Roth family cherishes generational property on Twin Lakes

TWIN LAKES — Stepping onto the Roth property on the shore of Twin Lakes, it's easy to imagine the countless memorable moments the family experienced over five generations on that land.

"There was so many," Lori Roth of Rathdrum said Thursday. 

"We grew up living a quarter mile away," said her older sister, Vicki Bradley, who lives across the street from the lakefront property.

"We spent lots and lots of time here with our grandparents," Bradley said. "They were both retired by that time. And at that time, Twin Lakes only had a handful of year-round residents. Most of them were summer cabins."

The family's roughly 3-acre waterfront parcel that started as 160 acres was first homesteaded by Gustave Roth, a farmer from Illinois who submitted the original homestead application April 15, 1902, after spending some time elsewhere in North Idaho.

“I think their intention was to go to Oregon," Bradley said. "They had an older daughter who had married and moved to Oregon, and they were going to follow her, but then they stopped in Rathdrum and ran into some people they know," Bradley said. "This is the story he told us. They ran into somebody they know who convinced them to stay.”

Gustave Roth was also a logger, a trade that was handed down. Roth Brothers Logging became a prominent generational North Idaho business.

“He logged, and he used draft horses,” Bradley said. “He had logging camps.”

Sometime in the 1940s, the Twin Lakes property went to Gustave's son, Frank Roth, who lived there with his wife, Berna, and their family.

“Our grandpa was in World War I,” Bradley said, pointing to black and white photos on the Roth family's legacy board.

In one photo, Frank is seen with a couple other young men in the early 1910s. He was a dapper fellow with a full head of hair and a winning smile.

“He ended up losing his hair, whether it was the mustard gas or the flu epidemic they had then," Bradley said. "We never knew him with hair, so this is pre-WWI.”

Although many acres were sold off through the Great Depression and other challenges, a slice of the rural paradise has stayed in the family all this time and has been enjoyed by Roths and their spouses, children, friends and extended family for nearly 125 years. Its landscape has changed through the years from rabbit, mink and otter hutches, barns and orchards to a legacy home with an outbuilding or two, but it still features century-old apple trees and weeping willows and a garden where several generations of Roths have worked, played and perhaps fallen into a pea patch along the way.

"It's home," Bradley and Lori's sister, Elaine Younker, of Spokane Valley said. "It's a safe haven."

From about the 1950s on, it has served as a central location for huge Fourth of July parties, complete with lots of friends and cousins and a bonfire for hot dog and marshmallow roasting.

"You grew up knowing each year, it's like, 'Oh, Aunt Madaline's going to bring her croissant rolls,' or, 'Oh, Aunt Lucy's going to bring her macaroni salad that we all love,' 'There's going to be fried chicken' and 'Uncle Tom always brings a big watermelon or two,'" Younker said, "those kind of things."

Later in the timeline, Bradley and her family lived in the home for over 20 years.

"One winter when I lived here, my husband and two boys are in front and they just shoveled the roof and with the snow, you couldn't see out the windows," she recalled.

Lori said she remembers spending time there when she was small.

"I was little, needing a stool to be up at the sink and either helping Grandpa with something or scrubbing chicken feet for Grandma," she said.

The property is in the process of changing hands to another generation of Roths after the untimely passing of the sisters' brother, Daniel Roth, in May. Daniel had lived in the house since Bradley and her family moved to a nearby historical farming homestead several years ago. 

On July 12, more than 200 people gathered to remember Daniel as well as their mom, Bonnie, aunt Lucy and cousin Mike, who all passed in the past year.

"When we had the celebration of life, all these people came and they hadn't been here since they were kids or young adults, so they feel exactly the same way we feel," Bradley said. "When they were young, they spent lots of time here. There's a large group of people who this is a pretty special place to them."

For this beloved place to stay in the family, "It means everything," Lori said.

    Vicki Bradley of Twin Lakes gestures to photos on the Roth family legacy board Thursday while visiting the family's waterfront property on Twin Lakes. Bradley and her sisters shared memories of growing up on the land that their great-grandfather first applied to homestead in 1902. It has been in the family for five generations.
  

    From left, Lori Roth, Vicki Bradley and Elaine Younker with granddaughter Harper Henry gather on the porch of the Roth family home Thursday in Twin Lakes. The property has been in the family since 1902.
  

    Apples grow on a more than 100-year-old tree on the Roth family property in Twin Lakes, seen Thursday.
  

    Frank Roth, left, is seen in this early 1910s photo. He was one of the patriarchs of the Twin Lakes Roth family, which founded Roth Brothers Logging. Frank also served in World War I.
  

    Roth Brothers Logging used draft horses and mules in its operations in the Twin Lakes area in the early 1900s.