The museum's location by Coeur d'Alene Lake is highly appropriate as in years past the city depended on their lake for transportation, employment and entertainment. Beginning around 1878 the waters of the lake were, for several decades, plied by a fleet of steam boats which carried the stuff of commerce up and down the lake through the week and tourists on the weekends.
One of three beautifully built and highly detailed replicas of the old Coeur d'Alene Lake steamers, this is of
The Idaho, a 147 foot mid wheeler paddlewheel steamer which was put into service on the lake about 1903. It continued to run up and down Coeur d'Alene Lake until about 1915. She could carry 1,000 passengers on weekend cruises and was, for much of that time, the largest steamer on the lake. One of the more unfortunate ships of the fleet, she spent a relatively short time on the lake, slipping beneath the water in 1915. In that year
The Idaho was the victim of a deck fire, burning to the waterline then sinking.
A mid wheeler,
The Idaho completes the set of three styles of Coeur d'Alene Lake steamers represented by the replicas in the museum, accompanied by
The Flyer, a screw driven steamer, and
The Georgie Oakes, a sternwheeler.
Steamboats made it possible for people to have easy access to the area around Coeur d'Alene Lake and its interior in a time when there were few roads and no highways. By 1910, there were more than 40 large steamboats on Lake Coeur d'Alene. During weekdays the steamboats carried freight, mail, businessmen and lumberjacks to communities, rail lines and mills on the lake and up the rivers. On Sundays, excursion boats carried passengers on pleasure trips.
The Red Collar Line and the White Star Navigation Company controlled the steamboat business on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Steamboat transportation peaked in about 1915 when the automobile was gaining popularity and railroads were well established. Steamboats continued to operate into the late 1930s but the grandeur of those early years was gone.
From the Museum of Idaho