Huckleberries: It’s ‘North Idaho,’ period, he explained

In the “Here We Go Again” Department, Rick Hosmer of Spokane made an issue – in Paul Turner’s Slice column Dec. 4 – of the colloquial use of the term “North Idaho.” Now, few of us North Idahoans care what out-of-staters think of our use of the term. We’re more annoyed that Gov. Butch Otter incorrectly refers to our region as “northern Idaho.” But then, old Butch is out of touch on a lot of things. Why “North Idaho”? Maybe we North Idahoans don’t want to be mistaken for the potato farmers down south. Maybe our preference for “North Idaho” is a protest over the way the territorial legislature unilaterally moved the state capital from Lewiston to Boise 151 years ago (as of Dec. 24, if you’re keeping score at home). At one point, 96 percent of North Idahoans wanted to secede to Washington. President Grover Cleveland’s pocket veto of an 1887 congressional bill blocked that action. All of which reminds me of that clever bumper sticker I once saw: “North Idaho: A state of mind. Southern Idaho: A mindless state.”

More from North Idaho

I’m not the only one who will adamantly defend my obligation to consider myself a resident of North Idaho. Herb Huseland of Bayview said on my Huckleberries Online (www.spokesman.com/hbo) blog: “NIC is ‘North Idaho College.’ If higher education likes the term North Idaho, then it must be correct.” And from T.J. Cullen: “Fourth generation Idaho on one side and fifth on the other. Part of them down south and part of them up here. It’s North Idaho. Always has been. As I had it explained to me about 40 years ago, ‘northern Idaho’ is a derogatory term used by the misinformed.” And Jesse Ray Stinton: “As someone who has lived in both halves of the state, the difference in attitude is huge. I’d say that they easily could be two different states.” Finally, Wilmer Stemmene adds this twist: “Lived in Boundary County (Bonners Ferry, Idaho, area) most of my 58 years. From up here you’re all southern Idahoans!” Ouch!

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner (with apologies to Joyce Kilmer and Ogden Nash): “I think that I shall never see/a stump as lovely as a tree,/and if more windstorms come to call/perhaps I’ll see no trees at all” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Trees”) … Sightem (by SR sports scribe Greg Lee in a strip mall near Coeur d’Alene’s Fred Meyer): A turquoise hatchback with a worn “Got Justice” sticker in the back window – and deer antlers sprouting from the top of the front window – one on each side. Only in North Idaho … For a brief time Wednesday, a new lake emerged in North Idaho – Lake Winco. It rained so much last Wednesday that a grassy swale failed, flooding the parking lot of the new Winco at Appleway and Ramsey Road in Coeur d’Alene. Kari Lynn saw two Subarus stall as their drivers tried to navigate the new waterway.

Parting shot

On Tuesday, Kahri Wigen walked into Mitchell’s Harvest Foods, her hometown grocery store in Priest River, and was startled to see a military-style rifle on display. The store doesn’t sell the AR-15, but it did allow the Priest River Yacht Club to come in and sell $5 raffle tickets, with the gun as first prize, for a fundraiser. The prize, prominently sitting on a table, struck Wigen as an odd choice. Said she: “With all the mass shootings involving this kind of weapon, I couldn’t help thinking it would be more appropriate if they had offered a hunting or gaming gun.” Odd or not, Kahri bought a ticket. And that’s the way things are in North Idaho – where the women are conflicted, the men are good looking and the children are above average.

Dave Oliveria blogs about North Idaho issues on his Huckleberries Online blog, spokesman.com/hbo.