Voice summer 2018

V Summer

2018

oice

Of the Pend Oreille River Valley

Historical Craftsman

Home & Garden Issue

Home grown vegetables Cool apartments

A supplement publication of the Newport and Gem State Miner Newspapers

A n n r i a v e e Y r sary 0 0 1

C e o l i u e n r t O y d Fair n eP Est. 1918

Fun for the Whole Herd

Thursday, August 16 Sunday August 19th

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Friday - Saturday 7:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Sunday 7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Admission

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Fresh Hot Apple Pie Contest Monster Cookie Contest Decorated Cupcake Contest

Rodeo Rodeo Dance Huckleberry Dessert Contest Spinning Demos Car Show Horse Western Games Market Animal Sales

Church Services Rodeo

13 years and older - $7.00 4-12 years - $2.00 3 years and younger - free

Some events and items at the fair

Antique Tractors & Machinery Demonstrations throughout the fair. Entertainment through the fair by Dave King, Professor Bamboozle, Scotia Road Band, Skookum Creek Music Co., & Hay and Pony Rides

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Editor’s Note

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W

elcome to our annual Home and Garden issue of Voice.

This is always my favorite issue of Voice. Truth be told, I’m the person peering into windows while driving down the street at night, trying to get a glimpse of the décor inside my favorite homes. HGTV was a staple in my home growing up, and I have a pile of Better Homes and Garden, House Beautiful and Simple on my nightstand.

I love houses and we are always so lucky to find a handful of people here in the Pend Oreille River Valley gracious enough to welcome us into their homes, so I can stop peaking in windows late at night.

In this issue of Voice, you’ll find a story about Beth and Jim LaPorte, who own a gorgeous home in Dalkena. It was originally the home of the mill superintendent for the Dalkena Lumber Company. I actually called Beth LaPorte a few years ago and asked if she would be interested in selling her house to me and my husband. She was flattered but very politely told me no.

Also in this issue is a story about the rectory at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Newport, being painstakingly brought back to its original glory by parishioners and their friends.

Dahlin Farms, just outside Newport, is an example of community supported agriculture, and a beautiful home besides.

We also get to peak into two vintage apartments, the Art Deco apartment above the Newport Roxy Theater, lived in by our very own Sophia Aldous, and the 1970s hip apartment below the Club Rio in Oldtown.

And finally we get to meet Al Cluck, aka Jacco, a character living in a very character filled former bakery.

We hope you get as much joy out of reading these stories as we did writing and photographing them. If you know of an interested home or garden, let us know for next year’s Home and Garden issue.

-MCN

INDEX Home and Garden is a way of life on dahlin farm Page 4

For the love of a home Page 10

Hidden spaces, cool places: Rio, Roxy apartments Page 12

Voice Published: June 2018 Publisher: Michelle Nedved Writers & editors: Sophia Aldous, Caneel Johnson and Don Gronning Design: Brad Thew Advertising: Lindsay Guscott, Cindy Boober and Micki Brass

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VOICE is published quarterly as a supplement to The Newport Miner and Gem State Miner, 421 S. Spokane, Newport WA 99156.

TELEPHONE: 509-447-2433 E-MAIL: minernews@povn.com FAX: 509-447-9222 Reproduction of articles & photographs is prohibited without permission of the publisher. See all issues at The Miner Online: www. pendoreillerivervalley.com

It started out simply enough Page 16

One man history show in bakery Page 20

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Home and garden is a way of life on Dahlin Farm All photos by Sophia Aldous

A small library upstairs offers a welcoming sanctuary to settle in with a book.

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Two long dining room tables were made by one of the Dahlin sons. The beams were cut at Kristi’s father’s mill, Smiley Lumber in Metaline Falls.

By Sophia Aldous

NEWPORT – Sometimes, when we think of home, we immediately think of houses. While the roof over our head can be a part of that, our sense of home is also the people we share it with and the land that nourishes us. That idea is personified at Dahlin Farm.

“I grew up gardening,” says Kristi Dahlin. “My mom loved it, and she instilled that love into me.”

Kristi and Bob Dahlin began building their home in the eighties on the same property that belonged to Kristi’s grandparents, and that is where the husband and wife team have raised their 17 children and their business, Dahlin Farms. A staple at the Pend Oreille Valley Farmers Market, Dahlin Farms also provides Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes through memberships.

