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50TH ANNIVERSARY!

Fly Fishing for Good: MAYFLY PROJECT

Everywhere Artist: WARD HOOPER

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CONTENTS

COMMUNITY 5 The Mayfly Project 9 Catching Waves with Jet Boat Captain Brian Thomas 13 Summers at the Lake 31 Protecting Children, or Book Censorship?

J U LY/A U G U S T 2022 publisher K A R E N DAY karen@idahorem.com art and design J S NGR A F I X K A L E Y W R IGH T design@idahorem.com entertainment editor APRIL NEALE cover photograph MARK OLIVER cover dancers from ballet idaho ADRIENNE KERR JUSTIN HUGHES IdaHome Magazine, LLC P.O. Box 116 Boise, Idaho 83701 208.481.0693 © 2022 IdaHome Magazine. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed by the authors and contributors to IdaHome Magazine are not necessarily those of the editor and publisher.

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Lewis Walker: History as a Mirror

FOOD, ARTS, AND CULTURE 17 Everywhere Artist: Ward Hooper 23 Happy 50th Birthday, Idaho Arts!

35 Anthony's Chef Reno Rodriguez on the Joy of Oysters

CONTRIBU TORS After graduating from the University of Iowa with a master’s degree in journalism, Harrison Berry returned to Boise, where he spent eight years working for Boise Weekly, rising to the position of managing editor. His work has appeared in publications from Business Insider to American Theatre. He currently works for Boise State University.

Micah Drew is a writer currently based in northwest Montana. A multiple Montana Newspaper Association award-winning journalist covering politics, sports, and the outdoors, he has written for Edible Idaho, Boise Weekly, and High Country News. When not in the newsroom, he can be found trail running throughout the West.

Arianna Creteau is a freelance writer based in Northern Idaho. A dessert enthusiast, avid hiker and amateur runner, Arianna spends her weekdays working a desk job and weekends chasing adventure.

Her previous work has been published in Boise Weekly.

April Neale is an entertainment features writer and has read her work on NPR and Spoken Interludes and writes for various industry trades and entertainment websites. Neale is a member of the Critics Choice Association, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Hollywood Critics Association, Television Critics Association, and other professional entertainment organizations.

Phillip Thompson is a sixth-generation Idahoan, with an 11-year-old daughter who is seventh-generation! The Gem State afforded his family opportunities unavailable elsewhere. As the Director of the Idaho Black History Museum, his purpose and hope is to illuminate the often unknown histories and personal stories contributing to the unique social fabric of Idaho.

April Thomas Whitney’s career path has taken her on many professional adventures. After spending a decade as an awardwinning journalist and newsroom manager in Portland, OR, she spent 17 years managing communications at Brundage Mountain before striking out on her current adventure as a freelance journalist, copywriter, and PR contractor.

Mike McKenna is an award-winning author and journalist from Hailey. Mike’s writing has appeared widely, from Forbes, People, and Trout to numerous regional newspapers. He has served as the editor of The Sheet and Sun Valley Magazine and is the author of two prizewinning guidebooks, including Angling Around Sun Valley.

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“Getting kids involved is actually one of the hardest things,” Cordero said. “The Department of Health and Welfare is severely understaffed, so contacting case managers or supervisors is difficult. They just don’t have the time.”

Using some of her contacts with foster families through the Idaho Relative as Parents (IRAP) program, a voluntary guardianship program that avoids the court system, Cordero found families and kids who were interested in the program and brought the Boise project online.

Rob Griggs was guiding a fly fishing trip early last summer when he heard about the Mayfly Project. His client that day was Cordero and her son, and she was effusive about the upcoming launch.

Fly fishing is as much an art as a sport and most devotees love to share the magic.

When asked if he would consider teaching a casting class for the youth, Griggs agreed. “I tell you I fell in love with the program instantly,” Griggs said. “I was just supposed to be a guest, teaching basic casting techniques, but that first day, it just pulled at my heart.”

The youth in the program weren’t like his usual clients — dressed in top-of-theline waders and vests and carrying brand new bespoke rods.

“These kids aren’t entering the fishing world from that level and I wanted to be part of that,” said Griggs, who is now one of 22 mentors involved in Boise’s program.

“Hopefully, we’re able to plant a seed for fly fishing that they can do for the rest of their lives, even if it’s not right away. We want them to know that even when the world seems bad, we can go outside, go fish, and see the world from that perspective.”

With nearly two dozen mentors involved in the program, the kids often have a two-to-one mentor ratio, allowing them to receive full attention and instruction during the five sessions.

“They went out of their way to spend direct attention with each kid and literally spent hours with them each day,” said Loucendy Ball, a foster parent who had two kids take part in last year’s project. “Both my kids were so glad once they were in it and saw how much the mentors cared.”

The Mayfly Project A national organization introduces foster children to fly fishing

T

BY MICAH DREW

here is a scene in Norman Maclean’s classic book “A River Runs Through It,” in which the author and his brother talk about their brother-in-law. When the author asks whether they should help said relative, BACK ROW — LEFT TO RIGHT, ROB GRIGGS, JESSICA ALLEN, CHRIS ISELEY, MAC CHRISTIAN, KIMBERLY CORDERO; FRONT ROW — KRIS REHN, JEREMY SANDERS / PHOTO BY TREG GORRINGE his brother says, “Yes, I thought we were going to.” mind is distracted with a completely “The child welfare system is huge,” “How?” I asked. different task that doesn’t require critical Cordero said. “These kids interface with “By takingCordero him fishing with thinking,” said.

“It’sus.” about the therapists, with the court, with guard“I’ve just told you,” I said, “He rhythm and the movement of doesn’t fly fishing.” ians, with community groups like the like to fish.”

“You have to be paying attention to Boys and Girls Club, with their schools.

“Maybe so,” my brother replied.added.

“But your surroundings,” Barnhart We’re just one piece in that system. maybe what at he bugs, likes ismaking somebody “Looking suretrying you’reto It’s not intended to be a lifetime bond help him.” fishing the right part of the water, between mentors and mentees; we’re As the author act ofwhat’s takingin watching everyinfers, inch the of line, focused on building a bond between the someone fishing can be used as a doorway front and behind you,” Barnhart said. mentees, fly fishing, and nature.” the opportunity to connect and support on to all those different things Nature has long been known to increase to“Holding yourself and others. in your head makes it really hard to fomental wellbeing and overall health, A similar ethos is at play with The where cus on other things in life.

That’s and more recently, interactions with the Mayfly Project (TMP), a national the outdoors are used as therapeutic interven- we really see a big transition innonprofit that uses flyon fishing as youthorganization — they’re so focused fishing, tions. A 2019 study in Scientific Reports a catalyst to mentor children in the foster they forget to worry.” showed that 120 minutes of contact with care“If system, introducing them to local you want any other proof of how nature each week significantly increases watersheds and helping them develop a the program works, I mean, just look the likelihood of self-reporting good connection thethey outdoors. at their behaviorswith when show health and high wellbeing, and a recently deeper This summer, a group of Boise-area up,” Cordero said. “If you can get a kid published study of youths in a foster care will be intoand theyou order involved in inducted an activity, canof system that used forest healing programs youth fisherfolk in the second round of the see them beaming and smiling andlocal over a three-day period showed signifchapter of The Project. laughing and Mayfly engaging with people in icant overall increase in interpersonal “Our Boise project is one our absolute a positive manner, I thinkofthat’s all the relationship for the participants. favorite sites,” said TMP co-founder Kaitproof you need.”

