Ganesha in Coeur d’Alene

Four arms and an elephant head once drove this town bonkers.

On June 10, 2011, the launch of Coeur d’Alene’s ArtCurrents program, including the unveiling of a 5-foot statue of the Hindu god Ganesha, attracted protesters and counter-protesters.

“A little controversy sometimes pays off,” Coeur d’Alene mayor Sandi Bloem told some 50 people who gathered at Sixth and Sherman to see the controversial metal statue.

Across the street with four other protesters, Dan Brannan, chairman of the Kootenai County Constitution Party, denounced the art as a false idol.

“It’s an affront to God and it invites judgment,” he told the Coeur d’Alene Press. “That’s what Scripture teaches. That Caesar cannot take over the realm of Christ.”

Meanwhile, Ryan Schaefer held a sign that read: “Religious bigotry is ugly, art is beautiful.”

A creation of Spokane artist Rick Davis, the Ganesha statue was one of 14 pieces of public art selected by the Coeur d’Alene Arts Commission to initiate ArtCurrents. Artists were paid a $500 stipend to display their works downtown for a year. And, if the artists sold their work, they agreed to pay the city 25% of the price to cover handling expenses.

Artist Davis set his statue’s sales price at $35,000. The worldwide attention it attracted was priceless. An opinion piece circulated by Hindu Press International said:

“The controversy is a blow for a city that promotes itself as a destination for international travelers and still smarts from the stigma associated with northern Idaho as the historic home of the white supremacy group Aryan Nations.”

Ganesha, the Hindu god of success, wasn’t the only art piece to attract the protesters’ ire. They also wanted the city to remove a nearby likeness of St. Francis of Assisi, a Catholic saint known for his love of animals. They considered it to be a “humanistic idol statue.”

Other pieces that helped introduce the ArtCurrents program 15 years ago depicted a blue heron, a bucking deer, a stoic bear, a moose and musical instruments.

The controversy eventually died down but didn’t go away.

In July 2011, Ronald J. Vander Griend of Coeur d’Alene circulated a petition demanding the removal of Ganesha. He claimed that it included subtle images of a swastika and a phallus symbol (the elephant’s trunk). Two local churches supported him.

The Ganesha statue survived its year under fire before being replaced by a 7-foot futuristic statue by artist Jason Sanchez, titled “Art and Soul.” Ganesha was removed June 1, 2012.

A legend dies

Martha Cook was surprised that she and her .308 Winchester rifle had killed a local legend.

But she knew nothing of the Three-Legged Bear of Avery until she pulled the trigger.

“I felt bad,” she told The Press on June 2, 1976.

Cook and a companion were hunting on the north fork of the St. Joe River when they encountered the luckless bear. Railroad employees had told them about some grain spills nearby. And the two hunters had staked the site out early one morning.

Ninety minutes later, the hungry Three-Legged Bear “with a funny cough” appeared about 80 yards away. Cook’s partner tried to spook the bear in her direction. But it headed away “at a pretty good trot,” with Cook in pursuit.

Cook didn’t notice a limp.

Finally, the bear stopped and leaned against a tree. That’s when Cook shot it. The bear “went nuts” on the railroad tracks, ran off into the timber and died. Cook noticed that it only had three legs when she turned it over.

Later, she learned that, as a cub, the bear had lost a front leg to a train. It laid by the tracks for days before recovering somewhat. Afterward, it was seen two or three times a year.

Cook told The Press that the bear’s stump was “severely calloused.” It weighed about 250 pounds — much of which became pepperoni and sausage.

Unsolved murder

The oldest cold case in Kootenai County may be the unsolved murder of gas station operator Alonzo J. Brainard on April 4, 1931.

In a retrospective story 25 years later, the Coeur d’Alene Press outlined the details.

At 9:30 that Saturday evening, Brainard, 56, had just shut the gas pumps at his station, located at U.S. 95 and Highway 10 (Appleway). He was re-entering the station carrying a gas can when a bullet from a .30-30 caliber rifle slammed into his head.

He died instantly.

Sheriff C.A. McDonald and Coroner R.B. Mooney decided the bullet was fired from across the two-lane highway. And the killer was kneeling, with his rifle resting on a small pine tree, when he fired.