Customers pay a subscription fee and from May 19 – Sept. 29, receive a weekly box of fresh, seasonal produce grown from the Dahlins’ two-acre garden. All of their produce is grown without the use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers, and their animals are raised without antibiotics or steroids.

“Bob’s family has lived in Pend Oreille County for seven generations and we have deep roots here,” Kristi says. “We’ve raised our family here and been able to feed them off the land — we raised beef, pigs, chickens, fruit, vegetables, made our own food — we’re so fortunate and blessed to have what we do.”

The Dahlin house is spacious and intimate, old-fashioned and comfortable. It resides on a small hill overlooking the garden on the other side of the dirt road running through

Summer Voice

their property. The family built a root cellar into a hillside next to the house, where they store the canned goods they make. They also built an outdoor pizza oven from the bricks of the former Newport High School, after it was demolished in the eighties.

“It’s still a work in progress,” Kristi says of the house, which the Dahlin family has built.

While that may be, it doesn’t dampen the spirit of warmth that visitors must notice when they walk through the door and see the front room, which seamlessly blends the living room, the dining room and the kitchen all into one. With the timber beams that run along the Continued on page 8

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Kristi Dahlin weeds by hand through a row in the family’s garden where they grow their produce for CSA boxes and the farmers market.

Helping CSA-rookies succeed Editor’s note: Kristi Dahlin writes an informative blog on the farm website www. dahlinfarm.com/blog. Here is an excerpt from a March entry offering advice from veteran Community Supported Agriculture users on what to do with weekly supplies of produce.

Expect to make some mistakes.

Trial and error is part of how we learn.

Take the tops off your carrots ASAP! Eat the most perishable items first; learn what they are.

Keep your menu simple; meal prep doesn’t have to be fancy to take a long time. Vegetables can be prepped quickly, and they are just as nutritious and tasty when prepared the simple ways with just a few spices.

Storage matters so much. I didn’t store things right, so I lost them.

Try to learn the basic uses of each vegetable.

Eat the most perishable veggies first. This includes things like lettuces, greens and herbs.

Ask yourself “What can we make for dinner?” instead of “What do you want for dinner?”

Learn how to freeze things to use later on in the winter. If you haven’t used it by day four, I would freeze it.

Don’t be afraid to use a veggie for breakfast. It’s a great way to use up

what you have and start your day off with a mega dose of nutrients.

Grill everything! Use marinades, spices, olive oil, balsamic vinegar or whatever else you like to jazz it up.

Look up recipes for veggies you are not sure of to see how you can work them into your meals for the week.

Be willing to do recipe research and experiment with ingredient substitutions.

Write down what you did and whether it was successful or not along with suggestions on the recipe page for future use.

The first year was tough. There was just so much food. And we didn’t know what we didn’t know. But you can do it! For it to work, you need to make a commitment. You have to say, “We want to do this.”

You will struggle with using it all.

And you’ll feel guilty about wasting food. Realize that you will waste a bit every week, but that you can get to the point where you really feel like you don’t waste much.

It takes time to master the CSA Way. First season you are observing and learning the rhythm of the veggies. Second year you are more prepared.

Summer Voice

The kitchen is not only cozy; it’s efficient. A large freezer holds the meat that the Dahlins raise themselves, and an antique wood oven and range top serves as a backup if the power goes out (it was also a late honeymoon present from Bob to Kristi).

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From Page 5

ceiling, the house has a colonial kind of vibe, with natural light filtering through the windows.

Furniture passed down from ancestors, notably a china hutch from the 1800s, a Bible scripture decorating one of the beams, and long wooden tables made by a son, give the house a traditional, welcoming atmosphere. There are plenty of spare rooms, since the majority of the Dahlin’s children are grown and no longer living at home. Kristi also uses part of the upstairs to grow some of her starts. A book nook at the top of the stairs offers a cozy sanctuary to read by a window and look out into the backyard.

The floors in the dining room and kitchen are porcelain, which stands up better to wear and tear than laminate flooring or tile. Touches of the Dahlin family are literally laced, woven, pounded, seeded, and rooted into their home, from the rich dirt that enables their livelihood to the very structure they live in.

“Some day we’ll get it done,” says Kristi of the house, smiling. “But we’ve done a lot of living in it already and have a lot of memories to go with it.”

For more information about Dahlin Farm and CSA, go to www.dahlinfarm.com and check out the Facebook page.

