The Spirit Of Wallace Past

I love going up to Burke and parking the car in front of what was once a grocery store. As I look down the road my mind refuses to see what is now, and instead it tunes into the feeling,the sounds, the smells, the crying,and the laughing of the men,women, and children who once inhabited the now crumbling remains of the once bustling mining town.

Every town has a personality. Yes,I sad a personality. If you are open at all to the vibes of a town, you can sense the composite history of the souls who have graced or disgraced the very ground upon which you are standing or driving on.

Most of the people are like the grass of the field,they came,lived,and either died there or they moved on to another town. Regardless of how long they lived in a certain town, their vibes are forever sewn in the fabric of that town.

Most of these people are long ago forgotten.They may have been poor,homeless,rich,powerful,or in the middle, but they all make that feeling, that spirit that makes each town what it is.

The next few blogs are going to be dedicated to the forgotten souls of Wallace.I hope that you will check back and take this journey with me.

It's All In Your Perspective-Let's Make Burke Great Again

Here is Burke as it is.

Here is Burke as I see it when I go up there;

Let's make Burke great again.

A Not So Sage Sage-Part 1-The Boxer

And in this corner, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, wearing black boxing shorts, carrying a lawyer's briefcase, wearing a black judge's robe over his shorts, and carrying a pistol that earned him a charge of murder. He is from Detroit by way of Burke, Idaho, ladies and gentlemen, the pride of Burke and the disgrace of Detroit,Robert E Sage, Sage.

Born in the Coeur D Alenes to Eugene Sage, a former foreman at the Hercules, and later the Sheriff of Shoshone County, Sage was a tough, smart, Burke boy. This is how the Spokesman-Review chronicled it in its October 3, 1940, edition.

Sage went to school in Burke as a boy, took up boxing and made a success of it. He rose to the top of the field in the middleweight division and virtually fought his way through law school in Detroit.He contended for the word title, fighting Harry Greb, and other champions of the day.

Now, he must have been one tough hombre, because if you are not a boxing fan or a boxing history buff, you may not know that Harry Greb was one the greatest middleweights of all time. From the tough city of Pittsburgh, Pa., Greb was known as the"Pittsburgh Whirlwind, and the Smoke City Wildcat". Boxing historian and legend, Bert Sugar, proclaimed Greb as one of the five greatest fighters of all time, and Box Rec, lists him as te third greatest middleweight of all time.
Harry Greb Robert Sage

So, as you can see, our Burke boy was in for the fight of his life. Yes, Sage lost the fight, on a decision, but I can just imagine that it was one brutal,bruising, bloody carnage as the two bulls from two of the nation's toughest towns went at it toe to toe.

Maybe those blows help contribute to what came later.

Next-Sage-the attorney

Combination Bar -Burke Residents Go Vigilante on Sept 23, 1962

One thing that can always be said about the folks who reside now and who resided in past years in Wallace and Burke is that we look out for our own. Sure, we may get into a knock down punching match in a local bar or on the school grounds but, let a stranger come in and try it there is a very serious price to pay.

It was late on September 23, 1962 when the proprietor of the Combination Bar in Burke,Idaho was shot and seriously wounded. The Spokane Daily Chronicle told it like this.

Mrs. Esther Vincent battled for her life in Providence Hospital in near-by Wallace where her condition is reported as weakened. Emergency surgery failed to locate the bullet which entered her body between the hip and the stomach, and several blood transfusions were given during surgery. More surgery is planned to find and remove the bullet.

It was getting late on the 23,rd when a stranger to town picked the wrong bar to hold up. The robber was leaving the bar with $150.00 of the bar's money. As he fled the bar. Mrs. Vincent evidently did not take kindly to losing her money, and in a act of either defiance or desperation, she hurled a bar stool at the man and followed him outside. Unfortunately for Mrs. Vincent, the perpetrator had a .22 pistol and shot the proprietor three times.

Now, the good old boys of Burke did not take kindly to having the lady who served their drinks shot, Two of the town's citizens fired shots at the fleeing low life, but their bullets fell short of the mark. Well, I can tell you, the whole town was up in arms. You don't mess with the locals, and you sure as heck don't shoot the lady who provides your drinks.

Again, here is how the Chronicle reported it.

Residents throughout town armed themselves and joined Sheriff Gardner, his deputies,  and police from Wallace in a building to building search. 

Two witnesses said that the robber fled into the Hecla Mining Company mill,but he was not found.
Yes, the wild, wild, west was still alive in Burke in 1962. Burke and Wallace were tough, tough, towns. Beware, don't mess with the locals. They will protect their own. Now, I wonder, was this robber ever found, did he get away with it, or was a little vigilante justice administered in the mill? I don't know the answer.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19620924&id=fK1YAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RvcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6343,5565068&hl=en

When Baseball Was King-The Idaho-Washington League

The day was probably blustery and cold as the meeting on January 27th, 1928 at the Dessert hotel in Spokane. The subject of the meeting was none other than the formation of the Idaho-Washington Baseball League. The franchises that would be the pioneer members of the new league were three from Spokane, one from the city of Coeur D'Alene, and two from the Coeur D Alene mining district, including one from Burke and one from Wallace.

The decision was based on the wide appeal of the nations' past time, and the passion for baseball was at a fevered pitch in the mining camps. One of the biggest factors for including Burke, well, here is a quote from Mr. Ferris, the coordinator of the meeting.

Burke has built an expensive ballpark, and the people are keen for the proposal.

Yes, baseball was a very big thing in the Valley, and the leagues were real and played at a pro-level. Several players from Burke and Wallace had cups of coffee in the Major Leagues including the legendary Gonzaga Univesity star  and Wallace High School coach,  Mel Ingram, who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. I plan on posting more about him in a future blog.

The new league decided to follow the same format of the Pacific Coast League and split the season in half with the winner of the fist half playing the winner of the second half for the league championship. And so, on the cold January night in 1928, a great new league was born, and Wallace and Burke became baseball giants in those early mining days.