Group creates walking tour

SPIRIT LAKE – The project – four years in the making – was finished just in time for Spirit Lake’s Centennial, a party 100 years in the making.

Members of Spirit Lake’s Centennial Committee have created a self-guided walking tour focusing on the two blocks of downtown’s Maine Street listed on the National Historic Register.

Brochures are available at City Hall and the Visitor’s Center at the corner of Highway 41 and Maine Street. A map is included, along with historical information on each building’s history.

“We found out the downtown area was on the National Historic Register,” committee member Becki Gaddum said. “We took the buildings they had listed and added a couple others.”

In addition to 16 buildings on Maine Street, the tour includes Gaddum’s house and the City Park across the street from her home. Both are just a block from downtown.

Gaddum’s home was built in 1908 and served as a railroad section house.

The park was included on the tour because it was planned when the city was first platted.

Maine Street stops on the tour include Old West Hardware Store, which was built in 1907 and was a pharmacy in a past life.

Jo’s Hole Saloon, built in 1910, is on the tour. Inside is a bar manufactured by Brunswick – as in the pool table – that was shipped around Cape Horn and brought to Spirit Lake by wagon train.

Neighboring watering holes, the Linger Longer and the White Horse Saloon and Hotel, are also included.

Three stops are a short walk from downtown: The Blackwell House, the former site of the Spirit Lake Train Depot, and an overlook to the site of the Panhandle Mill that closed in 1939.

The Fireside Lodge, which was originally an office building for the Panhandle Lumber Co., is on the waterfront just a short drive from downtown.

The final site listed on the tour is Greenwood Cemetery which is as old as the city and is six blocks east of downtown on Vermont and 10th.

All of the historical buildings on the tour feature a placard with historical photographs of the buildings as they originally looked.

“The merchants were really excited to have them on their buildings,” Gaddum said.

Mayor Roxy Martin said feedback has been excellent. Several visitors stopped by City Hall during the town’s Fourth of July celebration to pick up brochures.

A second printing is already under way.