August 2017

611 South Ella Ave.

Sandpoint, ID 83864

(208) 263-2344

bchs@frontier.com

www.bonnercountyhistory.org

his tory creat ing community

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our primary partner on Movies in the Park: Pine Street Dental and

Dr. John Wilson. They have generously underwritten the entire series through the purchase of the projection

and sound equipment used to show our movies. We’re so grateful for their support of the museum and this

program.

Pine Street Dental is dedicated to restoring and enhancing beautiful smiles. They make comfort and oral health

their top priority, and their staff prides itself on its caring, gentle, and knowledgeable service. From age one to

seniors, they welcome patients of all ages, and are sensitive to patients’ dental fears and anxieties. Their

comfortable office and gentle techniques will soothe the most anxious of patients.

As Sandpoint dentists, they try their hardest to accommodate all of their patients’ dental needs. They provide

same-day appointments for dental emergencies, and their patients of record always have access to the team,

even when the office is closed. Pine Street Dental is open on Fridays, and offers convenient hours throughout

the week. Dr. John Wilson and Dr. Craig Sween embrace modern technology in order to offer a

comprehensive range of treatment options, while still embracing a small-town, personal feel.

If you see Dr. Wilson out and about, you’re a current patient, or are looking for a new dentist– please

take the time to thank them for their incredible support of Movies in the Park.

When we updated our mission statement four years ago to History Creating Community we knew we wanted to build exhibits, educational programs and events that allowed greater interaction with the community. Our journey towards this goal has encompassed a number of ideas, some better than others, yet each experiment has taught us more and more about the people and the area we call home. From Paint n’ Sip to trick-or-treating, and lectures to vintage games, we learned what it truly meant to create community through history. We paid attention to what people enjoyed, and what they chose to pass on. We listened to feedback, and asked questions to enable us to keep doing better. This all led to our newest event. In 2016 we hosted our first Movie in the Park, showing Princess Bride, as part of our Late Nights at the Museum events. This was by far our most successful experiment in the series and gave us encouragement that we should do this year after year. But how were we to afford such an undertaking? Enter Pine Street Dental. This year, through a generous donation from Pine Street Dental, grant dollars from Equinox Foundation and US Bank, as well as sponsorships from various local businesses, we were able to extend the program to four movies (Moana, Sandlot, Princess Bride, and Trolls) over four dates. Not only that, we were able to make it a FREE community event, thus creating an opportunity for all members of the community to enjoy a fun, family-friendly event. Each night, as members of the community flood into Lakeview Park, we are reminded of what makes this community so great – the people. Strangers coming together under the stars, many who have never been to the museum before, enjoying a bit of cinema and history. We are so grateful to call Bonner County home, and share a collective history with all of you. We look forward to seeing you all at some of our upcoming events—Trick-Or-Treat at the Museum or Drink in History (our first annual pub crawl). Until then we will be busy updating more of our permanent exhibits, creating more educational programming, and designing more engaging events.

Doesn’t it feel good to BELONG to something wonderful?! Olivia Luther Morlen

Executive Director

Looking for the perfect gift for that hard to buy for friend?

Make dinnertime fun with the Dinner

Winner trays.

Stop into our museum gift shop and

check out the newest items from our

fun, affordable, and cheeky line

by Fred and Friends!

Cheese log anyone?

Pearls from the Curator My most recent endeavor has been the curation of the caboose. This project has been very exciting to me because I love the landmark that the caboose has become for the museum. It’s hard to miss, interesting and kids and adults alike are completely fascinated with it. My first time entering the caboose was very thrilling. I had always wondered what was within that wonderful yellow structure. The door creaked open and lo and behold there was this hypnotic burst of mid-century green everywhere; accompanied by a fantastic fragrance of history and petrol. Immediately my imagination start-ed to wander with thoughts about who had worked and lived on this ca-boose, oh the stories it must have. I couldn’t help but start to mold a vi-sion of who I felt the man who operated the caboose was. What did he look like? What types of personal objects would have accompanied him on his journeys?

It’s questions like the above that I enjoy answering so much as I gather ob-jects, research and begin to tell the visual story through curation. My goal is to transport you (the viewer) to a different time and place, making your museum experience a fun and memorable event.

Heather Upton, Museum Curator

Volunteer Spotlight: The Thursday Ladies While each day at the museum has its own wonderful group of volunteers, our Thursday Ladies are a

particularly special bunch. Janice DeBaun, Velta Ashbrook and Diane Newcomer are perhaps our most

versatile volunteers. While many of our team members focus on one specific long-term project, the Thursday

Ladies often work on a new project every week, or even a couple each week! They help us with everything

from tidying up after events, putting away new acquisitions, following up on research requests, crafting for

new exhibits and much, much more. No matter what we ask them to do they are cheerful and happy to help!

