This Day in History, February 3

February 3, 1911
Operations at the Milwaukee Lumber Company in St. Maries began.  The Milwaukee Lumber Company was incorporated in Idaho in February of 1910 by Mr. Fred Herrick, who had come to Idaho from Wisconson in 1909, and his associates A.V. Braderick and W.A. Barnum.  

The Milwaukee Land Company operated the first logging railroad in the St. Maries drainage.  Logging and timber production, being susceptible to the forces of nature, fluctuated from year to year.  Among the adversities the Milwaukee faced were forest fires that not only wiped out timber stands but sections of railway, and the unpredictability of spring floods.


In April 1913, high waters on the St. Joe River flooded the mill and it was shut down along with the St. Maries Lumber Company.  Worse yet was the flood of May 1917, where (according to best estimates of the time) almost $500,000 worth of lumber were lost along the St. Joe, Coeur d'Alene and Spokane Rivers.  The Milwaukee Lumber Company estimated that between three and four million board feet of lumber stacked in the yard floated away.    


The mill produced 50 million board feet of lumber the first year.  Production dropped to 22 million board feet in 1912.  Between 1922 and 1928, production averaged 30 million board feet.  The last year of operation was 1929.  During it's run from 1911 to 1929 around 525 million board feet of lumber were produced.


For more information about the timber industry in St. Maries, visit the St. Maries History page.

Ski the Great Potato, Part 2

Previously we discussed Idaho's Ski the Great Potato promotion, circa 1970.  While Idaho has so much to offer, spuds and skiing were, and are still, a couple of the state's touchstones.  What a combination.

The logo was so clever that it was picked up on by Ezra Brooks.  Ezra Brooks, along with Jim Beam and other distillers, created collector decanters for bourbons and other spirits depicting all sorts of people, places, things and events.  The Ski the Great Potato edition was one of a series of Ezra Brooks special decanters.

Produced in 1972, the Potato was available in Idaho liquor stores.  It must not have been very popular as by 1974 the remaining decanters were marked down to get off the shelves.

A wonderful piece of Idaho/skiing memorabilia, you can occasionally find one available on ebay.

Ski The Great Potato

Around 1970 the State of Idaho Department of Commerce & Tourism (or whatever the name was then) had a great idea on promoting skiing in Idaho.  Not like Idaho isn't known for skiing, Sun Valley was the first destination winter resort in the United States. The world's first chairlifts were built there in 1936.

Over the years, skiing gained popularity and more resorts sprang up around the state.  To capitalize on these winter activities and promote Idaho as a true four season vacation state, a new slogan, Ski the Great Potato, was introduced.

The above photo is of an original promotional poster from that era.  It features Peter Max style artwork of an All-American skier blasting over the Great Potato, representing the many ski resorts in Idaho.

Across the top of the poster are the names Sun Valley, Bogus Basin, Schweitzer, Targhee and Brundage.  In small print across the bottom were Bald Mountain, Bear Gulch, Blizzard Mountain, Caribou, Cottonwood Butte, Hitt Mountain, Jackass Bowl, Kelly Canyon, Lookout Pass, Lost Trail, Magic Mountain, Montpelier,, North South Bowl, Pine Basin, Pomerelle, Rotarun, Skyline, Snohaven, Soldier Mountain, Tamarack and Taylor Mountain.  Forty years on, a number of these ski areas have changed names or gone out of business for one reason or another.

Most notably, Jackass Bowl is now known as Silver Mountain.  North South Bowl is now known as the Palouse Divide Lodge.  Bear Gulch  lost it's USFS permit and the lodge was burned in 1989.  Other names are parts of larger resort areas or are small, family run operations featuring cross country skiing and a couple have become havens for snowmobile.  Locally, a couple that weren't listed on the poster were Signal Point south of Post Falls (defunct prior to 1970) and Holiday Hills just across the state line above Liberty Lake (ill fated 1970's project that never had a chance). 

This wasn't the only Great Potato promotional piece.  Tune in tomorrow and see what bourbon has to do with Idaho's skiing.