HUCKLEBERRIES: A new music man and other visionaries

Many wondered whether a popular summer concert series in Coeur d’Alene and Hayden would survive without promoter Chris Guggemos.

Michael Koep, an 11th-hour replacement, provided the answer last year after Chris’s death in September 2022: A resounding yes.

The sound, style, and venues of the Koep Concerts in 2023 mimicked the ones offered by Chris and his Handshake Productions during the previous 31 years. And that was intentional.

“I was always going to take it slow,” Michael told Huckleberries as he prepared to fundraise for the 2024 season. “Chris did a lot of things right. I will put a little different spice on things as time moves on.”

Michael, the drummer for The Rub, a popular local rock band, added subtle changes last summer: a distinctive look for the stages and an area where performers can relax between sets. In 2024, he wants to include a Beatles tribute band to the music mix and a broader food selection.

“It’s only going to get better,” he said.

Michael and the Downtown Association are discussing the possible return of Tuesday concerts to the overhauled Coeur d’Alene Rotary Centennial Park (formerly Sherman Square Park) downtown.

Michael met the high standards of Chris’s concerts while maintaining his own frenetic schedule as a musician, writer, poet and painter. From May to September, which Michael and The Rub bandmates Christopher Lucas and Cary Beare call the “festival season,” The Rub plays about 50 concerts throughout the Inland Northwest.

Yet, Michael squeezed the summer concerts into his jammed schedule because Sundays and Thursdays are usually open for him. His family often joins him at the events: “I love bringing music into the park and into people’s lives. It fits into my life’s mission of making art for people.”

Michael will focus on raising funds, beginning this week through April. Anyone can contribute any amount, large or small, to the tradition of free summer concerts by going to the Koep Concerts site (https://koepconcerts.com).

A news legacy

Frances Cope (Johnson), a native North Idahoan who smoked cigarettes from long holders, was named editor of the Coeur d’Alene Press 60 years ago today.

Presumably, she was the first woman to hold the job. Also, according to The Press, she was the first woman to enroll at Gonzaga University, where she majored in journalism.

In 1926, Frances launched a 44-year career with the Coeur d’Alene Press as a proofreader. Three years later, she became a reporter. And, later, she introduced photography to the newsroom and sometimes published the paper by herself when The Press was between editors.

For 10 years, she worked alongside Louise Shadduck, the future state Republican dynamo. After Frances died in 1987, Louise said: “Frances Cope had the finest sense of the degree of newsworthiness. She made sure that front page stories and headlines were always the biggest news of the day.”

Appointed by Publisher C. Patrick King on Jan. 28, 1964, Frances served as editor for six years before returning to her first love: Reporting.

Frances married retired peace officer Cliff Johnson in 1970, five days after she retired. She died at age 80 on April 3, 1987.

Remembering Art

McEuen Park carries the name of Mae McEuen, a local grocer and community booster. But Art Manley also deserves credit for saving the greenspace from development.

“Mae McEuen got her name on the field,” attorney Scott Reed said after Manley’s death on Jan. 26, 2004, “but Art put it together.”

Mae and Art led the opposition to a 1956 attempt to build a shopping mall on 4.6 acres of what is now McEuen Park. The City Council supported the development. After a fierce campaign, in which project supporters outspent opponents 3-to-1, city voters rejected the mall plan 2,082 to 945.

Mae McEuen went on to champion youth baseball on the field that would be renamed for her in 1965, a year after she died of cancer at age 61.

Art, who served 14 years as a Democratic legislator from Coeur d’Alene, was also instrumental in preserving Tubbs Hill, acquiring North Idaho College beach, protecting Upper Priest Lake, and purchasing Mowry State Park on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

And in 1972, with Mary Lou Reed, Art founded the Kootenai Environmental Alliance.

Said Scott Reed: “The whole landscape of Idaho would look different without Art Manley.”

More sizzle

On Jan. 26, 1989, businessman Duane Hagadone surprised the community by announcing plans to invest $125 million more to expand his waterfront holdings.

