Nearby History: A short history of a small frontier town

On the eastern edge of Latah County sits the small community of Bovill, a town whose history exemplifies many of the elements that today we associate with the Wild West.

It began as Francis Warren's humble settlement, carved out of a meadow among the trees. In 1899, Hugh Bovill, an Englishman who had been drawn to the American frontier by tales of ample big game, made plans to buy Warren's Meadow and build a hotel that could accommodate fellow hunters and anglers with an appetite for adventure.

Another bountiful resource - timber - soon drew homesteaders to northeast Latah County, so Bovill opened a store to supply their needs.

By 1911, however, the white pine bonanza had so altered the environment that Hugh and his family left the growing town that now bears his name.

Many of the experiences of Bovill's earliest residents were recorded in the 1970s by the Latah County Historical Society as part of a large oral history project. The stories reveal the hardships that folks endured, the kindness of strangers and the fire that destroyed much of the town.

Nellie Wood Smith recalled how her father had to hike nearly 10 miles from the family's homestead to his job as a carpenter in Bovill each week, leaving her mother and siblings alone in the woods from Monday to Friday. Despite the long trek, it was a desire to see their children educated that finally spurred the Woods to move into Bovill proper.

"He finally said, 'We just got to get outta here for these kids,' " she recalled, " 'or they won't do anything pretty soon. We got to get them in school.' "

Lucille Riddell Denevan was a nurse for many years in Bovill and retold with great clarity how difficult it was to work in a town without a doctor because those in need expected her to provide all their medical care.

When asked how long Bovill was without a doctor, Lucille replied, "Good God, there was a lot of times that we didn't have a doctor ... When my daughter was born, that was (19)26, and we didn't have a doctor then. I had to go to Potlatch when she was born, and I was gone from home pretty near a month."

As was the case in many towns on the frontier, Bovill suffered the consequences of a devastating fire in 1914, which burned much of the commercial district. Michael Bubuly was present the night of the fire, Fourth of July eve as he recalled, and had this to say: "There was nothin' that you could do. She was a pretty hot fire there, too. People - everybody in town was out there watchin'. And nobody could do anything about it, see. Water pressure wasn't good enough and the firefighting equipment was absolutely none."

These are just a few anecdotes drawn from Bovill's rich history and preserved by the Latah County Historical Society. For those interested in learning about the former resort town, you can visit our archives Tuesday through Friday. From the comfort of your home, you can also peruse a variety of our resources that the University of Idaho Library has digitized and made available on their website, www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital, including all the photos featured here and the oral histories excerpted for this story. Our partnership with the UI's Special Collections and Archives as well as Digital Initiatives allows us to better serve the public, and we are exceedingly grateful to have wonderful colleagues on campus.

Dulce Kersting-Lark is executive director of the Latah County Historical Society.