Priest Lake Museum Spring 2019 Newsletter

LINGER LONGER with the Birds, a Dreamer, and the Myths of Priest Lake

The museum announces an exciting Naturalist and historian Jack Nisbet rounds out Heritage Speakers Series for July. Doni the series with "John B. Leiberg: Surveying Guyer kicks off the series on July 10 at a Priest Lake's Potential in 1898” on July 31 in new location, the Community Church the Community Church Fellowship Room. Fellowship Room. She will share her Nisbet’s newest book, The Dream and the Doctor: history and family stories of Linger Longer A Forest Lover and A Physician on the Edge of the Lodge. On July 17, at the Coolin Frontier, traces the unlikely adventures of John Community Center, historian Kris Runberg and Carrie Leiberg around the Idaho Smith presents "MythBusters: Priest Lake Panhandle. Edition" as she looks at the facts and mysteries surrounding the lake's most In 1897, John Leiberg, surveyed Priest Lake for enduring stories. At the Coolin the U.S. Geological Survey. He struggled his Community Center on July 24, the best way through the reserve, mapping the birder on the lake, Robert Bond, shares his merchantable forests and potential farmland. knowledge and photographs with He also took some of the earliest photographs of “Feathered Friends of Priest Priest Lake. Lake.” Copies of his book, Birds of the Priest Lake Ecosystem, will be available. Continued on 4

Priest Lake Museum Spring 2019 Dear Museum Friends,

D During the summer of iDavis for presenting these I would like to personally 2018 we hosted 3,195 most informative and thank each of our board visitors at the museum. dinteresting events in the members as well as the We give THANKS to Ysummer of 2018 attended by many volunteers for all they the almost 50 volunteer over 200 people. do to make the Priest Lake hosts who served daily to o Museum a very outstanding make it possible for our uWe installed our latest organization. Finally, I museum to be open and interpretive sign lakeside at would like to thank each of to serve so many people! KElkins Resort giving a history you who are receiving this Without the help of nof the Reeder Bay area. Be newsletter for your these many volunteers osure and check in out next continued support - Your the museum would not time you are at Elkins. dedication of financial be open as many days at w resources and time are vital it is. If you have an ?This coming summer of 2019 to our success. interest in helping as a Fis shaping up to be another host at the museum rfantastic season for us! Looking forward to this please contact either our o summer, volunteer coordinator, m* The museum will be Mike Rydbom Elaine Widman at t presenting our newest President [email protected] h exhibit - The History of , or the museum. et e Mining in the Priest Lake Hosting is a great way to R Area. Tom Weitz and learn about the history of e others have done a great job the lake, meet interesting c putting this exhibit together. people and listen to o Be sure to stop by and visit. many visitors tell about r• We’re also bringing back their experiences at the d several museum sponsored lake. We welcome your s hikes to various historic sites participation! a around the lake. July 11th t we’ll be visiting an The museum continued t abandoned mining site. July to offer our Heritage h 25th we’ll go past this same Series programs with e mining site and continue to four presentations at P a higher elevation for various venues around r spectacular vistas of the Mike honoring long-time board the lake. Many thanks lake. member Pam Martin last summer i at the Host Thank-you Party. go to Kris Runberg e Smith, Teri Hill and Bob s t L The Priest Lake Museum Associationa was founded to preserve and promote the rich heritage of the surroundingk region. The newsletter is published annually. 2 e M u s e

Priest Lake Museum Spring 2019

July Community Church Fellowship Room Hall @7:00 10 The History of Linger Longer Lodge: presented by Doni Guyer

July Kalispell Bay Day Use parking lot @ 9:00 a.m. 11 Museum Hikes An hour walk visiting an abandoned mining site up in the hills with panoramic views of the lower lake. Vertical gain is about 400 feet on a jeep trail and single track. Bring water and snacks. July Coolin Community Center @7:00 17 MythBuster’s: Priest Lake Edition Presented by Kris Runberg Smith July Coolin Community Hall @7:00 24 Feathered Friends of Priest Lake presented by Robert Bond July Kalispell Bay Day Use parking lot @ 9:00 a.m. 25 Museum Hikes Two hour walk with a vertical gain of about 800 feet and more spectacular vistas. It will include the mining site and a rather strenuous cardio workout for the next 20 minutes to the top. Bring water and snacks. July Community Church Fellowship Room @7:00 31 John B. Leiberg: Surveying Priest Lake’s Potential in 1898 presented by Jack Nisbet