“We know that it’s really hard to stay lyn Barnhart, who lives in northern Idaho. on a negative train of thought, what we To find out more, visit the website — https:// “They’ve turned it into exactly what it was call a ruminating thought, when your themayflyproject.com/boise-idaho-project meant to be.”

ROB GRIGGS / PHOTO BY KIMBERLY CORDERO www.idahomemagazine.com

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JACOB / PHOTO BY KIMBERLY CORDERO

JACOB AND ROB / PHOTO BY KIMBERLY CORDERO

For nearly two decades, Barnhart has used fly fishing to decompress from her career working in Child Protective Services, juvenile detention, and residential treatment with foster children. After realizing what a therapeutic experience it was for her to be out on the water casting, she thought fishing could provide the same experience for the youths she worked with.

“I just started taking kids fly fishing to get them outside and give them a break,” Barnhart said. “It gave them a chance to learn a new skill and to feel good about themselves because everyone feels pretty awesome when they catch a fish.”

While Barnhart was casting with kids in northern Idaho, Jess Westbrook was doing the same thing in Arkansas. Westbrook and his wife started TMP, expecting the program to just have a local reach, but the logo created for the nonprofit caught the eye of Barnhart, and she immediately reached out to Westbrook.

In 2016, the two joined their visions and launched the national The Mayfly Project as a way to teach fly fishing and

conservation to children in the foster care system around the country. In the first year, the program had five locations across the nation, a number that nearly quadrupled the following year.

Now, TMP has 63 sites around the U.S. and in the United Kingdom and mentors around 450 kids each year.

Each local project is centered around a five-session program, characterized by the part of a mayfly’s life cycle. In the “egg stage,” youth are introduced to the program’s mentors and to the fly rod. In the “nymph stage,” casting and knot tying, are tackled and participants spend their first time on the water. The remaining three stages add in an educational component about conservation, teach the finer points of reading a river, various casting styles and fly tying and finally, mentees are presented with their own fly rod and gear to continue their fishing journey.

“We keep it to five sessions to make sure that kids can start and finish the program, which can be hard with the shifting of the foster care system,” Barnhart said.

“But by the end of five sessions, the kids

SJ AND LUCAS / PHOTO BY KRIS REHN

are really self-sufficient and can basically go out fly fishing on their own, which is really fun to see.”

Each project site has its own flavor, based on the project lead, the local partners — Boise’s project works with Three Rivers Ranch Outfitters and Idaho Angler —the variety of mentors and the available bodies of water to fish on.

Kimberly Cordero leads the Boise project. A licensed clinical social worker who spent 12 years working for the state of Idaho in child welfare, Cordero came across the Mayfly Project by accident.

“After I went into private practice, I was cruising around the internet and just happened upon the Mayfly project,” Cordero said, taking a break from fishing out near Star to join a Zoom call. “It was like the universe said ‘Hey Kim, this is what you need to be doing,’ so here I am.”

Barnhart had been looking for a lead for the Boise project, and Cordero fit the role. Along with several mentors who had already signed up, the Boise Mayfly project launched in the spring of 2021 with six youths.

“I love learning fly fishing and it was totally worth going. All the people were nice and when I had a question, it was answered.” —unamed mentee

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“Getting “Getting kids kids involved involved is actually is actually one one of of thethe hardest hardest things,” things,” Cordero Cordero said. said.

“The “The Department Department of of Health Health and and Welfare Welfare is is severely severely understaffed, understaffed, so so contacting contacting case case managers managers or or supervisors supervisors is difficult. is difficult.

They They justjust don’t don’t have have thethe time.” time.”

Using Using some some of of herher contacts contacts with with foster foster families families through through thethe Idaho Idaho Relative Relative as as Parents Parents (IRAP) (IRAP) program, program, a voluntary a voluntary guardianship guardianship program program that that avoids avoids thethe court court system, system, Cordero Cordero found found families families and and kids kids who who were were interested interested in in thethe program program and and brought brought thethe Boise Boise project project online. online.

Rob Rob Griggs Griggs was was guiding guiding a fly a fly fishing fishing trip trip early early lastlast summer summer when when hehe heard heard about about thethe Mayfly Mayfly Project.

Project.

His His client client that that dayday was was Cordero Cordero and and herher son, son, and and sheshe was was effusive effusive about about thethe upcoming upcoming launch. launch.

FlyFly fishing fishing is as is as much much anan artart as as a sport a sport and and most most devotees devotees love love to to share share thethe magic. magic.

When When asked asked if he if he would would consider consider teachteachinging a casting a casting class class forfor thethe youth, youth, Griggs Griggs agreed. agreed.

“I “I telltell you you I fell I fell in in love love with with thethe program program instantly,” instantly,” Griggs Griggs said. said.

“I “I was was ROWROW — LEFT — LEFT TO RIGHT, TO RIGHT, ROBROB GRIGGS, GRIGGS, JESSICA JESSICA ALLEN, ALLEN, CHRIS CHRIS ISELEY, ISELEY, MACMAC CHRISTIAN, CHRISTIAN, KIMBERLY KIMBERLY CORDERO; CORDERO; justjust supposed supposed to to bebe a guest, a guest, teaching teaching basic basic BACKBACK FRONT FRONT ROWROW — KRIS — KRIS REHN, REHN, JEREMY JEREMY SANDERS SANDERS / PHOTO / PHOTO

BY TREG

BY TREG GORRINGE GORRINGE casting casting techniques, techniques, butbut that that first first day, day, it it mind mind is is distracted distracted with with a completely a completely “The “The child child welfare welfare system system is is huge,” huge,” justjust pulled pulled at at mymy heart.” heart.” different different task task that that doesn’t doesn’t require require critical critical Cordero Cordero said. said.

“These “These kids kids interface interface with with The Theyouth youth in in thethe program program weren’t weren’t like like thinking,” thinking,” Cordero Cordero said. said.

“It’s “It’s about about the the therapists, therapists, with with the the court, court, with with guardguardhishis usual usual clients clients —— dressed dressed in in top-of-thetop-of-therhythm rhythm and and thethe movement movement of of flyfly fishing.” fishing.” ians, with with community community groups groups like like thethe line line waders waders and and vests vests and and carrying carrying brand brand ians, “You “You have have to to bebe paying paying attention attention to to Boys Boys and and Girls Girls Club, Club, with with their their schools. schools. new new bespoke bespoke rods. rods. your your surroundings,” surroundings,” Barnhart Barnhart added. added.

We’re We’re just just one one piece piece in in that that system. system.

“These “These kids kids aren’t aren’t entering entering thethe fishing fishing “Looking “Looking at at bugs, bugs, making making sure sure you’re you’re notnot intended intended to to bebe a lifetime a lifetime bond bond world world from from that that level level and and I wanted I wanted to to bebe It’sIt’s fishing fishing thethe right right part part of of thethe water, water, between mentors mentors and and mentees; mentees; we’re we’re part part of of that,” that,” said said Griggs, Griggs, who who is now is now one one between watching every every inch inch of of line, line, what’s what’s in in focused onon building building a bond a bond between between thethe watching of of 2222 mentors mentors involved involved in in Boise’s Boise’s program. program. focused front front and and behind behind you,” you,” Barnhart Barnhart said. said. mentees, mentees, fly fly fishing, fishing, and and nature.” nature.”

“Hopefully, “Hopefully, we’re we’re able able to to plant plant a seed a seed forfor flyfly “Holding onon to to allall those those different different things things Nature hashas long long been been known known to to increase increase “Holding fishing fishing that that they they cancan dodo forfor thethe rest rest of of their their Nature in in your your head head makes makes it really it really hard hard to to fo-fomental wellbeing wellbeing and and overall overall health, health, lives, lives, even even if it’s if it’s notnot right right away. away.