Janice has been volunteering at the museum for almost 30 years, including time spent as a member of the

museum’s board of directors. Janice has really enjoyed getting to understand the organization system of the

museum’s storage system over the last couple of years, but she’s not fond of having to get up on ladders to

actually put things away in their proper place!

Velta has been giving the museum her time since 2005, and as a retired librarian she’s been responsible for

getting all of our books proper categorized and label to the library-standard Dewy Decimal System. She’s also

an incredible seamstress who helps with many of our textile projects. Velta loves that she’s been able to learn

about how to put together our exhibits and displays, and to explore her creative talents as part of that process.

Diane has been donating her time to the museum since 2010, and is our resident craft expert. She was a huge

part of making our “Once Upon a Time” exhibit possible. Diane loves “collections hunting” or poking through

our vast stores to locate specific objects we may need for a display. She enjoys how it can be both fun and

frustrating, especially when you know you’ve seen what you’re looking for, but you can’t remember where!

The Thursday Ladies love the variety of tasks they get to do, but their very favorite thing to do is decorate for

Halloween!

Of course we’re always looking for new volunteers to help around the museum and the Thursday Ladies have

some great reasons to join us: they love getting to hear recollections from some of our oldest community

members, as well as doing research to learn even more of the great stories out there about Bonner County.

They are also very fond of the sense of community we’ve built among our team, and enjoy coming each week

to chat about what’s going on in everyone’s lives as they work on projects.

We truly could not function without our volunteers and are so grateful for all of their help and support each

and every day!

An Ode to Bonner County

by Jenny Leo

Hail to the seasons four, their beauty so admired.

The singing frogs, the falling logs, the mud in which we’re mired,

The winter winds that whistle long, the snows that never fail us.

The icicles that dangle down and threaten to impale us.

Hail thee, lake and river, the mighty Pend Oreille

That floods each spring and causes all our farms to float away.

Hail thee, Schweitzer Mountain, with your tall, majestic peaks,

Inspiring us to hurtle down with boards strapped to our feets.

We came from many places, from Italy and Norway,

from Arkansas and Illinois and Califor-ni-ay,

We left our families and our farms, our fortunes and our bounty,

to gather here amid the deer and moose in Bonner County.

We brought along our hammers and our peaveys and our saws,

our spouses and our children and our livestock and our in-laws.

We built houses, schools, and logging camps, and mines amid the caverns,

And groceries and liveries and taverns, taverns, taverns.

We came in search of timber and of silver and of gold lumps

We came to farm, but first we cleared our acreage of tree stumps.

We came to teach, to preach, to reach a future bright and broad,

Except for a few, who sought life anew, one step ahead of the law.

We welcome every person to our mountains and our lake,

But if you steal, you’ll land in jail, of that make no mistake.

From Clark Fork to Priest River, and from Careywood to Oldtown,

If you’re so bold as to steal our gold, the sheriff will hunt you down.

A huge thank you to our Movies in the Park Sponsors!

Caring for Our Collection Ever wonder why we don’t have many windows and we ask you not to take flash photos?

While good light is critical to a positive museum experience– light can also be extremely damaging to objects in two ways.

1. Light creates heat. Changes in heat can cause many materials to expand and contract, which stresses them and can cause damage over the long term. This is why we prefer to use LED bulbs, which create less heat and thus cause less damage.

2. Light causes photochemical reactions– including yellowing and fading. If you’ve ever left a newspaper outside you will have noticed a photochemical reaction, in which the paper distinctly changes color. You also may have noticed fading in wallpaper or paint when you take down a picture in a sunny room. Most

of the dyes and pigments used in historic objects are extremely photosensitive and are damaged by prolonged exposure to light, and UV rays are particularly damaging.

By reducing the amount of light we expose objects to, we are able to preserve them better. This means few windows and using motion-detecting lights to ensure that objects are exposed to as little light as possible. But you may still be wondering about flash photography– while you may assume that your one little flash can’t possibly create damage, keep in mind that the museum has agreed to protect the objects in its collection in perpetuity– and that while one or two flashes today aren't much, the object might be on display for many hundreds of years, and over time that adds up! So please help us protect our objects for the future by not using a flash when you photograph the collections.

Movies in the Park If you haven’t attended a Movie in the Park yet, you’re missing out! Our first two Movies, Moana on July 21 and The Sandlot on July 28 were huge successes. Between the two nights we’ve had over 1000 people attend and we’ve raised over $2000 to help support the museum’s work. But most importantly we’re so proud to be able to provide a FREE and family-friendly event for our community.