At a jammed press conference at The Coeur d’Alene Resort, he laid out a five-year Hagadone Hospitality plan, which included construction of The Resort golf course on the old Potlatch Rutledge Mill site.

He had put the golf course project on hold the previous August after facing resistance from city planners. In 1989, he was ready to move ahead with the proposed golf course, along with a condominium complex and 400-slip marina at the old mill site.

And he planned a shopping mall across Front Avenue from The Resort.

“The future of North Idaho is exciting — it’s unlimited,” Hagadone said. “We would not be making this tremendous investment if we didn’t believe that.”

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: There is an icy sidewalk/that’s slick as polished glass;/I saw a lady slip there/and fall upon her … handbag — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (Winter’s Verse).

• Weather Gems: Cliff Harris was 9 when his obsession with weather began. On Feb. 22, 1952, he was hooked after his ailing grandfather asked him to fill out a daily weather form. Now, fast forward to Jan. 26, 2004. That’s when Cliff began writing a weekly column for The Press, called Cliff’s Weather Gems. And he has blessed us with his weather wisdom since.

• Did You Know … that New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio was a guest at the 2nd Coeur d’Alene Press Sports Banquet on Jan. 22, 1964? "Joltin' Joe" and Lefty O’Doul were featured along with then-active baseball stars Larry Jackson of Chicago and Vernon Law of Pittsburgh. DiMaggio told the overflow crowd that he enjoyed his first trip to Coeur d’Alene and planned to return to fish.

• ‘My Precious’ — Among the many things Press readers learned about U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo in a Press Sunday profile Jan. 25, 2004, was the name of his favorite book. Actually, his favorite book was a trilogy: “The Lord of the Rings.”

• Factoid: For at least nine years, from 1956 to 1964, former resident Kenneth Warehouse raised money for the March of Dimes by walking 35 miles from 19th and Sherman Avenue to Spokane. He did so with fanfare as mayors, queens, police and service clubs lined up to see him off. Old-timers will recall the MOD campaigns to prevent birth defects and premature births.

Parting shot

We groaned during this mild winter when temperatures dipped below zero for a few days. But that was a common event in January 1949 when subzero weather occurred at least 17 times.

The extreme weather 75 years ago, however, didn’t stop the town from declaring war on coyotes.

Seems townspeople took offense when coyotes chomped at least 20 local deer to death that January. So a bounty of $2.50 per coyote carcass was offered. And a contest sponsored by the Athletic Round Table.

Teams of two men took flight to win the contest that stretched from Jan. 21 to Feb. 27.

The G.I. Flying Service team of Bill Brooks and L.V. Wallace led in late January with five kills. A second team of Darrell Baldwin and John Ruthven from Weeks Field (county fairgrounds today) had 14 kills that month but only three of them had occurred during the contest period.

Today, of course, Dalton Gardens residents might not mind a few coyotes to cull the pesky deer that haunt their lawns and gardens.

• • •

D.F. “Dave” Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.

    In January 1964, Frances Cope became Coeur d’Alene Press editor.
  

    In 1973, Art Manley ate lunch along the St. Joe River.
  

    Duane Hagadone, shown as a young man practicing his swing, enjoyed golfing. And that passion was at play when he built his renowned golf course.
  

    Cliff Harris has shared his weather wisdom with Press readers for decades.
  

    In the left photo, Coeur d’Alene restaurateur Bill Webster, left, shares a gag gift with baseball great Lefty O’Doul. In the right photo, New York Yankee great Joe Dimaggio waves to a crowd of 900 in the old North Shore Motor Inn.
  

    Kenneth Warehouse (with sign) gets a warm sendoff from Mayor Perry Christianson and others as he begins his annual 35-mile March of Dimes walk.
  

    The carcasses of 13 coyotes were hung on an oversized clothesline west of the Desert Hotel as part of an Athletic Round Table contest to eliminate the predators.
  

    The Weeks Field hunting team of Darrell Baldwin and John Ruthven with some of their 14 kills in January 1949.