WeWe want want mental onon other other things things in in life. life.

That’s That’s where where and more more recently, recently, interactions interactions with with thethe cuscus them them to to know know that that even even when when thethe world world and really really seesee a big a big transition transition in in thethe outdoors areare used used as as therapeutic therapeutic interveninterven- wewe seems seems bad, bad, wewe cancan gogo outside, outside, gogo fish, fish, and and outdoors youth youth — — they’re they’re so so focused focused on on fishing, fishing, tions. tions.

A A 2019 2019 study study in in Scientific Scientific Reports Reports seesee thethe world world from from that that perspective.” perspective.” they forget forget to to worry.” worry.” showed showed that that 120 120 minutes minutes of of contact contact with with they With With nearly nearly two two dozen dozen mentors mentors in-in“If“If you you want want any any other other proof proof of of how how nature each each week week significantly significantly increases increases volved volved in in thethe program, program, thethe kids kids often often have have nature the the program program works, works, I mean, I mean, just just look look the the likelihood likelihood of of self-reporting self-reporting good good a two-to-one a two-to-one mentor mentor ratio, ratio, allowing allowing them them their their behaviors behaviors when when they they show show health health and and high high wellbeing, wellbeing, and and a recently a recently at at to to receive receive fullfull attention attention and and instruction instruction up,” Cordero Cordero said. said.

“If“If you you cancan getget a kid a kid published published study study of of youths youths in in a foster a foster care care up,” during during thethe fivefive sessions. sessions. involved in in anan activity, activity, and and you you can can system system that that used used forest forest healing healing programs programs involved “They “They went went outout of of their their way way to to spend spend seesee them them beaming beaming and and smiling smiling and and over a three-day a three-day period period showed showed signifsignifdirect direct attention attention with with each each kidkid and and literalliteral- over laughing laughing and and engaging engaging with with people people in in icant icant overall overall increase increase in in interpersonal interpersonal ly ly spent spent hours hours with with them them each each day,” day,” said said a positive a positive manner, manner, I think I think that’s that’s allall thethe relationship forfor thethe participants. participants.

Loucendy Loucendy Ball, Ball, a foster a foster parent parent who who had had two two relationship proof you you need.” need.”

“We “We know know that that it’sit’s really really hard hard to to stay stay proof kids kids take take part part in in lastlast year’s year’s project. project.

“Both “Both a negative a negative train train of of thought, thought, what what wewe ToTo find find outout more, more, visit visit thethe website website —— https:// https:// mymy kids kids were were so so glad glad once once they they were were in in it it onon call call a ruminating a ruminating thought, thought, when when your your themayflyproject.com/boise-idaho-project themayflyproject.com/boise-idaho-project and and saw saw how how much much thethe mentors mentors cared.” cared.” www.idahomemagazine.com

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WITH JET BOAT CAPTAIN BRIAN THOMAS

Photo by Cenone Johnson

T

BY MIKE MCKENNA

o some people, jet boating the Snake or Salmon Rivers in Idaho may be a novel idea. To those in the know, it’s a ”Bucket List for Life” adventure—a memorable and unique way to see some of the most rugged, remote, and breathtaking scenery in the country.

“It’s an incredible experience. It’s safe, it’s fun, and it’s an easy way to see these special places.

It should qualify for anyone’s ‘Bucket List,’” says Captain Brian Thomas, and he should know.

Photo by Borderline River Charters www.idahomemagazine.com

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Photos by Borderline River Charters

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Brian has been exploring rivers on jet boats since he was a child. Growing up in the Lewis-Clark Valley, he spent his youth exploring the moving waters of Eastern Idaho with his family.

By the time he became a teenager, Brian had fully fallen “in love with jet boats and the river.”

That’s obviously an easy thing to do when you grow up in “the jet boat capital of the world,” as the Lewis-Clark Valley is called. The border towns of Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho meet at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. The Salmon joins the Snake upriver. The water from the three rivers then feeds the Columbia River and flows west to join the sea.

These rivers and their famous whitewater rapids make passage extremely difficult. There’s a reason that Lewis and Clark called one of them the “River of No Return.” That reason is because they didn’t have a jet boat or an experienced captain.

Running against the current of three massive rivers requires boating skills, patience, and an uncanny ability to “read the river,” which Brian must display every day in order to keep visitors moving upstream.

Brian got his captain’s license while studying Environmental Sciences, focused on Watershed Management and Fisheries, at the University of Idaho. After graduating, he bought a boat and filled in for local outfitters when he wasn’t working on weather stations or fish counts or stream assessments for his day job.

But the water was where Brian really wanted to be. He even proposed to his wife, Angie, next to one of the most famous rapids in Hells Canyon. Famed Granite Creek lives up to its legend as some of the biggest whitewater in the country, rivaled only by the Grand Canyon.

“Some people are just drawn to water,” says Brian, who also spent a summer running jet boat tours in Alaska.

In 2011, Brian purchased an outfitter’s permit and opened Borderline River Charters. He’s been successfully catching waves and casting for fish with happy guests of just about every age ever since.

“As long as you take the weather conditions into account, anyone can enjoy a jet boat ride,” he says, adding, “People don’t typically get seasick on them either.”

One of the best things about taking a jet boat tour is that there really is no age restriction. Brian’s boat was made in the “LC” Valley, which is likened to be the world headquarters for jet boat builders, too. His particular 28-foot Bentz Boat carries up to 19 passengers.

Welded-aluminum jet boats may make up a miniscule part of the boat industry, but they are sturdy do-it-all boats, good for everything from traversing rivers full of whitewater to towing water skiers across the lake or hitting those hard-to-get-to fishing holes. Jet boats have inboard engines: a jet pump sucks up water from under the boat into an internal propeller, an “impeller,” which then shoots the water back out through a jet nozzle in the stern. They can run in as little as six inches of water. Being on board, it feels more akin to flying than boating over the water.

Bentz has been building boats since 1972 and their crafts can be found on waters all over the globe; from Alaska to South America, from the Arctic to Australia to India, as well as making regular runs through the deepest gorge in North America.

One of the best ways to see both Hells Canyon and the Salmon River is a personalized fishing and sightseeing charter.

Business group getaways are also popular. Of course, some folks simply want to enjoy the scenery, the wildlife, or the historic aspects. River tours can include visits to old ranches, mining spots, and homesteads that are on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as stops at Native American petroglyphs and pictographs. Brian knows them all. He can guide clients to the place where Chief Joseph led his Nez Perce tribe across the Snake River on their final run from the U.S. cavalry in 1877 or up a dusty path above the river to an isolated monument dedicated to 34 unnamed Chinese gold miners slaughtered in 1887.

Other guests are intent only on fishing for bass, steelhead, trout, and the Jurassic giants, sturgeon. “Nine and a half feet is my biggest,” says Brian, and he’s got the photos to prove his fish story!

“I’ve spent a lot of time in the mountains and a lot of time on the water.

And it never gets old.”

Everybody gets a kick out of the Class III and IV rapids and how easy the boats seem to soar over the roughs. Don’t be fooled, however, as plenty of weekend captains have discovered at the cost of their boat that the Snake requires far more seasoning than lake excursions. “It’s like everything, the more you do it, the better you get at it,” Brian says. What really fires up this humble, easy-going outdoorsman? Besides watching his two talented sons, Cooper and Kash, play hockey, this everyday outdoorsman derives joy from sharing and preserving the river with others.

