East of Spokane the interstate weaves around and through nearly 400 miles of the Rocky Mountains before finally descending down their eastern front at Livingston, Montana. The first 75 miles is in northern Idaho, primarily following up the Coeur d’Alene River Valley to Wallace where the canyon is so narrow that the interstate has to be elevated over part of the town before it starts the steep climb up to the Montana border at Lookout Pass.
The Spokane metropolitan area stretches along the I-90 corridor nearly 30 miles from downtown Spokane on both sides of the Spokane River to its’ outlet from Lake Coeur d’Alene at the largest city in northern Idaho, Coeur d’Alene. Mountains rise to the north, south and east.
Coeur d’Alene, ID
The British explorer David Thompson roamed around the area north of Lake Coeur d’Alene in 1807 and England claimed the area until the Oregon Treaty of 1846 defined the present day border between the United States and Canada as the 49th parallel. A stunningly beautiful area of dense emerald green forests, sparkling streams and crystal blue lakes, Northern Idaho was difficult for people to reach from the east. Settlement in the area lagged until Fort Sherman was established on a point on the northern edge of Lake Coeur d’Alene in 1878. The small town that grew up around the fort was christened Coeur d’Alene and prospered as a western gateway to the northern Rocky Mountains, though always in the shadow of neighboring Spokane. Just east of Lake Coeur d’Alene on the eastern side of the 4th of July Pass is the Silver Valley, a 40-mile long valley that has long been one of the world’s richest sources of silver, lead and zinc. Coeur d’Alene was also the site of several lumber mills. The fort was decommissioned in 1900 and dismantled, buildings destroyed, and the land divided between the campus of Northern Idaho College and the surrounding residential neighborhoods. The only building from the fort still standing is the chapel. Built in 1880, the building was used over the years as a chapel, library, school and meeting hall. Today the historic site is a small museum on the College of Northern Idaho campus
The decline of both the timber and mining industries during the 20th Century lead to a similar decline in the fortunes of Coeur d’Alene until the mid-1980’s when a resort in downtown Coeur d’Alene named the “North Shore Resort” was purchased by Hagadone Hospitality and reborn three years later as the signature business of modern Coeur d’Alene, the Coeur d’Alene Resort. This one business sparked a boom in tourism in northern Idaho and resurrected downtown along Sherman Street, now lined with boutiques, restaurants and more recently, condominium towers. Driving along the lakefront on the old Fort Sherman grounds the views are spectacular of the lake to the south, the signature tower of the Lake Coeur d’Alene Resort rising above the blue awnings of its marina, and the city of Coeur d’Alene.
Sherman Street runs from the old fort site due east to the foot of the mountain and is the historic center of the city. The bustling commercial street is bejeweled with pieces of sculpture.
In the heart of the city on the south side of Sherman Street is Coeur d’Alene City Park, a dazzling public space on the north shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene tucked between the Lake Coeur d’Alene Resort marina and a tree covered hill to the west.
West of the park is the older city center, east of the park are gleaming new buildings and condominium towers.
Highway 95 runs north from Coeur d’Alene to Canada through a broad valley and along the western shore of Lake Pend Oreille. We visited the northern shore of Lake Pend ‘Oreille and its largest town of Sandpoint in Chapter 2 of this trip, but the southern tip about 20 miles north of Coeur d’Alene also merits a visit as the rather incongruous site of a large Navy base during World War II.
Farragut Naval Station
Heading north from Spokane the lonely rollercoasters of Silverwood, a local theme park, rise along the western side of the highway. The scene would have been very different just two months ago as Silverwood attracts large crowds throughout the summer months before shutting down for the winter.
Just north of Silverwood at the town of Athol, we head east into the forest for a couple of miles to Farragut State Park, site of the WWII naval training station. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor the Navy only had three training facilities available to meet the needs of preparing the thousands needed to man its ships (“tin cans” as some were affectionately known) and shore installations. Because of concerns about the possibility of Japanese attacks on the West Coast the decision was made to construct the training facility inland and Navy officials decided upon a large parcel of land along the southern reaches of Lake Pend Oreille about 30 miles north of Coeur d’Alene.
