Then and Now: Docking on Lake Coeur d'Alene, 127 years ago

“To tourists that are willing to leave the beaten tracks of travel, I can heartily recommend the Coeur d’Alene voyage through the pleasant mountain-land of northern Idaho.” 

It is as though the author who sang these praises, only listed as “E.V.S.” in an 1887 article from “The Northwest Magazine,” saw Coeur d’Alene’s future from 127 years in the past. The Press republished the article with the accompanying drawing in 1985. The article describes the “deep, green waters of the lake, with forest-clad mountain slopes rising from pebbly beaches” — scenery that drew locals and tourists alike to the area to make Coeur d’Alene the thriving destination it is today. 

When “E.V.S.” passed through the area in 1887, Coeur d’Alene was little more than a fort town, as Fort Sherman had been constructed nine years before on the north shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene in 1878. The Northern Pacific Railroad reached the settlement in 1883, necessitating the Third Street railroad dock depicted in the drawing. Passengers could take a steamboat south on the lake from the dock to enter the Coeur d’Alene River— which E.V.S. described as “groves of pines and balm trees, thickets of roses and blossoming prairies, gemmed with little lakes that mirror the mountain peaks.”  

Today, the Third Street railroad dock is gone — but the site is far from forgotten. In its place stands the Coeur d’Alene Boat Launch, with McEuen Park and downtown Coeur d’Alene in the background. Since “E.V.S.” recorded their journey through North Idaho over a century ago, the area has changed dramatically as local industries involved, but the beauty of the region is timeless.  

    Today, the Coeur d'Alene Boat Launch stands where "E.V.S." once boarded a steamboat over a century ago--the Boat Launch remains a waterfront hub of activity. Photo by Hailey Hill.