THAYER: A Rathdrum legend

Recently, there was a small notice that George Thayer of Rathdrum passed away. He was 95. Maybe a lot of people didn’t know that George Thayer gave the city of Rathdrum one of his wells. He should be remembered for that since Rathdrum had problems right from the beginning in finding a water supply that could cover the needs of its residents.

Frederick Post owned the ranch in which the Sylte family now lives before he moved on to Spokane and then Post Falls. He was the one who brought the water down from the spring to three faucets for the residents to use (and Reiniger’s brewery). This water was pure and was the reason the residents did not get diseases from polluted water, which many other towns had to bear. Also, it was one of the reasons that the transcontinental railroad chose Rathdrum for the depot and thus the county seat.

But it was not enough. Dr. Wenz, who owned the water system for a time, even thought of bringing water from the creek that fed Lower Twin Lakes to augment the supply. This did not happen. And the city drilled wells, but had no luck. The reason that the 1924 fire wiped out Main Street was the lack of water since the reservoir that held the water from the spring was being expanded and was empty on that fateful day.

(My book on Rathdrum’s early history is available only at Ace Hardware in Rathdrum. Thank you, Ace Hardware!)

The population was really small until the turn of the century. I am wondering if that is partly due to the water situation. Did the population grow because of the well that once belonged to George Thayer?

AND do we really want to sell small water companies to businesses who want to use the water to make a profit? Do these small companies (Spirit Lake East, Lynnwood and another small company) all get water from the aquifer which we are now dependent on?

ELLEN LARSEN

Rathdrum