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The
Hope/Clark Fork area stretches along the shores of Lake Pend
Oreille from the Pack River to the mouth of the Clark Fork River,
the major waterways that feed mighty Pend Oreille. Lake Pend
Oreille is one of the West’s largest freshwater bodies of water
with several islands near the Clark Fork estuary, including the
islands off Hope and the Hope Peninsula, Warren, Cottage, Pearl,
Eagle, and Memaloose Islands, as well as the Islands at the end of
the Clark Fork River, called the Clark Fork Flats, which includes
Derr Island and Yonkers Island. There are three major peninsulas that thrust into the
lake: Sunnyside, the Hope Peninsula, and Sagle. Sagle is actually
more like an area the lake wraps around, but nonetheless is a
major abutting feature of Lake Pend Oreille.
It
is important to note that the histories of the two communities are
closely tied to one and other. They have a shared past of
railroads, mining, and logging, and sportsman activities. More
recently, both Lake Pend Oreille and the Clark Fork River have
been a draw for tourists seeking the mountain/lake lifestyle. In
recent years the area has attracted national public attention,
being featured on several broadcasts, in articles, and by
developers. The most famous golf course in this part of North
Idaho, Hidden Lakes, was purchased by Jack Nicklaus, and is slated
to open the course in 2009 as the Idaho Club. However, with the federal and
state governments owning over 70% of the land, growth has been measured.
Glacial Floods and Lake Pend Oreille
The
most prominent feature of Hope and Clark Fork, Idaho is Lake Pend
Oreille. With 111 mile of coastline and 148 square miles, it is
one of North America’s most pristine lakes, and the nation’s fifth
deepest. Formed by cataclysmic floods when the mile high Ice Age
ice dam broke time after time, the features of the land and lakes
of Bonner County and Western Montana all the way to the coast in
Oregon were formed by these monumental floods. Just one of these
deluges was ten times the combined volume of all the rivers on
earth, with walls of water moving at super highway speeds. To
learn more about the Ice Age Floods visit
http://www.iceagefloodsinstitute.org/
To
get a better picture of our lake and river life, visit
http://sandpointid.net/What_to_do_on_Lake_Pend_Oreille.html
Centuries before white man discovered the region, the Kalispell
and other Indian tribes, such as the Flatheads, inhabited North
Idaho. Visit
North Idaho History
The
first white men to trade in North Idaho were the intrepid
adventurers “Big Finan” McDonald and explorer and "land
geographer" David Thompson, who established the first permanent
wooden structure in 1809 on the Hope Peninsula, taking advantage
of Lake Pend Oreille and the Clark Fork River. This trading post,
Kullyspell House, is still standing as a stone building on the
shores of the lake. Kullyspell House still stands on the
Peninsula, Idaho’s most historic home. It sits at the end of
Kullyspell Road. As you turn right on David Thompson Road, you
will pass several white houses on the left. This grouping of
summer homes is the family retreat of the Kienholz family. Ed
Kienholz is easily one of our nation’s most famous artists.
The
first true transportation the region enjoyed were the steamboats
of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, which brought its first
engine and hardware from Portland, building the 108-foot Mary
Moody in 1866.
As
the railroads came into the area, Northern Pacific Railroad built
the 150-foot Henry Villard in 1883 to supply the men laying the
rails. Steamboats continued to be an integral part of
transportation around Lake Pend Oreille until the 1930s. Later in
the era, steamboats became popular excursions, much as Pend
Oreille Cruises is today, and dignitaries staying at Hotel Hope
and other resorts would spend days on the water.
In 1864 Congress granted the Northern Pacific Railroad a charter
to build a line from Lake Superior to Puget Sound on a route north
of the 45 parallel. In 1872, the Clark Fork Pend Oreille route was
chosen. With the railroad came the people who established the
towns of Clark Fork and Hope.
Railroads came to prominence in the 1880s, as local construction
began on the northern transcontinental line in 1881. Trestle
Creek, at more than a mile long, became the line’s longest
structure. It was at this time that Hope became the center of
railroad activities and the largest city in the county. Along with
Chinese Coolies, over 4,000 rough and ready railroad workers lived
in a tent city along the Clark Fork River. Railroads brought
people, and the lumber industry, which began to service the rails
and trains, became the stalwart of the North Idaho economy for the
next 100 years.
History of Hope, Idaho
At first Hope was just a stopping point along the railroad, but in
1890, the Northern Pacific moved its division point west from
Montana to the shores of Lake Pend Oreille. Hope was incorporated
on July 17, 1891. East Hope was incorporated on June 28th 1902.
Hope was a busy port in its early days. Steamboats crossed the
lake carrying supplies and mail to mining sites around the shore
before roads were built. The boats were used to carry supplies up
the Clark Fork River to Cabinet Gorge while the railroad was being
constructed.
