The Way We Were

The Boundary County Museum located in downtown Bonners Ferry will surprise and delight you with the renovations recently completed, and you can experience it all beginning May 3 when it opens for regular hours, 10am to 4pm Tuesday through Saturday.

If you’ve never been in, it’s a must visit for every county resident because it is something to be proud of. Museum curator Sue Kemmis and historian Howard Kent, along with a band of fine lady/member volunteers, are to be truly commended for not only their devotion to the county’s sometimes infamous past, but to the protection of and exposure to a fine heritage.

The museum is supported by donations from resident family members and friends who’ve cared to preserve the historical record for all to see. One room has Bonners Ferry Herald archives dating back to 1891 and it’s Kent’s job, overseen by the State Historian Keith Petersen, to follow the print trail on events and people who’ve left their mark one way or the other. Terry Howe has also contributed, as has Kemmis, to bringing forth the historical record from print.

You can thank Eldora Gatchell for the very important photo frame displays that allow you to look through the windows of pictorial time into the way things were. And Mary Ann Kruger for her countless hours of graphic design and exhibit layouts. Fleet Graphics has done a marvelous job of printing the wall displays, including the outback displays of railroad and timber histories. And Stampede Lake Studios, Dave and Andrea Kramer, for the fine photographs of the Fletcher Martin bas relief sculptures.

Now, here’s a shadow of what these people have worked hard to bring you: it’s the entire hundred-year-plus history of Boundary County including memories, photos and some stories of the many small now defunct townsites like Adie, Copeland, Meadow Creek and Fry. There’s too many to list, but you’ll want to know where they were!

Once in the door, you’ll walk through the industries of rail history, timber, ranch and farmland, fishing, hunting – everything we know today but in the way it was then. If you were to wonder how a decayed tooth was removed or “fixed” back then, look at the foot-powered manual drill used by the dentist and sometimes run by the next patient in line. Or at the rather crude tools used by the blacksmith to build incredible iron works and tools. Want to meet the county nurse who administered vaccines to most of the county’s then young? You can meet Nurse Chadwick here.

You’ll enjoy many innovative carvings and toy exhibits, some of which are hard to believe, created by hobbyists of old.

I’ve been in a lot of museums because I enjoy looking into the past, but quite honestly I think we have one of the best right here in Boundary County thanks to these very devoted people who, bitten by the “history bug,” care to bring you a view into the local past.

Dwayne Parsons is a Realtor for Century 21 Beutler & Associates of Coeur d’Alene working primarily in Boundary County. You can contact him at dparsons@21goldchoice.com.

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