What About Wallace!? (Coeur d'Alene, Kellogg, Hope: for sale, real estate, buying a house)

[bongo]

We have retired, sold our home in Anchorage, are living at our cabin in northern NM & actively looking at real estate in the mountain west.

We have extensively explored real estate in Leadville, Creede & Silverton Colorado as we like the small mountain towns.

We have taken a great interest in Wallace due to its historic downtown, low price turn-of-the-century homes, and the outdoor activities. We are avid skiers, bikers, & hikers which Wallace certainly has available. Actually, home prices look too good to be true. And the alleys seem incredibly clean!

Some of our concerns are the impact of the interstate overpass over the town & subsequent highway noise; the lack of hours of sunlight in the winter in that valley; and the ATV/snowmachine traffic.

We are presently planning a trip up of course.

However, we welcome any comments and impressions any of you may have of Wallace. I notice that folks on the Idaho forums tend to be very helpful & friendly.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[jaynebaker04]

i moved from homer ak in may 2010 to the siver valleyi lived in wallace last winter. the winter are great for all the outdoor things! the weather is bad in wallace for one thing it snow a lot plus the town plow truck do not plow very well on the hill or in town. highway is not so bad for the first couple of weeks it is noise then it stop bugging you. IT is very great place. if you have money and don't need a job

[bongo]

Originally Posted by jaynebaker04

i moved from homer ak in may 2010 to the siver valleyi lived in wallace last winter. the winter are great for all the outdoor things! the weather is bad in wallace for one thing it snow a lot plus the town plow truck do not plow very well on the hill or in town. highway is not so bad for the first couple of weeks it is noise then it stop bugging you. IT is very great place. if you have money and don't need a job

Thanks Jayne. Does the valley get much sun into it in the winter?

[fearnofish]

I have never lived in Wallace but am from the general area and spend some time over there skiing and fishing and hunting in the area.

When you ask if the area gets a lot of snow your answer can change dependent on the person interpretation of a lot of sun. That area will get a fair amount of sun in the winter. There is nothing prettier than a bluebird day with 2 feet of snow everywhere.

Since it sounds like you will be retired and not in need of a job then Wallace may be a fine choice for you.

[northbayeric]

I think I'll bump this thread up to the top....My wife and I visited Wallace for the first time (and the state of Idaho for the first time as well!) about a year and a half ago. We enjoyed it so much that we went back and visited it again this past May. It seems like a great small town to retire, if you're not a "snowbird" who would mind colder weather and a fair amount of snow.

Though I'm still about 11 to 12 years away from retirement, barring anything very unforeseen, we can definitely envision ourselves relocating to Wallace at that time, and hopefully buying a house in or near there.

Hopefully some of you can give me some feedback on a couple of concerns I have: the economy, some real estate values that seem too good to be true (as a future buyer), and the EPA's ongoing presence in the Silver Valley. Would any of you know, for instance, what if any impact the EPA has had on real estate prices and the economy in Wallace and the rest of the Silver Valley, and if it's doing an effective job in cleaning up whatever mining pollution is still left? It seems like a lot of locals want the EPA to just pack up and leave.

Again, my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed Wallace and found everyone to be very down-to-earth and friendly both times we visited!

[pw72]

Wallace is an interesting little historic town. I'm sure the nearby mountains would be a nice place to live. However, it is extremely isolated, as in the closest real town would be Coeur d'Alene to the west, (over an hour) or Spokane (90minutes) even further west. Trivia, Wallace was the last town with a stop light on I-90, corrected with a bypass viaduct in the early 90's. Also, watch your speed through this part of Idaho, it drops from 75 in Montana to 55 around Wallace, with a gradual increase (65) into Kellogg, and it IS enforced.

[lovecda]

It seems like a lot of locals want the EPA to just pack up and leave.

You can count me amongst them, even though I'm in Coeur d'Alene.

