The rest of the Finney Faulkner story
In the July 13 edition of the Coeur d’Alene Press was an interesting article written by my friend, Marlo Faulkner, on the topic of her historic family home going on the market. Interesting history and anecdotes about the grand house at 207 Park Drive in the Fort Grounds, but I knew it was missing something.
Marlo is a writer by trade so I had to chuckle to myself when I finished the article. As they say in the biz, you buried the lede my friend.
She didn’t mention it but Marlo’s maiden name is Finney, as in the famous lake faring Finneys. Her father, Captain John F. Finney (1909-1986), was more than a footnote in the history of Lake Coeur d’Alene. He ushered in the tour boat industry from the days of the steamboats to steel and diesel. His first boat, the Seeweewana was built for the lake in 1926 and could carry 65 passengers. Marlo told me that her mother loaned her father the $10,000 to buy the boat before they were married. Captain John also delivered mail to lake residents in a small boat named the Weewana.
A most interesting and fun story is Marlo’s tale of how the next boat in the growing fleet came to be. Seems her father bought some war surplus bridge pontoons in 1948. He and his friend, Howard Dolf of Post Falls, spent the winter connecting the pontoons and building a hardwood dance floor enclosed in a “room” with an upper deck for viewing. Generations remember this floating nightclub, the Dancewana.
Captain John’s nephew (Marlo’s cousin), Fred Finney, continued in the boat building trade growing it into the largest lake fleet in the West. In his spare time Fred and his company, Finney Boat Works, built a 100-foot long, 28-feet wide luxury boat for personal use. The 6,200-square-foot craft (2,610 square feet of that is interior space) became the largest yacht on the lake in 2007. I’ve had the pleasure of being Fred and Diane’s guest on La Dame du Lac and it’s as incredible as advertised.
On the cdacruises.com website is a history of the commercial ships on Lake Coeur d’Alene, including the piece of trivia that the Seeweewana was sunk in front of The Resort when it was retired in the 1980s and is a popular site for divers to explore.
As if the boat history of the family isn’t fascinating enough, Marlo’s dad, the oldest of 12 children, is also credited with inventing the sport of water skiing in 1921, appearing in the Water Sports Hall of Fame. The Museum of North Idaho has wonderful photos of the Finney family water skiing from those early years.
So forgive me Marlo for wanting to share “the rest of the story” about your most interesting family history. :)
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Another piece of history arrived back in Coeur d’Alene on Monday when artist Terry Lee escorted the finished Suffragist statue home from a Montana foundry. The life-sized statue will take her place among the Working Men collection on Front Avenue overlooking McEuen Park on Aug. 18, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. It was fascinating to watch the process over the last year and seeing her off to the foundry in February.
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We’re in Week 19 of living life with the specter of COVID-19 and I know I’m absolutely exhausted emotionally with the navigation and moving of the goal posts. There’s a selective overload of information and a low-grade fever of hostility in our otherwise generous and kind-hearted communities. Like the rest of you, I put one foot in front of the other, take care of my responsibilities, love my neighbor and often make the choice to retreat to isolation for peace and solitude.
In this past week I appreciated the technology that made it possible for me to attend via Zoom the Panhandle Health District meeting and via Facebook Live the celebration of the remarkable life of John McGruder and the pinning ceremony for new Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Pat Way, Deputy Chief Rick Clutter and eight new probationary firefighters.
Never have I more appreciated having an above-ground backyard pool than this week. Floating under the blue skies and being lulled by the breeze in the trees I can almost imagine what life was like 20 weeks ago.
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Happy Birthday today to Joe Malloy, Jim Coleman, Debbie Brown, Jennifer Schmidt, Tina Vandenheuvel and Sam Paul. Tomorrow Katie Brodie, Steve Anthony, Jeremy Epstein, Marilee Wallace, Bill Singleton, Chris Olson-Wood, Carolyn Kreager, Ginger Harmala, Cassie Ohlig, Anne Kulinsky, Jessica McLean, Darin Hayes, Steve McCabe and Brett Surplus will blow out the birthday candles.
On Friday Marie Price, Tom Taggart, Karen Youman, Mark Hunsaker, Karen Prosser, Doug Miller, Shelby Stone, Anthony “A-Train” King and Srinivas Gundari put on their party hats. Larry Schwenke, Robin Schlotthauer, Alenna Blakeslee, Rich Nicolson and Karen King celebrate Saturday. Birthday wishes on Sunday to Doreen Mack, Marla Giese, Deb Miller, Marlo Gerber, Nick Epstein, Kelsey Wood and Lois Johnson.
On July 27 my brother-in-law Rick Scharf, Ann Beutler, Larry Trosper, Gail Everson, Brady Campbell, Shelly Zollman, Rich May, Brian Thormahlen and Janet Pulis take another trip around the sun. Tuesday is a special day for Jan Nelson, Bekah Manderscheid, Cathy Werner, Zack White, Hank Wayman, John Hensley, Debra Wunderlich, Norm Loftin, Darrell Rickard and Karen Englestad.
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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.