Rathdrum Prairie News: Stateline keeps quiet as Cabela’s roars in

Cabela’s will be opening soon at The Pointe at Post Falls, a 235-acre retail and commercial development owned by Foursquare Properties Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif.

It makes me wonder what the 2 million visitors a year – and the retail growth – that the sprawling $20 million sporting goods store is expected to draw will mean to nearby Stateline, just a stone’s throw away.

With Stateline’s ideal location in the Interstate 90 corridor, nearly equidistant from Coeur d’Alene and Spokane, and a draw like Cabela’s at its back door, it seems like the time for the little town to shine once again.

But Stateline Mayor Ronald “Ronnie” Pringle isn’t so sure. The mayor and his brother, Randy, own the First and Last Chance Tavern, where the mayor holds City Council meetings on the second Tuesday of each month.

“We are a low-key operation,” he said of his administration. “We don’t have any issues – we just meet to pay the bills.”

The mayor says the town, with a population of only 15 to 20 is kind of calm these days, and he likes it that way.

When asked if Cabela’s will make a difference to Stateline, he wondered aloud whether the outdoorsy type of people Cabela’s will bring to town will want to visit Stateline’s established businesses.

Then he added, “It’s just nice and peaceful and quiet … and probably is going to stay that way.”

Across the street from the First and Last Chance, Tom and Connie Brickert, owners of a good chunk of Stateline, say growth in the area already has had a positive effect on their businesses, which include the El Patio Bar and Grill, Seltice Way Stop and Go and Elegant Expressions. But they say they are taking a wait-and-see attitude.

“I think it’s going to be good for the whole area,” Connie Brickert said. “We anticipate a lot of traffic – it will be a nice little boon for this area.

“We don’t have any great big plans to change anything, but we are gearing up to accommodate additional business,” she said.

Stateline is an incorporated city that is considerably less than 1 square mile in size.

The town flourished from the 1920s through 1971, during the years when U.S. Highway 10 ran through town, tying Spokane and points west to Coeur d’Alene, Montana and other points east. The town was known for its honky-tonk bars, entertainment venues and eateries.

Although Stateline lost much of its economic stability when I-90 bypassed it in 1971, a few hardy business owners never gave up on the little strip of old highway and continued to offer cheap cigarettes, cheap booze, a little gasoline and a little nightlife to those of us willing to “run to the line.”

Throughout the years, thousands of area residents in Washington and Idaho have flocked to Stateline’s nightspots. Idaho’s lower drinking age once drew hundreds of Washington teens over the state line to party, and the handy establishments offered fun and excitement.

Crowds flocked to Stateline Gardens, which later became Kelly’s and still is drawing them in today as Big Al’s Country Club. Hard Luck Charlie’s is now the Saddle Sore Inn. But the building burned down where we used to enjoy eight-course meals at the Knight Light – you remember those meals where you got to cook buffalo meat on a small brazier right at your table.

Today, the mayor’s First and Last Chance Tavern, which opened in 1943, tells the story of Stateline.

The building looks empty most of the time, with a few weeds and a few cars dotting the parking lot. Old neon lights, proclaiming “Fine Foods” and “Barbecued Ribs,” sit atop the building that has not had food service in 18 years.

Still, the mayor and his brother continue to do business, waiting on their regular customers and the strangers who enter every once in a while.

Actually, the answer to the question whether people shopping at Cabela’s will visit the businesses in Stateline is easy.

Let’s say just 5 percent of the 2 million visitors to Cabela’s next year stop by one of the businesses along Seltice Way for gas or food or a drink – a reasonable (if not low estimate). That’s an additional 100,000 strangers stopping in Stateline for a visit.