Books by Keokee Co. Publishing Inc.

Pioneer Voices of Priest Lake

Edited by Kris Runberg Smith

Excerpt from Pioneer Voices of Priest Lake
edited by Kris Runberg Smith

Chapter 4. Creating a Community

Entertainment at Priest Lake
Like today, summertime at Priest Lake brought family and friends together. Parties and dances around the lake attracted summer people and residents alike. Children swam and boated and looked forward to roasting marshmallows at night. Since travel was more difficult, hosting guests became an important ritual – whether it was sourdough Pete Chase at Upper Priest Lake, Belle Angstadt at the Lone Star Ranch near Bear Creek or Leonard Paul on the front porch of his store.

1914 – Church held at the Idaho Inn pavilion
1916 – Fourth of July celebration at Bert Winslow’s dance pavilion on Reeder Creek
1916 – “Hard Times” dance at Lamb Creek School, $1 fine for wearing good clothes
1920 – Christmas night social dance at the Nordman schoolhouse
1921 – First radio concert in Coolin at Moore’s restaurant
1926 – Opening for the dance hall above the Leonard Paul Store

Leonard Paul on the Priest River Forest Supervisor Benjamin McConnell
They stressed [Ben] McConnell’s accuracy with his .38 Colt automatic. Well, it is a fact! Whenever he would ride horseback up the lake, there wasn’t a mailbox along the line that wasn’t shot up. He was always shooting. One afternoon when I went to the post office, which was across the road from the hotel on the hill, the stage wasn’t in yet so everybody was in the saloon waiting for the mail to come and the bar was all lined up. McConnell was standing at the end of the bar and, of course, he was buying the drinks. So when I came in he said, “Leonard, have a drink.” The only place was at the far end of the bar, so I dallied up there and the bartender slid a bottle of rye and a little chaser of water. The glass, of course, had a heavy glass bottom. I poured my drink and looked down in front of all the fellas to McConnell to the end and said, “Here’s luck, men.” He pulled out his gun and shot the glass right out of my hand in front of all of these people. Of course, all I held was the heavy glass bottom, but it didn’t bother anybody. The bartender gave me another glass, I took my drink and finally we got the mail. And that was the end of that. He was unpredictable, no kidding.

Marjorie (Paul) Roberts on Growing Up
We went fishing and hiking and camping out. We had bicycles. Every kid had a rowboat. Almost everybody went down [to Paul-Jones Beach] to swim because that’s where the action was. The beach was nice and the kids could go on the slide; there was no charge and no one would bother them. You could go on the big diving ramp, bigger kids and bigger people that wanted to, and that’s where everybody swam. This beach and dock was where all the kids spent their summer afternoons and evenings.
There was a beach party every night at Paul-Jones Beach when I was a kid. There was somebody who would have a beach party. If nobody did, well, the caretaker would start one in front of one of the places and everybody would come down and sing along. We’d end up by going swimming in the dark, then go home and to bed around 10 o’clock. It was a big deal. But it wasn’t only us kids; anybody that wanted to just came. And if you brought marshmallows, so much the better – if you didn’t it was all right.