PRIEST RIVER — One hundred years of community library service will be celebrated next month at the Priest River Library.

The celebration, set for Saturday, Oct. 3, will take place from noon to 5 p.m. at the library. The event will take place in conjunction with the community's Oktoberfest celebration in downtown Priest River.

As part of the celebration of the library's 100 years of community service, there will be games and activities for children, including a bookworm guessing contest, with the winner taking home a gallon of gummy worms. Other activities include a ping pong toss contest, with winners receiving free books from Main Street Books; and an art project where participants can make their own bookmarks from materials provided by the library.

Birthday party hats and cupcakes will be provided.

The Friends of the Library will host the group's annual book sale in front of Main Street Books, located next to the Priest River Library on Main Street.

Thousands of books of all kinds will be available for purchase at $2 per bag. In addition to books, the sale will feature DVDs, CDs and audiobooks. Book genres include fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, children's and young adult books, as well as history, biographies, pet care and landscaping.

Bookstore hours Oct. 3 will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All proceeds from Main Street Books sales go to the library's needs.

Library services in Priest River date back to 1922 when the Week End Club was formed by a group of Priest River residents. That discussion resulted in members donating books and beginning a conversation about how to provide library services to the community, according to West Bonner Library District's website.

By November 1925, a committee was formed to search for an appropriate site for a library. A few months later, on Jan. 16, 1926, the Priest River Library opened in the balcony of the general store in the Mears Building, which now houses the Artisan Gallery.

Within short order, the library outgrew the space and moved twice before purchasing a building for $15, moving it to the Congregational Church property, WBLD officials said.

The new library proved popular, both among residents and Priest River officials. However, economic uncertainty and a scarlet fever epidemic brought challenges, which library supporters were able to overcome, and by 1937, the library's name had been changed to The Library Club, and an offer was made to house the library in a room of the new Priest River City Hall.

The next 50 years saw continued support for the library, with The Library Club continuing to meet, purchase books and catalog the library's growing number of selections.

By 1986, the library again moved, only across the hall into the much larger auditorium. A year later, the library went public and the Priest River City Council hired Connie Salesky to be the district's first librarian.

The library, officially the Priest River Library, issued more than 300 library cards in its first year.