“People live such stressful lives nowadays, to be able to slow down, be on the water, to take in the scenery and the wildlife, to see elk or bighorn sheep,” Brian says. “You see people melting into the moment. I’ve spent a lot of time in the mountains and a lot of time on the water. And it never gets old.”

Indeed. What better place could there be for a corner office than Hells Canyon? You won’t even notice there’s no cell phone service!

Photo by Cenone Johnson Wildland Fire Fighters shuttled by jet boat during the Snake River Complex Fires at Shovel Creek in Hells Canyon July 16, 2021 / Photo by Borderline River Charters

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s y a d t s e b only your

T G I F C O N C E R T S • M O U N TA I N B I K I N G • S C E N I C C H A I R L I F T R I D E S • H I K I N G T R A I L S • D I S C G O L F

s r e m m u S at the Lake PHOTO BY APRIL THOMAS WHITNEY

MCCALL’S ALLURE BEGAN 100+ YEARS AGO

T

BY APRIL THOMAS WHITNEY

he first non-Native people to brave unpredictable weather and rugged terrain in the West Central Mountains were gold prospectors, fur trappers, and fishermen. By the late 19th century, rumors swirled about a remote sparkling lake, packed with fish, lined by tall green grass, and framed in by towering pines and granite-peaked mountains.

Those early tales told by trappers and miners piqued the interest of a man named Thomas McCall, a recent arrival to the Boise Valley. Visions of a magnificent lake and rich agricultural land to the north inspired McCall to take a month-long wagon trip with his wife and children. It was May 1889 and Idaho’s winter was hanging on to the snowy, steep slopes and turning the dirt trail to deep mud. Imagine the pioneering family’s reward when they finally arrived at the shores of the pristine blue waters of Payette Lake.

A squatter who had homesteaded near the lakeshore eagerly traded his substantial cabin and 160 acres of land for McCall’s wagon, team, and harness. McCall then acquired a small sawmill and began transforming giant Ponderosa pines into a sizable homestead not far from where the modern-day Hotel McCall now sits.

An early example of the entrepreneurial spirit that shaped the American West, McCall’s settlement soon included a hotel, school, post office, and saloon.

For Tom McCall, however, becoming a hotelier was a necessity more than a deliberate business venture. In those days, very few souls braved the wilderness and winters at the north end of Long Valley, but as word spread about rich mining districts, unannounced guests arrived with such frequency that the McCalls found their cupboards bare and their spare beds full. As described in a turn-

of-the-century railroad publication called The Idaho Magazine, “At last, in pure self-defense, Mr. McCall was forced into the hotel business, and the mansion-like McCall House is the flowering of the evolution of the hotel business around Payette Lake.”

By 1900, the Idaho Statesman was already extolling the vacation virtues of the area. “PAYETTE LAKES, one of the most beautiful spots in Idaho, with magnificent scenery, trout fishing, and game of every description – an ideal outing place – now has a hotel…where all comers can be comfortable while enjoying a summer vacation filled with unalloyed pleasure. The lake, on the banks of which the Hotel McCall stands, is a lovely expanse of water, with its 10 miles of glistening surface. It affords opportunities for boating and fishing such as cannot be secured anywhere in Idaho.”

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The McCall Family in the woods, circa 1901. Courtesy of the McCall Public Library Collection c/o Mr. & Mrs. Neal Boystun

McCall’s settlement wasn’t the only one on the shores of Payette Lake. By 1902, the Boydstun Hotel in nearby Lardo offered commercial competition.

Despite the simple, plain frame construction of the hotel, which some recall as “more suitable for a barn”, the Idaho Statesman noted, “One of the greatest accommodations of all…was the arrangement whereby people going to the lakes are met at Meadows by (wagon) teams from the lake hotel and taken through” to Lardo.

By horse, wagon, or foot, the journey to McCall was long and arduous. In the early 1900s, the 100-plus miles through the Payette River Canyon took a week or more to travel by wagon. According to the Statesman, “The roads were awful, especially in the early spring – mud holes where the wagon wheels sank to the very hubs and

even the horses often lost their footing and floundered helplessly in the deep mire.”

Wisely, most visitors from the Boise Valley chose the Oregon Short Line train to Weiser, and then caught the Idaho Northern Pacific Railway to New Meadows. From there, they paid $1.50 apiece for a four-hour stagecoach ride to Lardo and McCall. A skittish six-horse team pulled the coach up a trail a foot deep in dust, requiring passengers to get out and push several times – no easy task in bustles and long skirts.

In spite of, and maybe because of, the challenge, the many charms of Payette Lake beguiled visitors. While the affluent enjoyed hotels, many more were content to set up tents along the lakeshore. Just like today, swimming, boating, fishing, and sunbathing were followed by

singing and telling tales around frying fish on evening campfires.

Enterprising locals started to embrace the opportunities offered by the growing influx of summer visitors. One early entrepreneur, a man known as “Jews Harp Jack” Wyatt, ferried visitors around the lake on a steam-powered boat called The Lyda. Starting in 1906, The Lyda served a tented camping area on the west side of Payette Lake known as Sylvan Beach Resort. Clients enjoyed a fine restaurant, a dozen wood-floored duck canvas tents, and rental boats.

The “resort” experience was rustic: no electricity or running water. Coal oil lamps and candles lit the tents at night, and outhouses required a hike. One luxury, stored ice that had been cut from the frozen lake during the winter, was delivered to the tents daily.

Eventually, the enterprising owner, Charles Nelson, added a portable dance hall to the property. In a 1971 interview, longtime McCall summer resident (and eventual Boise mayor) Sam D. Hayes recalled, “It was a big affair and made in three sections, and the reason they had it portable was that he could fold it up, put it away, store it, and the next year bring it out without having a big construction cost.”

The wagon ride from McCall to Sylvan Beach took two hours, so quicker trips on The Lyda became part of the summer adventure, along with some playful drama on a newer sailing boat, The Winston.

Left: Payette Lakes Inn circa 1915. Right: Lardo Bridge early 1900s - c/o Roy Shaw. Courtesy of the McCall Public Library Collection.

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Top: Camping Tents in Front of Hotel McCalr. Bottom Left: Clem Blackwell’s Main Street Saloon - early 1900s. Bottom Right: McCall Train Depot circa 1914, Courtesy of the McCall Public Library Collection

Doug Westwater recalls a story about his mother, who worked on The Winston as a young girl, “partly to assist with the voyage, but primarily to stage a fall overboard at a predetermined spot. On each trip to the resort, Nelson paid her to jump off the ferry, thus giving the opportunity for a dramatic rescue and great excitement and entertainment for the passengers.”

About that time, plans were brewing to bring the Oregon Short Line Railroad straight into McCall, which inspired the construction of the upscale Payette Lakes Club. The 50-room inn was built on a small knoll above the western shore of the lake and fashioned after the great Adirondack “Chautauquas,” a popular and sophisticated East Coast resort. In addition to a casino, the inn boasted bowling alleys, a café, and a 300-foot esplanade that stretched from the inn to a dance hall on the lake shore.

Dance halls, saloons, casinos, and even a horse racing track became an integral part of the lively summer scene. Locals and vacationers imbibed plenty of whiskey and danced “till sun-up.”

Between 1911 and 1914, Model Ts began braving the dirt road through the Payette River Canyon. It was still a two-day trip, but Boiseans seeking relief from the summer heat were undeterred, especially for the increasingly rowdy and rumored Fourth of July celebrations.

As Grace Edgington Jordan recounts in the 1961 biography, King’s Pines Idaho – A Story of the Browns of McCall, the Fourth of July celebrations lasted a week, “during which the three saloons ran practically dry. At night there was some letting off of firearms as well as fireworks. Sometimes the cowboys riding home after it was all over shot out windows along the way.”

