Since 1999, the Idaho State Historical Society has presented prestigious awards to individuals and organizations who have made major significant contributions to the preservation and promotion of Idaho’s history. Many have been awarded in the five north central Idaho counties of Nez Perce, Latah, Lewis, Idaho and Clearwater.
If you want to enjoy learning about local history, read a book or the Lewiston Tribune, attend a lecture, join the historical society, or just visit with one of these Esto Perpetua (state motto “It is perpetual”) winners. In 2006, I was the winner of the award and so was our Nez Perce County Historical Society. Others receiving the award were Marion Shinn in 2008, Carol Simon-Smolinski in 2010, Steve Branting in 2011, John Mock in 2013, Garry Bush in 2014, Lyle Wirtanen and the Lewiston Tribune in 2015, and Dan Miller, Ron Karlberg and Bob Tatko in 2019.
When he received the Esto Perpetua Award, the late Marion Shinn was 87 years old, and he was very deserving of it. He has contributed much to his local area, the state of Idaho and to our country. He served on a submarine in World War II, and wrote a book called “Pacific Patrol” about his experiences. I was a student in his Lewiston High School chemistry class in 1949, just four years after his war experiences, so he slipped in a little about his war experiences. From the mid-1990s to later, I worked with him when he was a Nez Perce County Historical Society board member and I was board president. The back of his 2014 book, “Eyewitness to Idaho History, a Trip Down Memory Lane,” gives a good snapshot of Marion’s life. He was born and raised in rural Idaho near Whitebird. He spent four decades as an Idaho educator, starting as a teacher in a one-room school and ending as dean of Vocational Education at Lewis-Clark State College. During his retirement years, he served on the Lewiston City Council, including a term as mayor.
When I received the Esto Perpetua award in 2006, I felt very humbled. Idaho Gov. Jim Risch presented it to me in Boise, and when he did he leaned over to me and said he hoped I was not going to try to claim that Lewiston should still be the capital. Risch also received an Esto Perpetua award the same year. When I received the award, I had served as president of the Nez Perce County for 10 years, and I served seven more with the title.
U.S. history was my favorite high school subject, and I majored in it at the University of Idaho. I also received a master’s degree and most of a doctorate from Idaho. I have received two awards from Lewis-Clark State College for “dedication and commitment.” I am also a retired hall of fame member of the local chapter. After two years in the U.S. Army, I was a public school educator for 34 years, including 24 as a small school superintendent. I enjoy doing research and have written and published 10 books about local history.
The 2010 Esto Perpetua winner from the Nez Perce County Historical Society is Carole Simon-Smolinski, a native Idahoan. She graduated from Clarkston in 1960, then from UI and Portland State University. She is a former history teacher at LCSC. Carole has written about various topics but she loves to write about the local rivers with topics like “Clearwater Steam, Steel, and Spirit”; and “Hells Canyon and the Middle Snake.” She has been very involved in and directed Idaho’s participation in National History Day.
Steven Branting, the 2011 Esto Perpetua winner, is a widely published historian who spent his career as an educator of gifted students in the Lewiston School District. He is a gifted researcher and historian. He graduated from Lewiston High School in 1966 and LCSC in 1970. He has written many books about Lewiston, such as “Historic Firsts of Lewiston,” “Lost Lewiston, Idaho,” “Hidden History of Lewiston, Idaho” and “Wicked Lewiston, Idaho.” My favorite project he led was the placement of more than 20 kiosks around town, each with interesting local information he wrote. He has been honored by many organizations including the History Channel, the American Association for State and Local History, the Association of American Geographers, and the National Society for the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Lewiston is very fortunate to have Garry Bush because he moved here from California and has used hard work and enthusiasm to promote local history. His college majors were history, geography and photography. He taught at Lewiston High School for 30 years and was an adjunct instructor at LCSC. He is the owner of Idaho History Tours, and you will see him driving around town in his tour bus. He was co-director of the Chinese Remembering Project which includes a boat trip to Hells Canyon to the Chinese Massacre Cove. For his work on Chinese area history, he was given an Orchid Award and also an Orchid Award for his efforts on promoting the preservation of downtown Lewiston. He has been trained as a certified consultant for the National Park Service, the National Geographic Society and the Lewis-Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.
John Mock was a 2013 Esto Perpetua winner. Before he died, he served on the Lewiston Historic Preservation Commission for more than 15 years. John and his late wife Melva worked very hard to get the replica of the Idaho Territorial capitol building built which was moved from Lewiston to Boise in 1865. He worked hard in getting two historic Idaho license plates made. For his hard work Lewiston gave him an Orchids Award. He was a Marine Corps veteran.
Lyle Wirtanen was awarded the Esto Perpetua Award in 2015 after serving two years as the director of our Nez Perce County Historical Society Museum and 11 years as the director of the Historical Museum in Cottonwood. He was an outstanding historian for our area before he moved.
The Lewiston Tribune has written the history of our area since 1892 and received the Esto Perpetua Award in 2015 for the 2010 and 2012 books, “Two Rivers, One History, Historic Images of the Lewis-Clark Valley.”
Dan Miller won the award in 2019 for his tireless and outstanding work as president of the Nez Perce County Historical Society and Museum. He has also authored some books and articles. My good friend, the late Ron Karlberg, was awarded the Esto Perpetua in 2019 after serving for years as the vice president of the Nez Perce County Historical Society and Museum. Only Boise and Lewiston have received more Esto Perpetua Awards than the small town of Craigmont, population 500. Awardees from Craigmont have been my friend Bob Tatko, Josephine Thomason, her daughter Shelley Kuther, Margaret Nell Longteig, Dick Southern, Byron Bovey and Janene Alley.
Lewiston’s Dave Leroy received the Esto Perpetua Award in 2013 as an outstanding Abraham Lincoln scholar. Dave graduated from Lewiston High School in 1965 and from the University of Idaho’s law school, and then served as the state’s attorney general from 1979-83 and Idaho’s lieutenant governor from 1983-87.
Mary Reed and her well-known historian husband Keith Petersen, of Moscow, have both received the Esto Peretua Award for their outstanding work. Ace Barton, of Riggins, received the 2005 award and Moscow’s Joann Jones and Kendrick’s Sharon Harris received the award in 2015.
Our north central area is well represented by historians.
Riggs, 90, is a lifelong Lewistonian. He’s an avid Warriors fan, a retired educator, coach and school superintendent and volunteers his time at the Nez Perce County Historical Society. He can be reached at bdriggo@gmail.com.
