The IDAHO magazine June 2004 issue is generously sponsored by JUNE 2004 VOl. 3, NO. 9 State Parks Idaho’s Most Beautiful, Fascinating, and Popular Rock Slides Moving Mountains Blackfoot Spotlight City $3.50 USA Tying Fly Handmade hats—custom built one at a time. Idaho Artists Bret and Linda Botcke Priest Hat Company • Eagle, Idaho FEATURES 14 PRIEST Idaho State Parks 14 LAKE p. 26 Idaho may have been a late bloomer when the first state park designation was granted to Heyburn PRIEST LAKE State Park by Congress in 1908, but since then it’s done a lot of catching up. Check out our sum- STATE PARK p. 14 mer roundup of Idaho’s most beautiful, fascinating, and popular. By Jennifer Couture FARRAGUT STATE PARK p. 14 CATALDO Blackfoot—Spotlight City p. 4 32 HEYBURN From the world’s largest potato chip to some of the best outdoor opportunities in the state, STATE PARK p. 14 Blackfoot has long outgrown its notoriety as home to the Idaho’s leading mental hospital. Find out what “going to Blackfoot” means today. LEWISTON By Arthur Hart & Janet Marugg p. 64 WINCHESTER STATE PARK p. 14 Rock Slides 50 HELLS Ever watch a river of rock take out the highway in front of you? Jerry Foster fills us in CANYON on his harrowing childhood encouner with a rock slide on one of Idaho’s most p. 42 notorious roads. Learn more about this all-too-common natural disaster. PONDEROSA STATE PARK By Jerry Foster p. 14 BIG LAKE CASCADE LAND OF THE CREEK Summer is at last upon us and it couldn’t have waited anoth- STATE PARK p. 46 YANKEE FORK HARRIMAN p. 14 STATE PARK p. 14 STATE PARK er moment. We hope you planted your tomatoes on time. BANKS p. 14 p. 50 STANLEY We’re thrilled to have the work of Jerry Foster back in LOWMAN p. 23 EMMETT p. 50 the magazine (Rock Slides, pg. 50). Frequent readers may p. 13 remember his excellent piece on fire lookouts in our July CALDWELL BOISE 2003 issue. This month’s piece has all the same charm p. 9 p. 23, 29, 56 Blackfoot and twice the drama. Welcome back. p. 32 BRUNEAU DUNES The deadline for the 2004 IDAHO magazine Cover STATE PARK TWIN p. 14 FALLS Photo Contest is fast approaching, so don’t forget to get your p. 20 CASTLE ROCKS brilliant photos to us postmarked by July 31st. Contest rules STATE PARK p. 14 can be found on the inside of the back cover. departments JUNE 2004 VOl. 3, NO. 9 Publisher & Editor Kitty Delorey Fleischman Art Director Ann Hottinger Managing Editor Adam Park Advertising Manager Karen Scheider Circulation Director Elliott Martin Copy Editor Betsy Hall 23 Business Manager Marcy Myers northern exposure 4 Illustrator Dick Lee Cataldo Mission Contributors fiction contest 9 Marylyn Cork Incident at Morgan Creek Jennifer Couture free range verse 13 John Davidson Pitch-Forked Boots Jerry Foster one spud short Donna Geisler 20 Arthur Hart The Mystery of the Missing Cat Cecil Hicks fun & games 23 Bobbie Hunter Motorcycling With Compassion Kay Kelley art attack 26 Dennis Lopez The Magnificent Quilting Janet Marugg Barbara Michener Ladies of Priest Lake William Studebaker science & technology 29 Les Tanner The Birth of a R.A.T. power brokers 42 Logo Design Dam Building in Hells Canyon J Ernest Monroe front porch tales 46 Big Creek Birthday IDAHO magazine considers unsolicited manu- scripts, fiction, nonfiction, and letters for publica- who we are 56 tion. Editorial submissions should be sent to: Brunswick Migration IDAHO magazine historical snapshot 64 4301 W Franklin Rd. • Boise, ID 83705 The Mud Wagon [email protected] (208)336-0653 or (800)655-0653 idaho extras: 61-63 Service Directory; Idaho Links; Idaho News; Unsolicited manuscripts will not be returned unless Calendar of Events; and Sales Locations accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Do not e-mail complete manuscripts. cover photo: IDAHO magazine is published by IDAHO magazine, Inc., Angler tying on a fly on the South Fork of the Boise River a corporation in the state of Idaho, owned by Idahoans. The contents of IDAHO magazine are copyrighted and William H. Mullins all rights are reserved. Material cannot be photocopied, reprinted or reused in any form without the written consent of the publisher. northern exposure The Cataldo Mission Idaho’s Oldest Standing Building By Cecil Hicks igh on a knoll overlooking the HCoeur d’Alene River in North Idaho is the oldest standing building in Idaho, the Cataldo Mission. Built during the late 1840s and early 1850s by a combined con- struction effort of Catholic Jesuit Priests (known as Black Robes) and a band of Coeur d’Alene Indians, this large church symbolizes the historical religious connec- tion between