Law enforcement was sparse, but it was a friendly town. In Sylvan Beach, McCall, Idaho: Its History, Myths, and Memories, Kathleen Regan Burgy recalled vivid childhood memories of the early 1900s summers. “The dealers in the gambling joints would let us put down a dollar or so, just so we’d feel BIG.” Those were the family-friendly casinos. As

Burgy explained, kids weren’t allowed on the “shady side of the street” where the dads drank and gambled.

When the Oregon Short Line arrived in 1914, people could finally travel from the Boise Valley to McCall in a single day.

Two decades later, the Rainbow Bridge was built, cutting the drive from Boise to McCall down to just five hours. As McCall attracted larger summer crowds and began to provide more comforts and amenities, the earliest summer visitors looked back on the simpler, less crowded times with fondness and nostalgia.

According to Burgy, “Our Golden Days were the early days…we didn’t have electricity, we used kerosene lamps. We spent our evenings with campfires and marshmallow roasts. We had our canoes and rowboats. Our romances were all in canoes – someone would pass a note saying, “Meet me by the dock, and we would canoe out in the moonlight.”

Special thanks to the City of McCall and the McCall Public Library for sharing their historical collections for this article.

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H

BY ARIANNA CRETEAU

ow did Ward Hooper become one of Idaho’s most unrecognized famous artists?

Distilled, the answer is his pure, raw talent and humble beginnings.

Over the years, Hooper’s portfolio of public works, logos, signs, and art has grown so large that it’s become difficult for Hooper to remember and even recognize some of his own work.

“I have pride for all of the things I’ve done, but at this point, I’ll forget that I did something and someone else will have to remind me that I actually did it,” says Hooper.

Originally from small-town Grangeville, Idaho, Hooper received praise for his innate, childhood artistic abilities. “My earliest memories are from the first grade.

We would do art projects and I always seemed to excel a little bit more than some of the other kids, so I kept doing it. It’s basically been like that all my life,” says Hooper.

Hooper left Grangeville for Boise, Idaho, to pursue a degree in Fine Arts and Graphic Design from Boise State University. He graduated in 1987 and has been living in Boise ever since.

Despite his education, for the most part, he is a self-taught artist. From playing around with computer software and studying other artists, Hooper honed in on his skills early on.

He’s worked with all types of different mediums like chalk, acrylic paint, airbrush, and more. There was something about graphic design that he particularly liked: he didn’t have to clean brushes, oil paints, etc. “My goal when I started doing graphic design was to make it look as least as a computer as possible, to make 18

All images provided by Ward Hooper

it freeform and natural,” says Hooper.

“If you look at computer graphics, even today, people do a lot of characters and cartooning. To me, I instantly think that it looks like it was drawn by a computer.

My approach is to be more like if you were actually painting, something made by hand.”

Graphic design allows him to not only correct mistakes and remake his work, but also create projects a lot faster, with a turnaround time ranging from a week to two weeks. “I’m not a procrastinator.

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That’s the problem, I’m too quick,” says Hooper.

Boise was a growing city even 20 years ago; however, finding a job proved difficult when Hooper graduated from college. “Back then, Boise was not near what Boise is now, and there weren’t near as many agencies early on. There were maybe three or four main agencies that were doing stuff and it was just difficult to get into that business,” says Hooper.

Hooper is referring to marketing and ad agencies that specialize and create campaigns, branding, and communication materials. Today in Boise, there are more than 17 such companies specializing in this field.

At the time, Hooper’s work could be seen in many downtown Boise businesses while he worked for a sign company.

Designing chalkboards and more, his eye-catching work was building his own brand daily. This experience would later influence his artwork and usage of lettering and words.“I did literally hundreds of chalkboards at all these different restaurants and bars,” says Hooper. “I can still give it credit, working for a sign company, for being a good influence on what I do now.”

Eventually, he landed in a graphic design agency and stayed for ten years.

Like many original artists, the siren’s call of creative freedom made Hooper leave the comfort of a steady job and start a freelance business. That risk and change forced him to grow personally and professionally. By doing freelance work and his own art, Hooper learned he had a superpower when communicating directly with his clientele. “I kind of romanticize a lot of things. So I think people appreciate that,” says Hooper.

“I didn’t invent the style but I just use a mishmash of styles When Hooper talks about the hundreds to thousands of pieces from hundreds of years ago,” he explains. he’s done for Idaho and for private buyers, it becomes clear why he His artistic focus is dual-sided. Hooper enjoys the urbanized wouldn’t remember the entirety of his own work. Many locals are lines of architecture and history in cities, yet growing up in a rural unaware that they’ve seen his creations throughout the Gem State environment, he finds endless inspiration from nature and spendin some very obvious places. ing time in the backcountry. Dedicated to his craft, Hooper’s His artistic legacy is evident all over downtown. For inprocess starts with a spark of an idea for direction. From there, he stance, there’s a sculpture at the Basque block, posters of the works with his client’s input, photos, even unusual memorabilia 43 Idaho counties often hung on Capitol Boulevard, custom to formulate the final piece. branding signs for state and local parks, an Idaho license Despite the numerous commission requests he now receives, plate design, a bronze medallion at Julia Davis Park, and local Hooper still dedicates time for charitable projects and youth neighborhood signs, like “The Sunset” and “Historic North mentorship programs.

End.” Not to forget, there Often, he speaks at colare thousands of Hooper’s leges about how student Idaho-centric postcards artists can realistically turn and originals in people’s what they do into a living. homes around the world.

He always encourages Hooper began creating fledgling artists to take on pieces for the city when he public projects in order to recognized a need and the gain notoriety and comvalue of art in empty spaces. missions. “It’s not always More than 20 years ago, he easy to get your foot in proposed that the city do a the door. A lot of artists series of large-scale posters get turned down and give at bus stops through the up, so it’s important to public arts program. He encourage them to keep asked to fill empty advertrying and get stuff in the tising slots with a series of public eye,” says Hooper. posters promoting Idaho. It About 16 years ago, was a confluence of art and Hooper opened his first commerce that provided a gallery in Eagle. After a perfect opportunity to fill successful year, he relothose spaces with distinctive cated to downtown Boise, and beautiful art.

All images provided by Ward Hooper opening Ward Hooper Hooper was approved to Vintage. He’s since expanded do a series of pseudo-adverand the store is now part art tising and historic posters of and part vintage shop. His store Boise’s iconic landmarks. The is reflective of his personality. “I city promoted the campaign combined my vintage artwork with a signing of Hooper’s style with vintage clothing. The original small prints from the core things that I like,” says series. Suddenly, public response Hooper. “It’s not like any other demonstrated to Hooper his store. It reflects Boise and Idaho own potential for success. “Peomore than any other store you ple were lining up to get prints. might be able to go to. It’s kind When I realized and I saw how of a destination place.” people were reacting to them, I Agencies don’t normally aldecided it was probably somelow artist’s personal attribution thing the people who live in a of their work for clients. Any fan of Hooper’s can often find him city and visit the city would really appreciate. There was nothing behind the counter at his store. For this unique artist, the retail really like that at the time,” says Hooper. “I knew I had something location on Idaho Street allows him to meet his clients directly that might have some legs to it.”

Today, Hooper is well known for his striking images and posters and keep the new artwork rolling out the door.