Farragut Naval Station
Construction began on the naval station on April 10, 1942, and quickly over 7,000 workers were on site, completing their work for the official dedication on August 2 of the same year. Seven camps were eventually carved out of the forests on the 4,000 acre site, each designed to house and train 5,000 men at a time. Each individual camp was laid out in a rough oval and contained a 14-acre drill field, 22 two-story barracks, a mess hall, drill hall, recreation building, two medical dispensaries, laundry building and rifle range. Each recreation hall contained six basketball courts, a boxing ring, and a large swimming pool, used to teach recruits how to swim. The Farragut Naval Station was only in operation for 30 months and during that time trained an astonishing 293,381 men on what was at the time the second-largest naval training base in the world. The station was decommissioned in June 1946, the buildings dismantled, and today there is little evidence that this station, the largest “city” in Idaho during the time it was in operation, ever existed. For a couple of years in the late 1940’s some of the buildings were used for a technical college and when that closed, there were also dismantled. Today the 4.000 acres comprises Farragut State Park.
As one drives around the state park the sites of the seven camps are easily discerned within the dense forests as large open meadows of grass waft in the breeze, clearly out of place amongst the surrounding stands of pine.
The only original naval station building still standing is the brig (or jail), now housing a small museum that is only open during the summer months. It sets across from a monument honoring the thousands of men who passed through the naval station on their way to war.
At the far edge of the naval station the view expands east, across Lake Pend Oreille to the mountains beyond.
Back in Coeur d’Alene my thoughts now turn to heading home. I am still just one day ahead of the storm as I head east on I-90 under hazy skies.
The interstate follows a path along side the Coeur d’Alene River into the heart of northern Idaho and at the western edge of the valley just over a small range of mountains from Coeur d’Alene is the oldest building in the state of Idaho, the Cataldo Mission.
Cataldo Mission
Father Antonio Ravalli entered the valley of the Coeur d’Alene and established a mission to minister to the local natives on the south side of the valley in 1853. The valley floor is flat in this area and the river broadens into a marshy blend of water and grass hemmed in by steep mountain sides to the north and south. The mission was constructed out of local materials with walls made of grass woven between willow saplings and plastered with mud and clay. Father Ravalli designed the mission to mimic the great cathedrals of Europe. Today the mission has been restored to look as it did back in the 1800’s. The mission and parish house stand vigil atop the hill overlooking the valley.
The interior of the church is one large room, richly decorated with colors and religious symbols.
The 1887 Parish House rises next to the church and served as a home for the priests until 1916 when the Jesuits converted the mission to a ranch.
There are four rooms on the main floor, each with a specific purpose. The parlor was the business center of the mission where priests conducted the affairs of the mission, managed the records, and counseled those in need.
The kitchen is relatively large, housing both the cooking facilities as well as a table for dining.
The chapel served the needs of the community when the large church was not available or simply too big. Here priests conducted their personal services as well as officiated weddings, baptisms, etc.
The mission grew in importance to the spiritual life of the valley as thousands of miners flooded into the valley in the late 1800’s as vast riches were discovered in the mountains of northern Idaho. Priests trained at the mission served the mining camps throughout the valley. The mineral deposits, first discovered in a quest for gold, were soon found to be one of the richest sources of silver in the world and gave the valley its name, the Silver Valley.
Silver Valley
The south fork of the Coeur d’Alene River flows through a very narrow valley east of the Cataldo Mission and in the 1870’s small gold deposits were discovered in the river and its tributaries. However, it quickly became apparent that silver was the real find in the area and mining of silver, zinc, and lead continues to this day, although nowhere near at the level of the peak production years. At one time the valley was the world’s largest producer of silver and over one billion ounces of silver has been extracted in the 40 miles of the valley between the Cataldo Mission and Lookout Pass. The history of the valley is rife with labor troubles and extreme environmental degradation. When I first passed through the valley on my way to college in Oregon in 1972, the valley floor was a wasteland as the polluted multi-colored river stained by poisonous minerals and smelting waste flowed between mine tailings under acrid skies that would make the eyes burn. One of the nation’s worst polluted areas, it quickly became designated as a Superfund site and mitigation continues to this day. One of the most obvious indications of the recovery of the environmental recovery of the valley has been the return of trumpeter swans to the valley waterways, which now flow along carefully smoothed out and restored treeless hills of mine tailings that look somewhat out of place on the valley floor.
