When I got home from work last night, Carolyn and I loaded up the truck with a lot of tools, some furniture, and things we'd need over the next few days. When Allison got home from work, we left for the cabin at 8:45pm. It was a great drive. We didn't get behind a single car nor were any cars stuck behind us. We spent the night in the cabin.
Loaded up and ready to head out
The next morning we loaded up a trailer with a brass bed, planer, joiner, chair, motorcycles, ladder, and a lot more. By 7:45am we were on the road to Idaho. We drove down the canyon following the Wenatchee River to the city of Wenatchee and then down the Columbia River until we hit I-90 and then a straight shot across Washington to Idaho. A storm was chasing us the whole way. When we'd stop for gas or lunch, the rain would catch up with us before we could out-run it. When we arrived in Wallace, we unloaded everything into the garage and then moved things into the house at our leisure. That afternoon I installed a 220v circuit in the basement and rewired the tablesaw for 220v operation.
Old Wallace hospital
In the evening Carolyn took Allison and me on a walk to show us things she had discovered on her own the last time we were here. She first took us to the site of the old Wallace hospital. Notice the house on the left.
The hospital grounds are now a park
Here's the site of the hospital today. The house on the left looks exactly the same as it did a hundred years ago. Placer Creek is constrained in the concrete sluiceway. The hospital was built right over the creek and was conveniently used as a sewer. Now the site is a small park.
Convent
A block away Carolyn took us to this apartment complex, which used to be a convent for nuns.
Boxed in Placer Creek
In order to control flooding, this section of Placer Creek that goes through the residential part of town is confined to a concrete lined channel. The Bricker Tubing Society would love this.
View of the house from High Street
Next we walked up High Street, a neighborhood of houses built on the mountainside. At one point we got a glimpse of our house through the trees.
Wallace swimming pool
We dropped off of High Street into downtown Wallace. This swimming pool was built in 1933 by the WPA. The seller of our house told us when he was a kid in the 50's, he would have to work for his grandpa for a certain amount of time in the summer before he was allowed to go swimming. Finally, we looped back to the library where I checked out a book I had on reserve.
Breakfast
The next morning we walked here for breakfast. We've been here before and the huckleberry pancakes are fantastic.
Wallace hero
ATV's and snowmobiles are street-legal in Wallace. This is the owner of the Red Light Garage. We see him all the time riding around town. He's considered one of the town heroes because he turned an old gas station into a successful restaurant (The Red Light Garage) and tourist destination. On top of that, he's restored two homes and turned them into nightly rentals. Over the winter, he added an extension on his restaurant where he and his band play on the weekends.
Hardware store
After breakfast Carolyn and Allison took the dog Gypsy to Kellogg to get her spayed. Our next door neighbors with the Australian Shepherd like Gypsy told us about the animal hospital and Carolyn made an appointment for our dog. The cost of the operation was a fourth of what our vet charges in Redmond. While they were gone, I attempted to mow the lawn. On our last trip we brought an old lawn mower we bought new in 1986 when we lived in San Jose. It hasn't been started in 15 years. I tried to start it, but it wouldn't start even with starting fluid. I walked to the hardware store and bought a new spark plug. This was the first of four trips today to the hardware store. With a new spark plug, the mower started right up and I mowed the lawn.
Mastic mess
While Carolyn and Allison were still in Kellogg, I attempted to remove the black mastic from the back bedroom. After the last trip, I looked up various ways to remove mastic and brought materials to try all of the techniques. I tried lacquer remover, acetone, and steam. The mastic was impervious. Then I brought out the heavy weapons - five gallons of industrial mastic remover. It's so strong the company won't sell it to individuals, only to professional cleaning companies. I had to use my company name of Megamot (think Vandelay Industries) to get them to send me a drum of this toxic fluid. I poured it on the floor, spread it around with a squeegee, and after a while tried to scrape up the result. All I got was the small pile of shavings.
Cleaning up the mess
I poured more fluid on the floor but it hardly did anything. I used up the whole five gallons with little to show for it. The chemical eventually seeped through the floorboards and subfloor and dripped into the basement. I was prepared for this and brought a bag full of sawdust from home. I spread the sawdust on the bedroom floor and the basement floor and swept up the mess but it stunk up the house the whole time we were there.
