ID Day 7 - Old Cities, Odd Art, and Opportunities
Today was Mother’s Day (which means that I am now just about a full year behind on this thing!) so I started the day by sharing one of my favorite photos of my mom. My wonderful and flamboyant friend, Harrison, was taking selfies with everyone in the band section of a football game, and my mom got caught in the whirlwind. She had absolutely no idea what was going on, but I think the finished product came out great.
After giving my mom a shout out, I started by getting some good coffee at a cute little cafe and bakery called Alia’s Coffee House. I really enjoyed their coffee and aesthetics, and it took a heroic amount of willpower to not eat all of their baked goods and pastries.
After fueling up, I realized that I had been enjoying the views of the Idaho Capitol building all week, but I’d never bothered to take a photo of it in all its stony glory so I decided to rectify that immediately:
I decided to take advantage of some beautiful weather, and my next stop of the day was Lucky Peak State Park. This park isn’t particularly large just a modest 240 acres, but you get a lot of vista bang for your buck. Looking out in one direction you get the imposing volcanic rock columns of the Black Cliffs (a favorite of rock climbers, or crazy people as I call them) and in the other direction you get the serene waters of the Lucky Peak Reservoir and green hills as far as the eye can see.
My next stop for the day was Idaho City, a former Gold Rush boom town that exploded during the gold rush into being the most populated city in the northwest before dwindling as the gold dried up to the little not-quite-ghost town it is today all in a span of 12 years. While it’s still home to a couple hundred people, the town’s frontier aesthetic has been really well preserved so it feels almost like a living museum, and there are fun remnants of the past around every corner.
I really liked walking around Idaho City. There was just a nice quiet, relaxed vibe to the place, and I got a big kick out of all the old-timey architecture. I started by picking up a map of the town at the Visitor’s Center which was a charming little rest stop with a big pavilion showcasing some of the gold mining equipment that made the area famous that also happens to be named after a minor Batman villain intentionally or not.
To celebrate logging, the other major industry that popped up before the town slowed to its sleepy modern incarnation, the center had an impressively girthy log that doubled as a timeline of the city itself with markers pointing to rings that line up with years where major events happened. It added a little bit of character to what many visitor centers might just slap onto a boring old poster.
With map in tow, I started strolling down that ol’ dirt road and taking in the sights. The old jailhouse looked like it had seen better days but given how rowdy it must have been at the height of the gold rush, maybe it always looked like that. On the other end of the preservation scale was the incredibly well maintained Idaho World building. Founded in 1863 and still going strong today, the Idaho World is the oldest running newspaper in the state.
Next up I took some time to poke around the Idaho City Trading Post which had lots of souvenirs, snacks, and local arts and crafts. A lot of it was cute and kind of kitschy, but one piece in particular really spoke to me: A Nativity Scene (it was May) made entirely out of hand carved wooden moose. I’ll leave it up to more devout minds than I to decide if that’s at all sacrilegious because as far as I’m concerned it’s pure art through and through.
I think the coolest preserved bit of the old Idaho City was the Pon Yam Store, which is the last remaining building from the city’s bustling Chinatown. From 1869 to 1874, the Chinese population of the town numbered over 4000, which was half the total population of the entire town! Chinese immigrants saw the demand these rapidly growing towns had for grocers, laundromats, restaurants, pharmacies, and of course miners so they seized the financial opportunities that wouldn’t have been available to them in cities where these resources already existed/ where racist landlords had much more power to exclude them. The Chinese businesses and citizens were absolutely crucial the health (economic and otherwise) of the boom towns like this, but, beyond the building of railroads, the historical role of Chinese and Chinese-American citizens in building the West is pretty rarely talked about. To address this gap in representation, the Pon Yam House doubles as a museum about Chinese contributions frontier life, which was unfortunately closed today because it was a Sunday. Luckily it was a cool building with impressive outdoor art, and you could see some of the exhibits if you peeked through the windows and didn’t mind looking a little bit creepy.
Up next I got a coffee at a homey saloon and ice cream parlor called Sasparilla. While I was there, I was powerless to resist the allure of their famous Huckleberry Ice Cream in a homemade waffle cone. It was incredible with an understated sweet-but-not-too-sweet flavor to the ice cream and the perfect ratio of crunch to waffle-ness in the cone. Even better there was a little jelly bean at the bottom of the cone for a fun added element of surprise.
