Wallace, ID

Twelve miles from Lookout Pass was Wallace, ID.  With only a population of 900, it seemed larger, yet still very much a small town.  

The day I arrived the town was celebrating the Accordian Festival.

Need I say more?

True to their mining heritage, there were old pieces of mining equipment all around town.

I thought this a clever use of an old mine car.

We took the trolley tour and learned all about the history of Wallace.

There is even a Carnegie Library, dating from 1911. Did you know there are over 17,000 Carnegie Libraries in the U.S.?

All the buildings in town are on the National Register of Historic Places.  In fact, the entire town was included.  Yes, the entire town.  Harry Magnuson was a business leader in the northwest, but he never forgot his hometown of Wallace, and when the Federal Highway Administration planned to route I-90 right through the heart of Wallace, he took steps to stop this from happening.  Long story short, Harry sued the government and won, getting his beloved town designated as a historic place stopped the bulldozers.  To get the rest of the story I guess you'll just have to visit.

The local motto

This carving was from an existing tree.

The original church site for Trinity Episcopal Church was purchased in 1887 and a wooden church built in 1889.  After a devasting fire, which destroyed most buildings in town, the current building was erected in 1911.  According to our tour guide on the trolley, the dark bricks came from the ashes of the fire and were reused here.

That's some trailer.  Two bikes on top of the car, the trailer pulling two kayaks and two more bikes.

I doubt this boat will ever see the water again, but it makes a nice planter.  Notice the Christmas lights?

What do you do with a bus when it's no longer being used to carry passengers?  Turn it into a drive in.  Although it doesn't look to be open, peering in the windows I could still see the grills and even soda cups.  It looked like they could open back up for business anytime.

A local zipline company transports their customers using this van and after you have completed ziplining, you get to sign the van.  No, I didn't stop to count the names.

There is some wonderful architecture around town, but this corner is especially important because....

as the sign says, "It's the Center of the Universe".

I stayed a few extra days so I could come back the next weekend for the Huckleberry Festival.

Just a cute, small town festival.  I was hoping to find lots of huckleberries for sale, but only one booth had them and they were $20 quart or pound, anyway, much more expensive than I found around Kalispell.  But they did have lots of huckleberry pies, pastries, jellies and of course, ice cream.

I'm sure someone out there understands this car, but it's not me. Still cute, though.

The next blog will be about the infamous Wallace bordello, the melodrama and the train museum.