Sanded floor
I ended up sanding the thick mastic off the floor. The result is not particularly pretty. I bet we'll end up painting this floor the way the upstairs floors are painted.
Sanding the floor
None of the options for removing the mastic in the living and dining rooms worked either. The only option left was the nuke-it-from-space option: totally sanding all of the finish off the floor. My brother David predicted we'd have to resort to this. We hated to lose the old patina on the floor, but there was no other option at this point. I sanded off all the mastic and old finish with 36 grit paper.
Still sanding the first pass
We're still working on the first pass of sanding. Carolyn is scraping up some of the mastic the sander missed. Someday I will make a new front door that matches the 1910 period.
Antique store
Every so often we'd take a break and walk downtown. Wallace's shtick is antiques. Almost all of the stores sell antiques. It's not the crappy stuff you normally find in picked-over antique stores. This store has a lot of great stuff.
Interior of the hardware store
This antique store originally was an old-time hardware store. Notice the floor to ceiling shelves.
Handmade dresser
We've had our eye on this chest of drawers on our last two trips to Wallace. Carolyn pulled the trigger this time and we bought it for our bedroom.
Allison's room
Allison got this little bench at the same store. The bed came from Cissy, Carolyn's sister. Allison made the string of raries (pompoms) in the car on the drive from Lake Wenatchee.
Great sandwiches
This store had more antiques. It also had a little lunch counter. We ordered sandwiches and this was my favorite meal of the whole trip. We ate out a lot but I felt obligated to support this town in the struggling economy.
Another antique store
Here's the inside of another store packed to the brim with antiques.
Items from our house
At one store Carolyn mentioned we bought a house. The store owner asked where. When Carolyn told her, the owner said she bought a number of items during an estate sale before the house was sold. For the rest of the day, Carolyn would ask at each store if there were any items from the house. Most of the pieces of furniture had long been sold, except for this set.
Cabinet Carolyn liked
Down in the basement of one store, there were a lot of items we both liked.
My mom had this mixer!
I saw things that my mom had while John and I were kids. For instance, she had a mixer exactly like this one.
Ironer
We had an ironer like this one down the basement.
Bread making table
The two lower drawers tilt open so the breadmaker can easily scoop out flour.
Another cabinet Carolyn likes
I liked this old workbench
Headmaster's desk
Allison taking a test
On Friday evening Allison had to take a 100 question online test for one of her classes. She had two hours to take the test and once started, couldn't pause and restart. The tablet on the bed was sharing its Verizon internet connection over wifi to the laptop. Everything was going well for the first 90 minutes and then the connection got flakey. Allison had 10 questions remaining and she started to panic. She went next door to use the neighbor's encrypted wifi. They tried entering their password but forgot what it was. Allison was now officially panicking. I suggested she go to the closed library and sit on the steps and access their free wifi. I walked with her to the library.
Finishing her test
Fortunately this worked. She finished the test with time to spare.
Bunker Hill mine
On Saturday morning I installed four or five extension circuits and outlets in the basement. Then we all drove to Kellogg to pick up Gypsy. She had to spend the night at the vet. Before they brought Gypsy out, the vet told us that Gypsy shouldn't run, jump, chew, or do anything to exert herself - basically, don't do anything dogs do. When Gypsy came running out, she broke all the rules within 10 seconds.
While we were in Kellogg we drove down the old main street (somewhat like Wallace but not as many old buildings). We drove to the mother of all silver mines in the Silver Valley, the Bunker Hill mine. This mine went into operation in the late 1880's and was in continuous operation (except for labor strikes) until 1981. More silver came out of this mine than any other mine in the district. Over 3 million tons of lead and 161 million ounces of silver came out of here. Its tailings piles have turned into a superfund site. In 1966 the mine was grabbed in a hostile take over by a Houston company one-tenth the size. The mine is now closed and all the lower levels are flooded. It's now owned by a guy in Bellevue, WA.