The EPA has been "cleaning up" for years, and at one point were estimating a century more of cleanup, costing more than a billion dollars. Last year they reduced that estimate to 30 years and a cost of just under a billion dollars, partially because of pressure from Idaho's legislators and growing local concern.

The mining companies have had studies conducted and say the waste can be cleaned up in a decade or less, but their proposals have been rejected by the EPA (although strangely enough, their reparation money has not been rejected).

I strongly question the EPA's estimates, because it has also expressed interest in "cleaning up" Coeur d'Alene Lake. CdA Lake is "polluted" by mining waste, but the toxins are buried under decades of sediment. Unless you go rooting around deep in the lakebed, you're not going to encounter any. Multiple research studies have shown that disturbing the lakebed to remove the toxins will create more problems than are solved, because it will stir the toxins back into the water, rendering it unsafe for many of its current uses. The latest studies I've seen show that the toxins are buried so deep their levels in fish are normal (CdA Lake's fish are safe for consumption). The best thing to do is to leave it alone.

While the Silver Valley is the source of the toxins and has a higher concentration closer to the surface, I can't help but believe that the vast majority of the problem can be solved a lot faster than the EPA wants to do it. I also fear that if the EPA doesn't care about CdA Lake's toxicity (as evidenced by its periodic interest in disturbing the lakebed), it may not care if its cleanup activities in the Silver Valley cause more toxins to wash down into the lake, since the lake is on the to-do list anyway.

Clean-up efforts may help the local economy in the Silver Valley if local labor is used for the project. However, if the goal of the EPA is to eventually shut down any and all mining activities (which has been rumored), the economy would be irreparably harmed. The major drags on the economy there are living at a superfund site and the uncertainty of how long mining will be an option.

[dcisive]

Consider the ramifications of the relationship between big mining and the EPA here in Salt Lake City. The residing giant polluter for the last 100+ years here of course is Kennicott Copper/Rio Tinto. They have a huge advertising component that brags about how environmentally friendly they are and have been while they poison the wildlife and public all around us. Their land holdings are huge and they did a development called "Daybreak" where one signs off on a legal document acknowledging the inability to grow certain things on the land their homes reside on due to residual deposits (nice word for toxins) placed in the soil. I can't wait for the next cancer cluster to start showing up in the next decade there. The cancer rates in the Salt Lake Valley are certainly alarming to say the least, and yet the almighty dollar continues to rule all for the sake of "jobs". I really feel for those that are so consumed with the ideals of having employment at the cost of their lives and the lives of their loved ones. It's quite sad really.

[Native Idahoan]

Fish Advisories

I am not trying to add to any hype, but there are issues to be aware of. Although the EPA cleanup has been going on for many years, they are still working on it. When we were fishing there a few years ago, this was a sign near Rose Lake that we encountered:

"Health Warning
The Lower Coeur d'Alene River and lateral lakes are contaminated with lead and other metals from mine tailings. Small children are at greatest risk. To protect your health:

Avoid breathing dust and touching the soil or mud.
Wash hands before eating and serving foods.
Do not eat large amounts of fish, waterfowl or aquatic plants.
Do not drink water from the river or lakes."

I tried to copy my photograph of the sign in here, but I didn't do it correctly.

We picked up a copy of the fishing regs and there is a section on limiting the size/number of fish recommended for consumption.

North Idaho is gorgeous and we are seriously considing retirement there. I love the Silver Valley - lived and worked there several years ago. There are all sorts of really fun activities to do there. I frequently go to the Wallace Chamber website that has fantastic links to all kinds of information. One of which is a realtor located there. The same homes have been for sale literally for upwards of 5 years. A person should be fully aware of the pros and cons of an area before making that move.

Just my two cents.

[VelvetSky]

I think Wallace is absolutely beautiful but before you move check flooding. I thought they had some crazy flood there many years ago. Maybe someone else who is more familiar with the area can be better help. We have only visited. But the downtown is gorgeous!