Becky Kramer

As a kid, Russ Wiemers vowed never to work in sawmills. His shift-worker father came home bitter and angry too many nights, defeated by skirmishes with management. With a wife to support, Wiemers' views changed in his early 20s. He took a job at the Atlas sawmill in Coeur d'Alene, raising four kids on the steady paychecks. As the years slipped by, Wiemers longed for more challenging work, but he was reluctant to give up the security of $16-an-hour wages and four weeks of paid vacation.

Not that long ago, $100,000 homes were as common as osprey over Lake Coeur d'Alene. Older neighborhoods were packed full of them, and even new subdivisions stocked a few modest ranchers and split-levels for buyers on budgets of a hundred grand or less.

Dice tumble across the felt surface of a craps table. "Nine centerfield nine … mark the nine," chants a dealer, retrieving the dice with a wooden stick hooked like a cane. The action is fast, and there's a vertigo-inducing quality to the blur of players' hands placing bets on the table, the sweeping motion of the stick, the sing-song of the chant. "Dizzy yet?" Kevin Zenishek asks.

WORLEY, Idaho – Thirteen years ago, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe gambled on a modest bingo hall along a rural stretch of U.S. Highway 95. It was a 30-minute drive from Coeur d'Alene; 55 minutes from Spokane. Still the buses came, disgorging crowds of eager gamblers. Today, the bingo hall is a distant memory. Multiple expansions have created the Coeur d'Alene Casino & Resort – a lodge-style complex of neon lights, Vegas-style machines and geometric Native American decor. More than 800 workers are needed to run the gaming operation, a hotel, restaurants, events center and golf course.

In Phoenix, where Amber Phillips grew up, the horizon was filled with skeletons of new buildings. The Rathdrum Prairie, the 18-year-old carpentry student has noticed, is heading the same way. Three new homes are under construction on Voltaire Drive in Coeur d'Alene, where Phillips and other North Idaho College students are building the college's annual raffle house. With the area's building boom sharpening demand for construction workers, students in the 10-month program are already entertaining job offers.

Five years ago, the Coeur d'Alene Resort was the only tall building in North Idaho – looming solitarily against a backdrop of water and mountains. Now, others are vying for a piece of the sky. Charter Builders LLC, of Meridian, Idaho, unveiled plans this week for a mixed-use tower in Fernan Village. Fernan Tower, as proposed, could reach 30 stories, or 300 feet in height, which would make it one of the Inland Northwest's tallest high-rises.

HAYDEN, Idaho – Larry Rupp started collecting military patches at the age most boys start collecting baseball cards. In 1942, a soldier in Ohio's 10th Infantry Division Mountain Unit pulled a patch off the sleeve of his Army uniform and gave it to Rupp, who was 10 at the time. Pearl Harbor was still fresh in people's minds, and Rupp treasured the colorful bit of cloth.

HAYDEN, Idaho – An automatic timer goes off at Hayden's wastewater treatment plant: It's time for a phosphorus screening test. Despite their admirable qualities as stain-removal agents in dishwashing detergents and nutrients in fertilizers, phosphates aren't welcome here. A federal permit allowing the Hayden plant to discharge treated wastewater into the Spokane River is up for renewal. When the new permit is issued, operators expect it to contain stringent new phosphorus standards, intended to curb the growth of algae blooms in the river.

In the Northwest, the era of the fur traders ran from the early 1800s to the 1840s, fading into history as a result of fashion changes. Silk eventually replaced beaver skins as the preferred material in top hats, leading to a collapse in the market for the furs. "Abraham Lincoln wore a top hat made of silk," explained Lynn Hunt, a touch reproachfully.

SANDPOINT – At first glance, Michael Welp seems like an unlikely candidate for a diversity consultant. He's a white, heterosexual 43-year-old, married with two kids. He lives in Sandpoint, Idaho, where 96 percent of the population is also white. But he's on the road a good deal, telling companies how they can improve their diversity initiatives.

Condos sprouting beneath Silver Mountain's gondola are a sign of renewed economic vitality in Idaho's Silver Valley. In the past two years, the real estate market has boomed here, as investors and vacationers bought up affordable mountain getaways. But the economy is still fragile in this historic mining district. Nothing underscores the point more than reaction to Tuesday's announcement that Galena Mine may be up for sale. About 185 people collect paychecks from the mine near Silverton.

American lumber producers are taking a fight against imported Canadian two-by-fours to a new level, by challenging the constitutionality of part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Four years ago, the Bush Administration determined that Canadians were illegally dumping low-cost lumber on the U.S. market. The 2002 determination led to heavy tariffs on Canadian lumber imports, but Canada successfully challenged the tariffs to a NAFTA dispute resolution panel, made up of attorneys from both countries. As a result, most of the tariffs were lifted.

Potlatch Corp. is building a new sawmill in Boardman, Ore., to turn logs from its fast-growing poplar plantation into hardwood lumber. Thirteen years ago, the Spokane-based company began planting 17,000 acres of poplars between Interstate 84 and the Columbia River. The irrigated grove in the desert now draws frequent stares. Potlatch spokesman Mike Sullivan fields 10 to 15 e-mails and phone calls each month from people who drove by on the freeway, saw Potlatch's sign, and wondered why the trees were there.