We’re hosting two more movies– The Princess Bride on August 18 and Trolls on August 25 . See you there!

Page Six

Children enjoyed crafting, and a story corner at the

opening of our newest exhibit “Once Upon a

Time… In Bonner County”

Our adults exhibit opening “Welcome to the Rabbit

Hole” featured an Alice in Wonderland theme and was

greatly enjoyed by all!

Thus far Movies

in the Park has

been a huge

success! We’ve

loved being able

to provide this

free event for the

community and

we’re so grateful

for all of our

volunteers for

their time!!

Driving Past: Tours of Historical Sites in Bonner County, Idaho

It’s that magical time called summer in North Idaho! Next time you head out for a leisurely drive, take along a companion. Driving Past: Tours of Historical Sites in Bonner County, Idaho is a collection of turn-by-turn driving tours to sites that have played important roles in North Idaho's past and present, along with gems of local lore and old photographs to accompany each tour.

This book by North Idaho author and professional historian Nancy Foster Renk is a treasure not only for residents and visitors to northern Idaho, but for anyone interested in how the American Northwest developed in the late 19th and early-mid 20th centuries, particularly the logging and railroad industries, but also the dai-ly lives of ordinary people making a living and raising families in this beautiful, rugged terrain. Topics include:

The historic railways: Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Spokane International Explorer David Thompson and the trading post he established near present-day Hope The development of Sandpoint from a collection of ramshackle shacks along Sand Creek to today's thriving and beautiful metropolis The majestic Albeni Falls Dam Farragut Naval Training Station, once a thriving military center, now an attractive park Nell Shipman's silent-film-era movie studio at Lionhead Lodge and much, much more.

So whether you hop in your car for a leisurely jaunt or simply enjoy browsing the stories and photos from your favorite sofa, I hope you'll give Driving Past a try. (I love the cover, the old image superimposed over the new.) You can order a copy from the Bonner County Historical Society at 208-263-2344 or bchs@frontier.com, or pick it up at the Bonner County Museum gift shop and other booksellers.

New Donations I’m always so amazed by what people bring in on any given day. Averaged across the entire year, we receive 1-2 items per day– meaning that we add 400-600 objects to our collection annually. In the last 6 months we’ve had some really wonderful pieces added to our collection. Firstly, Mr. Richard Rief donated the uniform and personal effects of his step-father, Mr. Harlan Churchill, who served in the Third Infantry Division of the US Army during World War II. Other than his time spent in the Army, Harlan lived in Sandpoint for his entire life, attending school in Glengary, before working as a sawyer in the logging industry. He was a great outdoorsman and proud member of the Eagles lodge. Harlan died in 1986. Among the items of his we were gifted was his honorable discharge, and paperwork regarding the souvenirs he brought home after the war. This spring Mr. Richard White of Spokane Valley also gifted us an incredible beaver fur coat, made from beavers trapped in the Priest River area. I love it when we receive pieces that have such a strong connection to our local area!

While our collections continue to grow– we are lacking in a few areas. Any historical photographs of downtown Sandpoint, or of residential areas in town would be greatly appreciated, either as a gift to the museum, or as a loan to be scanned and added to our digital collections. I would also like to note that while our pre-1950 collection is very strong, we don’t have much material– photos, records, objects, clothing– from after the 1960’s As you’re cleaning out closets, storage spaces or simply downsizing, we’d love to be kept in mind as a home for those items which you maybe don’t have room for anymore, but which you can’t quite throw away. Thank you again to all of our wonderful donors!

Cameron Murray, Museum Administrator

Upcoming Events

Movies in the Park

Friday, August 18th : The Princess Bride

Friday, August 25th: Trolls

Enjoy great movies under the stars!

Admission is free

Concessions will be available

Free First Saturday

September 2nd

10:00 a.m.. - 2:00 p.m.

Sponsored by Robert & Marian Rust

Sundance Fire Commemoration

Free First Saturday

October 7th

10:00 a.m.. - 2:00 p.m.

Sponsored by Richard Hanna

Trick-or-Treat at the Museum

Tuesday October 31

4:00 — 7:00 p.m.

Free Admission and treats

Drink in History

Members-Only

Join us as we hear the history behind our favorite watering holes. Details TBA, Fall 2017

Free First Saturday

November 4th

10:00 a.m.. - 2:00 p.m.

Sponsored by Dave & Mary Daugharty

Free First Saturday

December 2nd

10:00 a.m.. - 2:00 p.m.

Sponsored by Marilyn Sabella

Bonner County History Museum

611 S. Ella Ave.

Sandpoint, ID 83864

History Creating Community

Belong to something electrifying

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