The trip to our campground took only about an hour. We are camping about 8 miles east of Coeur d'Alene at the Wolf Lodge Campground. We were fortunate that we were able to upgrade to a full hookup site. The only drawback to this campground -- NO TV! It's in a valley and the mountains on all sides block the signal. Thank heavens for strong radio stations and Red Box!
Since we arrived in early afternoon we set up and then drove into town and walked the shopping area and then the 3/4 mile floating board walk at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. It was built in 1986, and is the world's longest floating boardwalk. We saw an advertisement for a tour of Ft. Stevens and so stopped at the Museum to buy tickets.
Our tour on Friday was at 11 a.m., and our tour guide was the local historian Bob Singletary who was dressed in a Civil War uniform and took us along the lake to the remains of Ft. Stevens. The fort was built at the request of William Sherman, and was built about the same time as Ft. Spokane in WA. Mr. Singletary took on the persona of the fort commander, and spoke as though we were visiting during the time it was inhabited. We were able to go into the Single Officer's barracks, the chapel and saw the brick magazine. The rest of the fort has been acquired by the Lewis and Clark College, and so those are the only remaining buildings. Since Jack is a history buff, the two of them carried on a lively conversation and the tour was truly interesting and enjoyable. After the tour we stayed at the Museum and toured it.
Saturday we drove to Wallace, ID about 50 miles east of our campground to see the historic town. The historic buildings in town were saved from destruction by quick thinking residents when the I-90 interstate wanted to demolish several blocks of historic buildings to build I-90. The town sued on environmental grounds, and the I90 was built on an overpass on the edge of town. About 900 people live in the town, which is called the Silver Capital of the World because of the many silver mines and gold mines in the area. They also had a rich history of logging. The 1910 fire destroyed several blocks. The Union Pacific and Northern Pacific both came though the valley, but by the 1980's both were gone. The Northern Pacific station has been moved from it's original location to downtown, and has a railroad museum inside. Two other museums are also in town : the Bordello museum and the Mining Museum. There is also a tour of an old Silver Mine available. When we arrived we learned that it was the Huckleberry Festival downtown, so we toured the booths and enjoyed huckleberry ice cream (huckleberries look like wild blueberries). The ice cream was great!
Sunday we drove 17 miles to the Old Mission near Cataldo, ID. The State Park has Idaho's Oldest Standing Building - a missionary church and priest's residence with a visitor's center. The church was constructed in 1850-53 by catholic missionaries of the Society of Jesus and the Coeur d'Alene Indians. The building was designed by Father Anthony Ravalli, SJ who studied in Italy. In 1887 the Indians were relocated near DeSmet, ID and a new mission was erected. The Cataldo Mission served as a seminary for brothers of the SJ, since the Indians had been relocated. Every August 15 the Couer d'Alene Indians come back to the Mission on the feast of the Assumption and hold an outdoor Mass and celebration. The Visitor's Center has a permanent exhibition which tells the story of the "Blackrobes" and Coeur d'Alene Tribe.
Monday we'll move to Boise, ID.
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