Refections on our time in Idaho

A Wobblie Membership Card at the N. Idaho Museum, originally uploaded by drtaxsacto.

The picture is of an International Workers of the World membership card. Next to it in the case is a little red book - the song book of the IWW. On Saturday, after the fishing camp we spent the day looking at local sights around Coeur d'Alene. It was an interesting day. We started in the N. Idaho Museum - which is in the city. This is a small museum but has some interesting parts. Idaho is a relatively young state - the oldest building in the state is from 1853. For a good part of its history it was an extractive state relying on mining and timber.

So the history of the IWW in Idaho should be prominent. Senator Borah was the chief prosecutor in the trial of Big Bill Haywood (pitted against Clarence Darrow). The importance of logging and mining was great in the early history of the state. Coeur d'Alene lake was used to move logs to the mill - which was off the lake. A lot of the work in the extractive industries was very dangerous - from cutting timber to moving logs to the mill, to mill work, to mining. This was a pretty good venue for the IWW. Borah, of course, went on to a long career in the US Senate.

The museum does not highlight the IWW role in the state - and it probably should. It does mention the strike the IWW staged in the whole area which tried to band together a good part of the lumber industry. That stretched to Bellingham in Washington and for a period of about 20 years the organizing in the area was a pretty important part of the history – pretty violent also. The main strike started around 1912.

There is a tradition in the state of some pretty left of center politics - Frank Church was one of the leading Senate opponents of the Vietnam War. Church was one of the losers in the 1980 landslide that caught a lot of democrats. Church was last re-elected in 1974 (which was not exactly a GOP year) and the last dem in the house in Idaho was in 1992.

But for the most part Idaho is a pretty conservative state. For example, as you can find in bordering states, there does not seem to be a motorcycle helmet law. Fireworks are legal. The waiting period for purchase of a firearm is the time it takes to make the transaction. In my mind all of those things are about individual responsibility. Its' current two senators are both conservative.

The Wikipedia entry on the state suggests that Idaho is areligious - although only about 20% of its citizens identify themselves in that way. About equal numbers of the population are Mormon and Catholic - although in some parts of the state the concentration of Mormons is pronounced. The entry also suggests that the name may be a hoax. The guy who is credited in finding the name said first it was from the Shoshone language meaning "sun comes from the mountains or the gem of the mountains" but near when he died he suggested that he had created the name.

The other place we visited yesterday is the first mission in the state. The Old Mission is about 30 miles away from the city. It was founded by the Jesuits. It is at the end of the river that feeds into the lake on a high promintory. The local indians invited the Jesuits to come to the area in part because they had heard about the men in the black coats who could help save them from all sorts of perils. The church was built by a Father Ravalli. He used some ingenious techniques to build the church. All of it was put together without nails. The altar is fashioned out of white pine. Since the availability of seasonal vestments was probably limited he constructed panels with painted wood which could be interchanged to signify the seasons of the church. The walls were constructed using a technique which binds together mud and straw in layers over saplings - which seems to be a good technique for insulation. We were in the church yesterday and it was a good fifteen degrees cooler than outside.

Last night we went to a local pub which had been recommended to us by one of our fishing coaches. The place was low key. The food was excellent. I had the lamb burger with goat cheese, which was excellent. While we have been here we also went to the signature restaurant in the Couer d’Alene resort. The food there was excellent and so was the wine list. This has been a good couple of days.