We spent the last two days in Wallace, ID. Wallace is an historic mining town and the core of the town still has older buildings from the mining era. It sits at the bottom of the valley where the mountains kind of "pinch" before leading up to Lookout Pass. It is just off I-90.
It is a hard town to describe. There are not a lot of super active businesses, now. It is was eerily quiet on Saturday and Sunday. Very little traffic, not a lot of locals in town in the historic district. That district is kind of like Putnam with lots of store fronts seeing antiques and collectables from a bygone era. There are a lot of bars for such a small space, a holdover from when it was a mining town. A lot of the buildings histories point to when the upstairs were houses of ill repute, with a tinge of past pride. There is a microbrewery but it closed at 6PM on a Saturday night, and did not have an eatery.
We saw quite a few ATV's being used as go to town vehicles. They are obviously allowed and all of them had some kind of license on the back. I watched one dude with his dog riding behind scoot off main street and quickly start climbing a steep road up into the forested mountainside.
To tell you the truth the town kind of gave me a "Twin Peaks" kind of a vibe. Very quiet trees towering above, the only locals hanging out at the bar/restaurants, a lot of empty store fronts. The 1313 Club where we had dinner on Saturday sported a a bumper sticker for sale that says, "Nobody is ugly after 2AM at the 1313, club".
On Sunday night we ate at the Red Light Garage a small place that like most other places has a history of other things. The current owners sell tacos, burgers, espresso, and huckleberry jello shots. The decor is collected antiques, books. hanging lamps, and license plates (all for sale - a 1914 CT plate = $150). They also decorate with political signs, that trend conservative - Goldwater, Reagan, McCain/Palin and a bunch of locals. I think the position on women in office was clear with one button that said, "No More BOOBS, in Town Hall". I was gratified to see one Obama sign off in the corner.
As we sat there, a couple of locals were bellied up to the bar. A guy walks in and the gal starts welcome him as a stranger saying she was the official greeter of the place. The guy barfly asks, "You don't know who this is? This is XXX from over in Mullan, the guy who shot YYY." The conversation went on with the shooter relating that YYY was abusing his wife and he happened to be in the right place at the right time to stop it and the prosecutor declined to charge him with aggravated assault.
He went on to say they he had an insurance policy in place for stuff like that because of his past history. He related that every couple of years he kind of gets into a jam like this so it was good to have insurance. I kept my head down and kept eating my huckleberry ice cream. A casual Sunday night bar conversation about shooting somebody was a little out of my experience.
To be fair everyone we met in town treated us nicely. It was just a bit of a weird scene.
It is a hard town to describe. There are not a lot of super active businesses, now. It is was eerily quiet on Saturday and Sunday. Very little traffic, not a lot of locals in town in the historic district. That district is kind of like Putnam with lots of store fronts seeing antiques and collectables from a bygone era. There are a lot of bars for such a small space, a holdover from when it was a mining town. A lot of the buildings histories point to when the upstairs were houses of ill repute, with a tinge of past pride. There is a microbrewery but it closed at 6PM on a Saturday night, and did not have an eatery.
We saw quite a few ATV's being used as go to town vehicles. They are obviously allowed and all of them had some kind of license on the back. I watched one dude with his dog riding behind scoot off main street and quickly start climbing a steep road up into the forested mountainside.
To tell you the truth the town kind of gave me a "Twin Peaks" kind of a vibe. Very quiet trees towering above, the only locals hanging out at the bar/restaurants, a lot of empty store fronts. The 1313 Club where we had dinner on Saturday sported a a bumper sticker for sale that says, "Nobody is ugly after 2AM at the 1313, club".
On Sunday night we ate at the Red Light Garage a small place that like most other places has a history of other things. The current owners sell tacos, burgers, espresso, and huckleberry jello shots. The decor is collected antiques, books. hanging lamps, and license plates (all for sale - a 1914 CT plate = $150). They also decorate with political signs, that trend conservative - Goldwater, Reagan, McCain/Palin and a bunch of locals. I think the position on women in office was clear with one button that said, "No More BOOBS, in Town Hall". I was gratified to see one Obama sign off in the corner.
As we sat there, a couple of locals were bellied up to the bar. A guy walks in and the gal starts welcome him as a stranger saying she was the official greeter of the place. The guy barfly asks, "You don't know who this is? This is XXX from over in Mullan, the guy who shot YYY." The conversation went on with the shooter relating that YYY was abusing his wife and he happened to be in the right place at the right time to stop it and the prosecutor declined to charge him with aggravated assault.
He went on to say they he had an insurance policy in place for stuff like that because of his past history. He related that every couple of years he kind of gets into a jam like this so it was good to have insurance. I kept my head down and kept eating my huckleberry ice cream. A casual Sunday night bar conversation about shooting somebody was a little out of my experience.
To be fair everyone we met in town treated us nicely. It was just a bit of a weird scene.
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