HUCKLEBERRIES: Origin of huckleberry ice cream

North Idahoans love all things huckleberry.

Huckleberry pancakes. Huckleberry muffins. Huckleberry syrup and jams. Huckleberry shakes from Paul Bunyan. And the huckleberry ice cream cones at the North Idaho Fair.

So we should cherish the memory of Myron Haugen, the local who made our first commercial huckleberry ice cream.

He called it “Huckleberry Ribbon.”

“He was the first person to perfect weaving a huckleberry ribbon through the ice cream without turning the ice cream black,” said Susie Daniels, now of northern Arizona, Myron’s daughter. “It was almost like jam but thinner. It froze nicely. It was like eating vanilla ice cream with a huckleberry topping.”

In a cutline on Aug. 15, 1958, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported “this development is believed to be the first time North Idaho products have been processed into an ice cream flavor.”

Papa Haugen was working for Van’s Creamery 65 years ago when he concocted the new flavor. He and wife, Dolly, had picked the huckleberries themselves, near Chilco. Dolly made the syrup for eight months while she was pregnant with Susie. And Myron experimented.

“My dad always made homemade treats,” Susie said. “We would make ice cream and get a CO2 cartridge and make root beer for a treat, too.”

The Haugens had moved from Lodi, Calif., three years before after a Coeur d’Alene relative told them: “There’s plenty of construction work up here. Bring your hammer.”

They were living at 1507 N4th St. when Myron produced his first batch of Huckleberry Ribbon. Susie remembers visiting Van’s Creamery at 4th & Garden after school for an ice cream bar or a Creamsicle and telling the cashier to “charge it” to her account. No one expected her to pay on that account.

Susie’s father did find a good use for his hammer after he bought Cherry Hill on 15th Street. He developed or sold many of his lots and named various streets after cherry varieties or related themes, like Richmond Drive, Lambert Lane, Royal Anne Drive, and Cherrywood Drive.

Cherry Hill was a popular sledding hill in Susie Daniels’ day, as it is today, even though it was covered with cherry trees.

Said Susie: “I lost my front teeth on that hill.”

In 1984, Susie moved to Arizona and now enjoys a rural life with 32 chickens, 13 ducks, two goats and three sheep. Two years later, her parents moved to Arizona, too -- to retire and escape North Idaho winters.

The Haugens deserve to be recalled for introducing heaven in a mouthful.

Explosion Redux

Bill Webster, of Coeur d’Alene, remembers the 1962 Fourth of July fireworks explosion, off City Beach, that injured 13 volunteer Jaycees.

He wasn’t on the barge. But his good friend Andy Callahan was. Andy lost a thumb and index finger in the blast. Bill and Andy discussed that night many times afterward. Bill disputes the official report that it was caused by a mortar that malfunctioned in a fireworks tube.

The problem occurred as the Jaycees loaded fireworks from a public dock onto the barge that Fred Murphy and his tug were to ferry into deeper water. People were allowed onto the dock to watch the fireworks-loading.

“Some foolish cigarette smoker -- probably showing off for his girlfriend -- flipped a burning cigarette into an open box of fireworks,” Bill says. “The whole box of fireworks ignited sending fireworks all over the barge floor and the dock. One of the rockets hit Andy's hand as it exploded the way it was designed to do.”

From 1963 onward, professionals were hired to handle the fireworks.

The cigarette flipper was never identified.

Independent winner

In the Kootenai County election archives, Glen Walker is listed as the “Republican” winner of the 1978 prosecutor’s race. But Walker didn’t become a Republican until after his general election win over Democrat Gene Marano.

Walker, then 33 and the Coeur d’Alene city attorney, jumped into the race as an Independent, after Marano upset incumbent Robert Thompson in the August 1978 Democratic primary, 2,504 to 1,672. Marano said he “wouldn’t lose any sleep” over Walker’s surprise candidacy.

But he did lose the general election in November to Walker, 7,262 to 6,887.

Walker would become a topnotch prosecutor, assembling a superb team that rarely lost a case, including Marc Haws, Peter Erbland, Bob Burton and Bill Douglas. Also, he worked with the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations to monitor and prosecute the Aryan Nations.

After a solid career as a defense attorney, Marano became a respected 1st District Court magistrate.

Huckleberries

· Poet’s Corner: Our life sometimes/is dark and scary;/to compensate/God made the cherry – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Ode to the Bing”).

· Sightem: A Hayden Library sign spotted by Olivia Heisey of Coeur d'Alene Tuesday called for a moment of silence for Carolyn Hart’s book, “Southern Ghost.” After 12 years of library service and 148 checkouts, the sign read, the book had fallen prey to “CHEETOS FINGERS.” Then the sign said: “This is a friendly reminder that library books make expensive napkins and coasters.”

· Gone with the Wind: Forty years ago (Aug. 15, 1983), Mayor Jim Fromm recommended that the old school buildings at 7th & Montana be torn down. And they were. But pieces remained. The class of 1938 obtained 100 bricks from old Coeur d’Alene High and gave them away as souvenirs to former classmates at their 50th reunion in August 1988.

· Swamp Serpent: Shortly after they dedicated the new $3 million Post Falls PD office in summer 2003, the Loch Ness Monster appeared -- or a facsimile thereof in a nearby grassy swale. Tired of water overflow from the troublesome swale on PFPD property, a worker bee placed a cutout replica of the beast swimming in it. The serpent drew laughs. And made a point.

· Idaho Vandals: The City with a Heart didn’t react kindly 30 years ago to the removal of 27 trees as part of an overhaul of Lakeside Avenue. On Aug. 17, 1993, Ron Hauck and other hard hats arrived at work to find their equipment vandalized. “Murderer,” read one graffiti. “Save the trees” read another. Hauck told the Press: “I thought Greenpeace had been here.”

Parting Shot

Schuler Center for the Performing Arts reminds us of former president Barry Schuler’s impact on North Idaho College. On this day in our history (Aug. 20, 1968), Barry was pictured on the front page of the Coeur d’Alene Press with president P.A. Christianson and board chairman E.A. Seiter. Barry would assume Christianson's duties 12 days later. Under Barry’s rule, NIC added nursing and law enforcement programs, Hedlund Vocational Center, a science building and Boswell Hall. He helped establish or preserve Art on the Green, a national college wrestling powerhouse, the Museum of North Idaho and NIC beach. Barry, who died Feb. 3, 2022, didn’t suffer fools gladly. He’d have choice words for the bumbling Board of Trustees majority that is eroding his legacy today.

Dave Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com. And you can find more of his stories and photos of Coeur d’Alene’s recent past on his Facebook page: “D.F. Oliveria.”