Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part two, with part one having appeared in Saturday’s Tribune.
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KOOSKIA — Thanks to donations from the communities representing Mountain View School District 244, National Motto signs will now hang in all of MVSD’s school buildings.
The Idaho Legislature passed H202 in 2023, which allows for private donors to post signs with the national motto, “In God We Trust,” in any public school. Schools are required to post the signs if they are donated to them; they may also purchase their own signs with donated money.
Patron Sue Kinner presented the large, brushed aluminum signs at the Nov. 21 meeting held in Kooskia.
“Donations for the signs came from every community within the district,” Kinner said, relaying the importance of the signs and their message to area patrons. “This really says a lot about the community as a whole and what it stands for.”
The signs are inscribed with “In God We Trust,” as well as an American flag and the Idaho state seal. The signs were printed by PrintCraft in Lewiston.
According to the legislation, “the purpose of bill H202 is to display the United States national motto in public school buildings. This will affirm for students, staff and the general public the historical and ongoing significance of our nation’s motto, ‘In God We Trust.’” It shall be in all educational institutions under the general supervision, governance, or control of the state board of education or the board of regents of the University of Idaho in conspicuous place in the school or institution. It shall be in the form of a framed poster or plaque paid for by private donations.”
— Lorie Palmer, Idaho County Free Press (Grangeville), Wednesday
Museum display features Orofino’s neighboring communities
OROFINO — Clearwater Historical Museum, 433 Bartlett in Orofino, is featuring history and photos from neighboring communities.
Peck is a community about 5 miles west of the edge of Orofino with a population of 199 in 2012. The area was homesteaded in 1896 and the village was established in 1899, when the railroad was built. At the turn of the century is was considered prosperous with all the essential businesses. The post office was opened in 1896 and remains to the present. It was named after a railroad official. Anticipating the railway line to the Camas Prairie, the main street in town was called Railroad Street.
The railroad never did pass through Peck, but the community continued to thrive with the grain harvested from seven surrounding ridges and nearby prairies, which was hauled to Peck and then transferred to the Clearwater River to be shipped.
Greer is an unincorporated community in Clearwater County along the Clearwater River at the junction of U.S. Highway 12 and Idaho Highway 11, 7 miles southeast of Orofino. The Greer Ferry was constructed across the Clearwater River by Col. William Craig and Jacob Schultz in 1861 to serve local miners and packers passing through to Pierce during the gold rush era. It also provided a link between the Nez Perce Prairie and the Weippe Prairie.
Other operators followed the builders, including the man whose name the community took, John Greer. According to John Bradbury’s Clearwater County history series, Greer was the first town to prosper with the arrival of the homesteaders. It became the shipping and commercial center for the mines, farms and ranches. It was the funnel through which all the freight trains and wagons had to go to haul supplies to Fraser, Weippe and Pierce City. It was also the natural place to haul grain that was grown on the prairie to ship.
Cavendish is an unincorporated community 15 miles from Orofino. It was established in the 1860s on the old trail to Snell’s Mill, a settlement in the Pierce area. Its name is said to have come from a traveler who compared the local weather to Cavendish, Vt. It has a cemetery, park and elementary school. It is made up primarily of farm land and small areas of forestry. Early prominent citizens included Alonzo Snell and William LeBaron, who started a sawmill that supplied lumber for people to start building homes, barns and other buildings.
At its peak, Cavendish had several businesses including a livery stable, a saloon, a mercantile and blacksmith shop. A log church was built in the 1930s. The mercantile eventually became known as the Cavendish Store. The two-room Teakean Cavendish Elementary School continues to operate on the hill not far from the Cavendish Cemetery on the east side of town.
In Where Rivers Meet and Lines Are Cast, Chyrle Bond writes about Ahsahka at the foot of Dworshak Dam. This unincorporated community is also the home to Dworshak National Fish Hatchery. She says “Ahsahka” is a Nez Perce word for “the place where two rivers meet.” That is fitting since it lies at the confluence of the main Clearwater River and its North Fork, about 3 miles downstream from Orofino.
It has been very important to the Nez Perce people with the abundant fish and mild climate. Immense populations of deer and elk roamed the valley, and the rivers provided fast and relatively easy transportation.
The Nez Perce mastered the art of constructing dugout canoes from large logs, using fire to speed the process. It was this skill they shared with members of the Lewis-Clark Corps of Discovery in 1805 to construct canoes to travel the remainder of the way to the Pacific Ocean.
A post office called Dent was established in 1896 and remained in operation until 1954. A Mr. Dent, an early postmaster, gave the community his last name. According to notes by A.B. Curtis the area was homesteaded by Charles and Katherine Dent in 1895.
They built a 12-room travelers rest shortly thereafter, as the area was settled. Dent acted as homesteader, postmaster, minister, blacksmith, tavern operator and hotel manager. What was then a two-day trip is now 15 minutes.
Elk River was first homesteaded in 1897 by Willard Trumbull. In 1909, his homestead was purchased by the Potlatch Lumber Co. and the first electric sawmill in the country was started in 1910. The mill was the most modern in the Northwest and the largest electrically operated mill in the world. The name of the fast-growing town was changed from Trumbull to Elk River at that time. The Milwaukee Railroad was extended into Elk River, making it the terminus of the line. It is no longer in use today. Potlatch began log drives down the North Fork into the Clearwater in 1928. They continued until 1971 with the construction of Dworshak Dam. The town declined after a larger sawmill was built in Lewiston in 1927. The sawmill was closed in 1932 and the planer mill closed the following year.
— Nancy Butler, Clearwater Tribune (Orofino), Wednesday
