Railroads helped build Kootenai

(Recently, I talked to Bev Wiley and she shared with me a story that had been given to her by Thelma Linstrum back in the 1980's. Thelma tells of her early days in Kootenai and some of her school experiences. Bev gave me permission to share the story with you that Thelma, in her own words, shared with her.)

My parents, Charles and Ada Hilligoss came from Minnesota in July 1902. The dray taking them from the old Great Northern depot to Kootenai (called Greenough's Spur) was hub-deep in mud on the narrow road going through the thickly forested countryside.

The Ellersick brothers, who came from Park Rapids, Minnesota in 1901, were building the Kootenai Mill and the mill houses near present-day Ponder Point. The next day my father went to work for them, using a horse to drag timber to the mill. Several years later, the mill was sold to the Humbird Lumber Company from Mason, Wisconsin. My father continued working for Humbird until the mill closed in 1930. During those years, he was a timekeeper and office manager. He and my mother also operated the company boarding house for several years.

My sister, Lila (Mrs. Arthur Rosholt), my brother, Adair Hilligoss, and I were born in Kootenai. Our parents later purchased a mill house there. During those years, there were many changes in the area generated by the lumber and railroad industries.

There became two Kootenais. The first, called Old Town, was at the mill location. It included the mill office, the houses, the Ellersick homes, a boarding house, a company store and a railroad spur—all south of the railroad tracks.

When the Northern Pacific Railroad relocated their division point from Hope to Kootenai, the Humbird's, who owned much of the adjoining land, established the Kootenai town site, New Town, on the north side of the tracks. They platted the town and built many houses, which were rented or sold to the railroad workers. Soon there were so many buildings, both business and residential, that it took nearly five miles of wooden sidewalks to connect the community. To this day, the terms "Old Town" and "New Town" still apply to Kootenai.

I can remember when there were stores on each side of the street for more than two blocks in New Town. There were two drug stores, and the butcher shop was the ticket office and terminal for the streetcar coming from Sandpoint. There was a restaurant, a hardware store, and a furniture store. The Bonner Trading Store selling general merchandise housed the post office. At one time, there was a dance hall and seven saloons in town. The Painter Hotel, built a little later, was next to the bank owned by the Humbird Lumber Company. A little square building, which was the jail later became the post office. Some of the buildings had living quarters upstairs and many had tall fronts with advertising on them. At that time, it was thought that Kootenai was larger than Sandpoint.

The railroad facilities grew rapidly. All the freight trains, going both ways, stopped and changed crews and so many railroad families lived in town. There was a large brick 22 stall roundhouse, a coal dock, and a large building called the car shop; also a large stockyard where cattle and sheep were unloaded from the stock cars to be fed, watered and reloaded.