Thanks for those personal insights. Wow, 50-car trains coursing down the east side of Lake Coeur d'Alene and crossing the swing bridge at Chatcolet would have been something to see. A lot of amazing history has slipped away. I'm still amazed that the practice of floating logs up the lake from St. Maries was still going on, pretty much unnoticed, until just two or three years ago.

Don't know when you were last in the Silver Valley, but you'll be happy to know it's had quite a turnaround in recent years. After most of the mining business ended, and the railroads left, and the whole area became a superfund site, there was quite a slump in home values and just about everything else. The little town of Smelterville even considered the idea of changing its name in hopes of attracting new business and homebuyers. About ten years ago, you could buy a decent home in that area for about half or less than something similar in CdA or Post Falls.

But then came the Route of the Hiawatha trail, the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, and the expansion of Silver Mountain ski resort and its "world's longest" gondola ride with all those new mountain biking trails, the year-around water park, and the fancy new resort complex. Kellogg and Wallace have become a big tourist draw not just for people from California, Seattle, and the East Coast, but also for locals living just 30 minutes away. As a result, homes prices have risen to be about on par with (and in some cases above) other north Idaho communities. My father in law from upstate New York was once considering retiring to Wallace. He said it looked even prettier in person than it did in the movie "Dante's Peak." But on his more recent visits out to see us, he's been swaying more toward Sandpoint. Who knows.