Brainard’s mother heard the shot and found her son’s body. She had traveled from Wallace to celebrate her 77th birthday that day with her son.

Kootenai County authorities hired Luke May, a noted criminologist from Seattle to help investigate the case. He spent two days here. But he found nothing new.

No motive was ever established. No suspect identified.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: It’s June/too soon — Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Speeding Toward”).

• O Pioneers: A Coeur d’Alene street bears his surname. In 1908, he and Herbert Lyons started the first waterway mail service west of the Mississippi River. He operated a dairy at the base of Canfield Mountain with the help of his six boys and a girl. His daughter, Louise, almost became a congresswoman. And on June 10, 1956, Lester Shadduck and wife Mary celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.

• Red Hot Shoppers: And the answer is: Albertson’s (Safeway). Question: Where did the Red Hot Mamas get the grocery boxes for costumes before marching in the 2002 Fourth of July parade in Philadelphia? First, the grocery chain invited The Mamas to enjoy a shopping spree. Then, the store emptied the contents from their selected boxes. Local food banks got the innards. RHM got the empty cartons for outfits.

• Flying High: Kootenai Memorial Hospital (now Kootenai Health) was 90% complete when VIPs dedicated its flagpole June 10, 1966. Serving as the pole was a 50-foot peeled larch. North Idaho Hoo Hoos, a lumber organization, arranged the dedication ceremony. Congressman Compton White added to the dignity of the event by hoisting an American flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol.

• Grand House: In June 1991, when the Wagstaff House was priced by John Beutler Associates at $1.7 million ($4.15 million today), it was said to be North Idaho’s priciest single-family listing ever. The 10-000-square-foot East Lakeshore Drive home had six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, five fireplaces and a beach. One gawker at a catered open house said that it would bring $6 million in southern California.

Parting shot

Betsy Ross may or may not have fashioned the first American flag. But Branson M. Ross, for whom Ross Point in Post Falls is named, surely wasn’t her son.

He is, however, responsible for a monument at Forest Cemetery that honors the flag icon and indicates she may be his mother.

His story has holes in it.

First, he misspelled the flag maker’s name as “Betsey” twice on the memorial. Secondly, her first husband’s name, John, is engraved incorrectly as “James.” Thirdly, John and Betsy’s union produced two daughters. No sons. Their name couldn’t have been passed down. Finally, B.M. Ross was born in 1834. Betsy Ross died two years later at 84.

In June 1976, Mrs. Charles Sebring told The Press about a meeting she and her mother had with Ross after the monument was erected (possibly in 1919). She was a child. Her mother asked Ross if he truly was related to the flag seamstress.

The old man said he wasn’t sure. But he felt Betsy Ross needed to be honored anyway.

Ross died in 1926 at age 91. He and several family members are buried near the memorial. Meanwhile, Betsy Ross was buried, disinterred and reburied three times — in Philadelphia.

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D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at [email protected].

    Ryan Schaefer, center in green, supports the Ganesha statue in 2011 while protesters across Sixth Street don’t.
  

    Hunter Martha Cook surveys the legendary Three-Legged Bear of Avery in 1976.
  

    An undated photo, held as evidence by the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, shows Mr. and Mrs. A.J. Brainard at Brainard’s service station. Mrs. Brainard died in the autumn before her husband’s 1931 murder.
  

    Pioneers L.C. and Mary Shadduck of Dalton Gardens celebrate their golden wedding anniversary in 1956.
  

    Red Hot Mamas Mikki Stevens, left, and Karen Welts race through Albertson’s to collect boxes of groceries for parade costumes in 2002.
  

    Congressman Compton White raises the U.S. flag over the almost complete Kootenai Memorial Hospital in 1966. Chairman John Richards of the hospital board holds the flag’s bunting for the flagpole dedication.
  

    Realtor John Beutler, right, talks with clients Rick Munson, left, and Mark Johnson after listing the Wagstaff House on East Lakeshore Drive.
  

    A monument honoring legendary flag maker Betsy Ross at Forest Cemetery is impressive, but not accurate.