Bayview Historical Society
BAYVIEW, ID
dedicated to preserving the history of Bayview, Lakeview and other locations on Lake Pend Oreille
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dedicated to preserving the history of Bayview, Lakeview and other locations on Lake Pend Oreille
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Cecil and Mildred Newell – Bayview Cecil (1914-1996) was born in
Cadillac, Saskatchewan, Canada, about 50 miles north of the Montana border and
lived there until the age of seven, when
his family moved to Spokane. He met Mildred (1915-2004) while
Cecil joined the Navy following graduation, serving from 1934 to ’38. The couple married in 1939. Cecil had developed “an itch” for the water during his time in the Navy, so he immediately took a liking to Bayview when Mildred invited him to the lake. She had made many visits to Bayview as a child because her father worked for Walter Merriweather, one of the men who platted the town site. The couple bought 2 adjacent
float homes
Cecil and Mildred continued to live in Spokane where he worked at Atlas Mine & Milling and she at various accounting related jobs. Their only daughter Karen was born in 1952. They would spend weekends and summers at the float house, using the small adjacent cottage for guests and extra family members. Mildred began her lifelong hobby of photography and Cecil built her a darkroom in their Spokane basement, but many of her photos were taken at the lake.
By the time the family had
moved to their cabin the Cape Horn Road was completed. Both Cecil and
Harold Stewart, along with others, finished the
Cecil bought a small boat from Ford Davis, who owned The Wheel Inn, and a 25 HP outboard engine. Davis had gotten several of these war surplus Navy runabouts. It was in terrible condition and cost just $25.00. Stewart helped Cecil to strip it and refurbish the craft, which became very serviceable taking the family all over the lake. They kept it until the 1970s. The family continued coming to the lake from Spokane. Mildred and daughter Karen often spent the entire summer at the cabin and Cecil joined them for the weekends. He was working as an electrical engineer for Tingling & Powell and traveled around the northwest to various mine and dam projects. At one point he worked at the Conjecture Mine at Lakeview, where Karen remembers going down the 2000’ shaft. Karen picked up summer jobs at the Wheel, Buttonhook or Cape Horn Resort. Cecil was a workaholic and continued to be employed well after the age of 70 at Texas Refinery and later Spokane Steel Foundry. He died in 1996. Mildred continued coming to the lake until her passing in 2004. |
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from LC in 1933.
Her family made the long trip to Spokane from Evanston, Illinois, in 1919 in a
Model T Ford before there was anything like motels for overnight accommodations.
at Feely’s Resort in 1942 and a 27’ wooden boat, called Appolonia,
which was Cecil’s pride and joy. Those were the war years and Cecil quickly
volunteered to join the local Coast Guard Auxiliary and help patrol the lower
end of the lake. He and Mildred would often take sailors, who were recovering from
war injuries at the hospital on the Farragut Naval Training Center grounds,
aboard their boat for trips on Lake Pend Oreille. Due to his Auxiliary
connections, they were afforded access to Farragut and all its benefits, like
gas rations, whereas the base was out-of-bounds to most Ba
yview residents.
The favorite activity of locals in those days was stopping by the numerous pubs
along the lake for a bit of brew. Mildred told one
story of how a group had gone to Lakeview aboard the Appolonia, which was
affectionately called “Crappy Appy,” when a storm came up and they were barely
able to return late that night. By the time they arrived in Bayview the
boat was covered with inches of solid ice and her fine interior was “decorated”
by the drunken sailors.
The
couple became good friends with Harold and Grace Stewart and they would visit
the Stewarts who live on Cape Horn. One time Harold convinced Cecil to
help him move a slot machine to Whiskey Rock aboard a tiny boat in the middle of
winter. The weather was terrible and it took a couple days before the lake
was calm enough to enable the men to return to Bayview. 
They
sold the float homes and boat in 1955 when they decided to build a cabin on Cape
Horn, adjacent to the Stewarts. They bought a lot which was 600’ deep and had
over 100’ of waterfront for the then outrageous sum of $400. There was a small
tent cabin on the lot onto which Cecil added a
permanent
structure which he built himself from supplies purchased from Farragut
leftovers. When the base closed, all the buildings and supplies were declared
surplus. He picked up most of his building materials from Sherman Salvage
located near Athol, including the windows which still look onto the lake today.
Gradually he added several additions to the home, replacing the outhouse with
indoor plumbing and adding a water supply to the kitchen so that someone didn’t
have to carry water from the lake anymore.
road
in 1952. Prior to that time the cabins on the Cape were accessed only by boat
or a walking trail.
The original road was just a single lane, making passing nearly impossible. The
section at the highest point was some 18 to 20 feet higher than it is today. As
the road has been improved over the years more rock has been removed to widen it
to two lanes, thus resulting in lowering the road bed.