‘Goat trail’ no more

You might be a Coeur d’Alene native if … you know what Cecil Andrus meant 50 years ago today when he used the term “goat trail.”

Democrat “Cece,” who would go on to serve four terms as Idaho governor and a stint as President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of Interior, was in Coeur d’Alene to set up his campaign team. He was running against incumbent Republican governor Don Samuelson.

Both spoke at the Association of Idaho Cities that was meeting in Coeur d’Alene.

Andrus, a former sawmill worker from Orofino, told the AIC that he was adamantly opposed to surface mining in the White Cloud Mountains (which became a wilderness area in 2015 and was later named after him). AND, according to the Coeur d’Alene Press of June 19, 1970, he said that it was past time to fix Highway 95, which he referred to as the “goat trail.”

His actual quote about Idaho’s erstwhile, dangerous, north-south highway was: “Highway 95 is still the same, narrow, grinding goat trail that it was 10 years ago.” He recommended to his listeners that Idaho fix the goat trail as soon as it finished building Interstate 90 through Post Falls.

The nickname, “goat trail,” caught on.

Andrus went on to beat Samuelson, of Sandpoint, with 52.2 percent of the vote. He lived and served long enough to see much of the “goat trail” upgraded, including the stretch south of Coeur d’Alene. When I arrived in town in September 1984, there was another expression that targeted deadly Highway 95: “There are no good roads to Worley.”

Today, thanks to Andrus and other visionaries, there are.

60 and done

When the Press last checked in with Gary and Beth Dagastine, of Post Falls, they had dined out at family restaurants for 33 straight days. Their goal was to help locally owned eateries survive the COVID-19 crisis, while offering only takeout. Just like “The Babe” (George Herman Ruth), their streak stopped at 60. Gary, who is a good cook in his own right, said he’s thrilled to see restaurants filling again as things open up. Now, he Facebooks, “it’s time to see what’s in our freezer.” Gary estimates that he drove 1,000 miles during his dining-out experience, 99 percent of which were in Kootenai County. And that, my Huckleberry friends, is how one or two people can bring joy to others in these unsettling times.

City Park 2.0

Don’t look now, but retired landscape architect Jon Mueller’s at it again, writing another local history of significance. In 2017, he published “Private Park, Public Park,” a history of City Park that’s tied to our town’s beginnings. Now, he’s expanding Chapter 7 of that book to describe how F.A. Blackwell, J.P. Graves, and the who’s who of that day developed a rail park system, connecting parks in Spokane and Kootenai County to promote tourism. Stay tuned.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: Coeur d’Alene Ironman may be pushed back from June 28 to Sept. 6 this year, and it’s the 70.3 version, but The Bard of Sherman Avenue has framed it in rhyme any way: “It takes a mighty ride/to complete the Ironman, /required are thighs of steel /and of course an iron can” — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“112 Miles on Bike.”)

• Forty-five years ago, this coming Sunday, Mrs. O and I swapped “I do’s.” And she joined me in an adventure linked together by seven newsrooms in three states. I got the better of the deal. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson’s character in “As Good As It Gets,” she still makes me want to be a better man.

• Has it really been eight years, minus one day, since Mary Souza & Co. failed to collect enough signatures to force recall elections for Mayor Sandi Bloem and council members: Deanna Goodlander, Mike Kennedy, and Woody McEvers? And what did the four do wrong? They banded together on a series of 4-3 votes to push through the McEuen Park overhaul without an advisory vote. And this community is better off for their courage.

• Occasionally, I hear of a bumpersnicker that would look good on my 1999 Toyota 4Runner. Shelly Robins Zollman, of Coeur d’Alene, spotted one on a GMC Sierra pickup in downtown CdA: “I may be getting old but I’ve seen all the best bands.”

• Sign of the Times: The Davis Donuts reader board is worth quoting again this week: “Don’t always follow the masses because sometimes the M is silent.”

• Bumpersnicker (on a gray Toyota Tundra at Spokane Street and I-90 Sunday, with an accompanying 2nd Amendment sticker): “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be Democrats.” OK, it’s funnier if you’re a Republican.

Parting Shot

Leave it to the wise guys on my Facebook page to point out the obvious in the title to Robert Singletary’s top-notch pictorial history of our town: “Coeur d’Alene: Beautiful and Progressive.” Sez Bill Will of Olympia, Wash., via Priest River: “Why hasn’t this one been confiscated and burned for having ‘progressive’ in the title? That’s a code word for ‘Commie,’ ya know!” And you thought Progressive was an insurance company.

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D.F. “Dave” Oliveria, winner of the National Herb Caen Memorial Award, can be contacted at dfo.northidaho@gmail.com.