Look closer and it becomes clear that Hooper has played a key highlighting Idaho destinations. As he explains it, his subject matrole in contributing to Idaho’s artistic landscape in many mediter had never been represented before, and therefore, there was no ums. No doubt, both Boise and our state are more vibrant and standard style or format to follow. His work clearly emulates debeautiful because of Ward Hooper’s ingenuity and talent. sign styles from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s–yet it’s also self-cusTo see more of Ward Hooper’s work and for his store hours, tomized, like a modernized Deco. He draws inspiration from early you can visit his website: wardhooper.com American illustrators, yet can’t pinpoint his style to one name. www.idahomemagazine.com

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Happy 50th Birthday,

Cecilia Violetta Lopez, soprano and artistic advisor to Opera Idaho / Photo by paulinagwaltney.com

W

BY KAREN DAY

hat is art, anyway? The question has stalked humans for millennia. Enigmatic, personal, enthralling, and often incomprehensible, art is as much experiential as cerebral - a gut punch with a feather that whispers without words to our unconscious: there is more here than what you see. If only for a few delirious moments, art transports us beyond our mortality with a vision of the invisible and enduring. In other words, art is the making of the unknown known. Hence, great art is timeless. That’s a heady explanation for what most viewers describe as, “You know when you see it.” Or hear it. Or feel it.

That’s the simplest explanation for what might be the hardest, most overlooked job on the planet. Being an artist is like living with a pain you can’t live without. It’s the act of creating something from nothing and demands placing public bets wagered with only imagination and sweat. It is not a job for the timid.

BALLET IDAHO No one embodies and physically suffers more for art more than a dancer, especially a ballet dancer. Garrett Anderson, the current Artistic Director of Ballet Idaho, knows this from his previous performing career. Now, his job is to ensure that Ballet Idaho’s precarious and ethereal moments of flight and beauty continue to fascinate audiences as the company approaches its 50th season. “I was hired to take the company in a new direction, and I think anytime there’s a shift, it’s challenging. People were excited about the possibilities, but none of us knew what to expect, including me.” That was five years ago.

Before moving from Santa Fe to Boise with his wife and children, Anderson

had danced here with the Trey McIntyre Project and LED at Treefort. “My wife and I both loved it here…and when we heard there was an opening for an artistic director, it planted a seed…what if ? What if I could do that?”

Navigating an entire corps of dancers through ever-changing classical and original choreography and music scores in front of live audiences, as well as managing the logistics of leadership, staff, budget, and fundraising is far more complicated than performing. Ballet Idaho’s growing success proves that Anderson has thrived as much as the company. Dancers have bloomed and audiences have expanded. “As much as ballet is constantly evolving,” he said, “I think it’s our job as artists to investigate what it is becoming

while still understanding our legacy. We’re uniquely positioned because of our geographic isolation. There are other dance companies in Idaho, but we’re the only professional ballet company. This community is not over-saturated with too much going on. People pay attention. They care.”

Isolation does not equate to a lack of creative collaboration for Ballet Idaho.

Anderson’s performance career allowed him to call on a network of talented guest artists from around the world to advance programming. “The response has been wonderful. They may have worked with huge companies like San Francisco or New York the week before, and they get here, without pretense, and have found the community so kind and the dancers so willing and talented. I hope we can retain that.”

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23

N EW SE ASO N O F C O N C ER TS !

Eric Garcia Music Director Check out the 22|23 season concert lineup and get your tickets today INFO + TICKETS:

boisephil.org

L–R: ASHLEY BAKER, LEONARDO GONZALES, ETHAN SCHWEITZER-GASLIN WITH BIA STUDENT EVA NEVILLE. PHOTOS COURTESY OF BALLET IDAHO

The exponential growth of the Treasure Valley has affected more than the real estate prices. “When I began, I had a three and a five-year plan,” he explained. “No one can plan for a global pandemic, so I’m rewriting and recasting those plans, which includes touring. But as much as we are fueled by inspiration and dreams, we must stay sustainable while attracting new talent and audiences.”

Ballet Idaho’s annual Nutcracker has been a sold-out community tradition for decades, but has the population influx translated to bigger audiences and budgets? The company has an advantage in attracting younger generations of devotees with a year-round dance school, but Anderson says the key to building audiences is “coming to the people.” Plans include more free performances.

“You don’t need a secret code to understand ballet. It’s athleticism. It’s

humor. It’s drama. And people don’t need to understand it to appreciate it. You are going to watch this living, breathing art in motion and I promise, you’re going to have a response.”

BOISE PHILHARMONIC The Boise Philharmonic’s beginnings trace back to the 1880s, before statehood, as the Boise Civic Orchestra. From a volunteer group of musicians to a respected symphony orchestra, The Boise Phil, as it’s known locally, celebrated its official 50th season in 2020 and continues to transform, according to Eric Garcia, Music Director. “We brought on a sizable portion of new musicians this year. It’s going to be a very exciting season.”

The stereotype of symphony conductors is cinematic, a musty cult of men of great age, pomp, and dramatic mannerisms soon to be refueled by Bradley Cooper starring

in his next musical blockbuster, “Maestro,” about Leonard Bernstein. Garcia fits the snapshot, but only with his early, robust head of gray hair. “I started turning gray when I was in my 20s,” says Garcia. In some ways, the gray might predicate judgment about his 40-ish appearance when he steps onto the top podiums across America with only a baton in hand.

Garcia previously served as Assistant Conductor of the Seattle Symphony, a guest conductor all over the U.S., and has collaborated on contemporary music with Marvin Hamlisch, Herbie Hancock, and Brandie Carlile. He also serves as the Conductor of the McCall Music Society Summerfest. No matter the length of his resume, the challenges of stepping onto the podium in front of the Boise Philharmonic remain the same - using his baton to unify and evoke glorious music from 60 to 100 musicians.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BOISE PHILHARMONIC

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“This year, we’re coming off a year and OPERA IDAHO times, we even have dancers.” (i.e. Carmen a third of not having performed togeth“It’s the voices,” says Mark Junkert, has can-can dancers.) er as a full orchestra,” Garcia said. “The General Director of Opera Idaho, defining Junkert is a former baritone who now hardest part of being a music director the art form and the tagline of the Boise parlays in every aspect of running a busiis having talented musicians in front of organization that is also celebrating its ness in the art of opera. “We just finished you that are all unique personalities and 50th season. Granted, if operas were that Opera in the Park, our free annual concert sounds, and you must bring them all simple to understand, and sung in Enin Julia Davis Park. The audience was huge, together to make an organic whole. You glish, general audiences might embrace probably 3,000 people.” The challenge for also want to make sure you can take what the art form more widely. Therein lies the Opera Idaho, and most opera companies, they offer individually. So, the greatest dilemma. When you hear a great operatic is attracting those same people into the challenges are also the greatest joys of voice, it transcends the need for translation Egyptian Theater or the Morrison Center. what we do.” or understanding. The sound touches you This General Director has an insightful Performance art doesn’t exist without in a vertiginous rush and the hair on your and long-term vision in this regard. “Opera an audience and 2020 was a killer year arms stands up. You finally feel what all audiences tend to be an older and wealthfor these organizations. The classical the fuss is about. Opera is pure, everyday ier demographic. I think this is because music industry and concert attendance emotion - love, anguish, vengeance, jealousy younger people, millennials, are putting already faced a steady annual 5% decline - expressed with astounding beauty (and their time and money into work and raising in audience numbers before the panoften, lavish sets). kids. As they get older, kids leave, they have demic. Disaster gave more time, people turn to rise to performance the arts. I can show you innovation, including articles from the 1800s for the Boise Phil. about the demise of clas“One thing that was sical music and opera. But very helpful was our it never happens because digital stage — we people are always going had a chance to reach through this process of life. new people in the Music fulfills the human Treasure Valley, and soul in a unique way.” throughout the na“By budget, we’re a B tion,” Garcia said. “We company, but we attract A sold subscriptions to talent,” said Junkert. Compeople who had never pared to the Metropolitan seen a live perforOpera, with an annual mance. They heard budget of three-hundred a symphony for the and fifty million, Opfirst time and learned era Idaho might appear it was thrilling. dwarfed in Boise. HowevData is now shower, there are less than 200 CARMEN / PHOTO COURTESY OF OPERA IDAHO DEAD MAN WALKING / PHOTO COURTESY OF OPERA IDAHO ing those audience companies in the U.S. and members are joinOpera Idaho is recognized ing us for the first time.”

