HUCKLEBERRIES: Of 'purple gold,' Manley and Reed

Venerable Mary Lou Reed and her late husband, Scott, co-founded the Kootenai Environmental Alliance with good friend Art Manley 50 years ago.

In 1982, Mary Lou and Art campaigned door-to-door together for state Senate seats.

The Reeds contributed money to Art’s campaigns.

Yet, for all that, Art wouldn’t tell them the location of his favorite spots for picking huckleberries.

“As close as we were, we were never invited to pick huckleberries with Art,” nonagenarian Mary Lou said, pretending to pout during a recent visit with former legislator George Sayler and this reporter.

George was holding the wooden huckleberry picker that Art crafted in a Coeur d’Alene High shop class in the 1930s. The tines are longer than the metal, commercial ones of today. But the picker enabled Art to reap pounds of huckleberries for the county Democrats’ annual huckleberry socials.

After Art died at age 88 in 2004, Scott Reed acquired the picker for $100 at a fundraising auction for the Democrats. Mary Lou gifted the relic to George, after Scott died at age 87 in 2015. Now, George plans to give it to the Museum of North Idaho in memory of a man who cherished the outdoors and huckleberries.

Some say Art Manley and Scott Reed fed the huckleberry frenzy. They were that fanatical about the dark-purple berry. In 2017, former KEA exec Adrienne Cronebaugh told Michal Bennett of OutDoors Out There that huckleberry picking wasn’t a thing until Art and Scott made it a thing: “It was theirs originally. I would say almost that they created the celebration of huckleberries.”

Also, Cronebaugh described to OutDoors Out There how the Reeds and Art Manley worked together to protect the local environment: Mary Lou and Art “were drivers of conservation policy,” she said, "and Scott was the protector of resources. He was the environmental lawyer for the area.”

Art, who grew up in the shadow of Tubbs Hill and hiked it daily, bird-dogged four property purchases over 40 years to preserve the downtown natural area in perpetuity. Scott wrote the definitive booklet about it: “The Treasure Called Tubbs Hill.” Their contributions on behalf of Tubbs Hill are engraved in memorial stones and plaques at the two entrances to the hill.

Art helped found the Four County Natural Resource Committee and Friends of Tubbs Hill, worked to stop development and motorized boats on Upper Priest Lake and, with Scott, fought for public access to Coeur d’Alene and Fernan lakes and to protect Cougar Bay from development.

Mary Lou said she and Scott were looking for fun in 1955 when they moved to North Idaho. But then they met Art and, she said, “He had a way of drawing you in.”

In the forward to Scott’s history of Tubbs Hill, former mayor Sandi Bloem was grateful for Art and Scott “who modeled for all of us, through their passion, perseverance and patience, how individual citizens can make a difference and preserve what is best about our special place for generations to come.”

North Idaho Democrats will honor Art’s work at the Big Blue Huckleberry Barbecue from 4 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 29, at Elk Point Events on Potlatch Hill. The celebration will feature a catered barbecue, music, storytellers “regaling the crowd with tales of North Idaho” and many mentions of huckleberries.

Our first mall

As a kid, Jon Gagnon loved Buttrey’s in the old Coeur d’Alene Mall: “Where else," he said, "could you get pork chops, a model of a car, guns and a vacuum tube for a radio? Records, too.”

Dave Walker and his friends flew Sprouse-Reitz gliders INSIDE the mall: “We sent so much business (to Sprouse-Reitz) that the manager gave us some free.”

Erica Johnson once got lost at Montgomery Ward: “Some nice older ladies walked me back to Buttrey’s, where I got a sucker, and they called my mom over the PA system. Scared the hell out of both of us.”

When it opened in April 1966, the Coeur d’Alene Mall (at the bend of Fourth Street on Appleway), was the largest of its kind in Idaho — 11 stores and shops under one roof, with Buttreys Store anchoring the east end of the mall and “Monkey Wards” the other. Businesses in between included Sprouse-Reitz, Kinney Shoes, Klotz Drug and, later, Marie O’Brien’s.

The building permit listed the construction cost at $1,363,716. And the Press reported that Daum Development of Portland bought it for more than $1 million in July 1968.

Today, the original stores are gone from the mall, replaced by EntertainMart, Big 5, Big Lots and Jimmy John's, among others, in a building with 118,340 square feet of space, now called Coeur d’Alene Town Center.

But fond memories remain of Coeur d’Alene’s first mall.

Jeri King offered this fond farewell about the old mall on the Old School Coeur d’Alene Facebook page: “I think we lived at the Coeur d’Alene Mall.”

Here comes Hilde

Today, a park along Idaho Street in Post Falls is named for the late Hilde Kellogg, a 10-term River City legislator who retired from elective office at age 88 due to failing eyesight. And it wasn’t the first place or thing that bore her name. Thirty-five years ago (July 19, 1988), the Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Racetrack named its Styrofoam rabbit at the track in her honor. Track officials, including co-owner Duane Hagadone, said they did so to thank Hilde for pushing through a bill that legalized dog racing in Idaho. Hilde said she was “deeply honored” but admitted she had no idea how she would feel as the rabbit circled the track, with speedy greyhounds in pursuit, and an announcer yelled, “Here comes Hilde.” Said Hilde, “I suppose I’ll say, ‘Where is she?’”

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: The hot dog is a lurid meat/comprised of eyeballs, snouts and feet/and nameless organs pink and pasty —/yet even so I find it tasty — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“The Curse of Oscar Mayer”).

• Limericking: The weather's just fine the pols say./With another record six-digit day./Ignore those big fires,/Climate changers are liars./And my AC will never betray — The Humble Spud (“SIX DIGITS”).

• Glory Days: Dave Chapman, of Chapman Financial Services, now retired, was a top-notch first baseman fifty years ago when softball was king here. At the 32-team Lake City Slow-pitch Invitational Softball Tournament (July 1973), Dave, playing for Lighthouse sporting goods, socked seven HRs and drove in 14 runs to win the MVP trophy and lead Lighthouse to second place.

• The Way We Were: Jim Putman may be senior pastor at the ever-expanding Real Life Ministries now. But 30 years ago (July 19, 1993), he was a humble padre taking his turn in the dunk tank — to raise money for a worthy cause, the church’s thrift shop. Now, that’s leading by example.

• Still Cruisin’: At 5 p.m. Friday, July 19, 1968, the newly minted Mish-an-Nock slipped into the Spokane River headed for a shakedown cruise on Lake Coeur d’Alene. Built by Howard Dolph and his brothers Scott and Rich, the Mish-an-Nock, an American Indian name meaning “Morning Star,” was 65 feet long and 33 feet wide initially. It is now part of The Coeur d’Alene Resort fleet.

Parting shot

That headline Tuesday — “Water use soaring: Cd’A considering conservation ordinance” — and our helter-skelter construction craze brings to mind a warning from late Post Falls mayor Clay Larkin. In a letter to the editor, Clay said: “At best, development is running rampant, ragged and unchecked. At high risk is our very fragile aquifer that we depend on daily for all our survival needs. The aquifer that is our sole source of water is taken for granted by all. It, too, has a breaking point of how much it can support. When it hits that point, we are in serious trouble; maybe not this year or next, but it will happen.” The letter appeared in The Press — 30 YEARS AGO! It’s five minutes to midnight for the aquifer, people.

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Dave Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com. You can find more old-time photos and news on his Facebook page: D.F. Oliveria.