Hope
began to grow in 1882 when the Northern Pacific came through and
in 1900 set its Rock Mountain division point in the hillside
village. Incorporated in 1903, the village was named in honor of
the veterinarian who tended the construction horses. A wise and
kindly man, Dr. Hope was widely respected. Hope was the largest
town in the area during the 1880s, achieving prominence as the
Rocky Mountain division point on the Northern Pacific line.
Engines turned around in the large roundhouse, and the railroad
built shops, offices, and a "beanery" there.
The
Hotel Jeannot, now known as Hotel Hope, was able to capitalize on
this business with its location right above the depot, and with
its tunnels providing easy access for passengers to the hotel.
Many say that the tunnels were used to entertain the Chinese “coolees,”
working on the railroads, who were normally not allowed in the
establishments that served the locals and travelers.
In
contrast to Hope's early boom, Sandpoint grew slowly following
completion of the railroad. An 1883 visitor found only 300 people
in town, and nine years later another traveler reported that
"Sandpoint is made up of between three and four dozen rude shacks
and perhaps a dozen tents." The town experienced tremendous
growth, however, following the turn of the century.
When
the division point moved to Sandpoint, Hope began to decline.
Hotel Hope continued to draw people until the 1960s, partly
because the picturesque setting of the town beside Lake Pend
Oreille attracted many tourists. Some of them prominent: J.P.
Morgan, Teddy Roosevelt, Gary Cooper, and Bing Crosby.
The
original Hotel Jeannot (Hotel Hope) was a wooden structure which
burned down in about 1886. It was then that Joseph M. Jeannot
started on his fireproof commercial building, which he shared with
his brother Louis. He constructed one section at a time, and added
on over the years, finally completing the three-bay, two story
hotel in 1898. The rectangular building has two full stories above
two separate basement sections. The facade is divided into three
approximately equal bays which vary in design and building
materials indicating that the hotel was built in sections over a
period of years. This theory collaborated by the analysis of the
structure during restoration as well as through oral accounts. The
first section to be built was the first story of the east bay with
its walls of rock-faced random-coursed granite ashlar with beaded
joints. Next came the first story of the center bay with its lower
facade walls of poured concrete. Following this, or possibly built
at the same time, was the red brick second story over the center
and east bays. The west bay was the last to be built, either all
at once or in two stages. The first floor is of poured concrete
with the second floor of red brick.
Various businesses have occupied the building over the years
including a saloon, a restaurant, a general store, a meat market,
and even a post office. The vaulted meat cooler adjoining the west
basement was probably built when Louis ran his general store and
meat market in the period from 1895 to 1897. Hotel Hope still
stands as a testament to the times.
J.
M. Jeannot's hotel and saloon were not his only business
interests. He was also involved in mining and had several claims
across Lake Pend Oreille in the area of Green Monarch Mountain.
Hope had a large Chinese population which had arrived with the
railroad, and Jeannot supposedly took advantage of this source of
cheap labor for his mines. According to one of Jeannot's friends,
he allowed these men to use the meat cooler under the hotel as a
clubhouse. They gained access to this room through the small
tunnel which connected it to the railroad depot, thus bypassing
the more obvious entrances. This vault in the hotel is one of the
few sites left in Hope which may be connected with the large
number of Chinese who used to live in the town.
Jeannot's mining operations as well as his losses at gambling led
to his unstable financial condition which may have been one reason
the hotel took ten to twelve years to complete. According to one
source, the construction was held up for more than a year when
Jeannot lost all of his money in a bet on William Jennings Bryan
in 1896. Uncertain finances continued to plague Jeannot and he
mortgaged and remortgaged the hotel over the years between 1907
and 1918, eventually losing the building in 1918. A friend paid
off the debt in 1920, and ran the hotel until her death in 1968.
Today the era of lumber and trains has been supplanted by tourism
and manufacturing in Bonner County, and Hope and Clark Fork have
become known as an artist colony. This is in great part due to Ed
Kienholz.
Born
in 1927 at Fairfield, Washington. He studied at schools and
colleges in the Inland Northwest. He first earned his living as a
nurse in a psychiatric hospital, as the manager of a dance band,
as a dealer in secondary cars, a caterer, decorator and vacuum
cleaner salesman. In 1953 he moved to Los Angeles.
In
1954 he made his first reliefs in wood. In 1956 he founded the NOW
Gallery, and in 1957 the Ferus Gallery with Walter Hopps. In 1961
he completed his first environment Roxy's, which caused a stir at
the documenta "4" exhibition in 1968. His retrospective at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art in 1966 provoked the County Board of
Supervision to attempt to close the exhibition. The theme of his
environments is the vulnerability of the private life of the
individual to intervention by the environment and social
convention.
In
1972 he met Nancy Reddin in Los Angeles. In 1973 he was guest
artist of the German Academmic Exchange Service in Berlin. He
moved to Hope with his wife Nancy, and around this time also
established himself in Berlin . His most important works during
this period were the Volksempfänger (radio receiving apparatus
from the National Socialist period in Germany). In 1975 he
received a Guggenheim Award.
