Wallace, Idaho : Northwest Trip Day 2

Last year, Sue read a book called “The Big Burn” by Timothy Egan that had been recommended by a friend.  She loves to visit places of history that she’s read about, and “The Big Burn” tells all about the huge wildfires of 1910 where wildfires popped up all around the west, including the area around Wallace, Idaho.  Smoke from these fires was seen as far away as New York, and ships 500 miles out in the Pacific couldn’t navigate by the stars at night because they were blotted out by the smoke.  So we decided to visit Wallace, Idaho, which was a center point for fighting some of these fires and see what we could find.

Wallace is a small town about 50 miles east of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, situated up in some beautiful pine forests. It is where the movie “Dante’s Peak” was filmed, and has been designated as “The Center of the Universe” (more about that later).

There are a number of antique stores and since this was a well-known mining district, you can find lots of items related to mining.  Not much was going on in town when we got there, so we hit the 1313 Club for second breakfast.  The restaurant has some fun decor and the food was really good.

Sue had a breakfast burrito gluten-free, which was without the flour tortilla, or” just the guts”, as the cook said.  He even made it into the shape of a burrito.  Scott had the small biscuits and gravy.  Both were pretty good sized and very tasty.

We walked around town, checking out the shops and cool buildings.  During planning for the freeway construction, a large number of buildings were threatened with demolition, so the town got all of its buildings registered on the National Historic Register and required the freeway to be built above the town rather than through it.

One interesting note about Wallace is the pretty unique museum there.  I don’t know how many bordello museums there are in the United States, but there is one in tiny Wallace, Idaho.   This former brothel was in use as late as 1988.  For some reason, everyone left in a big hurry, leaving all their belongings as if they were going to come back.  The Oasis Bordello Museum is open for business 🙂 from May through October 10-5 Mon-Sat, and 11-3 on Sunday.

Another interesting “fact” about Wallace, is that it has been declared the center of the universe.  I’ll bet you didn’t know that.  Why is that you ask?  Well, on September 25, 2004, the mayor of Wallace declared it to be so, and said that someone would have to prove it not to be so.  Apparently, no one has done that yet, because there is a manhole cover that states that it is, indeed, the center of the universe.

After visiting Wallace, we traveled just a short distance south of town to hike up to the Pulaski Tunnel, a famous place where Ed Pulaski led a number of firefighters to safety inside a mine shaft.  It is a 2-mile (one-way) hike on packed earth with embedded rock.  It’s not a difficult hike but it is a steady ascent.  The trail runs along the West Fork of Placer Creek so there are lovely water sounds all the way, plus it is just beautiful.  The trail has many well-done interpretive signs that explain the Big Burn, the “Big Blowup” in August 1910 when Pulaski’s crew was caught and 1/3 of Wallace was burned, as well as information on the still-used firefighting tool he invented, the pulaski.  After that visit, we continued on our journey to Okanogan, Washington to visit family and spend a couple days there.  Along the way, we went through Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Spokane, Washington; and visited Chief Joseph Dam.