No tempest in this town’s teapot

When the town of Spirit Lake couldn’t afford to transform its old water tower into a teapot, Dolli put the kettle on. Literally.

She said here is a handle, and here is a spout.

Dolli Massender paid for construction of a handle and a spout, and a paint job to turn the town’s 1921 water tower into a 28-foot teapot.

“I’ve lived in Spirit Lake all my life,” Massender said. “I wanted to see something that made the town better.”

Spirit Lake officials were in the process of refurbishing the 113-foot-high water tower, which hasn’t been used for 10 years and was in desperate need of repairs.

Mayor Roxy Martin said she had a picture of a coffeepot water tower from the cover of American Profile magazine and was hoping the same could be done with Spirit Lake’s tower, creating a tourist attraction.

Fixing up the tower cost $200,000, Martin said. The town council decided they couldn’t pay more to make it into a teapot.

Massender was chatting with Bruce Larkin, owner of the business refurbishing the tower, when she learned of the failed effort to make it something special.

She went to the mayor and paid the extra money – she doesn’t want to say how much – to create the teapot.

The yellow rose decorating the teapot is a tribute to her mother, Myrtle Gibson. She died in 1998 at age 77.

Much of her life was spent in Spirit Lake, where she worked as a waitress and seamstress. Gibson also collected teapots, Massender said.

“She just loved the city,” Massender said of her mother, who once was responsible for watching the water level in the tower. When the tower got full, she’d alert her husband, who would shut the pumps off.

Transforming water towers into tourist attractions is nothing new. There’s a giant peach – The Peachoid – in South Carolina, Mickey Mouse ears in Florida, a ketchup bottle in Illinois, a pineapple in Hawaii and dozens of other unique towers across the country.

Spirit Lake’s teapot is the only one in the area, likely the entire state, and the town’s boosters hope it will draw visitors.

Jeneva Clapper, who lives next door to the teapot, said she thought the town was just fixing up the water tower. She had no idea she would soon be living in the shadow of North Idaho’s biggest teapot.

“People really like it,” Clapper said. “They say it brings character to the town.”

Larkin said the teapot was the most unusual water tower his company – Wilbur Fletcher Inc. – has done. The Dayton, Wash., man said they’ve worked on towers throughout the Pacific Northwest but have never done a teapot.

He designed the 13-foot spout and the handle, which serves double-duty as an overflow pipe. Larkin also painted the rose and added a special touch he dedicated to Massender – a hand of cards with four aces.

As Spirit Lake residents Sherri Osborne and Marti Kast walked past the tower last week, pushing their kids in strollers, they contemplated the symbolism of the playing cards.

“We don’t understand the cards on it,” Osborne said. “The only thing we can think of is old people, when they’re playing cards they drink tea.”

Larkin said the design for the four aces came from a lighter Massender carries.

The 56-year-old woman likes to gamble. One rumor around town is that she used her winnings to pay for the teapot.

“I’m known for my gambling,” said Massender, who prefers three-card poker.

She’s been working with her boss, White Horse Saloon owner Denise Forbest-Kegel, to come up with a slogan for T-shirts featuring the teapot.

“We think it’s Idaho’s only teapot,” Forbest-Kegel said. One slogan the pair already ruled out: “Let’s get potted in Spirit Lake.”

Mayor Martin said she was surprised by how many people in town never noticed the tower until its makeover.

“A lady up the road joked she was going to start charging people to park in front of her house and take pictures,” Martin said.

Larkin said the tower was in such bad shape that it had rusted through in spots, and it was covered with graffiti.

Now, “I think it looks super,” he said. “It’ll put them on the map. You’ll ask people, ‘Where you going?’ ‘Well, I’m going to Spirit Lake, where the teapot is.’ “