A big year for Priest Lake

Things were jumping in the northern part of Bonner County in the year 1910. According to a story which appeared in the Northern Idaho News, but which had been clipped from a newspaper called the Inland Herald, perhaps out of Spokane, big plans were afoot for Priest River and the Priest Lake country.

One million dollars, it said, “would be spent during the current year in making available for the world much of that vast area of virgin forest, mineral belts and soil located in the northern part of Bonner County. The immense sum to be invested is regarded as trivial by comparison with the value of the wealth awaiting.”

The million dollars was to be invested in railroad construction, dredging, wagon road building, sawmill and steamboat construction, mining, town building, and the erection of wharves and telephone lines. It seems the idea, at least in part, was to open up the Priest River Forest Reserve, which was said to have “magnificent mountain scenery, with ledges of gold, silver, lead, copper, and zinc and covered for miles with heavy timber.”

Never mind that only part of the description was valid. The area had the scenery, the timber, and the indication of metals. But the metals proved to be mostly pretty shallow, and difficult and expensive to get to market.

I am doubtful, too, that two-thirds of the county lay in the reserve, as stated; and apparently nobody had stopped to consider what the Forest Service might think.

The story also mentioned “fertile valleys dotted with mirror-like lakes” possibly looking forward to the harvesting of the fruits of agriculture, without considering that the climate put a limit to agricultural success on a large scale, except perhaps for stock raising. That is especially true the nearer one advances toward Priest Lake.

The story said, nevertheless, that “those sections of the forest reserve which have been burned over are open to settlement. Homesteaders were applying in such numbers that they were “expected to have occupied all available spots before the year ends.”

The railroad would be built from Priest River, on the Great Northern line, to Coolin, on Priest Lake, some 27 miles distant, “as the river winds and the lake shore curves,” and ultimately along the west shore to the British Columbia border. Steamboats would complete the journey to the northern extremity of the lake near the border.

The railroad would transport milling and mining supplies that had been previously limited to the capacity of freight wagons, and the outward movement of ore in large quantities. It would also carry lumber from the sawmills and agricultural and other products.

The story speculated that a firm called Grant, Smith and Company would build it, as they were said to have the contract already. Although the Inland Herald was unable to get confirmation from the company, “the people of the Priest Lake country are satisfied of its correctness,” as the rights-of-way were being negotiated.

The trains were to be propelled by electricity generated in the Priest River Rapids. The railway construction and the power plant were estimated to cost about $750,000 and it was reported that Louis W. Hill, president of the Great Northern, was willing to supply the steel.

The hoopla over the railroad had galvanized other monied interests in other lines of investment. The Gordon firm of Hillyard was installing a plant designed to cut 400,000 feet of lumber daily, at a cost of approximately $10,000. (Perhaps this was intended to be situated in Priest River.)

The Charles W. Mohr Shingle and Lumber Company had purchased the property of Mrs. J. Judge (probably also in Priest River) for a shingle mill, to begin operation in the fall.

Machinery for a steamboat that would be operated by a Spokane and Seattle corporation was “on the ground,” and the boat would be the largest on the lake. To be launched during the summer, it would cost $10,000.

Coolin, one of Priest Lake’s “two places of destiny,” was stirring. “A three-story hotel and other buildings are growing into prominence and $60,000 will have been spent in business and residential construction” before the end of the year. Much of the townsite was being cleared, and even the establishment of a bank was a possibility.

Bonner County had already completed a wagon road from Priest River to Coolin at a cost of $5,000 -- ”a highway of such merit, it is declared, that automobiles may use it.”

Today, it all seems mostly like the wildest kind of pipe dream.

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