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For the love of a home Couple moves to Pend Oreille County because of a house

By Michelle Nedved

Voice photo|Michelle Nedved

The woodwork in the home is a nod to the original owner, the mill superintendent. The LaPortes refinished the ceilings, sheet rocking over the plaster and lathe to fix cracks.

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Just across the highway from the Pend Oreille River, sitting proudly at the end of Dalkena Road, sits the home of Beth LaPorte. Built in 1917, the craftsman originally housed the superintendent of the Dalkena Lumber Company, at the time the biggest mill in Pend Oreille County.

Beth and Jim LaPorte bought the house in 2005, moving to Pend Oreille County from Seattle just because of the house.

“It hit both our fancies,” Beth said.

The LaPortes have since split up, but the home is a work of love, brought back to its original glory by two people who definitely knew what they were doing.

Jim, originally from New York, owned a remodel company, and Beth, coming from California, worked with him as a designer.

“He grew up with a hammer in his hand,” she said of Jim. They were ready to leave the big city, and Jim was searching real estate websites when he came across the house in Dalkena. He showed it to Beth, and they contacted Wilma Mason, the realtor.

Jim walked the grounds and Beth toured the home. Together, they remodeled the house, and then applied for a matching grant to spruce up the barn. It’s now on the Washington State Heritage Barn Register.

As part of their application, they wrote a history of the home.

“Along side the Pend Oreille River as it flows north through Washington’s northeastern corner on its way to join the Columbia in Canada, is the small hamlet of Dalkena – once a booming mill town named for the mill’s founders, Henry H. Dalton and Hugh Kennedy,” the history reads.

From 1902 to 1936, when there was a second devastating a fire, the Dalkena mill was the largest in the county.

“During those exciting boom years the existing house, barn, milk house, machine shop and bunkhouse were built here at the south end of Dalkena Road. The residence is said to have originally housed the mill superintendent’s family and is one of the only two remaining original homes (of the once 40 or more built in Dalkena in that time).”

Still standing on the property is a small structure used as a planting shed. Beth said there used to be many Continued on page 11

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Voice photo|Michelle Nedved

This structure is now a planting shed, but there used to be many of them across the property, where mill workers of the Dalkena Lumber Company lived.

From Page 10

of the small homes scattered across the 29 acres owned by the LaPortes.

That’s where mill workers and their families lived.

“It was a happening little place back then,” Beth said of Dalkena.

The barn’s cupola matches those of the old lumber company horse barn, that the LaPortes wrote can still be seen from their property.

“Our barn is still equipped with old milking stations, a brooding stall, and, in the hay loft above, a large hay fork connected by a cable running the length of the loft,” they wrote when applying for the barn grant.

Beth said a few years ago, they had relatives visiting. They were standing in the kitchen chatting, when suddenly the winds kicked up. “You could practically see the cow flying past the

window,” she said, alluding to the Wizard of Oz. When the winds died down, they came outside to see the barn’s cupola sitting in the driveway, basically in one piece.

A week later, a second windstorm took the top off a blue spruce on the other side of the property. They were able to rebuild the cupola and it sits once again at the top of the barn.

Over the years, the barn had fallen into disrepair. It needed straightening and shoring up, as well as new window sashes and some siding.

“Some former residents of the area who recall Dalkena from their childhood days in the 1930s, speak of the hay loft being used for dances and sporting the unusual feature of a hardwood floor,” the LaPortes wrote.

The kitchen remodel was a big one.

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The barn is on the Washington State Heritage Barn Register. The LaPortes applied for and received a matching grant to refurbish the barn.

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Hidden spaces, cool place

Voice photo|Sophia Aldous

Many details of the apartment date back to when it was built in 1975, like the bar, carpet and popcorn ceiling.

By Sophia Aldous

While farm houses and old Victorians do speak to the history of the Pend Oreille River Valley, so do places that are tucked away, out of

sight to the everyday flow, except to those who know where those places are. Such is the case with apartments attached to area businesses, like the apartment below The Club Rio in Oldtown, Idaho.

Built in 1975, the living space has come a

long way from what some locals claim used to be an area dumpsite where people would throw their trash and tires. If that was indeed the case, there’s no evidence to hint at such a history.

