Online play, gala for Museum of North Idaho at 6 tonight
Proceeds for Friday's performance of "Two Nickels Make A Dime: Logging Up The Marble" go to support renovation efforts for the J.C. White House.
A three-act narration set in the local logging industry of the early 20th century will be part of a fundraising effort to raise $150,000 for the Museum of North Idaho by year’s end.
“Two Nickels Make a Dime: Logging Up The Marble,” narrated by local playwright George Currier, will focus on logging life in St. Maries circa 1914. The event will livestream on Facebook at 6 tonight.
“We’re so excited about this," Jocelyn Whitfield-Babcock, development director for the museum, told The Press. "George wrote it, and it’s really quite brilliant. It reminds me of Sam Elliott reading John Steinbeck."
The reading will be accompanied with images depicting life up Marble Creek along the St. Joe River as Currier narrates the three-act play. Currier said he hopes people take away from the performance not only the details about the logging industry more than 100 years ago, but also the qualities loggers held as they made their way to North Idaho.
“They came from all types,” Currier said. “But an awful lot came through the railroad. It was pretty common practice in the early 1900s to hop a train this way, usually filled with freight. There were all types that came through the railroad. Hard-working people. Some of (their descendants) still live here today.”
The roughly two-hour play is the latest step to propel the Museum of North Idaho to its fundraising goal in the last few months of the year. The museum’s lease agreement dictates the J.C. White House, moved from its old home on Sherman Avenue to the base of Tubbs Hill last year, is to be occupied no later than the end of 2020.
Efforts have been underway to make the necessary renovations. With a little more than three months left before the deadline, the fundraising team still needs to raise about $150,000, Babcock said.
The cost of attendance for “Two Nickels Make a Dime” is $99 per household. Tickets will be sold through Facebook, though attendees not wishing to view the Facebook Live event can call the museum at 208-664-3448 to purchase tickets and experience the play through alternate viewing means. The museum is also accepting payment by check through the mail at P.O. Box 812, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816-0812, or by visiting the museum’s current location at 115 Northwest Blvd. in Coeur d’Alene.