“Opera is just sung stories,” Cecilia within the industry for excellence. The soThe name Tchaikovsky may sound Violetta Lopez, soprano and artistic advisor prano, Madison Leonard, and tenor, Carlos pretentious and intimidating, even boring to Opera Idaho explained. “Heartbreak, Santelli, who performed at this year’s Opto some who have never heard his music revenge, comedy. For instance, Carmen, a era in the Park, were winners of the 2018 played by a live symphony. Marty Jacobs, very famous opera sung in French, preMetropolitan National Council Auditions.

Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors, miered in 1875. It’s a story about a fiery The soprano, Cecilia Violetta Lopez, and knows better. “I would recommend gypsy seducing a naïve soldier who kills her the baritone, Brian Major, are established opening night of this season to anyone. in a jealous rage. That’s certainly, and sadly, international opera stars and featured in an The concert concludes with Tchaikovsky’s pertinent today.” Opera Idaho did a recent upcoming opera documentary, ARIA. Symphony #6, the ‘Pathetique.’ It’s a staging of this opera and set it during the “Dead Man Walking was our way of musical portrait of the human condition, Spanish Civil War, in the 1930s. As proof attracting a broad demographic, “ Junkert a tug of war between joy and sorrow. It of its inherent and enduring artistic value, said. “The upcoming 50th season is filled with great operas - MacBeth, The Barber premiered a week before his death, and Carmen could also be set in modern-day he described this symphony as, ‘The best Ukraine or the International Space Station. of Seville, Rusalka. We’re committed to presenting a diverse schedule, including thing I have ever composed.’”

Of all the performing arts, opera is the a Mexican Independence Day concert, Symphony #6 was written 1893. Obvi- most complicated. “We have singers who featuring Cecilia. There’s something here ously, great art serves as its own best sales must act, a chorus, an orchestra, costume pitch through the ages. and set changes,” Junkert explained. “Some- for everyone in Idaho.”

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Protecting Children, The Nampa School Board banned 22 books.

Critics are fighting to restore them.

A

HARRISON BERRY

mid a national wave of concern over books available to school children addressing sex, race and class, the Nampa School Board voted on May 9 to permanently relegate 22 books from schools to a Nampa School District storage facility. Three of them were listed on the optional recommended reading list for the district’s AP English classes: Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

What followed was a showdown between three parties laying claim to the interests of children. These were parents worried that schools were exposing students to smut and hazardous ideas, a school board ready to accept that interpretation of literature and take action, and critics who viewed all of this as a winnowing of childrens’ minds and an abridgment of their First Amendment rights.

If it was anyone’s aim to prevent students from getting their hands on the challenged texts, they failed. A grassroots resistance sprang into action.

Independent, Boise-based Rediscovered Books began raising money and buying copies of the disputed titles, distributing more than 1,200 of them at protests coordinated by a new group, the Nampa Banned Books Fan Club.

Together, they’ve made more copies

privately accessible, but have also waged a so-far unsuccessful campaign for the school board to reverse its decision on the grounds that rather than protecting children, censorship takes the prerogative away from parents.

“Parents don’t have the right to control what other people have access to for their children,” said the fan club’s leader,

College of Idaho Associate Professor, eServices Librarian, and Educational Technology Coordinator Lance McGrath. “Talk to your kids about what they’re reading, what your family values are. Provide that guidance and direction, but don’t take that right away from

another parent and their student.”

The controversy caught a troubled school district in a national crossfire. Both around the country and in Idaho, growing numbers of parents have expressed concern that libraries and teachers are exposing their children to inappropriate materials, from sexualizing content, concepts like gender and Critical Race Theory (CRT), and values not taught at home. Earlier this year, the Idaho Senate passed a resolution condemning “divisive” curricula that strays from portraying the United States as “a pillar of freedom in the world,” and the Idaho House of Representatives passed a bill that would have punished librarians for passing “harmful” material to children.

In Nampa, high turnover at the uppermost levels of the district driven by dissatisfaction with the board has resulted in the resignation of a longtime superintendent and a new makeup of the board, one vocal in its opposition to socalled leftist topics allegedly being taught in schools.

For the majority of trustees, there was urgency behind the May 9 vote. For Trustee Marco Valle and President Jeff Kirkman, removing the books would curtail their then-ongoing review by teachers and parents, but buy time for the board to craft a clear policy for addressing book challenges. Trustee Tracey Pearson said leaving the books on the shelves could cause “lifetime trauma to a child that

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson are on the list of 22 books banned by the Nampa School Board.

does not need to be maybe experimenting [with] something they’ve read.” Though the initial question was whether to remove the books until they could be reconsidered through the lens of the new policy, the vote that ultimately took place expelled them permanently. Trustees Brook Taylor and Mandy Simpson cast dissenting votes.

Board President Kirkman said he hopes to have a new, “transparent and established” review process in place by the time students return to classrooms this fall, and that there is momentum behind revisiting the challenged books when that happens.

But the board has already acted censoriously. According to the American Library Association, “Libraries should not limit the selection and development of library resources simply because minors will have access to them,” and resistance to the public board’s decision to stand between art and its audience is fierce. Kirkman balked at the charge, saying that the board has actually increased student interest in the banned titles.

“The criticism that this is akin to censorship, well, I don’t think so,” Kirkman,

who made the original motion to remove the challenged books, said. “If anything, we’ve done more to incentivize kids to go out and read these books. … [Students] can get them at the public library.

They get them at bookstores. They’ve been given out for free.”

That isn’t enough for the people handing out the books. They have argued that public schools are ideal spaces to cultivate young people’s critical and imaginative horizons. Stripping them of literature under the guise that it’s pornographic caps that process, but schools also have a mandate to protect children from pornography. During the abandoned review process in Nampa, committee members used Common Sense Media, which evaluates books for problematic content. It rated one of the banned books, John Green’s Michael L. Printz Award-winning “Looking for Alaska,” as having violent and sexual themes, but also strong educational value — suitable for readers ages 14 and older. The American Library Association listed “Looking for Alaska”

as the fourth most-challenged book in America between 2010 and 2019, and in 2016 the Nampa-adjacent West Ada School District banned it from its middle schools.

That intersection of difficult content and literary strength is what drew Rediscovered Books to make “Looking for Alaska” a staff pick on its release.

Co-owner Laura DeLaney described it as “a great book, just straight-up,” but also “a tough book about who we are and how we fit into the world.” That’s why she said restoring banned books to Nampa school library shelves is paramount to her and free speech activists.

Reading texts like “Looking for Alaska” build empathy, judgment and thinking skills, and are an important element of public education.

“Public schools are one of the greatest gifts we have in our country, because this is the place where all students have access to education,” she said. “I do not believe in limiting access to what books they can and cannot read. That serves no one; it only serves to silence voices.”

