Family completes late author’s book on schoolhouses

KELLOGG – Not many people realize that more than 100 schools once stood along the Coeur d’Alene River. Marvin Lake was one of them. 

Recently, Marvin’s wife and sons published Schools of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene River Basin, a 91-page photo collection capturing nearly every school that ever existed along the river. The book includes historic buildings from Mullan, Wallace, Osburn, Kellogg, Pinehurst, and surrounding communities. 

Marvin passed away five years ago at age 86, but his wife, Janet, and sons Kenneth, Richard, and Gary were determined to ensure his decades of research wouldn’t be forgotten.

You can’t help but wonder—why would someone put so much into a project like this?

According to Janet, it all started with a simple comment: someone once told Marvin there had never been a school in the small community of Cataldo.

Marvin, who had completed eighth grade at the Cataldo School, knew otherwise. That moment sparked a lifelong curiosity about the region’s forgotten schools—and a mission to document them.

“Marvin started collecting information on one-room schoolhouses probably 40 or 50 years ago,” Janet said. “He’d ask people where they went to school and began gathering pictures where he could.”

Over the years, Marvin filled binder after binder with photos, coordinates, and personal stories. He tracked down former students and family members to collect memories and anecdotes, preserving a piece of local history that might otherwise have been lost.

“He didn’t always have it in book form, but he’d go out and talk to somebody, and they’d say, ‘Oh I’ve got a picture of this school back in the early days,’” Gary said. “So, he’d gather it up and put it in his binder for that particular area. Probably 20 years ago, he started to get it laid out for context.”

The book is designed as a self-guided tour. Readers can follow Marvin’s research from Harrison eastward, stopping at school sites along both the north and south forks of the river. It’s part history book, part travel guide.

“The book goes school by school,” Gary said. “Most schools are mentioned one time, but some are mentioned more when there has been a major renovation, or a large addition was built onto the school.”

Although Marvin had completed most of the research, it was up to his family to bring the project to life after his passing.

“Eighteen months ago, we started putting things together and finally got it published,” Janet said.

Each family member played a role: Richard organized the content, Gary worked on maps and coordinates, and Ken oversaw the final production and publishing.

“It was an all-hands-on-deck kind of thing,” Gary said. “We didn’t want to see it languish. We wanted to get it out there for people to enjoy.”

Schools of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene River Basin is available at local museums and at the Well-Read Moose bookstore in Coeur d’Alene.