Remains of zinc recovery plant
Train depot
Back in Wallace, it's Depot Days today. During the summer, Wallace has a festival every few weeks to attract tourists. Today's festival is named after the Northern Pacific railroad depot. Right behind the terminal is the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. The station used to sit on the other side of the river. Around 1970, the I-90 interstate was finished on both sides of Wallace, but vehicles had to exit and drive through downtown. The federal government's plan was to condemn parts of the residential and downtown districts and build the freeway right through the center of town.
Samuel's Hotel
A number of buildings were razed including this one, the Samuel's Hotel. When this building was knocked down, the townsfolk asked themselves, "What have we done?" The town's super-hero Harry Magnuson stepped forward and sued the FHA and ITD, alleging they had failed to file an Environmental Impact Statement. A Federal judged concurred, entered an injunction, and halted the imminent bulldozers. Over the next few years the entire town was put on the National Register of Historic Places and the highway plan was blocked. Eventually, a new plan was concocted to elevate the highway, pin it against the wall of the mountain, and elevate it above the river and town. Only the railroad depot stood in the way of this plan. The federal government was so anxious to complete the highway that they gladly paid to have the depot lifted off its foundation and carefully moved over a reinforced bridge over the river to its current site. Our neighbor Moe was the mayor of Wallace during all this time. He told us this story while we were all standing in our front yard this afternoon.
Hot rods and classic cars
Depot Days is also a gathering of hot rods, classic cars, and admirers. Last night, classic cars started showing up in Wallace. This morning, Carolyn, Allison, and I walked downtown to take a look.
A beaut
Fins!
A Fiero??
Some guy parked his Fiero in the row of classics. I'm not sure it's a classic or a hot rod. It seemed out of place to me.
Mr. Announcer
This guy might not have TV looks, but he definitely has a radio voice. Somehow all of downtown was wired together. There were stereo speakers on top of buildings and speakers hanging out of upper story apartment windows. Most of the day they were playing 50's music, but occasionally this guy would wander around the booths and the cars and MC the event.
View of Wallace from afar
I spent most of the afternoon sanding the floor in the living room. Late in the afternoon I decided to go on a motorcycle ride. I rode out of Wallace toward Moon Pass and took the first trail up the mountain. Once I hit snow I abandoned the bike and hiked up to a clearcut where I could get a view of Wallace in the distance.
Wallace
This telephoto shot shows the elevated highway built above the river and against the mountains. Our house is visible in this photo, too.
Hawaiian BBQ
We went to this Hawaiian BBQ place for dinner. It was Allison's favorite place we ate at.
Another view of Wallace
I went on another ride up the mountains on the opposite side of town. In the upper center of the photo, there's a road across the mountain in a clearcut and snow. That's where I hiked up and took the previous set of photos.
Back of the house
From high on the mountain I caught a glimpse of the back of the house.
Caladay mine view
Slightly west of Wallace I spotted some activity on the mountain. I asked my neighbor what I saw. He said this is the Caladay mine, now part of the farther west Galena mine. Both mines connect underground and this main shaft is now used as a ventilation exit.
Hecla Lucky Friday Mine
Before church on Sunday, we drove a few miles to the town of Mullan. We came across the Lucky Friday mine. Sadly, a miner was killed a few weeks ago when the ceiling of a tunnel collapsed.
Main headframe
This shaft drops 7,000 feet into the earth and they're in the process of digging it to 8k' deep.
Old mine buildings are everywhere
Old mine up 9 Mile Canyon
We went to church at the Wallace Branch in Silverton. There were only about 30 people in attendance.
Our house in 1950
The seller of the house recently sent me three photos taken around 1950. The house used to have a horizontal board exterior, compared to the cedar shingles it sports now. That's a lot of snow.
Seller and his younger brother circa 1950
House and dog around 1950
After church we drove back to the house, ate lunch, packed up, and headed home. Everything went smoothly until we hit Cle Elum, WA. From there it was a one hour stall as we crawled over Snoqualmie Pass. There wasn't any reason for the backup, just a lot of slow cars. It was a fun weekend in Wallace.
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