“I can stand here and see osprey, bald eagles, turkeys, deer … you can’t beat the view,” says Gary Norton, chef and kitchen manager for The Club Rio. He rents the apartment from the Rio’s owner, Sean Maesner.

The appeal of the one bedroom apartment is how little it’s changed over the decades. While many rentals undergo updates that usually include straightforward, colorless additions like gray carpet and beige or white walls, the apartment below The Club Rio still retains that retro feel, because many of the original features are the same.

Two large, ceiling to floor windows dominate the west side of the apartment and look out along the concrete patio that forms a half circle around the business to the side door of the apartment. The green shag and patterned brown/gold carpets in the living room and

Voice photo|Sophia Aldous

Custom made screen print Star Wars art by Daniel Plemons.

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Continued on page 14

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es: Rio, Roxy apartments

Courtesy photo|Jack Pemberton, Venture Publishing

Built in 1951, The Roxy Theater’s apartment stands as a throwback to the 1950’s when it was built.

By Sophia Aldous

When I first saw the apartment above the Roxy Theater

in Newport, my professional demeanor might have slipped as I let out a joyful gasp. Brittany and Jason Totland, who had purchased the building in

Courtesy photo|Jack Pemberton, Venture Publishing

Looking from the kitchen into the hallway leading to the front door. Built-in wall lights and storage make the apartment efficient as well as stylish.

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summer of 2017, were kind enough to give me a tour of the whole building.

When we stepped into the two-bedroom apartment, built along with the rest of the theater in 1951 by Dick Bishop and his father, Charles, it was like stepping back in time. I realize that’s a cliché people use to describe almost any environment over 30 years old, but it’s true. With the exception of the carpet in the living room and a bit of dry wall work, the place looked untouched.

Red linoleum checkered the kitchen floor with the original oven and dishwasher still in place. Built-in shelves and nooks punctuate the walls and two expansive windows look out over Washington Street, with the Roxy’s neon light just

to the left.

Bishop and his wife, Gladys, purchased the theater in 1956 and ran it until his death in December 2007, when it was sold to Kevin and Cara Wright. After closing in 2015 the building sat empty until Jason and Brittany came along.

There may have been some urgent pleading on my part with the Totlands to please, don’t remodel this apartment. I can’t quite remember, but I do recall sending Jason a message on Facebook later expressing my interest in the apartment if it was available for rent.

Almost a year later, I couldn’t be more tickled if you dropped me on a feather bed, because The Roxy apartment is my

Continued on page 17

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Voice photo|Sophia Aldous

A bedroom converted into a music room.

From Page 12

kitchen are still intact and bright and wood paneling lines the walls.

Even the cabinetry and refrigerator are the originals.

The best feature is the black padded bar with Formica countertop the original owners brought from upstairs and installed in the apartment.

“It looks cool and it makes for more storage,” Norton says.

Norton has also made the living space his own with items and décor that reflect his varied interests, from rocks and miner-

als his late-wife Heidi collected to custom made Star Wars art on the walls, along with a few signs from bars he has worked at.

One of the rooms is dedicated to his drum kit and bass, with Grateful Dead memorabilia showcasing his love for music and he and Heidi’s affinity for the band.

The patio is dotted with herbs, a pepper plant, and other potted vegetation.

“It’s just stuff I like, things I enjoy,” Norton says nonchalantly.

Which is probably the easiest, best way to decorate any home.

Voice photo|Sophia Aldous

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Voice photo|Caneel Johnson

Construction workers are putting on the new roof of the rectory.

It started out simply enough

By Caneel Johnson

It started out with as a simple kitchen remodeling job, and turned into the reconstruction of the entire St. Antony’s Catholic Church rectory. The rectory is traditionally a priest’s residence and St. Anthony’s follows this tradition.

“It was just supposed to make the inside more livable, but Jim thought it should have curb appeal,” said the Rev. Victor Blazovich.

Blazovich has been the priest at St. Anthony’s for six years. He came to Jim Hines, a member of the congregation, this past winter and told him the rectory’s kitchen was too small and needed to be updated. Hines agreed to head the project.

“When we took down the wall that separated the kitchen to the dining room we discovered that the house needed new insulation and wiring,” Hines said. “Every time we opened something up to fix it we found three things more that needed to be updated.”

The main problem is that everything is outdated.

Bob Kirby was the maintenance man for 20 years, and he did the best with what he could.