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Priest Lake Museum Spring 2019

Continued from page 1 Reviewing The Dreamer When John Leiberg and his wife, the Doctor, Carrie homesteaded on the south and the Doctor end of Lake Pend Oreille in the mid-1880s, he was a prospector and she had an infant Spokane-based author Jack Nisbet’s latest son to raise. Over the next two decades, his book is a very well researched and written skills as a naturalist and hers as a trained history of A Forest Lover and a Physician on physician led them through a series of the Edge of the Frontier. John Leiberg was adventures that outstripped their wildest also a self-taught naturalist and over the dreams. The year 1897, when John carried next two decades he was commissioned by out his landmark survey of the Priest River the U.S Government to conduct botanical Forest Reserve, marked a turning point in surveys throughout the inland northwest. their journey. The surveys took Leiberg from the Columbia Plateau and Olympic Mountains You can join award-winning author Jack in Washington to the Bitterroot and Big Nisbet for a slide show that explores how Belt mountains in Montana, and from the Leibergs fit into the context of the Priest Lake to southern Oregon. Idaho Panhandle of that time, and how their story resonates through to issues we When President Grover Cleveland set aside still grapple with today on July 31 at 7:00 thirteen controversial western forest at the Community Church Fellowship reserves in 1897, Leiberg was hired by the Room. Copies of The Dreamer and The U.S. Geological Survey to survey the Doctor will be on sale. forests, which included the Priest River Forest Reserve. Leiberg’s survey of the Jack is the author of several collections of Priest Lake area is described in the stories that explore the human and natural museum’s book Wild Place, A History of history of the Northwest, including Ancient Priest Lake, Idaho along with his maps. Places and Visible Bones He has also written award-winning biographies of fur agent Besides being an enjoyable read, I found David Thompson and naturalist David the book interesting because Leiberg visited Douglas. For more information visit many regions in the northwest where I have www.jacknisbet.com lived, worked or travelled. Leiberg had interests in mining and prospecting, and he proposed geological processes that formed the topography he explored. He observed and warned of many ecological issues, like noxious weeds, poor water quality in the Coeur d’Alene river basin and forest destruction caused by fires – issues that persist today. By Tom Weitz

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Priest Lake Museum Spring 2019 Collecting Stories

Diamond Park out on the property during Elisabeth Jane Bump (1875- construction. Other 1955) was a schoolteacher, Beginnings original owners had their originally from New places commercially built. London Ohio, who taught Earle and Judy Ruddach school in Rathdrum, donated a copy of the History of The road to Diamond Park ID. She met my Diamond Park and the 1958 was originally just dirt. In grandfather, Rev. James original bid notice from the hot summers, it was Henry Martin (1864-1936), P Diamond Match Company. difficult to decide if one while he was in Rathdrum Judy also included a history and should keep the car preaching at the Methodist images of their family cabin. windows up or down Church. They were r (since there was no air married June 20, 1905 and “Diamond Gardner conditioning). went to Priest Lake for their Corporation is about to offer honeymoon. i for sale a limited number of lakeshore frontage lots on Thorofare in 1929 Priest Lake….” so stated e information disseminated in Robert Stauffer donated five minutes of a 1929 film from the summer of 1958 from the Diamond Match Company. a fishing trip taken by his s great uncle Dr. John T.

Employees of Diamond Bird. Bird stayed at Sam Byar's Forest Lodge. He Match had “first dibs”, but Now, almost sixty years t captured sourdough locals (Newport and Priest later, a few of the original “Daddy” Duffill, the Byar River) would also be given families or descendants family waving from their an opportunity before still own the original porch, and scenes of the L bidding was opened up to places: their own little Thorofare. To view the outside applicants. My “piece of paradise,” where film, go to Priest Lake father-in-law and mother-in- families and friends have Museum’s Facebook site. a law (Earle and Maude gathered and enjoyed the