two different cultures. Jesuit priests first came to the Northwest at the request of the Flathead Indians in Montana. The priests, under the supervision of Father DeSmet, soon built a mission church in the Bitterroot Valley. In the 1840s, the Jesuits came to Idaho and a church was constructed on the banks of the St. Joe River, near present day St. Maries. However, annual spring flooding forced this church to be abandoned. A relocation site was selected some thirty miles to the north. This time the mission was built on a hilltop well above the flood plain. Many of the Coeur d’Alene tribe mem- bers during this era embraced Catholicism, PHOTO partly due to a tribal legend. This legend told COURTESY RIGHT: The Cataldo Mission—Idaho’s oldest standing building. OF OPPOSITE: An Idaho State Park employee, CECIL dressed as a black robed Jesuit Priest, HICKS tells visitors how the mission was built. 4 IDAHO MAGAZINE northern exposure of an old Indian chief named Circling Raven, who had a vision that men wear- ing black robes would some day bring a great spiritual truth to his people. Using primitive carpentry tools (broad axe, auger, drill, ropes, and pulleys) and building materials from the sur- rounding mountains and forests, not a single nail was used in the mission’s con- struction. Instead the builders drilled holes with hand drills and drove in pegs. The foot-thick walls were made from grass and mud interwoven and draped over poles that had been inserted into drilled holes in the huge square beams. When the church was completed in 1853, it measured ninety feet long, forty HICKS feet wide, and forty feet from floor to CECIL OF the huckleberry blue paneled ceiling. The mission was designed by the Italian native Father Ravalli, who modeled it COURTESY PHOTO Built during the late 1840s and early 1850s by a combined construction effort of Catholic Jesuit Priests (known as Black Robes) and a band of Coeur d’Alene Indians, this large church symbolizes the historical reli- gious connection between two different cultures. northern exposure ABOVE LEFT: A historical scale replica The next time you’re in North Idaho displaying Coeur d’Alene Indians attending a mass inside the church. driving down Interstate 90, don’t ABOVE RIGHT: A state park employee answers questions from a group of pass up an opportunity to visit visiting students. the Old Mission State Park. after the Greek revival architecture mission grounds, opened up a way few miles west of Kellogg. The park style used in religious structures for settlers and miners to travel to is open to the public daily and fea- throughout Europe. Coeur d’Alene. With the discovery tures a picnic area, an interpretive The priests named their new of gold and later silver, an influx of museum, and visitors’ center with a structure the Sacred Heart Mission people arrived and changed the life small gift shop. A visit to the and the Indians called it the House and culture of the tribe forever. museum isn’t complete unless you of the Great Spirit. Settlers later In 1887 Congress created a take the opportunity to see a half- renamed it the Cataldo Mission, new, smaller reservation for the hour historical video on the Coeur after a Catholic priest named Coeur d’Alene Indians, forcing them d’Alene Indian tribe and the Old Father Cataldo who took up resi- to relocate some sixty miles to the Mission Church. dence at the site. west. To the tribe’s dismay, the The next time you’re in North Unfortunately for the Coeur Sacred Heart Mission that they had Idaho driving down Interstate 90, d’Alene Indians, shortly after the labored so long to build was no lon- don’t pass up an opportunity to visit church was finished the U.S. Army, ger inside the reservation boundar- the Old Mission State Park. It’s well under the supervision of Captain ies. A new Catholic mission was worth a stop. Learn a little about John Mullan, began building a then built at DeSmet. Idaho’s past and reflect on the work primitive road that ran from Fort The Cataldo Mission is now that went into building the House Benton, in Montana, to Fort Walla part of the Idaho State Park System of the Great Spirit—Idaho's oldest Walla on the Columbia River in and is called the Old Mission State standing building. Washington. This 640-mile military Park. It is located some twenty-four road, which ran right in front of the miles east of Coeur d’Alene and a Cecil Hicks lives in Sandpoint. 6 IDAHO MAGAZINE SAVE! Subscribe to IDAHO magazine! Please visit us online at www.idahomagazine.net 336-0653 800-655-0653 $12.05 Call for gift information or multiple subscriptions.