He
died in 1994, but his wife, Nancy Reddin Kienholz continues as a
world-renown artist, frequently visiting Hope.
Because of their notoriety, and the astonishing beauty of the
area, we now have over 600 artists in our enclave.
The
Kienholz couple befriended many wealthy patrons in Berlin, and
over the years, two families have also created their own family
retreats on the Hope Peninsula. As you turn from David Thompson
Road on to Kullyspell Road, the Max Factor group of homes is on
your right. These go down to the beginning of the property line
for Kullyspell House. The other family is the Groenke family.
Klaus Groenke is the managing director and part owner of Trigon
Holding GmbH, a Berlin based international real estate company. He
is also reported to be a leading share holder in Coca Cola
Company, and a regional board member of the Deutsche Bank Berlin/Brandenberg.
They built the Groenke Estate, a 150 acre compound at the end of
David Thompson Road that becomes Kienholz Road. It is here that a
full section of the Berlin Wall stands, encased in lexiglas,
graffiti and all intact as it was before its fall. Recently the
family sold half the estate, where many multi-million dollar homes
have been built or are planned.
Today Hope, Idaho is a tourist and summer lake destination, with
numerous artists and eclectic folk. It is a bedroom community to
Sandpoint, and is considered by many, with its spectacular lake
and mountain views, to be among the most picturesque areas of
North Idaho. In fact, Conde Nast has called the journey along the
cliffsides from Sandpoint to Hope one of the most beautiful drives
in the world.
History of Clark Fork, Idaho
While totally distinct towns, many in North Idaho think of Clark
Fork and Hope as one community. In fact, the two share the same
Chamber of Commerce website:
http://www.poby.org/
The
City of Clark Fork also became a viable town in the early 1880's
as the construction by the Northern Pacific Railroad continued
through the nearby Bitterroot and Cabinet Mountains. This small
community has been geared towards mining, logging, sawmills,
farming, Forest Service activity, fish hatcheries, dam
construction, fur trapping activity, collegiate studies and homes
for teens. Also, for most of its history the railroad maintained a
station and section crew in Clark Fork. Clark Fork was
incorporated 1912. Today the University of Idaho Clark Fork Field
Campus is located there.
In
the 19th century the Clark Fork Valley, like the shores of Lake
Pend Oreille around Hope, was inhabited by the Flathead tribe of
Native Americans.
The Clark Fork River and
surrounding areas were explored by Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis
and Clark Expedition during the 1806 return trip from the Pacific.
The river is named for William Clark. A middle segment of the
river in Montana was formerly known as the Missoula River. The
Lewis and Clark expedition was the first United States overland
expedition to the Pacific Ocean coast and back, led by Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark of the United States Army.
Much
of Clark Fork’s story over the following years had to do with
crossing the river. The bridge fording the Clark Fork River
provided one of the only passes to the north, and with the
steamboats bringing miners making the arduous journey to the
Kootenai gold rush, this was one of the only ways to travel.
Before a bridge was built, Clark Fork had a ferry to make the
crossing. Early ferries were nothing more than logs lashed
together. Later, some records indicate a ferry was operating in
1893, but this was a decade after the Northern Pacific line was
put in place, so it is safe to assume there was a brisk business
with ferry crossings during construction.
It
is important to be reminded that the Cabinet Gorge Dam was not in
place then, and reporters at the time wrote in 1916 that "The
Clarksfork river handles a volume of water much larger than the
Snake river. At times during high water, the flow amounts to as
much as 94,000 cubic feet per second. The average width of the
river is about 1300 feet. The velocity of the river at certain
times is very large, about eight miles an hour. Due to this it is
necessarily very hazardous to operate a ferry at Clarksfork at any
time and very dangerous and at some times impossible to operate a
ferry at all."
Certainly this ferry crossing created a need and a place for
travelers, not only to cross, but at times to rest, restock
supplies, and take advantage of the occasional saloon.
Until WWI there was a lot of sawmill activity, then to a lesser
degree through the 1950s. Early sawmills include McGillis and
Gibbs, Lane and Potter. From the start until the late 1950s,
mining operations played an important role in the community's
economy. The Whitedelph mine and mill located near the Spring
Creek fish hatchery began operation in 1926 until it closed in
1958. It yielded galena ore assaying principally in silver, lead
and zinc. There was Lawrence mine located on Antelope Mountain
near Mosquito Creek and near the University of Idaho Clark Fork
Field Campus. Area hills and mountains had numerous small mining
holes tended by small operations and prospectors.
These two
communities have a rich and storied history, and the pioneer
spirit of those that came before our generation paved the way to
create a magical place with stunning views, magnificent wildlife,
and a creative and artistic way of life will continues for our
very bright future.
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