Dudes with guns

Horseback riding, fishing, songs around the campfire and … war games.

An Idaho anti-terrorism school has plans to add military and law enforcement training to the list of activities at a ranch near Harrison.

Boise-based Government Training Institute is a private company working to bring its classes to the Red Horse Mountain Lodge.

The Kootenai County hearing examiner recommended approval Friday of Government Training Institute’s plans to expand the shooting range at the ranch to accommodate training activities.

Construction wouldn’t begin before 2008, said Institute President Chadd Harbaugh.

Some shell buildings are planned for a valley near the main lodge and cabins. Government Training Institute instructors would be able to configure them in different ways for training simulations.

The site was chosen because of its size — 600 acres, with access to thousands more on public land — and two-hour proximity to Spokane International Airport, said lodge manager Cory Inouye.

“If you look across most of the West, looking for large landscapes adequate for a shooting range, there’s lots of great places to do it,” he said. “The problem is they’re six to eight hours away from a major airport.”

Red Horse Mountain Lodge’s setting, just outside Harrison, is beautiful. The landscape features tree-covered hillsides, dewy pastures and log cabins clustered around a central lodge near Blue Lake. Horses carouse in two arenas behind the lodge.

The ranch would continue to host families during the peak season, offering a wide range of activities including cookouts, horseback riding, mountain biking, fishing, concerts and more. The law enforcement and military training school would provide business during the shoulder season, especially in the fall, said Inouye.

“It’s just the same thing as having a corporate retreat here,” he said.

Except these retreat attendees wouldn’t be singing Kumbaya. They’d be learning to take out bad guys.

The Government Training Institute taught about 900 people in Boise and other locations last year, said Harbaugh, who added he expects the number will be smaller in 2006.

Much of the company’s training is now occurring far afield, as the Department of Homeland Security has encouraged more agencies to bring training to them rather than send officers to Boise, said Harbaugh.

The Post Falls Police Department has sent a handful of officers to GTI headquarters in Boise for SWAT training, said Lt. Scot Haug.

Having training closer would be great, Haug said. “It would help Post Falls and save us money.”

But some local agencies listed as clients on the Government Training Institute’s Web site say they have no association with the company.

“We haven’t used the institute for any kind of training,” said Coeur d’Alene police spokeswoman Christie Wood. “There’s the odd chance that an officer went to a special class in Boise, but that’s far from saying they trained us.”

Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Ben Wolfinger said he was bothered with GTI’s use of his department’s name on its Web site. “I don’t know who these guys are,” he said.

But Harbaugh said that GTI did train one Kootenai County sergeant.

“If their name’s up there, it’s because somebody has attended the training,” he said.

Another North Idaho anti-terrorism school — the Fort Sherman Institute at North Idaho College — failed to attract enough clients before finally closing, costing the college hundreds of thousands of dollars.

GTI is not affiliated in any way with that school, said Harbaugh.