From the homestead to the horizon

Community-curated exhibit Storied Futures looks to the past to foster conversations about future development

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

In the face of great change, it’s not uncommon to feel helpless. It’s the only constant, after all, along with the passage of time.

As time marches on and changes follow close behind, it is easy to lose sight of another, more hopeful constant: humanity.

We, as humans, don’t have the best track record with change, and yet, our desire to have our voices heard is steadfast — whether it’s 1893 or 2023. This is a takeaway from the Storied Futures project, a community-curated history exhibit now on display at Evans Brothers Coffee in Sandpoint featuring a deeply researched dive into the history of the Elsasser homestead from the time two brothers secured a deed to the property north of Sandpoint in the 1890s to the 2021 demolition of the land’s last standing home.

Local writer Emily Erickson said those constants came to light while studying Sandpoint’s boom not long after the Elsasser brothers’ arrival.

“What surprised me was how familiar the conversations they were having were compared to the conversations we are having now,” Erickson said, noting the similarities between current pushback against the proposed Couplet project on Highway 2 and the Elsassers’ opposition to Boyer Ave.

running through their properties.

“It’s the same stuff,” she added, “so it feels like a part of this town’s landscape to have questions about development.”

Storied Futures took shape when Bonner County History Museum Executive Director Hannah Combs found herself talking to an excavator with plans to clear the homestead for an impending subdivision. He invited Combs to tour what was left, and soon her friends Erickson and local architect Reid Weber joined her in discovering what stories the homestead had left to tell.

“It was there that we didn’t know what we wanted to do about it,” Erickson said, “but all of this together, — the changes happening around us that felt so out of our grasp —, we said, ‘We need to do something even if it’s just looking at this one property and learning about it and learning from it.’”

“Initially we wanted to just document what was left,” Weber added. “Then we spent a year unfolding these layers of history that we found.”

The homestead explorers spent that year perusing museum archives and piecing together a narrative that told not only the story of the Elsasser family, but of a broader historical context surrounding why, and how, a place changes. As a result, Storied Futures is one part storytelling that pulls at the heartstrings and one part explanation, aimed at understanding the bureaucratic systems at < see HOMESTEAD, Page 15 > play when land is designated for change.

“For me, this topic is very emotional,” Combs said, “and yet, I don’t have the technical knowledge to know how it works behind the scenes, which [Weber] was able to bring. That lent a lot of credibility to our story as it developed.”

Through historic photos, illustrations and modern-day documentation of the homestead just before its demolition, the Storied Futures team — which also includes local history enthusiast Cynthia Dalsing and Sandpoint High School senior and graphic artist Owen Leisy — created a timeline-guided exhibit now on display at Evans Brothers through Tuesday, May 2.

While Storied Futures serves as a standalone project seemingly at its culmination, the team behind it won’t count out more work in the same community-curated vein. What’s more, they can already see the exhibit starting deeper conversations about how the town has changed, and will keep changing.

“As the county and city entities are doing a lot of work right now to tackle these issues, I know that there are opportunities for public input,” Combs said. “I hope this exhibit gives community members the vocabulary and an entry point of understanding that will help them to participate more actively in those conversations.”

Those conversations revolve largely around development — a word Erickson said she found to have dual meaning through the Storied Futures storytelling process.

“One is that rampant development — the other is to develop, or nurture,” she said.

The latter, Combs said, is “considerate of the needs of the entire community.”

As the Storied Futures team so eloquently writes in the exhibit’s culminating statement: “On one side of development are the themes of sprawl and expansion; of noxious-weed-like growth, of insular profits and benefits only reaching one person or a small group of people — despite its widespread impact. On the other side of development are the themes of cultivation and maturation; of garden-like growth and measured expansion, with benefits extending beyond a single profiteer and reaching the community at large.

“One side of development simply affects change. The other side of development recognizes the power and responsibility attached to the ability to affect change.”

When I’m splitting firewood is when I often think about my dad, who proudly revealed to his young son how to look for the weak link in each piece and, of course, how to guard against breaking the handle.

In all the years of growing up with him present, I never saw him watch a movie or read any fictional account of anything. He never spent any time steeped in an imaginary world. If it didn’t represent reality, he simply had no interest in it… an example being, he enjoyed watching boxing on TV, but a movie like Rocky would probably result in him wandering out to his shop and putting a new handle into an old tried-andtrue ax head… he was a patient man.

I asked him once why he was this way and, without a pause, he simply stated, “It’s make-believe stuff.” He never felt the need to escape the real world around him.

When one reflects on the appeal of mind-altering drugs, alcohol, immensely popular movies steeped in fiction and now

By Mike Wagoner Reader Contributor

Digital wolves

the development of virtual reality… stateof-the-art special effects… it becomes obvious to me that many among us are anything but content or at peace with themselves or with the real world.

Anxiety disorders… overdoses… suicides have never been so prevalent. Did young people suffer, even kill themselves on a scale that is evident now 100 years ago? Even 50? The desire to “be more” with reality as a backdrop is diminishing… it is becoming boring.

I propose it is time for a “reset”... a paradigm shift. I propose that much of the development in “tech” that is being offered up, even forced upon us, is the new heroin… digital wolves disguised in sheep’s clothing… preying mainly on the young… artificially igniting the emotional center of their brains… ripping it open and stealing their proclivity to appreciate… even love the natural world from which they were sprung.

Ponderay Rotary club seeks $5K to reach scholarship drive goal

By Reader Staff

Ponderay Rotary Club’s annual scholarship drive ends Saturday, April 15, and the effort is only about $5,000 short of its $16,000 goal.

Members of the club are putting on a final push for the drive, reminding potential donors that their tax-deductible contributions go to help “inspire, influence and encourage this community’s upcoming leaders, innovators and dreamers, and help ensure the community will flourish in the future.”

Ponderay Rotary last year gave out more than $26,000, though the current scholarship drive is only one part of the club’s overall fundraising initiatives for its scholarship program. During the past 16 years, the Ponderay Centennial Rotary Club has distributed more than $168,000 in scholarships to local graduating seniors and residents continuing their education.

Club scholarships are not limited; they can be used for a variety of educational purposes, including college, trade school, beauty school and more.

“We are trying to help close the gap between cost and the ability to get an education for local students. We want to ensure greater social mobility for future generations, and to encourage these students to do the same for others later,” stated Ponderay Rotary Treasurer Kari Saccomanno.

So far, this year’s sponsors include 219 Lounge, Avista, Columbia Bank/ Umpqua in Ponderay, Diane Brockway, In and Out Painting, Kochava, Mother Lode Holding Co., Paradise Construction, Sandpoint Furniture/Carpet One, Sandpoint Super Drug, Sharon’s Hallmark, the Shenks, Tango Cafe, Ting Internet and Washington Trust Bank.

Any level of donation or sponsorship is welcome. The club’s sponsor levels and benefits can be found at ponderayrotaryclub.com.

Donations can be mailed to P.O. Box 813, Ponderay, ID 83852. Donations can also be made by credit card through ponderayrotaryclub.com.