“If you needed anything done, no matter what it was you called Bob,” Jill Zupich, a parish member said.

The house was built in 1925 when Newport was still part of Stevens County. It was the first Catholic Church in eastern Stevens County. It was origi-

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nally a single story, one bedroom dwelling. The second story was added on in 1935 to accommodate traveling priests, said Hines. There was a card party hosted in the new rectory to celebrate its completion.

The Rev. John J. Callanan was the original inhabitant of the church.

“When we pulled up the flooring we found, ‘Deliver to Father Callanan Newport Wash.,’ on the back of the planks,” Hines said.

Not much in the house had been updated since 1935. The electrical was still the old knob and tube style and the walls were lathe and plaster instead of sheet rock. Everything needed to be replaced or updated, the electrical, siding, insulation, the roof, heating, windows, porches, everything, explained Hines. There were two old chimneys, one ran from the basement to the second floor and had to be removed, and one in the living room that was salvaged.

The house had originally been built with second hand materials harvested from a house across the street that was torn down to build a playground for a school. The playground and school do not exist anymore, but the remnants of the house can still be found under the siding and insulation of the rectory.

The slats that make up the basic structure of the house are a hodge-podge of sizes including one by four, six and 10.

“We considered tearing it all down and starting from scratch, but there was just too much worth preserving,” Hines says.

There are not that many craftsman style homes left in the area.

“We tried to keep as much of the original style as we could and still modernize it,” Hines said.

It was the first house in the area to have an aluminum roof. The original roof was paid for by a dance at Moose Hall hosted by the Catholic Ladies, which sparked weekly card parties, dances and suppers.

The new roof is still metal, but now it is steel instead of aluminum. It is layered with weatherproofing materials, rigid foam insulation and then metal to make it more energy efficient.

The hipped style roof and columns in the front are typical for this style of home, and have been replaced with laminated beams.

The widows have all been replaced with energy efficient windows in the small pane design typical of that era.

They kept all the doors, which were solid wood and in great conditions and included a set of French doors that will be relocated to the chapel on the upper floor.

“We found maple flooring under the carpet,” Hines said. “It is extremely rare for homes in this area.”

They are usually made from fur or larch. “My Flooring guy, Jason Lindburg, has never seen it,” Hines said. Lindburg is going to refinish them.

There are some other cabinets in the kitchen and living room that are functional, beautiful and worth preserving.

The other areas that are going to be revamped with the same thoughtfulness to the craftsman style and energy efficiency are siding, porches, and Continued on page 19

Summer Voice

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Kaniksu Village Apartments Affordable housing for: Families, Seniors, & Disabled Courtesy photo|Jack Pemberton of Venture Publishing

With the exception of the carpet in the living room, little has changed about the two-bedroom living space.

From Page 13

home. When I walk through the door after work, I can smell buttered popcorn coming up from concessions. Sometimes, if I walk to the back bedroom and hold an ear against the corrugated wall, I can hear the movie playing on the other side.

Movies hold just as much a special place in my heart as writing; because it’s all stories, films just tend to have a bigger budget. So the fact that I get to live above a movie theater, surrounded by stories and histories is a childhood fantasy fulfilled.

My nostalgia for vintage things comes from my roots. My grandparents were children of The Great Depression and while they didn’t go to the extreme that some people do of refusing to throw away or donate any possessions or material goods, they knew how to recycle and reuse and didn’t discard what still worked just for the appearance of keeping up with the Joneses.

My father worked at a landfill, continuously surprising my brother and I with the items he brought home that people had thrown away, from brand new rugs, rose bushes that grew and flourished in our garden, a toaster from the 1950s that worked for another 10 to 12 years, to action figures like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that were in perfectly good condition, they were just missing an accessory or two.

The reason I bring this up is not an original observation, just something I feel a lot of us are attuned to, consciously or not: that today, we’re in a hurry to get on to the next thing, and the next, and the next. We hurtle ourselves to the horizon, thinking that whatever it holds has to be “better” while simultaneously romanticizing the past, like the people who lived before us were so much kinder, so much wiser than we could ever aspire to.

It’s a strange catch-22 we tangle ourselves up in. That’s why I appreciate places like the apartment under The Club Rio and my own abode above The Roxy, because they are small reminders of the people that came before us, who had their own dreams, fears, faults and desires. Could those people have imagined that there would be someone after them, who they would never know, who wasn’t related to them, who would rest under the same roof? Put their own pictures on the walls; take pleasure in the view, in the way the sunlight filters through the windows they once looked out?

