The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-07-15
LET THE TOURISTS
DO ALL THE WORK
Twin Falls Joker Turns
to Account the Trav-
elers' Conceit
A NEW FUEL IDEA


joker; so is Major Fred Reed; SO is
Bob McCollum. But Spangler out
joked lot of jokers down at Twin
Falls one time when he was helping
to put life into the Magic City.
Spangler was secretary of the COM
mercial club for a good while, and
did a number of clever stunts. Then
there was a while that he operated
the inn on the banks of the river
by the cataract at Shoshone Falls,
and he had chance to meet good
many tourists and take the measure
of their interest. That is where he
developed an idea that is the basis Of
the story we are about to tell you.
1t he had never operated that hotel,
you never would have had this story,
so you know whether you would
have missed any good thing or not
if he had not been landlord there.
Snake river is lined with consider
able cottonwood timber and of
course there is drift wood working
its way down the stream each year
during the flood. Trees and poles get
lodged among the rocks and the
force of the current breaks them up
into pieces of various lengths and
sizes. They grind on and on down
the stream and lodge for months or
years in different places.
Below the cataract at Shoshone
Falls there is always lot of drift,
and sometimes it is piled high and
dry, and no road has ever been built
down to- it. A trail leads down by
the stair-steps route, and it is some
thing like 400 steps down that stair
way. 1t seems like more when
people are coming up the steps, but
by actual count it is said to be just
the same going up or down.
Teamsters said that if they had
the drift wood up on the bank by the
hotel, they could haul the wood to
Twin Falls and sell it. 1t was sug-
gested that they get busy and carry
it, but teamsters don't like 4O0-foot
ladders and stairways. Coal was high
and hard to get, and wood was
harder to get than coal, so Spangler
kept on meditating.
One day he carried stick Of
drift wood up and cut his initials in
it and laid the foundation" for
wooden monument on the fiat in
front of the hotel. He put up sign
suggesting that each visitor bring
up a stick and lay it in the monu-
ment with his name cut in the ever
lasting" cottonwood so it could be
read by the passing sight-seers for
FoaneratjOnS vet unborn ~
Having furnished the ideas and
started a good thing, Spangler left
the visitors and tourists to complete
the job and they took to it like a
topper takes to a speak-easy. They
read the sign. They hurried away
down the stairs with elastic step and
came back proudly, bearing sticks,
chunks, poles, blocks and railroad
ties. Diligently they operated pen
knives and toad-stickers to leave
their imprint on the sands Of time"
They built the monument with as
many sides as there were lengths Of
timber to lay in it, and went away
proudly after their exercise.
OF course the same tourists never
came again and did not know how
slowly the structure rose heaven
ward. Local people neglected to tell
them that wood haulers took off the
top of the monument occasionally to
keep it from getting into competition
with the Eiffel Tower. The tower
was always just new thing, and
that helped matters, for tourists like
to get in on the ground floor or near
the foundations, and some of them
came up the long stairs with two
poles in hand,-one for friend
and found great pleasure in carving
names in wood.
A good many Of us went to school
few days or longer, when we were
in process of getting to be as big as
father and mother. And one of the
things we sometimes did was to
learn to speak piece" in school.
While the teachers of that genera
ton were getting the future presi-
dents lined up for the presidency on
the strength of the hatchet story,
they were also filling us with inspira-
tion by having us recite in concert,
Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us, .
h q