More Small Town Idaho

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Today Ron and I drive north through gently rolling hills filled with green, gold and yellow fields and farm houses that seem to go on forever.  This area truly is the breadbasket of the U.S.   Absolutely gorgeous even with the overcast skies.  

Our drive takes us to Cottonwood, ID, a way station constructed of cottonwood logs established in 1862 amid the rolling uplands of Camas Prairie.  It is said that a Mr. Allen cut a grove of cottonwood trees lining the banks of the creek a short distance from town and hewed the logs for use in construction of a combination store, saloon, hotel and stage station.  During the 1880’s Cottonwood gained fame for horse and cattle roundups. 

 One of the draws to the town of 900 is the annual Raspberry Festival in early August.  Town consists of one main street about two blocks long with some old buildings, this beautiful old house and most interesting to us, the old railroad trestle.

                                                      Mural on a building in Cottonwood

The Camas Prairie Railroad ran 66 miles and opened in 1908 to transport the prairie’s agricultural bounty.  It was known as the “Railroad on Stilts” for its numerous wooden trestles, some of the nation’s tallest.  The line was abandoned in 2000.  We found the trestle below in the middle of town, but other trestles below were found along the highway going further north. 

Left - Over 300 feet from top of trestle
to bottom of these metal trestles      

Leaving under the trestle we head to the Monastery of St. Gertrude.  The Benedictine Sisters (from Switzerland) moved to Cottonwood from Washington in 1907 when a local resident offered the Sisters 85 acres if they would move to the Camas Prairie.

We first went through the 8,000 square foot historical museum at St. Gertrude which houses collections of more than 60,000 artifacts.  Displays include the settlement of Idaho, the story of the  Benedictine Sisters from Switzerland and their artifacts, artifacts from the days of pioneer health care, geology, information and artifacts from some of the people who influenced history in this region, Nez Perce influence, and stories of the Chinese who first arrived in the 1860’s.  This is a well laid out museum with small clear display information cards and well worth viewing. 

Artifacts from Sisters at St. Gertrude's

Left - A crazy quilt from 1865                       Right - Sled and Horses used to
                                             do logging

Left - Curio Shelf of Hand Carved         Right - Embroidered Picture
Chinese figures and Other Items                      Done on Silk Fabric

Left - Bamboo Jacket worn to keep  perspiration from coming in contact with clothing and staining.
Right - Buddha Lions during Foo Manchu Dynasty were known as Foo Dogs

Number  Please

We  proceed down a pathway to the Chapel walking up a stairway to see this beautiful statute of the Blessed Mother surrounded by flowers and then around to a stairway to the second story where the Chapel is located.  The Chapel began in 1919 and was completed in 1924 using blue porphryry rock hewn from a quarry up the Monastery hill.  Each stone was individually chiseled and placed by hand.  The windows are faced with locally produced brick.  The 97 foot tall towers house four bells named in honor of the Sacred Heart. 

From the center aisle in the Chapel you can see the high altar, a gift from a wealthy brother of three Sisters.  The altar was shipped from Germany in 1927 arriving in Cottonwood in 1928.  Otto Kieber came from Germany to erect it.  No nails were used in its assembly and the parts are mortised and glued.  The painting above the altar is one of eight that can be changed for various liturgical occasions.    Two side shrines were originally side altars in the original wooden convent. 

Beautiful wooden choir stalls fill the body of the chapel.  Unfortunately, I did not take a picture inside the stall to show what it looks like.  I can best describe  each set of stalls as having several round wooden seats (like those on the top of a stool) facing the altar and each with a kneeler in front of it.  Here the Sisters sit twice a day to pray.  A Sister who was cleaning the floors while we were there, said “they are not very comfortable.” 

We then proceeded into this off the beaten path ghost town of Keuterville (population 30 give or take) consisting of a restaurant called Keuterville Pub and Grub, the Catholic Church (built originally in 1880 but rebuilt in 1911 after a fire) with an eighty foot bell tower sitting against the backdrop of Cottonwood Butte, a cemetery and believe it or not, an RV Park.  This town is another of those blink and you miss it places.  I thought the two moose on the wall outside the Pub and Grub were a cute addition.

The small town of Ferdinand (population 159) further along the main highway consisted of this interesting old school building (apparently now a residence), an old abandoned and burned bank building, the post office (1898) and the Grange Hall with a few homes, a local bar but little else.  Small town Idaho is really just that, small town literally.

We left Ferdinand for the town of Craigmont which was a somewhat larger town of 501 named for Colonel William Craig, a mountain man who had a Nez Perce wife.  Today it consists of a number of businesses (all closed on Saturday),  this old shell station and a store that advertised “Antiques Too” which had a little of everything including hardware items and lots of used kitchen items, clothes, knickknacks, etc.  

Sunday & Monday, July 10 – 11, 2016

The weather here has turned down right cold (high of 48 on Sunday) with heavy rain and wind.  Monday is to be a bit warmer but still chilly.  Where did summer weather go?  While it is nice not to be roasting in 100 degree temp, I still would rather have it warmer than 48 degrees.  Finishing up our visit with family here and planning to move on to Coeur d’Alene on Tuesday. 

Signing off until we reach Coeur d’Alene.