We drove into Idaho, and spent the day in Coeur d'Alene. The lake of the same name is 25 miles long, with countless inlets and bays sheltering the beautiful lakefront homes. Surprisingly, there were a huge number of "For Sale" signs on these properties - maybe almost a third of the homes are available. We learned that some years ago, the city was named one of the best places to live, in that it is not far from Seattle and Spokane, which has a regional airport, and there is so much to do in the area. Many people bought second, or third homes for vacation or investments, but when the economy bottomed out, the people couldn't afford to keep the homes.
The scenery was a sight to behold as the mountains seem to rise right out of the lake.
We passed an Elk Farm along the way:
The Coeur d'Alene Resort and Marina was top notch, and we enjoyed the most delicious dinner of Spinach Salad with kiwi, mandarin oranges, sliced almonds and huckleberries, the local fruit, which taste like blueberries. (By the way - everything here is "huckleberries" - pies, ice cream, you name it. I wonder if Phil Rizzuto spent some time here?) Tony had sliced Angus Skirt Steak with mushrooms and carmelized onions and I had Dungenous Crab and Prawn Rangoons with a Spicy Thai dip. Can you tell we're Foodies?
We saw this great old restored wooden boat in the marina:
Some of the local streets were blocked off, because there was a "HOG" Rally:
I never saw so many bikes in one place - there were hundreds! Four blocks were closed off with nothing but motorcycles. I'm grateful they were PARKED and it was quiet when we passed through!
For our last day in Idaho, we visited a couple of old mining towns. The first town, Murray, has a population of 65 in summer and 45 in winter !!! Here's the local post office "building":
Murray has two "famous" tourist stops: the first was the Bedroom Goldmine, currently a restaurant and bar.
The story is that this was a house, and in the 60's, the owner cut a hole in the floor of his bedroom closet and dug down 32 feet to bedrock, and branched out to form a mine, where he found an 8 ounce gold nugget !!! Today, because it was in nugget form, it would probably be worth tens of thousands of dollars!! Today, there is a piece of plywood over the mine site.
Across the street is a modest building, with an extensive collection of antiques and artifacts: the Sprag Pole Museum, so named for the poles used to frame the building. Totem Poles frame the building:
There are exhibits of old mining tools - included here are the blasting detonator and blasting box:
a full blacksmith's shop, a doctor's office, a schoolroom, and Miss Molly B'Damn's Bedroom (use your imagination),
Antique typewriters,
geodes and fossils - Tony is pointing to a Wooly Mammoth tooth found in Alaska:
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Great Fire, the largest forest fire in American history, which swept across northern Idaho and western Montana, killing 87 people and blackening 3 million acres of virgin timberland. The fire was a result of drought, and a spark from an unknown source, (lightening possibly) and when the temperatures suddenly dropped 20 degrees, fierce winds blew, and the fire spread relentlessly. It resulted in changing the course of national policy towards wildfire, by focusing on fire prevention and firefighting, as the Forest Service's top priorities.
The area from Coeur d'Alene and eastward through Idaho is known as The Silver Valley. The area has yielded over a billion ounces of silver in the last hundred years - more than anywhere else in the world. It is poised to produce another billion ounces in the next century. There are mine operations on hold, waiting for the price of silver to escalate.
Our last stop in Idaho was the town of Wallace, another mining city (and the city where actress Lana Turner was born).
One of the sights was the infamous Oasis Bordello Museum, which was vacated in 1988 - not that long ago.
We are now headed to Montana - see you there!
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