New history lecture series to launch Thursday

A new lecture series of Inland Northwest Milestones at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library will be based on material researched for Robert Singletary’s upcoming book, “Coeur d’Alene: Beautiful and Progressive, 1878-1990.”

The first program in the series is scheduled for Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. at the library. It will examine Fort Coeur d’Alene and the beginning of Coeur d’Alene.

Singletary, regional historian and the program and marketing director for the Museum of North Idaho, said the description of the Lake City as “beautiful and progressive” was first used in a booklet written in the 1920s by George Weeks, a former president of the local Chamber of Commerce.

“Even as a village of tents and log cabins, the emerging town next to Fort Coeur d’Alene was noted for its beautiful location,” Singletary said. “It was also known for its ability to adopt and grow, even in difficult times.”

The book and lecture series will give the reader and audience an overview of Coeur d’Alene’s major economic, political, social/cultural development and some of the people that made it happen, he said. The time period covered will be from the town’s very beginning, with the founding of Fort Coeur d’Alene up to 1990.

The subjects for the rest of the programs will be:

Nov. 7 - The Timber Boom then World War I

Nov. 29 - The Dynamic Twenties

No December program.

Jan. 24 - The ’30s in Coeur d’Alene

Feb. 28 - Farragut’s Influence on Coeur d’Alene

March 28 - After World War II and Into the 1950s

April 25 - Coeur d’Alene in the ’60s and ’70s

May 23 - The Turbulent but Progressive ’80s