I don’t know, but sometimes I catch myself thinking about them, whoever they are. That’s the undeclared sway that places can have over us, particularly where we live.

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Voice photo|Michelle Nedved

There’s a handful of outbuildings on the property, perfect for entertaining.

From Page 11

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They moved the stovetop and sink, installed new cabinets, backsplash, countertops and lighting. They kept with the time period, using schoolhouse-style light fixtures.

Working in the business, Beth said she was expecting it to be more difficult than it was.

“I knew how horrible it could be,” she said.

Beth found the painted backsplash tiles, and then the “butter cream” countertops and matching subway tiles. She had designed a similar kitchen for a client when she was a designer.

They leveled the floors, and sheet rocked the ceilings over the lathe and plaster. They added a bathroom upstairs, and built-ins in the master bedroom where there had been no storage. They cleaned up cove moldings.

Outside are little gardens everywhere. Virginia creeper covers what’s now the planting shed. They had to jack up the structure. The barn is a wood shop.

Moving to a remote county on the other side of the state could be daunting.

But Beth is happy here.

“I’ve nested better here than anywhere I’ve lived since high school,” she said.

And her home shows it.

Summer Voice

Voice photo|Caneel Johnson

Father Vic shows his favorite part of the house, one of the old fireplaces and cabinets that were salvaged. They will add seating under the windows and bookcases to create a cozy little nook.

From Page 16

walkways.

Masonry siding is being used for maximum efficiency. The siding looks like wood, but is made up of fiber cement, which is fire resistant.

The wood on the front and back porch was rotted and needed to be replaced. The front porch was redone using Trex decking. It is a recycled material that is resistant to fading, chipping, and mold. It does not require the upkeep that a wood deck requires.

“The front porch is so inviting, everyone stops to ask about it,” the Rev. Blazovich says.

The front and back porch and stairs were redone in concrete by Brian Winkler.

Winkler is one of many parish members who have volunteered time, money or services to the project.

All around Spokane, W.M. Winkler plaques can be seen on sidewalks dating back 100 years. Brian Winkler is the founder’s grandson.

“Donations of time, talent or treasure are welcome,” Hines said. The parish responded in kind.

Some of the volunteers are Peter Freeman who volunteered his time to do the backyard and landscaping, Rowland and his wife Cathy Busskohl veteran carpenters volunteered those skills, Tim Groh and Dave Eslick are doing all the dry wall, Jason Lindburg is redoing the floors, Ed Zupich is volunteering as a laborer, Duane Sanger is bringing all the electricity up to code and Jean Hines and the Altar Society are helping with the ascetics of the building.

Summer Voice

“It has been a parish effort,” Hines said.

The estimated costs of remodeling the rectory is $150,000. Hines believes the volunteers are saving the parish about another $70,000 in labor.

The original cost of the building was $3,000, which would be equivalent to $43,628 today. Bishop Schinner donated $1,000, and loaned the parish another $1,200.

The rest of the costs were donated by the parishioners and the community in very much the same way it is being done today. The committee that headed the project in 1925 included George Hynes, Albeni Poirer and E.T. Brigham.

“I am over the top excited, but I am more excited for the parish and the community,” says Blazovich. “It is a gift for the community, and is representative of parish pride.”

Blazovich hopes it will be an inspiration to the community.

“My favorite part is all the unsolicited comments I receive at all over town,” Blazovich says. “People stop me at Safeway or any where to ask about it and lend their compliments.”

There were too many changes to the original building for it to be registered with the Historical Society, but they are donating a plaque to acknowledge its history.

“It is a shame that everyone will get to see the outside, but only a few will get to see the inside,” Blazovich says.

There will be an open house when all the construction is completed, so that those in the community that want to can come check it out.

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One man history show in old bakery

Voice photo|Don Gronning

Al Cluck is dressed up and in character as Jacco Raphael Finlay, an employee of David Thompson, the famous Canadian explorer who was one of the first white people in the area.

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Summer Voice

Voice photo|Don Gronning

Al Cluck has made the Ione Theater his home and workplace. He performs a show weekly.

By Don Gronning

Al Cluck moves around the old bakery that now serves as a combination stage, museum and home to the 72-year-old retired teacher.