After positively devouring my sweet frozen treat, I made my way to the Boise Basin Museum which collects historical ephemera from the region and lets you marvel at the past. The first chunk of the museum was understandably dedicated to the gold rush, combining gold panning artifacts, dioramas, and some incredible original photographs. Part of why Idaho City was such a massive spot in its prime was because it had better access to water than many similar settlements which made it possible to do heavy duty hydraulic mining. This form of mining got a select few who controlled the machinery and the access to water very rich very quickly, but it also contributed to the gold beds being cleaned out after such a relatively short time. Even with the hydraulic mining getting most of the gold, there was still enough in the region in those days that individual panners could still eke out a pretty good living finding about $40 worth of gold a day. Some of those original gold nuggets were even on display which I thought was super neat.
The majority of the museum though was just dedicated to daily life in those days, bringing together homegoods, clothing, jewelry, machinery, and foodstuffs from the frontier. It wasn’t a huge museum, but it had a pretty impressive collection in it’s sheer variety. I must say while I liked seeing everything, I couldn’t help but feel like I would have hated living back then because it just seemed like if you took away the backbreaking labor and threats of casual violence there just wasn’t a whole lot to do. I found it very telling that at one point, the city had 41 saloons which is just incredible given how few square miles it took up even back then.
My favorite items for unexpected historical flavor included: A marching sousaphone from the town’s resident brass band; a bunch of guns complete with the heavy-metal-lookingest dog collar I’ve ever seen (the spikes were to prevent bear attacks); a nude oil painting that use to hang up in a local saloon and was frequently the source of public scandal; and some old timey P.O. Boxes if only because they look so much like the ones from my home town which is probably a fitting metaphor for how out-dated print mail is quickly becoming.
Probably the wildest local legend was the story of Sumner Pinkham and Ferdinand Patterson which was both written out and illustrated in dramatic paintings. Basically as a Western Territory, Idaho was a huge mixed bag of loyalties during the Civil War. Pinkham, a former sheriff of Idaho City was a staunch Unionist, got drunk one night and started singing a song making fun of Jefferson Davis. Fervently secessionist (and also very drunk) Patterson got mad and shot him right there. After the murder, he tried to flee to Boise but got caught and stood trial. The largely secessionist jury acquitted him though! The museum then goes on to make the point that shockingly a casual murderer can only play on political sympathies so much before pissing off even the people who agree with him, and he too was eventually murdered while getting a haircut. It’s a fun Western story, but it’s also cool to get to hear how the Civil War affected the states that weren’t on the Eastern half of the country.
Lastly the museum just had a bunch of little souvenirs and tchotchkes that weren’t as related to the history of the place as everything else. As far as I can tell, it was really just a collection of things that cute old lady running the place thought were fun and I got a big kick out of how random everything was.
The main road up to Idaho City is called the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Route, so at least once during the drive over I had to pull over to document just how unreal the scenic views were:
When I got back to Boise, I went back to the Flying M Coffee House because they had the most comfortable seating to go with your coffee drinking if you perhaps wanted to get some travel/comedy writing done while you were there. They also had a ton of artwork that was randomly dedicated to the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou which is one of my favorite movies so I was a very happy (and caffeinated) little nerd.
After coffee, I got dinner at the Boise Fry Company, because how could I not end my last full day in Idaho without one last tribute to the mighty potato. I got a burger and fries, and while the slogan cheekily boasts “Burgers on the Side” I actually thought it was a really solid flavorful companion to the fries that was decidedly a cut above the average fast food patty. As much as I thought the burger surpassed expectations, the fries truly were the stars of the show. You can choose which kind of potato you want and how they’re cut, and there’s a big self serve station of different sauces and condiments. I went classic and got thick homestyle sliced Yukon gold potatoes. They were had the perfect blend of crunch to fluff and liberal dousing of salt, and, while I’m not much of a condiment guy, I even found a dipping sauce I really enjoyed in the form of their garlic aioli. It was a worthy send off to the best potatoes in the country.