Ruddach) were successful lake, each other and bidders on a lot for a price of beautiful sunsets. k a few thousand dollars. (hard to come up with in those days). Most cabin were 1905 Honeymoon e do-it-yourself. In those days Jody McClellan donated a county land use laws were picture of her grandmother non-existent, septic tanks honeymooning at Priest Lake i and grading were up to the in 1905. She writes: land owners. Our family as well as others would camp 5 s A l

Priest Lake Museum Spring 2019

This summer we are excited to unveil our new outdoor exhibit on mining around Priest Lake. Three panels tell of the optimistic explorations and disappointing realities of sourdoughs seeking their fortunes. The exhibit incorporates the Woodrat Mine steam boiler now located behind the museum. The massive boiler provided power to the mine, it ran the pumps that kept lake water out of the tunnels, powered the hoist that brought the miners in and out of the shaft, and hauled the ore to the surface. The ore car behind the museum is in a newly constructed tunnel where panels explain how it helped sourdoughs work at least $100 worth of labor a year to keep their claims. Former museum president Tom Weitz designed this exhibit that brings Priest Lake mining history to life. Still Logging Priest Lake StoryCorps Check out the special Priest Lake memories will always remain even as so many Logging Exhibit inside the changes are happening. Make sure you preserve and share museum. It features a those memories with the Priest Lake StoryCorps recreated bunk house project. Inspired by the national StoryCorps program, (without the smells) and a chooses a friend, neighbor or loved one to interview about model of the Indian Creek their experiences at the lake. The museum facilitator takes flume (without the water). It care of the recording and provides you a copy to take traces the history of logging home. The museum preserves your interview and also sends at the lake as it changes it to the StoryCorps collection, housed at the Library of with technology and the Congress, https://archive.storycorps.org/user/priest-lake- increasing role of the museum/. Sign up for your session this summer Diamond Match Company. at [email protected] or call 208-443-2676.

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Priest Lake Museum Spring 2019

Priest Lake Museum is a volunteer 501(c)(3) non- profit organization. Our financial support comes Priest Lake Museum from memberships, monetary/in-kind donations Association and the sale of Priest Lake-related books, DVDs and other Museum-related items. There is no paid P.O. Box 44 staff. The Museum is maintained and operated by a Coolin, Idaho 83821 dedicated corps of volunteers.

Name: ______Address: ______City: ______State: ______Zip: ______E-mail: ______

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______Gold Club $500 or more ______Silver Club $400 - $499

______Baritoe Island $ 300 - $399 ______Kalispell Island $200 - $299

______Eight Mile Island $100 - $199 ______Four Mile Island $ 50 - $ 99

______Twin Islands $25 - $ 49 ______Papoose Island under $25

YES, I’d like to make an additional donation of $______This gift is: In memory of ______In honor of ______Please acknowledge this gift to: Name: ______Address: ______City: ______State: ______Zip: ______

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Priest Lake Museum Spring 2019

Museum Hours 2019 Board The Priest Lake Museum is open from Memorial Day weekend Members through the end of September. Museum hours are 10 to 4 daily, Tuesday through Sunday from mid-June through Labor Day, and 10 to 4 on weekends in early June, and in September after Labor Day. Kelly Bacon-Hord The museum is closed Mondays, except holidays. Barb Conboy Kay Coykendall Mary Driscoll Patty Engle Volunteer Opportunities Brent Guyer Arley Sue Hagman MPriest Lake history and at the same time serve our wonderful Tom Holman community? If so, our cadre of Priest Lake Museum hosts invites Kim Impecoven you to join us this summer. Whether your schedule will allow you to Carlos Landa volunteer as a host at the museum once or several times during the Sam and Dorothy summer, we would welcome your participation. To tweak the old Latendresse Mike Rydbom adage “It takes a village to raise a child”, we say “It takes a village to Tom Weitz nurture a dynamic museum”--and dynamic it is! So, please join us Don Widman this summer. I can be reached at 509/993-3749 and will be happy to Elaine Widman answer your questions about hosting and getting involved. Debbie Butler, Elaine Widman USFS Liason

Priest Lake Museum Association P.O. Box 44 Coolin, ID 83821

Sign up to interview your favorite lake person with Priest Lake StoryCorps at the museum this summer!

Jeanne Tomlin, Newsletter Editor