Exploring the Unique Town of Wallace

The history of this little town is full of danger, intrigue, passion, great wealth, heroics and comedy which is set against the breathtaking backdrop of northern Idaho’s Bitterroot mountains.

Those are the elements of the 138 year story of Wallace. The entire town is on the National Historic Register (a strategy which prevented the I-90 bulldozing through). 
A true, old west, mining town that still prospers today; the town of Wallace traces its roots back to 1884 when Colonel William R. Wallace purchased 80 acres of land and built his cabin in the area that became the site of the present city.
Armed with a Family Museum Pass ($20 for all ten of us to visit the three museums in town), The Wallace District Mining Museum was a must for all things mining. Wallace is the economic center of the Coeur d’ Alene Mining District, in a region known as the Silver Valley. The Silver Valley is the richest silver mining district in the United States with over a billion ounces of silver mined, and is one of the top three most valuable silver districts in the entire world.
The first reported discovery, made by Andrew J. Prichard, of precious metals in this District was of gold in 1878, at a location west of the present day town. Prichard would go on to make another gold discovery in 1882. He was unable to keep his 1882 discovery a secret and by 1883 a rush of miners were entering the area in search of riches.
In 1884, the first silver discoveries were made at locations that would become the communities of Burke and Mullan, not far from the future site of Wallace.
Early in 1884, Colonel William R. Wallace built a cabin at an open area in the valley where several streams converged on the South Fork of the Coeur d’ Alene River. The location was one of the only flat spots for building in the rugged mountainous region, and was central to many of the gold and silver discoveries in the area. The site would become known as Wallace, and would grow to be premier mining city in a spectacularly wealthy mining district.


The mines of the district were large industrial operations that employed many men, and as is often the case with such operations, conflict between labor and mine owners was inevitable. The first labor unions were organized in the late 1880s, and in response the mine owners formed the Mine Owners Association to present a united front against the unions.
Labor unrest would occur many times in the coming years and decades.




The mines of the Coeur d’ Alene District needed major improvements in infrastructure and transportation routes to become feasible. The first narrow gauge railroad into the valley was built in 1886 and reached the town of Kellogg. By 1887 the line was extended another eleven miles to Wallace.

With the arrival of the railroad, mills and smelters could be built on a large scale, and the district was transformed into a major producer of silver and lead.
The first decade of the 1900s saw Wallace in the midst of a great boom. The city had thousands of residents, many paved streets, an electric light system, and hundreds of homes and buildings.
The Northern Pacific Depot Museum gave us great insight into the town's rail history.



Steve has a connection to the town's founder. Colonial Wallace died in the city in which Steve was born- Whittier, CA. Neat, right?
The historic buildings, with their varying architecture, were delightful to discover.











This mosaic marks the doorstep of the former Samuels Hotel (1906). This classic Victorian hotel was considered one of the finest in the Northwest when it opened. It was razed in 1974 as too expensive to maintain. It was the only brick building ever razed in downtown Wallace. Wow.











Our next stop was the (former) Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, home of the Barnard - Stockbridge Museum. The church was founded in Wallace in 1888 and the current brick building opened in 1910. Designed by the renowned Spokane architect Kirtland Cutter (who also designed the Davenport Hotel in Spokane, WA and the Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier National Park, MT). 
The Barnard - Stockbridge Museum displays images in large format of the photographs taken by Thomas Barnard and Nellie Stockbridge in their studio and in the surrounding community between 1893-1965.  The original collection of over 200.000 images is preserved in the University of Idaho Library Special Collections Unit.  It has been fully digitized and well indexed by subject, so it is a treasure of information for research purposes.  This collection is considered as the Best Photographic Collection in the Northwest United States, and one of the seven best collections in the United States.
In 1898, at age 30, Nellie Stockbridge left her home in Illinois to work with Thomas Barnard at his photography studio. A year after her arrival the area exploded. Four years after her arrival, Mr. Barnard quit photography for politics. Over the next several decades, working often to exhaustion, Nellie photographed the people and places of one of the richest mining areas of the world, the Coeur d’Alene Mining District.


It was through Nellie's photos of the local 'working women' that introduced us to Wallace's red light district.
Prostitutes were required to have mugshots on record at the sheriff's station. Nellie believed that these images should be studio portraits. I'm sitting in front of her 1911 backdrop for those photos.
While prostitution was common in Wild West-era towns, Wallace didn’t just tolerate the profession, it embraced it for more than 100 years. Illegal brothels openly flourished as late as 1991.
To learn more, I visited the Oasis Rooms. This establishment has been in business, in the same location, that an other in town (103 years).

In January, 1988, an FBI raid closed this home of the world's oldest profession, with all residents leaving their possessions behind. This is a late-80s time capsule.


Ginger, the madam from 1963 until its closure, moved to Wallace from Hollywood. Ginger wasn’t very public around town, but she donated to local causes, such as the annual mining competition. She drank Black Velvet and wore $300 pajamas, leaving her house only to make trips to the bank and to sign legal papers from time to time. She also took 60% of the profits.

I was surprised by some of the items left behind.
I had to laugh when I saw the game Around The World In Bed (1969). It screams IRONIC.
When the mines slowed, the local economy could no longer support the workforce it had previously (unemployment soared to between 20-40%) and AIDS had really put a damper on the demand for the girls’ work. The century of brothels in Wallace was over, and the town transitioned into a tourism community, moving from selling sex to selling the past.

Wallace also has the notable distinction of being officially declared the Center of the Universe. The mayor of Wallace officially proclaimed it so in 2004 after finding that the EPA followed logic along the lines of “if something can’t be disproven, it must be true”. Since it can’t be disproven that Wallace is the center of the universe, it follows that it most certainly must be and this fact is recognized at the exact center – a manhole cover on Main Street.

“History is not the past but a map of the past, drawn from a particular point of view, to be useful to the modern traveler.” -Henry Glassie, US historian

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