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ANTHONY’S Chef Reno Rodriguez On

APRIL NEALE A significant fear when living far from a large coastal city in a smaller landlocked one is the anticipatory loss of access to fresh seafood. And if you have been in Boise for at least five to ten years, you know the City of Trees has experienced a seafood surge in cuisine.

Anthony’s Restaurant has a new chef and oyster aficionado, Reno Rodriguez.

His mission is to make you a believer in fresh oysters and oyster bar culture with the regional chain’s direct access to the briniest, best fresh bivalves of Washington State. He is aided by the restaurant’s happy hour for unlimited oysters on the patio in addition to the year-round menu.

Rodriguez, who spent time in Spain after graduating from the California School of Culinary Arts, Le Cordon Bleu Program, and who worked with acclaimed chef Roy Yamaguchi, is the biggest fan of his seafood offerings, flown in four times a week from Seattle and paired with local ingredients that epitomize the essence of the Pacific Northwest.

From left: Anthony’s Chef Reno Rodriquez and Executive Chef Pat Donahue have mastered the fine art of oyster shucking. / Photo by Karen Day www.idahomemagazine.com

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Did you know the official National Oyster Day is August 5th? / Karen Day

Chef Reno joined Anthony’s Restaurants in 2021. A fortuitous meeting with Anthony’s Executive Chef Pat Donahue brought Chef Reno and his young family to Boise, where the lifestyle suited him. “I met Chef Pat, our corporate chef,” Reno says. “From there, things went swimmingly. It was nice to see how family-centric this restaurant is.

Which is just a complete change from what I was used to.”

Oysters are the bread and butter throughout Anthony’s, where their plump, proprietary “Anthony’s Select” oysters hail from Discovery Bay. Noting that they were receiving upwards of 80 dozen oysters a week in Boise, Chef Reno points out: “Right now we’re featuring Anthony’s Select, out of Discovery Bay and exclusively ours. This oyster is a very hearty oyster and lightly briny. It’s one of our full-bodied signatures that has stood the test of time.”

But what about the people who are afraid to make the jump to try a raw oyster? Chef Reno explained the various sizes and the “merroir,” a portmanteau between terroir and marine that reveals how oysters take on the elements of their environment. This is why some have cucumber or melon overtones, some are brinier, and some are super creamy and mild.

“Beginners usually like to dive into the Kumamoto oysters,” says Chef Reno. “They are a bit smaller and have a distinct yet mild flavor. And many people in Anthony’s call the Kumo the training wheel of oysters

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because it’s so approachable. It’s effortless to wrap your head around trying them without being too large and intimidating.

And right now, we also have a Baywater Sweet, along a similar line to the Kumo, and that is slightly sweet with a hint of cucumber, a touch of brininess for a smaller oyster. Many oysters are named after where they’re harvested and grown.”

As for how you eat them? Anthony’s offers the old-school cocktail red sauce, fresh horseradish, and a French-style mignonette. Of course, some people are purists and love the full taste of the sea from the liquor (don’t call it juice!) inside the oyster. Or, add a squeeze of lemon or a drop of hot sauce as flourish.

With their distinctive notes, these shelled gems of the sea are a real delicacy. But you might be surprised to learn that oysters are extremely good for you — a veritable high protein, low-calorie superfood with vitamin D, copper, zinc, and manganese plus omega-three fatty acids, B vitamins (especially B12), vitamin A, folate, vitamin E, and selenium. These micronutrients, combined with calcium, can slow or prevent bone loss in older people due to osteoporosis. So, you feel good when you eat oysters and paired with the right wine or beer, it’s the perfect meal if you are hitting the town. In a serving of six medium-sized oysters, there are less than 50 calories.

“Outside of the incredible taste, and aside from the nutritional aspect and being Keto-friendly and loaded with protein,

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they’re just a fun food to eat. And that’s my personal experience,” says Chef Reno. “We had this Olympia oyster, the only oyster still native to Washington. The description of the flavor was coppery and minerally. You also get these raw horseradish root notes and even raw potato notes. Oyster flavor profiles are not single-dimensional. You can taste cucumber, brine, and sweetness. This whole range of flavors comes through, and it makes eating them so much fun because one oyster will taste so much different from the next, species-wise.”

As for the purported aphrodisiac qualities of oysters, many attribute this to the high levels of zinc—a mineral essential to sexual health.

According to Rowan Jacobsen, author of A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Oyster Eating in North America, “[the Chinese concept of ] Qi is the life energy that flows through all beings and dissipates when we die. Most of the food we eat has no qi because it is dead. But since oysters are just barely dead as we eat them, they still have a lot of residual qi hanging on, and eating them is like having little qi bombs go off inside you. I don’t think it necessarily turns you on sexually, but it does turn you on about life in general—and that can manifest itself in lots of ways!”

Get your Qi on at Anthony’s Happy Hour and oyster patio specials from Monday through Friday, 4 PM to 6 PM, and on Saturday and Sunday, from 2 PM to 8 PM.

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Lewis Walker: History as a Mirror

PHOTOS BY KAREN DAY

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BY PHILLIP THOMPSON

n 1864, the Idaho Territory was a rugged, unforgiving area rife with potential for any who attempted to tame it, including a Black man from Maryland named Lewis Walker. Uncertainty was the only certainty. Survival demanded self-reliance and a hunger for arduous work.

The glittering promise of gold and silver discoveries attracted thousands of prospectors and the commerce that supported them. Walker arrived in Silver City as a barber with intentions of capitalizing on all of these prospective treasures.

Elsewhere in America, Reconstruction was attempting to reunify the societal rift left by the Civil War and the ideological difference of opinions regarding Black citizenship. The book Foundations of Silver City, by Julie Hyslop, details how their Black neighbors were known.

“Owyhee County’s top buckaroo, a Black, was referred to as ‘Nigger Bill’ Hearst.

Lewis was referred to as ‘Mr. Walker’ or ‘the colored barber.’” By 1874, however, the book also quotes from historical writings: “Friend Walker is one of our most enterprising citizens and we are glad to welcome him home again,” after his sixmonth journey back East.

Walker was a dignified, learned man with an acumen for business. Coupled with an indelible sense of ambition, he conduct40

Photo Courtesy of Idaho Black History Museum

ed himself in a manner that engendered respect. Eventually, he became a successful entrepreneur with significant financial holdings, including more than a dozen of the town’s buildings and businesses. Many in Silver City referred to him as “The Colonel.” Surveyed within the context of post-Civil War America, Walker’s accomplishments are all the more impressive.

The Thirteenth Amendment emancipating all U.S. slaves wherever they were had been passed only nine years earlier. The well-documented struggles of racial assimilation for newly-freed Blacks faced white hostility in both

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the North and South. The 14th and 15th Amendments granting full citizenship and voting rights were not fully ratified until 1870. The Idaho Territory, albeit thousands of miles from Gettysberg, was not immune to racial tension. Violent conflicts with local Native American tribes had been going on since Henry Spaulding first arrived in 1838 and continued with the white migration of the 1840s on the Oregon Trail. Once gold was struck in 1862 near Idaho City, Confederate veterans began pouring into Idaho, seeking fortune and escape from the fallen South. In 1865, the territory passed Black and Chinese Exclusionary Laws, forbidding ownership of land. Of note, the Ku Klux Klan white robe on display in the Black History Museum is from Silver City.

Lewis Walker’s self-determination and pioneering success, complicated with the racial realities of his time, might appear to be an example of frontier exceptionalism. Then again, history has a habit of reflecting the present like a many-faceted mirror. As Frederick Douglass once said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

For more information, visit the Idaho Black History Museum. 508 Julia Davis Drive, Boise, Idaho or new.ibhm.org

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