View Through History Life On Pend Oreille Has Changed Over The Years

When we first saw Bayview, back in 1970, about 200 people lived there year-round.

Waterfront resorts at the southern end of Pend Oreille Lake had a series of floathouses, some of which had been in families for generations. Floathouses, we flat-landers learned, were little cabins, some very elaborate, with attached boat garages.

Bayview’s population exploded to 2,000 in the summer when the snow bunnies arrived.

The lake stretches 44 miles from Buttonhook Bay to Dover, with a maximum width of 6.25 miles. The natural shoreline, depending on draw-down, is between 112 and 116 miles. The maximum depth is 1,152 feet. It is the 14th largest lake in the U.S. outside of the Great Lakes. It is the second largest lake west of the Mississippi.

The name Pend Oreille has several translations, but the common one seems to be the shape of the lake (Oreille, the ear) and its pendant (Pend) position from the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille River.

In the 1850s, French trappers used an apostrophe, but the U.S. Post Office ruled only the one apostrophe in Coeur d’Alene could be used in the state.

Bayview was established in 1894, but prior to that the Pony Express Route came to Idlewild Bay via Rathdrum on its way to Montana.

By 1864, three steamboats took passengers and supplies from Idlewild Bay to Clarks Fork and then transferred to overland wagon or stage to Missoula. In 1867, the 108-foot Mary Moody, the last and largest steamboat, plied the lake.

By that time, the Steamboat Landing in Idlewild Bay was known as Pend Oreille City, consisting of the log store and perhaps 25 families. In 1888, Lakeview also was a thriving settlement, a boomtown whose 2,000 residents mined silver and gold. By 1890, it was practically a ghost town.

When Bayview was established, logging was the big business. Logs from the Bayview side of the lake were skidded into the water and rafted to Sandpoint. But in 1910, a huge forest fire devastated the area.

In 1911, a spur of the Spokane International Railroad was brought to the lake from Corbin Junction (near the Rickel Ranch) to haul lime and dolomite. Washington Brick and Lime Co. operated the lime rock quarry at Lakeview, using the Dora Powell, a steam boat on the lake, pushing gondolas from Bayview to Lakeview, where they were loaded with limestone.

The lime, which was used for mortar, plaster and whitewash, was processed in kilns.

In the years 1920-33, a hush-hush rum-runner flotilla carrying smuggled contraband, ran from Canada to Bayview, with scheduled stops. One of the stops was Whiskey Rock, because of a supposed hiding place on a big rock at the point of the current settlement still called Whiskey Rock.

In 1932, the specifications for Portland Cement were changed and the Lakeview project was abandoned. Three years later, the Bayview operation came to an end with exhaustion of high quality lime rock. The resultant loss of revenue caused the Spokane International Railroad to cease the spur line operation.

There still are remnants of the lime kilns, built about 1910, at the Scenic Bay Resort. The old Depot now is a private residence, and a few years ago, the Washington Brick and Lime paymaster’s office, and many old bits of scaffolding, still stood.

The Dora Powell was converted to a floating restaurant at Bayview.

In 1942, the government called in homesteaded properties and land deeds from Bayview to Buttonhook Bay. Included were resorts, the Wigwam Lodge Hotel, cabins, marinas and a pioneer ranch. All were taken over by the U.S. Navy when Farragut Naval Training Station was established. By 1946, 300,000 men had received training there.

During this period, Spokane International Railroad rebuilt service lines to the base. Northern Pacific Railroad also provided service, and the highway was built from Athol to Bayview.

Immediately after the war, Farragut housed 750 German prisoners of war. Following that period, the Naval Training Station was used as a Veterans Technical College and Trade school, ending in 1949. Farragut became a state park in 1965.

The center planting strip on the highway alternated lilacs and forsythia, and in 1970 when we arrived in the area, the blooms were breathtaking.

Wildflowers were everywhere. The first time I saw a dog-toothed violet, I was fascinated by its yellow beauty. I didn’t dare pick it, thinking it must be a protected species. My neighbor laughed and walked me a short distance to where a carpet of these yellow Easter lilies, as she called them, grew in profusion.

Fishing was a major topic of conversation in Bayview when we first arrived. Kokanee, also called silvers or bluebacks, were so profuse that the sports fishing limit was 50. We were aware that some people went out at dawn, came back with 50, iced them down and returned to their boats for another limit. These people were, they earnestly assured us, commercial fishermen with special rules.

One oddity which had to be explained was the number of abandoned refrigerators standing around outside. They were smokers for the kokanee. People had secret recipes for the brine they soaked them in, then strung them up on clever hooks inside, and various utensils were pressed into service as holders for smoking wood chips. Many of the smoked fish were canned or frozen.

The Fish and Game Department banned kokanee fishing this year in Pend Oreille because of the low fish population.

But back in the 1970s, a typical night involved sitting on the deck with friends, sampling a jar of smoked kokanee, and lifting a tall cool one while the moon rose from behind the mountains and cast a shimmer of silver on the waters.