After dinner, I made my way to Slick’s Bar in Nampa, where I had been given a really great opportunity to host a comedy showcase that night and make a little bit of money doing comedy which was a nice change of pace. I got there early and hung out for a bit with Mundek the producer, and he explained how he had built up so many shows in the area because he didn’t like the politics of the big comedy club in the area and thought that comics should have more opportunities to perform and that people would want to support them. He was such a smart and thoughtful guy about everything but especially comedy, and I was glad i got to spend some time just listening and learning from what he had to say. I recently found out he’s heading to LA, which I’m stoked about for him, but I hope the Boise scene he helped nurture, which was so good to me, keeps going strong.
The venue itself was fascinating because it had a biker bar kind of flair, but despite how tough everyone looked like they were real good sports and most people stayed for the whole show which I was impressed by. It wasn’t a large audience, but for the most part they were into it, which makes everything more fun.
The lineup was pretty stacked with three great touring comics from Oregon and two local guys that had been impressing me all week. When it’s a great showcase like that rather than pick a favorite I’ll just give some of my favorite lines from everyone:
James Wood- I’m from Eugene which is one of the only places where people are still actively waiting for a Grateful Dead concert
Riley Fox - I saw a shoe store called The Athletes Foot that's like having a strip club called Cold Sore’s
Vittorio Pellegrino - I have a speech impediment and I look gimpy. If you go on the internet you'll see people are really into that. *long pause* Is anyone here from the internet?
Olek Szewczyk- (he did a brilliant long story about trying to hide having Tourette’s while on a blind date, but most of the funniest bits require act outs. It was incredibly tightly written, but I also really enjoyed the offhand ad-lib “I have tourette’s. But we all have tourette’s in Nampa”)
Coor Cohen (headliner) -In the south ladies like to call their genitalia cookies. I call mine the breakfast of champions.
As for hosting, it was a new kind of animal requiring more stamina to keep the crowd perpetually warmed up in between comics as oppose to just doing a set and being done for the night. I almost chunked it right out the gate, by opening with “Today’s Mother’s Day. We all have mom’s right?” before immediately realizing that this was an older crowd and my attempt to be relatable may have just bummed everyone out. I was able to dig myself out of that by doubling down on making fun of myself, by talking about how my mom still does my taxes which makes her great and me… not a real adult. From there, I was able to do a couple more reliable bits to warm them up, but I tried to be pretty minimal in between sets, just doing a quick one liner to wake people up before introducing the next comic, partly because the bar kept giving me free drinks and that’s about all I was good for and partly because the other comics were all so much funnier that I’d just rather get out of the way and let them do their thing. I don’t think it was a perfect hosting job, but it felt like it went alright for a first time and I had a blast and learned some new skills so I was happy.
After the show I ended up just hanging out with the other comics for a bit, talking shop and joking around. They were all so fun, funny, and supportive, and it was a perfect way to end the week.
Favorite Random Sightings: The Fussy Hussy (I love giving a business a name that’s two insults?); Humpin’ Hannah’s (who thought this was okay?); A billboard boasting about “ The Most challenging high school in Idaho” (because that’s what the kids wanna hear)
Regional Observations: I think I’ve made it pretty clear by now, but the potatoes really do live up to the hype
Albums Listened To: Things Fall Apart by the Roots ( a masterpiece)
People’s Favorite Jokes: a two-fer!
What do you call a cow with no legs? Ground beef
Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Matthew McConaughey want to work on a movie together. “I’ll direct!” says Clooney. “I’ll star!” says Brad Pitt. “What are you gonna do, Matthew?” they both ask.
“I’ll write, I’ll write, I’ll write”
Idaho Superlatives:
Favorite Coffee: Slow by Slow for pure taste; Flying M for total package both in Boise
Favorite Beer: Sockeye Stout from Sockeye Brewing (though the Vanilla Honey Cider from Longdrop was a dark horse candidate)
Favorite Bar: 10 Barrel Brewing in Boise
Favorite Restaurant: Bittercreek Alehouse in Boise
Favorite Open Mic: Made Swede Brewing in Boise
Favorite Attraction: Man-made- the Museum of Clean in Pocatello; natural- Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve
Favorite Potato- the baked potato from the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot
General Impression of the Comedy Scene: One of the best hidden gem comedy scenes I’ve encountered. Strong comics, nice people, and lots of opportunities, it’s exactly what you want from a smaller comedy town. Comics in general did more long-form bits though that manifested in both traditional stories and more out there sets, so there was a quite a bit of variance in style. I can’t thank them enough for having me.
Song of the Day:
Everyone there is just so got-dang talented
Bonus Just Cuz I Like the Movie: