

Take a tour of this museum operated by the Stevens County Historical Society on your next trip to the Colville National Forest, upper Columbia River, or Canada.

Highlights include pre-inundation Kettle Falls and the first bridge crossing the falls; clothing, tools, and implements crafted and used by early indigenous people including regalia, baskets, and arrow heads; the Hudson’s Bay Company and its trapping history; military history including the early U.S. Army installation of Fort Colville; U.S. Border Patrol; regional agricultural, mining, and timber development; Colville’s early 1900’s civic, home, and town life.

Especially cool artifacts include a photo of eels hauled out on rocks of the pre-inundation Kettle Falls, a sturgeon-nosed canoe, and a Nez Perce woven corn husk bottle.

Located at 700 N. Wynne St. in Colville, Wash., admission is $5 for adults with discounts for seniors, people with disabilities, children, and groups. Hours run daily May and September from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and June through August from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday–Thursday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friday–Sunday. More info at Stevenscountyhistoricalsociety.org.

Lincoln County Historical Museum (Davenport, Wash.)

On the way to Lake Roosevelt and the Channeled Scablands trailheads, Davenport’s small-town museum is operated by the Lincoln County Historical Society.

It includes early Native tools and implements, mammoth fossils, Pioneer Bottling Works, the story of outlaw Harry Tracy, grain farming then and now, Fort Spokane history and early 1900’s domestic life history, and railroad and bridge building. An especially cool artifact is the humongous horse-drawn thresher used to harvest crops.

Located at 600 7^th Street in Davenport, Wash., suggested admission is $4 for adults and hours run June 7 for the summer from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and Sundays by appointment. More info: Lincolncountymuseums.org.

Originally published as “Exploring the History of the Places Where We Play” in the July-August 2022 print issue.

Tabitha Gregory is a former director of a local history museum and has written about local history topics for Out There. She’s the author of the non-fiction book “Valdez Rises: One Town’s Struggle for Survival After the Great Alaska Earthquake.”

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Learn from speakers, tour historic homes and museums, watch live theater re-enactments, and more.

Some of the highlights from this year’s festival include:

• Mining the Magnates and Mavericks, Sept. 30: open-mic event to share stories about the enterprising men and women who left their mark on mining and Wallace.
• Mining the Museums and Manuscripts, Oct. 1: a trolley tour of Wallace museums with readings that bring history to life along with guided tours of the Mining Heritage Exhibition.
• Self-guided tours, Oct. 2: Northern Pacific Depot Museum, Wallace Mining Museum, Barnard-Stockbridge Museum, and Mine Heritage Exhibition, of which the latter includes gold panning demonstrations.

Advance tickets are $20 each (space is limited) and include a complimentary copy of the new “Mine-Made Map & Guide to the Coeur d’Alene Mining District.”

More info at Wallaceid.fun.

Originally published as “History-Themed Festival Returns to Wallace” in the September-October 2021 issue.

Read more stories about Wallace, Idaho, and its year-round recreation opportunities.

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Paddling a river through any desert area seems a contradiction, at first. In the arid middle of Washington State, the Columbia River churns past sun-bleached sage and grasses, jackrabbits and rattlesnakes, and, in one special stretch, an abandoned nuclear reactor.  

Northwest of Richland, the Hanford Reach National Monument includes the bones of the Hanford Site, a government area used to develop nuclear materials for the Manhattan Project during World War II. The secret project required a large security buffer of land, off-limits to the public. As scientists cooked up plutonium, native flora and fauna crept back onto the land, which had recently been home to orchards, farmland, and a few small towns. After the war, cleanup began, and the isolation continued. A land untouched by development or agriculture since 1943, the monument area is now home to a beautiful desert ecosystem. 

The nuclear reactors might be the showiest features of the area, but there are unique geological points and historical remnants as well. The monument is named, after all, for the Hanford Reach, the last non-tidal free flowing section of the Columbia River. Towering around the river’s curvature are the White Bluffs, hillsides created by giant whirlpools when water backed up from the Great Missoula Floods. There is glacial erratic, large rocks from other areas that were carried in on ice rafts. Zoom out, and you’ll notice giant ripples and gravel bars, impressions from turbulent waters that raged and then ebbed. Tucked in the soil are more unlikely finds—the White Bluffs have produced fossils of mammals from the Miocene Era, like rhinoceros, camel, and mastodon.  

Due to its unique geography, protected land, and national history, the Hanford Reach National Monument was the first of eight such monuments administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. National Monuments are similar to National Parks, with the reason for preservation setting them apart—National Parks are protected for scenic value and recreation, whereas National Monuments must also have a national historic significance. National Monuments are not buildings, though many contain protected historic structures, like the plutonium reactors at Hanford. The land for a National Monument must already be owned by the federal government—clearly the case at Hanford—and can only be deemed a National Monument by a U.S. President, under authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906. (National Parks, on the other hand, can be created through legislation passed by Congress). The Hanford Reach National Monument was established by Bill Clinton in 2000. At the time of this writing, there are 158 National Monuments in our country. 

From a present-day recreation standpoint, the Hanford Reach National Monument is a great area for a paddler. John Roskelley, author of Paddling the Columbia: A Guide to All 1,200 Miles of Our Scenic & Historic River, has led multiple paddling tours along the Hanford Reach. He loves the cool, clear, free-flowing water of the area.  

“The Columbia River has some of the best, most diverse paddling anywhere in the country, and the Hanford Reach is the iconic stretch along the river,” says Roskelley. “[It has] America’s nuclear history visible along the shorelines, shrub-steppe habitat and wildflowers that have never seen a plow, and a variety of wildlife and birds.”

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Wallace, Idaho 

Largely forgotten for over a century, the story of what may be America’s greatest ever cycling adventure could finally be getting its due, courtesy of a proposed National Buffalo Soldiers Trail. 

Back in 1897, U.S. Buffalo Soldiers, a group of all African American soldiers, were ordered to pedal 1,900 miles from Ft. Missoula to St. Louis in full uniform, through the very worst terrain and weather on 35 lb one-speed bikes. The riders packed tents, tools, rifles, and ammo with them while settling for hard tack for meals. 

Why? Back then America’s military was looking at ways to move troops faster than marching, cheaper than horses, and nimbler than trains. Both men and gear proved up to the task, averaging nearly 50 miles a day in their 41-day transcontinental trek, earning them the nickname “the Iron Riders.” 

That largely forgotten triumph has become acutely relevant today. The pandemic is coaxing millions outside and onto bicycles. Meanwhile interest in America’s historic race relations has also increased. 

In response the National Park Service, Buffalo Soldier organizations, and area tourism and outdoor recreation interests are now in the preliminary stages of getting the Iron Riders’ epic trek recognized as part of a National Buffalo Soldiers Trail.  

“The Park Service talked to us about a possible National Buffalo Soldiers Trail in June,” says Wallace Idaho Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Rick Shaffer, who is also the president of the non-profit Friends of the Coeur d’Alene Trails. “Since then we’ve been working with them and other partners to get the wheels rolling on the project,” he adds. 

The connections to Wallace are considerable. The town is a decades’ long proponent of rail trail tourism and also has strong connections with Buffalo Soldiers. Units were stationed there to quell 1890s labor unrest as well as to save the town from America’s largest ever wildland fire in 1910. 

Last year, Wallace invited Iron Rider re-enactors to cycle the Route of the Hiawatha and the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes along with special meet-and-greet events in the city. That relationship has flowered into several joint projects, including this proposed National Buffalo Soldiers Trail.   

Where will this cooperation lead? Maybe to a coast-to-coast 4,000-mile rail trail. The Rails to Trails Conservancy announced last year that its proposed Great American Rail Trail, stretching from Puget Sound to Washington D.C., was just over halfway complete. The biggest uncompleted stretches are in Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska—nearly the same path pedaled by Buffalo Soldiers in 1897. 

“We’re hopeful the Iron Riders’ feats will inspire policy makers to complete the Great American Rail Trail,” says Shaffer. “Since Wallace would be right on that coast to coast trail, we would welcome the chance to tell the Buffalo Soldiers’ story to folks pedaling through.” 

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The Panhandle is home to one of the greatest silver regions in the world, the Coeur d’Alene Mining District in the aptly named Silver Valley of Idaho.

An equally rich bonanza of history permeates the many communities and mine sites of the district. That story is distilled perhaps to its greatest strength in the little mining town of Wallace.

Wallace is one of less than a handful of cities entirely listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It boasts four museums, multiple historical exhibits, an underground mine tour, extensive historic trail system, and walking tours of its old commercial buildings, churches, and grand homes.

A body feels like they have stepped back in time when visiting there. And it’s not just in the architecture or exhibits. It’s also in the attitude of the people. 

Since the city is so small—it has less than 1,000 residents—and corporate America hasn’t yet been able to buy up the place, Wallace still has that friendly small-town vibe.

Heritage Saved

One of the best ways to get a feel for the history of the place is to hop on the Sierra Silver Mine Tour. An open-air trolley will ferry you around the tree-lined residential areas and storied buildings of the commercial district. The driver narrates the trip all the way up to the Sierra Silver Mine. Once there, retired miners will take you through a sideways cut in the mountain for an unforgettable “that’s the way it is” look at the dangers and rewards of mining. Reservations are recommended and can be made ahead of time on their website.

For the story of the people who worked the mines and the struggles they faced, a trip to the Wallace District Mining Museum is a must. Don’t just take our word for it. This tiny museum has been featured twice on the Travel Channel’s Mystery at the Museum series. 

Among the tantalizing stories told there include the district’s bloody mining wars. That strife featured America’s largest mass arrests of civilians, hijacked trains, wild gunfights, blown up buildings, the murder of Idaho’s governor and acquittal of the assassin’s accomplices in the trial of the century. 

Want more? Find three other extraordinary museums within walking distance.  A train station, brothel and landmark church have all been converted into three separate museums featuring the region’s storied past. 

Other musts for history buffs lie on the outskirts of town. The Mine Heritage Exhibit and four-acre riverfront park are just off Exit #61 at I-90. It’s the perfect spot to park, picnic and peruse massive mining machines—including a compressor the size of barn. Nine Mile Cemetery lies just one mile north of Wallace on State Route 456, where 3,000 internees inhabit this other National Register of Historic Places Site. One mile south of town is the Pulaski Tunnel Trail. Also on the National Register, the trail traverses stream, falls and forest to mark the heroism of fire fighters in America’s largest ever wild land fire in 1910.

Heritage Lost

Finally, for the best hands-on perspective on Panhandle mining history, take a drive up Burke Canyon to the now largely abandoned mining towns of Gem, Frisco, Yellow Dog, Mace and Burke. It’s seven miles one way on the paved State Route 4. Find historic markers at the beginning, middle and end of the roadway.

These towns once were home to thousands of miners, dozens of mines, and all the support services and businesses associated therein. Now they have few permanent residents.

Once-bustling Burke in particular is haunting. Scores of abandoned buildings now stand where there were once schools, churches, government offices, ball parks, and a thriving business district.

Burke makes the case for all the efforts to preserve history down the canyon in Wallace. It is a silent witness to what a lack of treasuring one’s history yields: heritage ignored is heritage lost.  

Historic Lodging, Dining, and Shopping

Once back in Wallace, a great way to see how history is still being preserved is to visit the many businesses there. Most have images of the town’s past on their walls.  Two standouts include the local grocery store Harvest Foods with near life-size images above the aisles and Wallace Brewing Co. Its Ore Tasting room is in the old Coeur d’Alene Hardware Store, with dozens of rare images and artifacts on display. The same can be said for next door 1313 Club, Oliver’s Mercantile across the street, and, among our favorites for local memorabilia, North Idaho Trading Co. at the junction at Fifth and Bank Streets.

Sleep on history in the town’s historic lodging properties. In addition to the several vacation rental properties in historic homes, the Ryan Hotel has been in business since 1903. Its lobby is a wonderful mix of turn of the century elegance. Across the way on Cedar Street, spend the night in a former bordello—the Lux is a must for those wanting a real Wallace experience.

Sponsored Content

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Nearly 90 years ago the first rope tows were installed on slopes across the snowy places of the U.S. In 1937, the first rope tows in the West chugged into action at Snoqualmie Summit, Mount Rainier, and Mount Baker.  

The Seattle Times writers opined in the Feb. 28, 1937 edition, “Skiers are not made by climbing hills. Skiers develop proficiency by coming downhill.” The article noted that at Mount Rainier, skiers can potentially ski 4,000 feet of vertical in a day. Of course, today, some lifts exceed 4,000 feet vertical and adept riders might reach 50,000 vertical per day. The lift-accessed record is nearly 65,000 feet skied in one day.  

As ski clubs formed and ski hill managers built rope tows, farmers got into the action. Harold Termaat farmed near Kalispell, Mont., but in the winter, his fields were covered in snow, so from the late 1950s through 1968, he rigged the ropes.  

Termaat once told me that, “I had two tows and two John Deeres going at the same time.” The rope for his homemade lifts ran around the tractor wheel. “We got 50 cents [a day] for the small hill and a dollar for the big hill. Parents said it was the cheapest babysitting they could find.” 

Although not many are still rigged by tractors, a surprising number are still employed around the country. “We estimate that there are approximately 670 tow ropes in the U.S. today,” says Adrienne Saia Isaac, director of marketing and communications for the National Ski Areas Association. “As for historical tow ropes, we don’t have any exact record, but…the number was definitely in the thousands.” 

My earliest memory of rope-tow riding was at Mount Hood’s Multipor ski area, now called Mt. Hood Ski Bowl at Government Camp. The old tow wasn’t especially long, but it accessed a beginner slope full of other four and five year olds, outfitted in hand-me-down boots and skis, wool sweaters and long knit hats, which were dangerous—or so I found out. 

One wintery day as my older brothers dashed off to the t-bar, I skied the 100-foot slope with other little kids. I loved my long stocking hat, knit by my mother, green and white and pink with a white puff ball of yarn at the end of the three-foot-long pointy cap. As I neared the top of the rope tow, my hat was pulled off, wrapped around the tow rope, and sent through the greasy mechanism before dropping like a dead raccoon. The next Saturday, a sign at the tow read “No long stocking caps allowed on rope tow. Tuck in all hair.” 

On another snowy day at Multipor, my friends and I rode the rope tow once again. I had black leather mittens, which were neither waterproof nor warm, but we were having fun. Until, once again, the rope tow somehow snagged the metal hook on my left mitten. When I went to let go at the top of the tow track, I couldn’t. I was dangling from the moving rope by the mitten cuff and the metal hook. Luckily, the lift operator saw me, skis five feet in the air. He shut down the tow. My hand slipped from the mitten, and I crumpled in a pile. My dad thought it was time to learn to ride the t-bar, and that’s another story. 

I sometimes visit ski hills with rope tows. Still, no long-knit hats for this skier.

This story originally appeared in the March 2020 print issue entitled “The Rope Tow” in the On the Mountain special section’s artifacts column.

Jean Arthur has worn out numerous pairs of mittens riding rope tows, t-bars, poma lifts, trams, trains—and the latest at Big Sky Resort—the eight-seater Ramcharger chairlift, the first of its kind in North America. She skis and writes from Bozeman.  

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Pulaski, along with other rangers and hundreds of firefighters, toiled relentlessly during the summer of the Great Fires of 1910. Multiple wildfires ravaged the drought-stricken forests in the region. His actions during the “Big Blowup” (also called the Big Burn)—when hurricane-force winds inundated the region on Aug. 20-21 and merged the fires—is what made Pulaski a genuine American hero. The blowup’s epicenter included the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe National Forests, what is now mapped as the “southern two-thirds of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests,” according to the U.S. Forest Service. Unable to escape the firestorm, more than 80 firefighters perished. 

In Wallace, thousands of residents fled on trains summoned from Spokane to rescue them. In the forest near town, Pulaski and his firefighting crew of about 45 men were overcome by the firestorm. He led them to seek shelter in an old mineshaft tunnel. At the entrance he fought the fire with his bare hands and a wet blanket, as recounted by Pulaski in his first-person account, which was published as the winning entry in a Ranger Essay Contest years later. Flames seared his eyes and severely burned his hands and face. When panicked men tried to flee the tunnel, Pulaski threatened them at gunpoint so they’d stay. That night of Aug. 20, fire raged for five hours around the tunnel, and everyone was unconscious from smoke inhalation; five men would not survive that night.

When it was finally safe to leave, Pulaski, though now blinded, led them to the hospital in Wallace, where he would stay two months recovering from burns and pneumonia. Afterwards he advocated the Forest Service to pay for his crew’s hospital bills. Pulaski’s wife and daughter, Emma and Elsie, also survived the fire, having sought refuge on a rock pile of mine tailings, as Pulaski had told them to do if they needed to evacuate their home.

The following year, in 1911, in his blacksmith shop, Pulaski invented a re-design of a tool that’s now known simply as the “pulaski”—a two-bladed combo of ax and adze (grub hoe), used today by wildland firefighters.

Pulaski continued working as an assistant ranger for the Wallace district for the next 20 years. According to historian Stephen J. Pyne, in the ensuing years after the Great Fires, Pulaski oversaw recovery of the area—replanting seedlings, salvaging burned timber, and reconstructing trails and phone lines. He also tended to the graves of the fallen firefighters and advocated for memorial sites. 

Today, the Great Burn Recommended Wilderness Area is 275,000 acres of roadless wilderness in the Lolo and Nez Perce/Clearwater National Forests straddling the Montana-Idaho border. First proposed to Congress by the U.S. Forest Service more than 40 years ago, the Great Burn Conservation Alliance continues advocacy of official wilderness protection.

Historic Great Burn Sites 

• Pulaski Tunnel Trail and Pulaski Historic Site: 4 miles round-trip with interpretative signs to the tunnel overlook. Trailhead located off the road to Moon Pass, less than 10 minutes outside of Wallace.
• Ghost Cedars: Located near Avery, the Cedar Graveyardwetlands of the North Fork of the St. Joe River have large, standing dead cedars (called snags). 
• Firefighter Memorials/Gravesites: (1) Nine Mile Cemetery, Wallace – final resting place for firefighters and townspeople who perished during the Great Burn; (2) Forest Cemetery, Coeur d’Alene – Ed and Emma Pulaski gravesites. (3) Woodlawn Cemetery, St. Maries –Firefighter memorial.
• See “Day Trip Guide to Historic Sites in Idaho and Montana” for more info. 

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Sometimes a hike is just a hike. Sometimes picking huckleberries is just another excuse to explore. Sometimes we find strange and unusual things in our State Parks, and it starts a new chapter in our lives.

Mat Walden lives near Elk, at the base of Mount Spokane, and he thoroughly enjoys living so close to such a big playground. He frequently criss-crosses the Park on foot or on skis, and he often brings his family on these backcountry tours. He readily confesses he isn’t a Mount Spokane expert; then again he can pinpoint on a Google Earth screen most of the trailheads, logging roads, stone shelters, ski area boundaries, snowmobile routes, or nearly any other feature from memory.

A few years back, he discovered some plane wreckage, and when he returned home he did a little online research. He learned that he had found the debris field of a significant KC-135 plane crash from September of 1962. He wasn’t surprised to learn about the one plane crash, but he was amazed to learn just how many planes have crashed into Mount Spokane.

A Series Of Plane Crashes

Generally speaking, ski resorts follow a theme when naming their ski runs or trails, but a quick glance at the Mount Spokane ski map suggests they bucked that idea long ago. No doubt the trail names emerged as the area grew and the resort evolved, however one run secured its name through a distinct tragedy.

On the far southern end of the ski area boundary, near the base of the main bald spot that faces the city, a skier can cruise down the enjoyable, short and engaging B-29. This run earned its name from a terrible accident in November of 1947 in which a Boeing B-29 Superfortress was flying too low over Mount Spokane in bad weather and crashed.

John Linder and Tom Kinzer were plowing the road up to the old ski area on Mount Spokane that night. A few minutes in either direction, and the plane might have hit them. According to the Spokane Daily Chronicle, the Sheriff said, “Linder and Kinzer went immediately to the crash, but found no sign of life. They went about five miles down the mountain to the lodge to a telephone and notified the sheriff’s office.” When Linder and Kinzer returned to the crash site, they “heard men calling for help, “ and they found two of them alive. The two survivors were treated at the ski lodge and then transported to the hospital.

One year earlier in October 1946, bad weather also wrecked “Crazy Trader Lonza”. Rudolph Lonza was an Army Air Corps flight instructor during World War II and a skilled pilot. On Halloween evening, 1946, he attempted to fly home to Spokane from Helena, Montana, but a severe storm over the Bitterroot Mountains compromised his flight pattern. He was aiming for Spokane Airport (now Felts Field) when Mount Spokane got in the way. He smashed into the southeast side of the mountain, roughly at the 3,500-foot level. Consensus from the experts suggested the cause of the crash was heavy icing on the plane.

Skip ahead almost fifteen years, and Mount Spokane hosted the worst accident (at the time) of a Boeing C-135 class airplane. On September 10th, 1962, a KC-135A BN Stratotanker left Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota but never made it to Fairchild AFB. This crash made national news for several reasons: 44 people died, 39 men from the 28th Bomb Wing were relocating to Fairchild while their runways were simply being repaired and repaved, and they all died a mere ten minutes from safety. The plane mowed down a 200-yard stripe of trees, according to Col. Floyd R. Cressman of Fairchild, but the main crash site has since been logged. The magnitude of this crash immediately called for a comprehensive investigation, which included representatives from the Civil Aeronautics Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Boeing Aircraft Company, and a five-man crash-probe team from Norton AFB, California.

Barely five years after the brutal 1962 KC-135 crash, a second KC-135 crashed into one of Mount Spokane’s ridges about three miles southeast from the summit. Newspapers report that Jerry Dietz and Del Kerr of Idaho used their snowcat to find the wreckage. The main fuselage and tail were the only identifiable parts, and that suggested the plane did not skid after it crashed into the snow-covered forest around Quartz Mountain. The tanker was escorting a group of McDonald-Douglas F-4C Phantom jet fighters from Hickam AFB, Hawaii. In addition to the four-man crew, the aircraft was transporting five airmen back to Fairchild. Dietz said he was led to the crash when he found a burned sleeve lying in a trail. This crash appears to be the most mysterious of the group.

Visting The Sites

By every possible measurement, Mount Spokane dominates Eastern Washington. Though it doesn’t reach the same heights as the Cascades or the Selkirks, it is the tallest peak in the area at 5889 ft/1795 m. Even more impressive, Mount Spokane State Park is the largest of all of Washington’s State Parks at 13,919 acres. Essentially bad weather plus human error caused all of the plane crashes, but it didn’t help that the large and remote hill made investigations, let alone rescues, next to impossible.

Wayne Hamann, now 87, accompanied his father on the 1962 rescue efforts. Although Mr. Hamann is still quick with a joke, he frequently admits his memory isn’t what it used to be. The years have blurred the event, but he recalls reading about all of the Mount Spokane crashes through the decades. Hamann reports “We’ve used the moon for target practice, but can’t seem to keep planes off those hills.”

Visiting the crash sites might not be the same challenge it was over 50 years ago, but it genuinely makes for an interesting and revealing outing. Some sites are fairly simple to find, and other sites require someone to lead you to the exact spot. However, the most important thing to remember about all of these sites is that they are historical sites as well as final resting places, and they all deserve respect. Please do not remove any wreckage.

Obviously, the B-29 site appears on the ski resort map. The ski trail itself does not follow the B-29’s crash path but only crosses it at one point. The ski trail then angles back towards the lodge at the base of the resort area. The site is basically clean and evidence of the crash has nearly vanished, but the huckleberry picking during the prime season is fabulous. One can park at the Big Spring Picnic Area approximately 1/2 mile up the Summit Road that starts near the snowmobile parking area. Or, continue to the Bald Knob Campground, and traverse east to the ski run. While driving to the summit of Mount Spokane, one can view the sign for the B-29 ski run at mile 2.2 on the Summit Road.

Truth be told, the crash site for “Crazy Trader Lonza” is a well-kept secret. Though Rudolph Lonza crashed within the State Park, the crash site on the east side of the mountain is not openly public knowledge. Proof that it’s well hidden can be traced to the fact it took over a year for searchers to locate the wreckage.

The 1962 KC-135 poses a particular problem. It’s relatively close to the road, but it’s excruciatingly difficult to find. This site became the seed for this article, and it’s visited regularly, but it’s still very tough to describe because after the area was logged it was quickly overgrown by lots of underbrush. A rugged vehicle with decent clearance is required.

Starting on Hwy 2, take the Elk/Chattaroy Exit. Follow East Elk Chattaroy Road until it splits and take a right onto East Tallman Road (near North Dunn Road). Stay on Tallman—the road morphs into North Tallman road and then back to East Tallman road. This road twists and turns quite a bit and eventually becomes North Blanchard Creek Road. When the pavement ends, it’s approximately 5.7 miles to the parking spot. Continuing on Blanchard Creek Road, one will eventually see a yellow sign that reads “Summer Road Ahead” – it’s now approximately 1.2 miles to the parking spot.
The road passes a few piles of litter and it has lots of tangents, but stay on the main dirt road. Park at a wide, four-way, dirt-road intersection, in a grassy spot, across from a brown sign that reads “Entering Mount Spokane State Park.” This sign is tough to see while driving to the area, however, the intersection appears in one of the few wide spots and it’s at the very corner of the logged area. Some computer scouting on Google Earth is strongly recommended if only to pinpoint North Blanchard Creek Road and see where it crosses the logged area.

