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Nancy Foster Renk on November 1918: Celebration and… Richard on November 1918: Celebration and… Nancy Foster Renk on Play ball! Baseball in Early S… Mary Garrison on Play ball! Baseball in Early S… Nancy Foster Renk on An Update on the Lonely C…
Author Archives: Nancy Foster Renk
Entertaining Sandpoint: From Roller Skates to Moving Pictures
A roller skating fad swept the nation in the early 1900s, starting in eastern cities in 1905 and working its way to the west coast a year later. Seattle had three skating rinks by September 1906 and a fourth one … Continue reading
Tales from a Lonely Cabin
The cabin has seen better days for sure. In fact, with the roof collapsed and windows gone, I doubt if even mice live there any more. The setting is beautiful, however, in an open field between the base of a … Continue reading
Entertaining Sandpoint: The Old Maids’ Convention of 1902
My interest was piqued by a small news item on the front page of the newspaper inviting “widowers and bachelors” to attend the first convention of the Old Maids’ Association. While single men were the target audience, the public also … Continue reading
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Tagged Bonner County history, Sandpoint entertainment, Sandpoint history, Sandpoint Idaho
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Sandpoint Farmers’ Market
It was a warm spring morning, the first Saturday in May, and I heard the marimba music several blocks away. The joyful sounds drew me to Farmin Park where I found the grass and surrounding streets filled with vendors selling … Continue reading
Bonner County’s (Very Brief) Gas and Oil Booms
In recent years, our area has seen an increasing number of trains hauling coal and oil from Montana to refineries and ports on the coast. It’s not uncommon to see trains, with up to one hundred tanker cars, crossing the … Continue reading
Dr. Hendryx and Early Kootenai
You’ve probably driven past this intersection many times without a second thought. It’s located about five miles east of Sandpoint where Shingle Mill Road joins Highway 200. It’s usually a pretty quiet spot today, but more than once in the … Continue reading
Dr. W. A. Hendryx and Robert E. Sproule
I thought I’d start out the new year by writing a simple story about Dr. W. A. Hendryx. After all, I’ve run into Dr. Hendryx quite a few times while reading old newspapers or rummaging through musty records in the … Continue reading
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Tagged Andrew B. Hendryx, Blue Bell Mine, Bonner County history, Bonners Ferry Idaho, Kootenai Idaho history, Kootenay Lake British Columbia, Kootenay Mining & Smelting Co., mining Kootenay Lake, Robert E. Sproule, Sandpoint history, Thomas Hammill, W. A. Baillie-Grohman, W. A. Hendryx
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What’s with Main Street?
Streets in Sandpoint generally intersect at right angles to form a tidy grid pattern – except for Main Street. It slashes a bold diagonal line across the grid, leaving a scatter of triangular blocks in its wake. What’s the matter … Continue reading
Pend d’Oreille, Sand Point, or Both?
Can a town have two names at the same time? In the case of Sandpoint, the answer is, “Yes . . . but it’s complicated.” Several sources – quoted often – say that the town’s name at one time was … Continue reading
Who Was Robert Weeks?
Most histories of Sandpoint, Idaho, include a few lines about Robert Weeks. He opened the first store in 1880, we are told, and also owned a hotel, bar, and sawmill. Meanwhile his son Barton ran a general store with his … Continue reading
North Idaho Past/Present 