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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Huckleberries: It’s Higgens Point

In this Oct. 15, 2013, Spokesman-Review file photo, fishermen troll slowly for kokanee salmon near often-misspelled Higgens Point on Lake Coeurd’Alene, 7 miles east of the city of Coeur d’Alene. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
In this Oct. 15, 2013, Spokesman-Review file photo, fishermen troll slowly for kokanee salmon near often-misspelled Higgens Point on Lake Coeurd’Alene, 7 miles east of the city of Coeur d’Alene. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

Huckleberries Wednesday:

We need to stop referring to Higgens Point on the lake, seven miles east of Coeur d’Alene, as “Higgins” Point. Actually, you do. Huckleberries knows that Higgens Point is spelled with an E at the end. Not an I.

Higgens is the family name of the late Coeur d’Alene chiropractor Milton C. Higgens, who bought the point (formerly McGowan Point) on April 28, 1939, and later sold it to a group of 10 Coeur d’Alene investors. For $275,000, Higgens Point Investors then sold 31 acres and 2,600 feet of Lake Coeur d’Alene shoreline to the Idaho Department of Highways. This, according to the late Chuck Sowder, who reported the news of the sale for The Spokesman-Review in May 1949. The Department of Highways planned to use Higgens Point for a full interchange and possible rest stop for Interstate 90, which once ran along the lake.

Now, the Idaho Transportation Department wants to transfer ownership of the old I-90 (now Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive) to the city, and Higgens Point – with an E – is a swell place to watch migrating eagles each fall. Full column here.



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.