Come along on a drive into the history of the Selle Valley

(Folks, it will not be long before we can get out and enjoy the beauty and history of Bonner County. I want to recommend to you a short trip I took with Dale Selle not too long before his death. If you like “exploring,” clip this from your paper, move one of the kids on the fridge over a bit, and save it for a pretty day.)

Start at the Bonner County Museum located at the corner of Ella and Ontario. Set your speedometer to 000 and go to Highway 2 by going up Ella and turning right at dead end. Go to the first traffic signal and turn left onto Boyer and continue to Boyer and Larch. This marks the southwest corner of the old Humbird Milltown. Just after you pass this intersection you will see the old Humbird School, now Lincoln.

Mile 3.2 — Keep on main road (Boyer) to dead end and turn right. Go to first traffic signal (Highway 95) and turn left.

Mile 4.4 — On your right was located the first drive-in movie for the area. It was called the Motor Movie and was built by Floyd Gray, who owned the Panida Theater.

Mile 6.7 — Turn right onto Selle Road. In the early days, this road was cut with gullies that were full of water and logs were floated in some of them. The road had many wooden bridges enabling the traveler to cross over the gullies. The area was also full of huge timber that brought loggers and mills.

Mile 7.8 — After the land you see was logged, Humbird Lumber sold the land for 50 cents an acre to anyone willing to clear the stumps and start a farm. Some of the old barns you see were built during the time of the “stump ranches.”

Mile 8.7 — On left is Center Valley Road but you continue on Selle Road. It was here that Gust Selle had his homestead. He was the son of Charles Selle for whom the community was named. The community was first called “Matchwood” but, in about 1916, the people honored Charles Selle by putting “Selle” on the depot.

Mile 9.2 — On your right once stood the Selle School, which was built in the fall of 1917. The house that still stands was the home of the teacher.

Mile 9.3 — Here (on your left) the Spokane International Railroad had a flag stop depot. You had to flag the train to get it to stop and at night a passenger would light a piece of newspaper and wave it to get the attention of the engineer. The engineer would toot the whistle to let the person know he had seen the fire and giving the passenger time to stomp out the newspaper fire.

On the east side of the road, Edward Surby opened a country store in 1916 and, in 1920, he built a dance hall for the entertainment of the loggers. The Selle Grange No. 313 later used the building. The Selle community was the first community in Bonner County to take advantage of the Rural Electrification Program to get electricity. .

Mile 10.2 — East Shingle Mill Road — site of the Charles Selle homestead. Turn right and drive a short distance down East Shingle Mill Road. The Wild Horse Trail ran close to this area. Indians had used the trail for hundreds of years and miners used it to go to the gold diggings at Wild Horse Gulch in British Columbia. The famous surveyor, explorer, and trader, David Thompson, also used this trail.

Mile 11.0 — Turn right on Selle Road.

Mile 13.1 — On your right is the Pack River Cemetery. A Sandpoint newspaper carried a story of a local man that committed suicide so that he would be the first buried in this cemetery.

Mile 13.1 — Turn right on Colburn-Culver Road

Mile 13.3 — Northside School on your left was built on the site of the old Pack River School. You are driving south on the Colburn-Culver Road that was a farm-to-market road built by the PWA (Public Works Administration) during the depression.

Mile 15.6 — You are now in the Oden community.

Mile 16.1 — You are now at Highway 200 and on your way back to Sandpoint.