“I just like old stuff,” he says, sifting through the various buffalo and beaver hides and other frontier style things that pack his small space.

In his stage production, Cluck plays the role of Jacco Raphael Finlay, an employee of David Thompson, the famous Canadian explorer who was one of the first white people to write about Pend Oreille County. Cluck puts on a stage performance, something he’s been doing for years in Canada, Montana and now in Ione.

He says finding a good spot to put on the shows was important.

“I found a perfect place to do it,” he says. He bought the building and is in the middle of downsizing.

“I leave the front door unlocked and people come in all the time,” Cluck says.

“Ione is a little different, with characters of every kind.”

Cluck’s place, located at the corner of Main Street and Fourth Avenue in Ione, is crowded with furs, pictures, books and other memorabilia he’s gathered over the years.

Cluck’s possessions draw plenty of attention, with the various animal skins, antlers, old clothing and other items. He says people haven’t forgotten about the old bakery and drugstore.

“Some people come by and stay and talk for two hours,” Cluck says. “One woman came by and said ‘we used to dance in the corner of the drugstore.’”

Cluck likes that the area doesn’t forget its history.

“There’s a treasure underneath the drugstore,” he says, showing some of the old bottles he found under the building.

Lila Middleton remembers the bakery and drugstore. She says the bakery especially was a successful business.

“The bakery was a tiny little place,” Middleton says. Bill Kelly, the owner, hired truck drivers to deliver baked goods to Salmo, B.C., Newport and Colville.

“He would get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to start baking,” Middleton remembers.

The man eventually sold the bakery and moved to Vancouver, B.C., probably in the 1970s, Middleton says.

The building Cluck lives in was built in 1910, the year the town of Ione was incorporated and got electricity. According to documents at the Pend Oreille County Historical Society, the population of Ione was 1,000 at the time.

In 1910, the town had two fine hotels, some stores and many dwellings. A year Continued on page 23

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Voice photo|Don Gronning

The inside of the Ione theater, where Al Cluck will hold his live show telling the story of David Thompson, the famous Canadian mapmaker and explorer.

22

Summer Voice

From Page 21

earlier only two cabins and one little store had existed, according to documents at the Historical Society.

By 1911, Ione was an up-to-date town, with stores, hotels, pool rooms, restaurants, lodging houses, a tailor shop, a blacksmith shop, livery stable, harness shop, saloons, hardware stores, drug stores, a hospital, bakery and weekly newspaper.

One of the same historical documents says in 1809-10, David Thompson, the Canadian explorer, was the first white man to leave a written record of the area.

Cluck is familiar with David Thompson. In his show, he plays Jacco Raphael Finlay, a fur trapper and trader who tells stories of the exploration of Thompson.

Cluck moved to Ione from Creston, B.C. in June 2017. He was doing the Jacco show at Fort Steele.

Cluck is a retired physical education teacher. He was born in California and raised in Colorado. He has an undergraduate degree in physical education and a masters degree in recreation administration.

A talented baseball player, Cluck went to college on a baseball scholarship. He has plaques from his winning a baseball championship in 1955.

He coached baseball and other sports during his education career.

He was teaching in Aspen, “before John Denver,” he says, when it was still an affordable place to live.

He eventually left Colorado for Montana, where he became the state’s only tour guide.

“I worked for the state,” he says.

He hadn’t got the idea of Jacco yet.

He was telling the history of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

“It was the centennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition,” Cluck says.

He worked taking people along the trail.

“I went on a 17-day motor coach tour that started in St. Louis,” he says.

In 2010 or so he got the idea to develop the Jacco character. It was a natural for Fort Steele and he performed two shows a day for years. He was a landed immigrant at the time.

Cluck has been doing his show in Ione every Saturday for a while now.

“The most I had was 15, the least was three,” he says.

He is holding a grand opening for the show Sunday, July 1, at 3 p.m.

He doesn’t charge admission, but donations are appreciated. “I’ve been telling everyone July 1,” he says.

But he has been holding the shows on Saturdays, so he will also have a show Saturday, June 30, also at 3 p.m. Eventually, he would like to take the show to local schools.

Cluck says the place is ideal for a retired guy like himself. He invites people to stop by and see his collection of animal skulls, historic clothing, bottles and other vintage items.

It’s for sale, so make him an offer and you might leave with a buffalo hide.

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