History is alive and well with Mike Fritz

Meet Mike Fritz, a collector and steward of Gem State history. He has been collecting Idaho-related memorabilia such as merchant trade tokens, postcards, matchbooks, wooden nickels, Disabled American Veterans license plate key tags, dog tax tags and more for 45-plus years.

Generation: Chronologically, I guess I am a “boomer,” but some — family, friends — may call me an “oldster” due to my interests.

Career and community involvement:

Idaho grade school: Post Falls, including third grade at the McGuire “rock” school due to Post Falls being overcrowded; Coeur d’Alene Junior High on Seventh Street and senior high on 15th Street; North Idaho Junior College, University of Idaho - major in engineering, minor in double-deck pinochle. I spent 10 years at the U.S. Forest Service, 10 years at a locally owned North Idaho family grocery store, then 25 years at the hardware store my wife and I started. Over the years, Cub/Boy Scouts, soccer club, Rotary, Lions Club (currently 30-plus years), Rathdrum/Westwood Historical Society (president), Coeur d’Alene Coin Club and general school of hard knocks have been areas of interest.

Parental status:

Married, with three kids and four grandkids.

1. What’s new at the Old Kootenai County Jail these days?

We’re open again weekends for tours, ongoing gathering/archiving of historical artifacts.

2. What’s some of your personal North Idaho history?

I started as a teenager in the early 1960s collecting coins, along with my brother Ron. My grandmother, Gertrude English, saved her change, and gave it to her daughters and growing families. About 1963, someone at my mother’s, JoAnne Fritz, office found out about the mayonnaise jars of coins and asked to look at them. Instead, my brother and I did, which led to the purchase of a coin collection folder and collecting coins. After about 10 years, at a local Coeur d’Alene Coin Club show, I became aware of merchant trade tokens, issued by local businesses. Always was interested in U.S. history, but here were collectables with much more local history and even better, at a fraction of the cost of coins. The tokens were in junk boxes at coin shops, but also at antique stores, flea markets, yard sales, business families possession, etc. This showed me there were numerous other types of historical artifacts besides tokens. As they say, the rest is history. Have been collecting Idaho history for 45-plus years.

3. What do you love about being a part of the Rathdrum Westwood Historical Society?

That I am not alone (or the only crazy person?) in interest of local history.

4. What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

That I have interests other than coin shows, antique shows, flea markets, estate sales, that include family gatherings and life on the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River and Spirit Lake.

5. If you could go back in time and meet anyone from North Idaho’s past, who would it be and why?

Lewis and Clark as they entered Idaho, George. Shoup, the last territorial/first state governor and Andrew Pritchard with the discovery of gold in far North Idaho, and on and on.