.. looking good!

Idaho Panhandle National Forests Temporarily Close Campgrounds, Developed Recreation Sites to Limit COVID-19 Spread

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, March 27, 2020 – Effective March 28, many or most developed campgrounds and certain other recreation sites on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests will be closed until further notice for the health and safety of visitors and staff. A full list of restricted areas is available online CLICK HERE

As we work through an unpredictable and rapidly changing situation, the health and safety of visitors, as well as Forest Service employees and volunteers is our number one priority. We are working to meet the guidelines for cleaning and to promote social distance per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To support these efforts, rental cabins will be temporarily closed to public entry indefinitely until further notice and will be closed and unavailable to rent via Recreation.gov. Notification to cabin renters will be made as soon as possible and refu...

JOIN OUR GROUP HERE 
THIS GROUP is now provided for up-to-the-moment information regarding covid19, and how it is affecting PRIEST LAKE.

Recognizing that this virus will impact all communities, even ours, we provide this space for factual updates regarding the status of events and every day life at Priest Lake.

If a business alters its operational plan, you will find that information here. Take out from restaurants? Here.
 Opens on Facebook.

Coolin Civic Organization 

PO Box 123

Coolin, ID 83821

March 22, 2020

Dear Priest Lake Family, Friends, and Neighbors,

This year’s Priest Lake Spring Festival planned for May 23rd and 24th is cancelled due to the on-going efforts to address COVID-19. Our planning committee has made this decision not out of fear, but simply as the right and responsible course of action since every aspect of the festival runs counter to social distancing and crowd avoidance. We are simply choosing to be helpful and participate in this national effort.
 

Records show the first Spring Festival started in 1963 and remained an informal annual neighborhood gathering until 1979. That year, with Lois Hill serving as director, the first parade was held, and organized canoe races took place. Since then the Coolin Civic Organization has grown the event to encompass a Bake Sale and Quilt Display, Brat/Sausage Booth Sale, the Parade honoring a Huckleberry Queen and Grand Marshall(s), Lions Club Kids Carnival, a 2-day Cra...

 Photo PCox (CC) 

Wreck of the Firefly

JULY 9, 2005 

By Carl Gidlund Spokesman.com / 

Posting this article in reply to a question on the Priest Lake Bulletin Board VIEW.

In 1911 the headquarters of the Kaniksu Forest were in Newport, Wash., but in those days the essentials of a supervisor’s office could be hauled in a lumber wagon, so that is just what was done each summer. The office was loaded up and hauled to Coolin, Idaho.

Coolin was a city of maybe 15 year-round residents, two summer hotels … (and) a tiny general store, located at the foot of Priest Lake.

The pride of the forest was the Firefly, a 24-foot launch which was good for about 10 knots when running free. With the available waterway the trails naturally radiated from the lake. The pack train would come down to the shore, telephone the office, and the Firefly, with a barge lashed alongside, would go pick up the horses and either bring them to Coolin or move them to their next point of departure.

The prize seasonal job on the forest was that of “co...

Priest Lake Food Bank and Priest Lake Education Foundation are very excited to bring you the “It’s A Dog’s Life at Priest Lake - Calendar Dog Contest”. 

These two organizations are serving Priest Lake families and along with the It’s A Dog Life at Priest Lake Facebook Group we are making a calendar to  raise money for  our community through these organizations.  

We love all the pictures of your darling pooches, so keep them coming.    The Calendar Committee will be searching all of the group photos to narrow it down to 26 dogs who will be voted on by the Priest Lake Facebook Group.  Of that 26, 13 will be chosen to be Calendar Dogs.  Please read the guidelines for dates and picture requirements.  Thanks for being a part of this fun project.

~ Post your dog's photo to group" It’s A Dog’s Life at Priest Lake"  by June 21, 2020.  

~ The Committee will also be looking at past photos  on the FB group so if you are happy with a photo previously posted, please...

Visit and join GROUP here - post your lake rental, it's a free service! links to Vrbo etc welcome!

Winter into Spring!

Kiva is experiencing a heavy demand this "almost" Spring

Just a friendly reminder to book your appointment early to get the time and date you want.

Call 208.946.1226 to schedule or visit website for online scheduler.

See you soon!

Follow me on Facebook for updates on activities at three different locations.

New! Tanning Bed

Priest Lake, Idaho

Donors, supporters and interested parties,

Our Fall Thorofare update was merely reporting on the "permitting" phase of the project.  It is referred to as the "quiet" phase because the only noise is the shuffling of papers while the engineered project seeks all of the permits that need to be sought and approved before anything else can proceed.  

The number of permittees that need to stamp their approval is numerous. 

Progress is slow and grinding because any one of them can cause the project to be required to redesign some phase of the work.

At this writing,  permitting phase has been completed enough to proceed wih the next phase.

The Idaho Department of Water Resources is the controlling authority on the project overseeing the laborious  job of packaging the final design with the engineering contractor Mott MacDonald.  This process is painfully detailed because the documents produced will be the ones that will be used when the project goes out for bidding by contractors.  IDWR is det...

View Auction Invitation and more info HERE

Gene and Sandy Ralston are a married couple in their 70s, who also happen to be among North America’s leading experts at searching for the dead. By Doug Horner

When Gene and Sandy Ralston returned to their truck after a day on the Beardsley reservoir in northern California in March 2002, they discovered several handwritten notes taped to the doors and windscreen: “Call Lieutenant Lunney as soon as you get back to town. It’s urgent.”

The Ralstons, a married couple from rural Idaho, had been scientists until the late 1980s, when they began helping out on local search and rescue missions. By the winter of 2002, they had volunteered on more than a dozen searches for victims of drowning across the US, and had developed an uncanny ability to find bodies. They had just helped Lt Lunney’s sheriff’s department locate the remains of a man who had drowned in the reservoir three-and-a-half years earlier, after falling off his boat while fishing. Divers had brought him back to the surface that aftern...

WE NEED volunteers!
 208 443 2000