Kellogg, home to one of the largest of the mines, Bunker Hill, is just a shadow of its former self as the twin factors of reduced production and increased mechanization has decreased employment opportunities throughout the valley. The historic center of Kellogg hugs a steep hillside south of the valley floor and is a pale shadow of the vibrant city that once thrived here.
East of Kellogg the valley floor narrows as we continue the slow climb towards Lookout Pass, often to the point where there is only room for the interstate and the river between the steep mountain sides.
The town of Wallace is the queen of the eastern Silver Valley, founded in 1884 as a mining town, boosted in 1887 with the arrival of the railroad. The town was destroyed during the Great Fire of 1910, which burned nearly three million acres across northern Idaho and Montana, but was quickly rebuilt and many of the buildings still stand.
Wallace, ID
Wallace was notorious as a “party town” for the miners of the valley with brothels and prostitution openly operating until the 1990’s. The valley is so narrow at this point that when Interstate 90 was originally planned it would have destroyed most of the downtown area so a compromise was developed that elevated the freeway above part of the town on the north side of the canyon. Today Wallace is enjoying a renaissance as a tourist destination for those exploring the mining history of the valley, recreation opportunities offered in the surrounding mountains, and skiing at Lookout Pass and Silver Mountain.
The 1924 City Hall sits tucked under the freeway and the elevated freeway juts out over town at the eastern end of the city center.
While in Wallace I had my own little “mini-crisis”. East of Wallace I-90 quickly climbs up to Lookout Pass before descending into Montana. This is very rugged country with the interstate really being the only direct route feasible between Wallace and St. Regis, MT, 47 miles to the southeast. Unfortunately the morning that I am travelling a semi-truck hauling a load of talcum powder, a hazardous material, had turned over on the freeway west of St Regis and the freeway is closed. I stop at the Visitor Center in Wallace and they inform me that it may be closed up to two days. Traffic over the pass is already backed up for nearly 20 miles so they suggest an alternative. I’ve been traveling back and forth between the West Coast and Montana a couple times a year for nearly 50 years now and I had no idea that there was an alternative route to Missoula from Wallace other than I-90 over Lookout Pass. Turns out that a county road heads north out of Wallace over two passes to Thompson Falls, where I can pick up the same route that I followed on my way out (see Chap. 2). I have a full tank of gas, food, and my toilet so why not explore? Thus armed, Joey (the dog) and I indulge our inner explorer and head out into the mountains. The road out of town heads under the interstate and up a narrow canyon.
We climb quickly up the sides of a narrow canyon and I do get a bit concerned as the yellow line in the middle of the road disappears. One of my time-tested theories is that I am never lost as long as there is a yellow line down the middle of the road, because a road with a yellow line always goes somewhere. Thus, my joy ride into the mountains becomes an adventure along a paved “goat path” somewhere in the middle of northern Idaho!
Never the less, I persist and am rewarded with a spectacular view from the top of Dobson Pass looking south towards Wallace hidden in a canyon at the base of the mountains in the distance.
A sigh of relief occurs as my yellow line reappears on the downward side and I sit back and relax during a drive through the wilderness. Vestiges of unusual recent snow linger along the sides of the road.
It’s a hazy day in the mountains and the scent of wood smoke from cabin fireplaces and stoves wafts through the air as I get closer to Highway 200 and Thompson Falls in Montana.
Once through Thompson Falls I retrace the beginnings of my journey along the Clark Fork River. Still one day ahead of the storm, it’s a beautiful day in northwest Montana.
Our path veers east along the Flathead River after the confluence of the Flathead and the Clark Fork and now the snow capped Mission Mountains dominate the eastern horizon.
Once back on Highway 93 the path heads south to Missoula and then down I-90 to home in Billings. The trip this fall has been at the mercy of the strange weather, wetter and much cooler than normal as we explored the “Northwest” of the Pacific Northwest.
As always, thanks for coming along. See you on the next adventure!
Next up: Some place warm?
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