Bayview Historical Society BAYVIEW, ID

dedicated to preserving the history of Bayview, Lakeview and other locations on Lake Pend Oreille

Other Lakeside Communities

Beginning in the 1880s homesteaders began settling in many areas around Lake Pend Oreille.  Some were farmers looking for good crop land and a good place to raise a family.  Others were miners and loggers eager to capitalize on the burgeoning business opportunities.  Some sought the isolation and natural resources the area provided.  All these newcomers were resourceful people but they enjoyed gathering with neighbors far and wide.  The many steamers on the lake provided the necessary link bringing people together and enabling supplies and mail to be brought to these isolated locations.  Few roads or trails existed initially, so boats were essential to get anywhere.  Even today people who live in these outlying communities rely on private boats. Although the mountain roads have improved, it still takes an hour or more to drive to Highway 95 via the Bunco Road or east to Clark Fork.  Mail is still delivered by boat from Bayview to Lakeview, Cedar Creek, Whiskey Rock, and Granite Creek.

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CEDAR CREEK (or Clara)

John "Jack" Needham was born in Illinois in 1853.  He left home as a young boy and headed west, eventually landing in Sandpoint, Idaho, in 1882, where he rented a rowboat and explored Lake Pend Oreille.  He discovered good water, timber and trapping along a pleasant valley on the east side of the lake and named the area Cedar Creek.  He first built a cabin on the beach and then laid claim to 160 acres of land through the Homestead Act about a quarter mile from the lake.  He cleared a portion of the land for an orchard which eventually grew to 500 apple, pear, plum, cherry and other varieties of fruit trees.  He built a cabin (right) and set up a 60-mile trap line throughout the surrounding mountains.

Jack and Charley Magee were friends during the Chloride Stampede years.  (See Lakeview History)  Jack married Charley's sister Zora Magee Martingale November 4, 1897.  She was a widow with three children.  The couple had an additional three children of their own.  The blended family lived at Cedar Creek.  The 1906 photo on the left shows Jack, Zora, two of the children from her previous marriage: Alma and Frank, plus the three younger children: Frances, Nina and Gordon.  After their first cabin burned, they rebuilt with hand-hewn logs set on end.  The ample living room was 18x20 feet with a bay window.  The furniture would be removed when the family invited friends and neighbors to dances, often including a 3-piece orchestra and up to 100 guests.  Both Jack and Zora were buried at the Mountain View Cemetery near Athol; he died in 1922 and she in '41.  One of their sons, Gordon, lived in Coeur d'Alene in later years and wrote about his family's history.  The homestead was sold to Richard Hansen of Bayview who continues to use the property as a family retreat. (right)

The first post office (right), opened in 1903 and located on the homestead of  Kit and Clara Needham, was called "Clara" after Mrs. Needham, who was its original post mistress.  Clara, born in 1868, was a sister of  homesteader William Hutchins. Kit was an uncle of Jack Needham and came to the area in the 1880s, too.  Kit and Clara were married when she was just fifteen years old and he twenty-five.  They raised seven children on their farm, the youngest being born when Clara was but sixteen.  When Needham died she married another local man, Fred Hartman.  Clara lived in Spokane with her third husband Ben Tuttle at the time of her death in 1958.  Early maps identify the town as being called Clara, but the name changes to Cedar Creek or Cedar Creek Landing after 1920. 

A cemetery bearing the name Clara can be found near the Needham homestead site.  Graves of other early residents Robert Crisp, William Hutchins and Albert Middleton can be found there.  The photo on the left is of homesteader Marion Crisp and his wife Emma.  Robert Crisp, one of their ten children and the only one buried at the Clara Cemetery, died at the age of 13 after he ran away from home and was killed trying to hop a train at Hope.  Neighbors recalled that it was quite a sight when Marion and the children all rode horseback into Clark Fork.

WHISKEY ROCK

Whiskey Rock was one of the many stops on the mail boat route and still is today.  Ed Hall indicated that his parents homesteaded here in 1907.  He and his wife Lillian operated the Whiskey Rock Lodge from 1931 to 1947.  It was a popular retreat for hunters and fishermen, as well as a much frequented drinking hole for boaters on the lake.  Visitors arrived from Bayview by boat and slept in one of the six cabins. 

Advertisements for the resort promised that Ed would, "Meet you at Bayview by boat in the evening, bring you across the lake, furnish bed, breakfast, saddle and pack horses, lunch, pack out your deer, dinner at the Lodge, take you back across the lake to Bayview - all for $10.00 a day."  Ed kept pack and saddle horses for those heading into the mountains and small boats for those who wanted to fish.  He had a boat called Swish – 28’ wood boat with a 12 cylinder Liberty airplane engine.  According to Jim MacDonald, it would do 60 mph on the lake and used a gallon of gas a minute.  The resort, known for its slot machines, was a popular watering hole for Farragut sailors during WWII.  The lodge burned to the ground on New Years Day in '47 prompting Ed and Lillian to move to Kilroy Bay where they opened another resort.

Over the years Whiskey Rock Lodge has also been owned by Les and Florence Graves, Wally and Hattie Wickel, and Dale and Jeanette Guffiford.  Today there is a camp ground and public dock in the adjoining bay.

GRANITE CREEK

Granite Creek is two miles north of Whiskey Rock.  The Charles Schroeder family, who settled in 1893, were the earliest homesteaders at Granite Creek.  On their first visit Charles, his wife Annie and daughter Louise, took a small boat from Priest River to what he described to his family as "a beautiful grass-covered valley between two mountains with a rushing creek."  After staking claim to a piece of land, Charles brought 15 head of cattle by barge from Bayview which he dropped into the lake upon arriving close to shore.  One cow headed into the lake instead of toward land and he had to take a rowboat to turn her around.  The family cleared land and planted a garden.  They were joined by a married daughter Lottie and her husband Heber Payne.  Another 5 prospectors lived in the area making a total population of 10!

Charles and his daughter Louise worked together to make various boats including a 21' sailboat.  When the flood waters arrived in 1899 the lake rose about 28 feet and their home was destroyed, prompting them to rebuild.  At one time they made a small dam on the creek and set up a mill in order to grind wheat and make flour which they sold to neighbors around the lake.  Another way the family earned money was to cut and sell cordwood to steamers on the lake.  They'd get $1.00 per cord.  Archie O'Donnell was one of the boat owners who bought wood.  He took a fancy to Louise.  They were married and had five children, later moving to Glengary Bay across the lake.  (See Lakeview History for more on Archie)

Granite Creek was the site of several early mines which date back to the 1880s.  They include the Falls Creek, Minerva, Fleming, and Shafer Brothers Mines.  Remains of the Falls Creek Mine (left) can be found a few miles above the landing.

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