Kamiah ... Kooskia ... Orofino

[tngirl205]

Hi CanineCastle, I was just looking at the Idaho forum and saw you want to live in the Kamiah area. Me too!! I have a niece that lives there now, another niece (her sister) that wants to have a summer home there, and my sister (their mom) wants to move there too. I have seen photos of my niece's visit there and the scenery is breathtaking! I love small towns, too. They even have a newspaper that I like to look it with real estate ads: www.clearwaterprogress.com. Maybe we'll be neighbors someday!

[Canine*Castle]

Originally Posted by tngirl205

Hi CanineCastle, I was just looking at the Idaho forum and saw you want to live in the Kamiah area. Me too!! I have a niece that lives there now, another niece (her sister) that wants to have a summer home there, and my sister (their mom) wants to move there too. I have seen photos of my niece's visit there and the scenery is breathtaking! I love small towns, too. They even have a newspaper that I like to look it with real estate ads: www.clearwaterprogress.com. Maybe we'll be neighbors someday!

Whoops! I told you in yesterday's direct message that I had seen your post, but I have not. I got you mixed up with someone else. Now I "know" you and won't forget your user name. When I get home tonight, I will check out the link above. Thanks for posting it. I've searched some real estate sites already for that area and because they're small towns, there doesn't seem like a whole lot of selling going on. Maybe by the time I can get serious about moving, they'll be more available. Perhaps we will be neighbors one day. That would be so neat!! By the way, wherever my future takes me, it must be a small town with mountains.

[wandcb7673]

Orofino, not to bad. Kamiah, a real DUMP!

[nwprof65]

We retired in Orofino a few months ago and whenever we return from a shopping trip to Lewiston, make the left turn from 12 and cross the bridge into town, I feel completely happy to be home.

My husband trusted me to choose a spot in Idaho and I spent six months researching and we came here for a short visit and we lived in Moscow for a short time. (We both agreed not to buy until we actually lived somewhere for a year.)

From a previous post, I wrote about unhappy experiences in Moscow and during a short trip back there, I felt the same irritation with college students in stores not being trained and too much traffic in downtown from 2 major highways intersecting...done with Moscow.

Orofino suffered a real hit from loss of logging and many locals lament the loss of those good paying jobs. They comment that young families are leaving and older people are replacing them. I have seen NW mill towns after the trees are gone and they are not a pretty sight but Orofino has stable jobs in the forestry service, fish hatcheries, state hospital and correctional center in addition to steady retirement income so I see the area being economically better balanced than the one industry town it was at one time. I met a few young people who were returning to the area with new business ideas. Tourists are more likely to be history buffs come to discover the Lewis & Clark exposition and motorcyclists come through town on a regular basis, all summer. Hunters and fishermen fill in the gap between summer and winter..again..a real balanced tourist economy.

The scenery is stunning. The canyon adds a feeling of coziness and when I look across the magnificent (lazy in summer) Clearwater River at the hills, I remind myself that all the bad things going on in the world are happening on the other side of those hills.

The three blocks of town are a bit drab but for us, it has almost enough of what we need and I understand that to live like this, one gives up a certain number of conveniences. You learn very quickly what is here and what is not. (I miss not having a dry cleaners.) We make monthly trips to Lewiston and have a lot sent in from department stores and Wal-Mart and Amazon and other online stores that offer free shipping.

Abundance is here in a different way than in cities. In four months, we have been given: venison, elk steaks, plums, cherries, walnuts, fresh farm eggs, garden grown lettuce and other veggies and it all tastes so good!

The people! The wonderful people...helpful, friendly, caring, welcoming. The only exceptions are a few post office employees and one or two unhappy people in the city office. If morale is low in these places, I have a tendency to believe it's about the leadership.

One family (now 4 generations here) owns a lot of town (some say most of town). The good news is they are heavily invested in improving town; the bad news is some residents are resentful, don't like the monopoly and there are personality conflicts and petty jealousy.

This is Orofino. Let me know if I can provide more details.

[Molokai100]

This is Orofino. Let me know if I can provide more details.

Hello, Just curious after 5-6 years are you still in Orofino? If yes, how do you feel about the area and your decision now?

[volosong]

Molokai100, it has been a week short of four years since nwprof65 has had any activity on City Data. Don't hold out too much hope that he will see your post and answer. Send him a DM. That way if he does come back, he will see that he has a message waiting for him.

[Molokai100]

Thanks Volosong,
I saw how old his last posting was. Figured i would see if the was any activity or a response before Pm'ing him. Good to see there is some Idahoans lurking these threads!

[Ronnienow1]

For me personally, I lived living in Orofino Idaho. It's a small, friendly, little mountain/canyon town with the old days atmosphere of logging and gold mining. The only thing that really didn't work for me was the lack of good paying jobs, unless you were born or at least raised in the area you weren't getting one of the few jobs in the few industries that are there. State Hospital North which is half loony bin and half inpatient long term drug treatment center , North Idaho Correctional Institution,the forest service and logging. By the way the prison, high school and state hospital are all within a couple blocks from each other, I always thought that was weird. Orofino is a place to go retire or if you have no financial worries, (have money) a cool place to live, phenomenal fishing and hunting. Summers are awsome, the river and reservoir are awsome in the summer. Steelhead fishing is phenomenal, the world's largest fish hatchery for steelhead is there . I've lived in alot of places and Orofino is by far my favorite place ,favorite people, favorite atmosphere. They say once you get your feet wet in the Clearwater river you will be back , they also say come here on vacation leave here on Probation, I can attest to that one. I was in my early 20s when I moved there and liked to party so yes I had my fair share of trouble there, so small there once they get your number they know what to look for lol. I moved back to Washington in 99 to Whatcom county ,but I'll definitely be back in Orofino or one of the other small mountain towns around there. If I remember right Lewiston is 43 miles from Orofino so getting to the bigger places to shop was never a problem.