Looking up towards the summit of Mount Spokane, one can see across the half-mile wide logging zone. There’s a massive dirt barrier in place to seal off the old logging roads from motorized vehicles, however it’s quite simple to walk over. Climb up and over the hillside barrier, and follow the plain, unmistakable logging road for about a quarter of a mile, then cut right or uphill over three more barriers. Just past the third barrier, looking left towards Mount Spokane, one can see another faint logging road that parallels the first one. Follow this one into the thick brush—depending on the foliage and your eyesight, you should begin seeing bits of metal and chunks of aluminum shortly.

The 1967 KC-135 rests in an extremely popular portion of the park, but only the most dedicated investigators ever really find its resting place. First, consider one accident report description: “they finally found the bulk of the wreckage near the top of Linder Ridge (4,856 feet), approximately one-quarter mile north of Quartz Mountain.” This statement places the wreck fairly close to the Nova Hut on the Nordic ski trails.

Drive to the Selkirk Lodge, just past the snowmobile parking area. Arial photos and eyewitness accounts suggest the wreck is below the Hemlock cross-country ski trail not far from the second junction. From the air, the gouge in the hillside is visible if you know what to look for, but the site is very difficult to identify on the ground due to the thick brush and steep hillside. Keep in mind the ’67 wreck received the most scrutiny, and nearly every fragment was carted away for the investigation.

The Last Kc-135

While every crash site is unique, it’s very strange that Mount Spokane State Park hosts two KC-135 crashes in a 5-year span. Both crashes were in foul weather and both were conducting instrument arrival procedures when they crashed. That procedure calls for a clockwise circle around the Mount Spokane area before turning into final approach for Fairchild AFB.

Considering the first KC-135 crash still echoed in the memories of the search and rescue forces, the Mount Spokane Ski Patrol and the Washington State Patrol made concerted efforts to search for the second plane in the same vicinity as the first plane. Only after Air Force officials analyzed their radar data a little bit closer did search parties expand their investigation.

At the time of the accident, winds over the mountainous area were reported to be in excess of 100 mph, however an aircraft that size would not have been influenced by turbulence so drastically. Some aviation investigators surmised that icing could have caused the accident, however the pilot hadn’t reported any problems and there had been no emergency distress signal. Others posed the idea that there must be something wrong with this flight pattern since it was the second crash in five years. An investigation team was formed, the wreckage was removed and studied, and a military task force wrote up an accident report for the Air Force.

On February 3, 1967, the Air Force announced that the investigation into the crash of KC-135, No. 56-3613, had been concluded. Colonel Culbertson, Accident Investigation Board chairman, stated that the cause would not be made public and declined to comment on whether the accident resulted from human error, flawed procedures, or mechanical failure. Although the accident all but duplicated the earlier KC-135 crash, Culbertson said that there was no similarity. That accident had been caused by navigational error combined with adverse weather conditions, whereas the cause of the ‘67 accident was secret. Culbertson added that although the landing approach pattern to Fairchild AFB over Mount Spokane State Park would not be altered, board-recommended changes in the “particular instrument procedure” had been put into effect to prevent any further accidents.

High Terrain And Runways

The harsh reality is that one plane crash is one too many. While the majority of Mount Spokane visitors see the Park as a winter playground or a summer training spot for running and biking, the mountain can offer so much more for anyone willing to explore. This collection of events is only a sliver of the historical things that have taken place up there.

A combined total of 59 men lost their lives in the plane crashes in the State Park. The full reports are archived at each plane’s home Air Force Base. Perhaps someday there will be a memorial for these men somewhere in Washington’s largest state park. It’s worth considering.

In response to questions about the KC-135 crashes, 92nd Air Refueling Wing Historian, Dan Simmons, wrote, “Unfortunately, bad weather and high terrain—and particularly when there is high terrain near the approach to a runway—have been the cause of many tragic accidents throughout aviation history. Aviators who lost their lives in accidents such as these did not die in vain. These tragedies spawned more advanced navigational and radar systems as well as ground proximity warning systems to mitigate the inherent dangers involved with aviation. As a result, today’s flying environment is much safer than it was decades ago. The aviators who lost their lives in these crashes were dedicated and professional airmen, and it is important for us to remember their service to our country.”

Ever since Charles Lindberg impressed the city by visiting the Spokane Fairgrounds in 1927, the local aviation community has grown and evolved. In many ways, Spokane’s aviation history reflects the highs of the nation’s aviation history, and local pilots and airports have earned national recognition. While the flying community remains strong and impressive, local accidents such as those within Mount Spokane State Park confirmed the need for greater safety in instruments, procedures and accuracy.

Clearly, these military planes were not shot down by a foreign enemy, however the men gave their lives for their country nonetheless. If you choose to visit any of these crash sites, consider it an opportunity to remember the incidents and the timeframe that contributed to the events, and to honor those men who lost their lives in our local area.

Sometimes a hike is just a hike. Sometimes picking huckleberries is just another excuse to explore. Sometimes we find strange and unusual things in our State Parks, and it starts a new chapter in our lives.

Update:

The above article about the cluster of plane crashes found in Mount Spokane State Park proved to be an interesting story to a wide range of people. Following the release of the feature article, a number of remarkable emails revealed greater details about some of the events, as well as some corrections worth noting.

Steve Reynolds found the most glaring error. The article incorrectly stated there were four plane crashes, when in fact there were five. On December 13, 1995, a Cessna 340A crashed into Mount Spokane at about 6:15 PM. The pilot, and sole occupant of the aircraft, was fatally injured when he slammed into the west side of the mountain. Searchers reported the debris covered a 300-yard area. “The tail section is the only thing intact. Everything else is in six-inch pieces,” says Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Finke.

The pilot had flown to Spokane from Yakima, where the Cessna was based. He arrived at about 3PM and waited for a passenger who did not show up. After discovering that his passenger was in Sandpoint, the pilot took off again and headed northeast. Poor weather and poor visibility proved to be the leading causes for this tragedy.

Reynolds recalls how he found the Cessna crash in the spring of 1996 while looking for a good snow slope to teach and practice self-arrest with an ice axe. “Most disturbing—but poignant—was a small cleared spot, in the middle of the impact sites and next to some small alpine trees, where latex gloves and a syringe or two had melted out and were laying on the bare ground. These were immediately adjacent to a wooden, hand-made cross that was only very recently placed at the very location where apparently medical first responders had tried in vain to save the pilot.”

For obvious reasons, the article touched a lot of pilots. Among those that responded, Tom Brattebo of Liberty Lake offered some interesting remarks on flight procedures. As a B-52 pilot stationed at Fairchild AFB shortly after the 1967 KC-135 crash, he recalls particular approach instructions where pilots were required to find Mount Spokane by radar to make certain they cleared the mountain.

Strangely enough, Brattebo also recalled a peculiar incident back around 1994 when he worked at a first-aid station for a NORBA (National Off Road Bike Association) crosscountry race. “I was the ‘older guy’ with a bunch of ‘kids.’ We were watching a part of the course that extended north from the end turn on the Shadow Mountain cross-country ski trail. Some of the kids started bringing me pieces of aluminum that I recognized as pieces of military aircraft. I had been at WSU in 1967 and remembered that crash story.” Tom had actually found the very crash site that influenced his local safety procedures as an Air Force pilot.

Far and away, the most distinguished email came from Bill Williams. He actually served on the rescue and recovery crew for the horrific 1962 KC-135 crash, and he was bold enough to share some first-hand details. He remembers the bus ride from Fairchild, the gray weather all day long, and the gruesome scene of the tragedy.

“My image of the site is not limited to what I saw. The smoke that enveloped the hillside reeked of jet fuel, burned rubber, burned trees, and burned people. It was an odor that I’ll never forget. Later I discarded my fatigues, as I believe most of the other men did as well. Whether it was my imagination or not, it seems that I could not escape that odor for days after we finished our work. I think it had been absorbed by my hair and skin. As I’m sure you can imagine, the work that we had to do to extract our men from that wreckage was unpleasant and distressing.”

More than anyone else, Bill provided specifics that were still tender almost 50 years later. In a crazy turn of events, a few years after the accident, Bill graduated from college with a Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology, and then landed a job at Boeing. He worked alongside the distinguished human factors engineer Konrad Kraft on a team that researched a series of Boeing 727 landing accidents.

The 1947 B-29 wreck ranks as the only Mount Spokane plane crash with survivors. Sgt. Marshall Fine and Sgt. Truman Haley survived the horrific ordeal, and Haley actually continued his military service. Truth be told, Haley joined the U.S. Cavalry Division of the Army in 1938 because he loved horses and they did not have Jeeps until 1941. Later on, he went into the Air Force Corp. Following the B-29 crash, he was released from service in 1948. Next he reenlisted in 1951 and served in Korea. Truman Haley stayed in the Air Force until he retired in 1962.

Truman Haley’s sons recently confirmed plans to visit the site of their father’s plane crash. Fueled by Donna Larson, a Spokane Prime Timer and a former Mount Spokane Ski Patroller, Haley’s descendents are headed to the Bald Knob picnic area of Mount Spokane in mid-September to visit the B-29 ski run. They are both eager to see the site of their father’s memorable plane crash.

All in all, this collection of plane crashes remains a touching and memorable subject. Including the 1995 Cessna plane crash, the total number of lost lives equals 60. Perhaps someday a memorial in Washington’s largest State Park might pay tribute to those service men.

While most articles about Mount Spokane normally flaunt the huckleberry picking, the skiing, or the superb mountain biking and trail running, there’s abundant proof that the Park holds a multitude of backcountry adventures and uncommon experiences. There’s a rich history in those mountains, and while the series of crashes is tragic, there’s a truly unique opportunity to research this aviation history up close.

The post Mt. Spokane Plane Crashes appeared first on Out There Venture.

Please take a moment while charging your GPS and IPhone to consider the hallowed tradition of the regional outdoor guidebook. It’s no secret that outdoor knowledge has exploded on the internet. Sites with user submitted data and comments are proliferating and enhancing what we know of the outdoors. But long before we housed such wisdom on electronic devices there was a dedicated and stoic tribe of outdoor scribes who toiled for years in obscurity, for little or no reward, to create guidebooks that spread the love of the outdoor pursuits that gave them sustenance.

In prepping this piece I spoke with climber Randall Green, who created the landmark Idaho Rock book in the eighties. Green’s creative process not only included converting decades of oral history into climbing routes and first ascents, but it also meant documenting and researching scores of summit journals residing in tin cylinders at the tops of mountains. Four chapters into his manuscript Green lost everything with an errant keystroke on an old Macintosh computer and had to retype.
“We tried to educate people about using natural areas as a privilege, not a right,” says Green. “We can’t love these areas to death.” Which is a delicate balance for guidebooks that is often missing from online info.
When looking at old guidebooks we chose only ones that were out-of-print and at least 15-years-old. Without exception, all the outdoor activities depicted in these publications have grown over the years, due in part their pioneering efforts. So what secrets do they reveal? Read on—no batteries required.

Spokane’s Favorite Runs
Author: Jan Pappas and Will Aslin
Year: 1979
Publisher: Self-published
Highest Price: $8.00 on alibris.com

This book was published at the crest of the first big wave of popularity for running, or “jogging,” in the United States. It also corresponds with the golden age of Spokane running in the late 70s, when the city’s reputation as a major running community was cemented. It’s delightful to read the route descriptions that are peppered with historical facts and nods to the influential runners of the day such as Don Kardong, Gerry Lindgren, Len Long, Bill Johns, Terry Kennedy, Ed Rockwell, and Rick Riley. The book is heavy on 15-20-mile “training runs” and even includes a 50-mile gut-buster from Rogers High School to the top of Mt. Spokane and back. Enthusiasm for the sport just spills off the page. And what pages they are. This is one of the most beautiful guidebooks I have ever seen. Hand-lettered and hand-drawn from start to finish by Jan Pappas, Favorite Runs has an exquisite old-world feel—as if Bilbo Baggins had authored a running guide. It’s interesting to see routes like “Hike, Bike and Jog Trail” and “Old Railroad Grade” have evolved into The Centennial Trail and the Ben Burr Trail respectively. The book even includes an anecdote about Carl Ellingsen’s push for the creation of the Centennial Trail. Maybe we are headed in the right direction after all?

Secret History: The back of the book has a section that reads like an obituary for failed local fun runs: The Diet Pepsi 10K, Women’s Spring Thing, The Hog Jog, Wild Goose Chase, Steptoe’s Retreat, Liberty Lake Biathlon, and the Mogulpecker Memorial Mini-Marathon. It’s also the only place I’ve ever seen the term “Wandermere-Land” in print.

J.S.

17 Spokane Bike Trips
Author: Bob and Laurienne Newell
Year: 1973
Publisher: C. W. Hill Printers
Highest Price: $15.00 on abebooks.com

This book is a great catalog of rides that are still mainstays of local cyclists: “Riverside State Park,” “Mount Spokane,” and “Indian Canyon.” It also has some great anachronisms. Did you know they used to call it “Mount Saint Michael’s Scholasticate?” How about the recommendation that “you’ll need at least five gears” to get to the top of Mt. Spokane? The section on avoiding dog hazards might not fly today either; “A well-placed kick is effective, although it’s surprisingly easy to fall off your bike while trying to kick a dog. A squirt bottle with household ammonia is equally effective. As much as you’d like to, try not to seriously injure a dog, this may tend to irritate his owner.”
Perhaps more surprisingly the rest of the introductory road advice has aged quite well. And some of the rides here, like Deep Creek Canyon and Newman Lake, deserve a second look if you’ve never done them. Overall the book is well done for the time and gives you great feeling for the spirit of cycling in the early seventies.

Secret History: Did you know that in fall 1972 a 21-mile loop was set up for an event called “Bicycle Sunday?” For one day “all the streets along the route were closed to automobile traffic.” According the authors this was supposed to be an annual event coordinated by the “Department of Traffic Engineering.” What happened to this great idea?

J.S.

Hiking the Inland Empire
Author: John Dean
Year: 1976
Publisher: Signpost Publications
Highest price found online: $9.49 on abebooks.com

You wouldn’t pick up a thirty-year-old hiking guide expecting to find that the woods and trails described within had weathered the years without change, but Dean’s book is a startling reminder just how much has changed in our backyard, a region once known as the Inland Empire. Many of the places have been transformed for the worse from the quiet nature and primitive historical landscapes Dean describes by rampant road building, heavy-handed development, and dirt bike and ATV abuses.
From the Channeled Scablands, to the foothills around Spokane and the high mountains of Pend Oreille County, Dean gives us a glimpse of familiar and forgotten places from a very different perspective. He writes from a time when there was no cultural contradiction in a home-grown Spokane logger, hunter and Air Force serviceman bemoaning the “pandemonium” of the city, the “trail cycles” that “violate the sanctity of beautiful Paradise Ridge,” or the “logging [that] is insidiously threatening the esthetic beauty and necessity of this Creator-managed wilderness.” This book is a natural treasure in itself.

Secret History: Hiking the Inland Empire serves better as a history text than a practical hiking guide. Did you know there was a mining village off the backside of Mt. Spokane? That part of the Centennial Trail through the Spokane Valley was an old logging rail line? Or that there was once a nearly unbroken pack trail from the outskirts of Newport all the way north to the Canadian border? Neither did I.

D.K.

A Guide To Rock Climbing in the Spokane Area
Author: Bob Loomis
Year: 1983
Distributed by: Mountain Gear
Highest price found online: $24.50 at abebooks.com. Might still be available from Mountain Gear.

I firmly believe pioneers should receive more credit than those who followed close behind. In that vein of thinking, every Inland Northwest rock climbing guidebook owes an enormous debt to Bob Loomis.
Though the information is dated, the Loomis guide stands out among other local climbing guides thanks to the delicate drawings, the attention paid to naming the routes, and the details about Spokane area climbing. Loomis rightly acknowledges Roskelley, Momb, Peterman, Burns and Shannon for their bold climbing and great vision.
The first eight pages draw from interviews and other resources. Pay special attention to the quotes from John Roskelley and his early attempts on what would later become Spokane’s greatest test-pieces. Also note that this guide was published long before Minnehaha morphed into John Shields Park. For that matter, this guide was published before the Gri-Gri and at the very dawn of Gore-Tex clothing.

SECRET History: Add this guide to your bookshelf if only to have a record of the first ascent information. Loomis took great care to note every crack and groove on the local Spokane rocks, and he rightly attributed every first ascent at the back of this guide. This is still the best slice of Spokane climbing history.

J.J.

Hiking the Trails in the Bitterroot Mountains
Author: Morton L. Arkava
Year: 1983
Publisher: Pruett Publishing Company
Highest price found online: $10 on abebooks.com

Previous generations from tougher, more challenging times judged the quality of things by their ability to persevere over the years. Measured by that standard, the Bitterroot Mountains south of Lolo Pass and Highway 12 have held up pretty damn well. By no accident, most of the trails described by Arkava have changed little since he wrote about them a quarter of a century ago. There are no ski resorts or gondolas, ORV thrill parks, or pay-to-play backcountry lodges along the wild spine of the Bitterroot divide today—only the quiet serenity and primitive challenge of wilderness pack trails and untrammeled nature. Most of these trails were protected as part of the vast and largely ecologically intact Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area twenty years before the book was published, ensuring their longevity. Nevertheless, there has been a tendency for forest service trails to fall off the map as maintenance funds decline. In Arkava’s book, with its hand-drawn map work, you might find a few such disappearing, unmaintained trails, in addition to the classic hikes that fill the pages of more current guides, at a bargain out-of-print price.

Secret History: Retro equipment recommendations include external frame packs, eight pound dome tents made of “space age” materials, a grill for campfire cooking, and warnings against hiking in blue jeans and burning yourself from hot liquids with old school Sierra Club metal mugs. Ahhh, the good old days.

D.K.

The Washington Desert: A Climber’s Guide
Author: John Eminger & John Kittel
Year: 1991
Publisher: Serac International Press
Highest price found online: $28.99 at abebooks.com.

John Eminger, far and away, wins the award for the funniest unintentional line in all of the guidebooks featured here. The introductory sentence reads, “The Desert will, in all likelihood, not change to any great extent due to the writing of a guide.” Barely 15 years later, more than 5 guidebooks have focused on or featured the climbing at Frenchman Coulee. Consequently, every seasoned climber in Washington has made at leastone pilgrimage to the basalt column mecca.
Many years later, Eminger swapped his climbing shoes for ski boots, purchased 49° North Ski Resort, and founded the Inland Northwest Ski Association. At least two Internet sites quote him saying, “The long and short of it is you never do just one thing.”
Jim Yoder, a noted Frenchman Coulee climber and guidebook author, wrote the following: “This well received guidebook [The Washington Desert] with incredible hand-drawn, detailed topos opened the climbing area to the masses and there was no looking back. “

SECRET History: While other Frenchman Coulee guidebooks feature new climbs, new trails, current access requirements and additional route information, none of them include the appendix of Columbia Basin ice climbs. “Very special thanks go to Glen Frese and Mark Shipman for their extensive notes on the ice climbing in the Columbia Basin. It was their years of exploration and documentation that made it possible to add such a complete ice climbing appendix.”

J.J.

Idaho Rock
Author: Randall Green
Year: 1987
Published by: The Mountaineers
Highest price found online: $77.75 at abebooks.com

Today, the cover photo featuring Randall Green in tight, bright spandex pants usually sends climbers running. However, at the time of his publication, Green stood near the top of bold climbing and ingenious route development – not only in Idaho but also across the Northwest. Green and Joe Benson would later go on to write the primary climbing guidebook for the Bugaboos in the Canadian Rockies, as well as Montana’s rock climbing guide.
In most cases, the popular section on Chimney Rock shows the most wear and tear. By now, thousands of people have trekked to the granite icon with this book in hand in order to climb it. But it doesn’t appear as if many people have taken the book to the seldom-climbed southeastern shores of Pend Oreille and worked the routes at Granite Point. If you’re willing to start climbing right out of a boat, there’s some fantastic climbing there.
Twenty years later, Randall Green appears in Thad Laird’s Idaho climbing guide, and this is what he says: “We went to Yosemite, the North Cascades, the Bugaboos, Squamish, Leavenworth, Devil’s Tower and the desert Southwest. But we kept coming back to these scruffy crags and ridge top spires to live on the edge among a little slice of paradise.”

SECRET history: Schweitzer Rocks (a little known crag located off Granite Ridge Road) will soon be a memory due to recent Sandpoint growth. Sadly, other ‘practice’ rocks and cliffs too close to railroad tracks are off limits also.

J.J.

Idaho: A Guide in Word and Picture
Author: W.P.A. Federal Writer’s Project
Year: 2nd edition 1961
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Highest price found online: $75.00 on alibris.com

This book has everything you could hope to find in an old guidebook: great writing, historic photos, lots of secret history, and many names and locations that are now all but lost to us today. The book is a direct result of the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers Project of the great depression, which makes it all the more interesting today as the country is again in the midst of economic turmoil. Will President Obama with his well-documented support for the arts launch a similar initiative? Can you imagine the likes of Jess Walter and Sherman Alexie writing a guidebook to the Inland Northwest? That’s basically what the Idaho: A Guide in Word and Picture is. The writing is stunning. Dig this description of Moyie River falls; “It comes down then black leisurely to the power dam and pours over it like pale green ice. But for a few feet only: after bursting white violence and losing its direction, the water rolls downward again, green in its body but covered over in backwashing ridges that look as crisp as celery.”
The book is divided up into sections about flora, fauna, history and 11 tours through the state. Even though the second edition text has been updated from the original 1937 you get a strong sense of early 20th century Idaho, a land still on the verge of being completely wild and filled with mystery. Can you imagine images of Lake Coeur d’Alene without a single manmade structure in sight? Or Kamloops trout that were the “largest in the world?” Unfortunately the fascinating Native American history here is also coupled with language that is clearly patronizing and condescending even though it was surely not considered such at the time. For anyone interested in reading primary material on what the state used to be like it’s hard to recommend this book highly enough. A WPA guide was made for each state in 1937, including one for Washington called Washington: A Guide To The Evergreen State.

Secret History: Every page seems to bring up tidbits worthy of further investigation. Was “Coeur d’Alene” originally “a derisive term applied to greedy traders from Canada?” Did the Indians use the islands in Lake Pend Oreille as cemeteries where they hung the dead in trees? Did an 80-year-old blind Indian named Klait-too locate the remains of David Thompson’s first trading house in 1923? There are fun anachronisms too: “[Chimney] rock itself cannot be scaled without elaborate mechanical apparatus.”

J.S.

Idaho: Flies of the Northwest
Author: Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club/ Fenton Roskelley
Year: 1986
Publisher: Frank Amato Publications
Highest price found online: $25.00 at abebooks.com

Notable for many reasons, including being the first color guide put out by the Inland Empire Fly Fishing and being edited by Out There Monthly contributor Fenton Roskelley, this guide offers an interesting perspective on the evolution of flies in our area. Fly patterns have “changed radically” since the release of this volume according to Fenton Roskelley. “Different types of patterns are in use today, particularly midges,” says Roskelley. Is that because the fish have changed? “Fish don’t change,” says Roskelley. People just get better at catching them. He also reports that the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club is still thriving, with almost every member still tying flies and many young devotees becoming involved. The most recent update of Flies of the Northwest was in 1998. It might be time for a new one.

Secret History: Some of the fly titles of the past make great reading; Elk Hair Humpy, Big Horn Scud, Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear, Spokane Spook, Skagit Coachman, and Dave’s Two-Egg Sperm Fly. But none can beat the Bitch Creek Nymph.

J.S.

Walk About Spokane
Author: Barbara Snyder
Year: 1993
Publisher: Asundry Publishing
Highest price found online: n/a

There’s been some talk about forming a pedestrian advocacy group for Spokane that would function in a similar manner as the Bicycle Advisory Board. It’s a great idea. Advocates looking for evidence of the town’s long, proud walking tradition can look to Walk About Spokane as exhibit ‘A.’ The concise pamphlet written by—full disclosure—my mom, features 8 urban walks—all 3 miles or less. Walking locales such as Browne’s Edition, Corbin Park, Peaceful Valley and Garland may seem obvious now, but appreciation of these pedestrian friendly neighborhoods has been a long time in coming. If you can find one, this publication is a great introduction to the best spots to stroll in town. It would be great to see new version updated and expanded with more walks.

Secret History: There’s a reference to the Cheney Cowles Museum, which is the earlier incarnation of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. The Hillyard walk mentions the 5404 N. Market location that was used as the set for “Benny’s Car Clinic” in the film Benny and Joon.

J.S.

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