Huckleberries: Harrison will celebrate 1917 fire that destroy town because, well, it survived

What’s a nice place like Harrison, Idaho, doing celebrating a fire that destroyed the town?

The lakeside community of about 215 at the mouth of the Coeur d’Alene River will commemorate the big fire of 1917 because, well, it survived.

“It never got back on its feet,” Sherry Skarda of the Osprey Bed and Breakfast told Huckleberries. “But it didn’t go away either.”

Harrison, now a favorite stop on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, plans a series of activities to commemorate July 21, 1917, the day the town burned down in 90 minutes. The festivities will start Saturday morning with firefighting and equipment demonstrations, including a practice burn involving a giant doll house and hands-on water brigade competition. It will end with a three-hour concert, from 2 to 5 p.m., at Harrison City Park.

It’s hard to believe now, but Harrison, in 1911, was the biggest town in Kootenai County with 1,200 residents, five sawmills, and a large fleet of paddle-wheelers and steamboats. People were constantly on the move between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene and the Silver Valley mining district. Harrison was at the hub.

“It was a wild, happening town,” Sherry said.

Everything changed at 6:30 a.m. that fateful July 21, a century ago, when a spark – or some at the time thought arsonists – started a fire at Grant Lumber Co. Within 90 minutes, the fire, fanned by gusts of wind, leveled the entire business district and half of the residential area. When the inferno hit the hardware store, thousands of rounds of ammunition went up. The Spokane Daily Chronicle described the scene as “a burning and seething hell.”

Harrison would rebuild but it never approached its previous glory. War, the Great Depression and recession kept it from rebounding. The town limped along for almost 90 years before tourism and the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes revived it.

Sherry Skarda, an ex-Californian who, together with her husband, Larry, bought the Osprey two-and-a-half years ago, are among those attracted by Harrison’s new promise.

Quite a stinker

Sherry Skarda was unavailable for comment when Huckleberries first called Monday because (drum roll, please) – she was de-skunkifying her dog, Sam, a white German shepherd with a blond saddle. Sam can’t stay away from the skunks that hang out nearby. And you can forget the tomato juice treatment. Sherry swears by Skunk Odor Remover, produced by Nature’s Miracle Co. Apply it. Wait two hours. And then bathe the victim. Sam was ready to go skunking again Tuesday morning.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: How cheerful is that little pigeon,/although his brain is but a smidgeon;/to fly, he needs not TSA – /he’s luckier than I today – Tom Wobker, The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Pigeon at the Airport,” June 26, 2009) … Washington Poet Laureate Tod Marshall tells Huckleberries that he introduced The Bard’s poetry to a traveler from Cape Cod. The camper liked the short rhymes so much that he bought 10 more copies to give to his friends in Massachusetts. And he might order more … Also, Tod tells Huckleberries that he is ordering another run of 100 books to keep The Well-Read Moose in Coeur d’Alene and Aunties in Spokane stocked … Meanwhile, Heather Branstetter tells Huckleberries that her reading of “Selling Sex in the Silver Valley: A Business Doing Pleasure” attracted a crowd to the Wallace Brewing Co. Friday. And Huckleberries hears KREM 2 is planning an interview. Stay tuned.

Parting shot

One final word about the fun and games at Harrison Saturday. Anyone who wears a ball cap or T-shirt identifying him/herself as a fire department employee or volunteer will receive a free ice cream cone from the Harrison Creamery and Fudge Factory. And that’s worth the trip all by itself.

You can contact D.F. “Dave” Oliveria at 509-319-0354 or daveo@spokesman.com.