What lurks beneath the lake
Loch Ness has Nessie, New York’s Lake Champlain has Champ – and Lake Coeur d’Alene has a 1941 Oldsmobile.
Actually, it has at least two from that era, and local diver Jake Powlison, owner of Jake’s Scuba Adventures and diver of 19 years, has a theory about how they got there.
“I think they must have driven across the lake [in the winter] and broke through the ice,” he said.
While the lake hasn’t frozen over since 2000, it used to regularly. Historic reports describe cars driven across the lake as early as the 1930s, so Powlison’s theory makes sense.
Of course, the 25-mile long lake holds more than a few cars. Thanks to local historians and divers, we landlubbers get a glimpse of what lurks below.
According to Powlison, “There’s a lot of logs, there’s a lot of crawdads and crayfish, and there’s a lot of steamboats.”
For about half a century – from 1880 to the decline of the steam engine (and rise of the combustion engine) – steamboats ruled the waters.
The uses of steamboats were many, but here they mostly ferried passengers, miners and ore. Historian John Wood, who is writing a book on steamboats in the area, said the first private steamers on our lake were built largely because of the gold rush.
Wood estimates 200 or more steamboats have glided along Lake Coeur d’Alene. In addition to a hunger for gold, ease of building may have contributed to the boats’ popularity.
“It was so easy to get an old boiler, cobble a hull together and you’ve got a steamboat,” Wood explained.
Other parts of the country share a history of the steamboat, but Coeur d’Alene is likely unique in its use of retired steamers. Some were stripped of valuable parts and turned into barges – and even climaxes – for Fourth of July festivities.
The Spokane – now 90 feet under water near Independence Point – was one such barge whose fiery destruction was planned for the 1915 show.
And you thought contemporary shows were impressive.
“They decided to set it on fire and then they were gonna blow it up,” Wood confirmed. “Apparently they set dynamite on the hull… the boat started to burn and the dynamite ignited and blew a hole in the hull and it sunk.”
What may have been a let-down for 1915 spectators became a treat for modern divers. Much of the hull remains for those able to reach it. With lake temperatures as low as 34 degrees Fahrenheit at this depth, that’s no small feat.
The Georgie Oakes, which burned July 4, 1907, may be more accessible. It rests in shallower waters about a half-mile south of Cedars Floating Restaurant.
Other steamers were recycled for pleasure. The Arc Boneta, which burned and sank in 1908, was raised soon after and was “towed around as a dance barge,” as were other steamboats, according to Wood’s research.
More than a hundred years later, we still party like it’s 1909 on the Coeur d’Alene Resort’s lake cruises.
Other watercraft, such as the small wooden boat directly beneath the arched walkway of the Resort Boardwalk, also rest on the lake floor.
Powlison also said the SeeweeWana was purposely sunk for divers’ enjoyment near the boardwalk.
While most watercraft – and automobiles – remain where found, divers have recovered various pieces. One of the steamboat Idaho’s propeller wheels, as well as the Flyer’s propeller, now greet visitors to the Museum of North Idaho near the lakeshore.
Of course, divers also enjoy swimming with the fishes.
“In the fall we dive with the salmon,” said Powlison, alluding to the large numbers of kokanee. “There are walls and walls of fish [that time of year].”
Another thing divers find in abundance in our lake? Trash.
“There are so many beer bottles and cans [in particular],” said Powlison. “We pull stuff out every time we’re down there.”
A lake clean-up organized by his shop last year pulled up approximately 200 pounds of garbage from the lake.
“We didn’t even put a dent in it,” he said.
So please, when you party like it’s 1909, take your trash with you.