Nell Shipman's animals being barged down Priest Lake on their way to San Diego, CA.
Production of films had ended.
Kalispell Bay 1935
Joyce cabin with the pyramid roof.
Kalispell Bay 1937
Pack string on Trapper Pt. Upper Priest Lake
Blister Rust Control (BRC)
Headed for Green Bonnett Mt.
Jammer
(used for cable skidding logs and loading trucks)
Being loaded on a barge at Diamond Match Camp #9
Squaw Bay
Upper Priest Lake
Looking north up the
Upper Priest River
John Lee "Grandpa"Joyce
on the Joyce cabin porch, probably in the late 40's or early 50's. This is my great-grandfather.
Lee Joyce, my grandfather in 1938, with a catch of Priest Lake cutthroat. My dad always said they counted them by the basket full in those days.
Chimney Rock
a Priest Lake icon.
Jim Low often joked to the guests at his resort that he and Fuller Joyce built it one weekend.
(below) Fuller and Kay Joyce with Chimney Rock in the background, photo taken from the saddle between the "Twin Peaks" of Mt. Roothan.
Upper Priest Lake
Unloading supplies and pack stock at Navigation Ranger Station headed to Deadman Cr. BRC camp 1949.
Nell Shipman was a popular silent movie actress during the early 1900's.
This area burned in 1926, then the CCC's fell most of the snags (on public land) over the next few years. The land on the flat in this picture is private. Then in 1929 much of it reburned where the snags created a huge amount of fuel. The snags in this picture were used for firewood by the cabin owners for many years.
Blister rust is a disease that attacks white pine trees. It was brought to this country from Russia in 1910, accidentaly when they brought gooseberry bushes and currents. These are the host plants of the disease.
The BRC program was quite extensive in northern Idaho, eastern Washington and western Montana. From the late 1940's until the program ended in the late 1960's, millions of dollars were spent trying to control the disease. Crews of men stayed in remote camps, like the one this pack string is headed to, pulling up the plants that are the host of the blister rust, these plants are of the specie ribes.
One of the many lookout towers that were on most of the high points in the Priest Lake area.
Well this tower has finally been identified, it is Stone Johnny on the old Fall Ranger Dist. Thanks goes to Gary Weber of Priest Lake. Also check out the new links on the links page for more lookouts.
Some of my relatives in the 20's, crossing the
Diamond Match R.R. trestle across Kalispell Cr. on the Fred Schnieder property. Note the rails 2 for the engine and 2 for the R.R. log cars. The trackage ran from Kalispell Bay to the headwaters of Kalispell Cr. Logs were dumped into booms in Kalispell Bay and towed to the Outlet where they were driven down the Priest and Pend Oreille Rivers to the mill. They primarily cut the white pine, and it was made into kitchen matches. There was a camp at the present site of the Priest Lake Marina that fed and housed the logging crews. The Joyces purchased one of the old buildings, tore it down and used the lumber to build the cabin with the pyramid roof.
Fuller Joyce, with a couple mackinaw in 1964. They were approx. 10# each.
This photo was taken in front of the cabin looking up the lake, that is Kalispell Island on the right and Andy Fisher's boat house on the left. That boathouse was sided and roofed with aluminum, thats why it sticks out so much.
TYEE
This is the boat that was used to haul booms or logs from the upper part of the late to the Outlet. It was scuttled in Mosquito Bay where it rests here locked in the ice, this picture was taken Jan 2003. When I was a teenager my brother-in-law and I were going to salvage the prop off of this boat. We had it cut loose and were ready to rig it with floatation when we discovered it was cast iron not brass. "Fix It Fitz" Fitzpatrick was camped where the boat ramp now is, he had a truck there with an A-Frame winch. He said if we didn't want the prop he would take it and paid us to hook up the line to it. He skidded it out of there and took it to his place at Hope, ID. I wonder if it is still there.
