Coeur d’Alene, Idaho is a beautiful town. The lake and mountains create idyllic scenes as you drive around the shore, explore downtown, or admire the view from the window of the CDA Resort. But there’s a part that’s not often talked about: the public art and statues in the Downtown area!
In the last 20 years, the city of Coeur d’Alene has made great effort to populate the city with public art:
- The electrical boxes around town all display public art, livening up the otherwise bland pieces of infrastructure.
- Bike racks all look like their own works of art, from octopus statues to giant wheels embedded in the ground.
- Statues dot the landscape, many coming with their own history and backstories.
That last point is what I’m going to talk about here. Knowing the stories behind some otherwise confusing statues can help liven up your visit!
Worker Statues
The worker statues in downtown CDA are located on a part of the sidewalk overlooking McEuen park. From there, you can also access Tubbs’ Hill, the Lake Cruises, and the boardwalk.
These statues, created by Terry Lee, are named The Idaho Miner, The Idaho Lumberjack, The Suffragist, The American Worker, and The Idaho Farmer (Not all pictured). They each depict, unsurprisingly, someone practicing the named profession.
The first of these statues to be added, the American Worker, depicts a man in worker’s clothes. It was donated by the president of the company that was hired to renovate the park.
Mining is a huge part of the history of North Idaho and was a big economic boon for the area. In fact, the area is still often called the Silver Valley! Farming, of course, is a vital part of any region’s continued survival. And the Idaho Lumberjack depicts a man holding a large saw standing on a log. Logging was and still is a vital part of Idaho’s natural resource economy.
The suffragist depicts a woman protesting for voting rights and was actually vandalized a few years ago before being restored again. The city dedicated it in honor of the 100 year anniversary of the 19th amendment being ratified.
Mudgy and Millie
While you walk around Downtown CDA, you will undoubtedly come across one of these statues. There are 5 of them around the area, and they depict a cartoony moose with a mouse in its antlers. They were also made by Terry Lee, who created the worker statues above.
As a resident myself, I know what these are, but I often wonder if tourists and visitors know the meaning behind them. There is a lot of intention behind their particular design and placement, but no explanation of them from what I’ve seen.
So, here’s the explanation: Mudgy and Millie are two children’s book characters from a book written by Susan Nipp and illustrated by Charles Reasoner. The original story follows the two friends, Mudgy the Moose and Millie the Mouse. Millie challenges Mudgy to a game of hide-and-seek and hides in Mudgy’s antlers. Mudgy, unsure where Millie went, searches all over different parts of Downtown CDA before he sees her tail hanging from his antlers.
I remember reading these stories in elementary school as a child, before the city put up the statues. It was a very simple story but did a good job of informing kids about the important parts of the area!
Once they put the statues up in locations based on where Mudgy goes in the books, it almost felt like an idol. It was a monument to children’s books and the imaginations of children in general.
There’s also a song about the two characters that I remember singing as a kid. It’s all available on the website, alongside a depiction of the “Mudgy and Millie Trail”, which follows the path of the book characters. It travels across most of Downtown CDA and brings you to some of the most important places!
The Giant Die (Dicey)
This is an interesting one that still carries a bit of mystery.
It was a dark and stormy night. The moon reflected off the lake as a tourist walked along the beach. As they walked, they noticed the moon shining down upon a mysterious object: a giant metal die, and it had rolled a 1!
Ok, in all honesty, it was found one morning. It was also March, so I don’t think there would have been storms yet. (I also have no idea which side was up when they found it!) But the rest is true. This giant die was found mysteriously washed up on the shore of Downtown CDA about 7 years ago. Nobody was quite sure where it came from, but investigators eventually pieced together most of the story.
This started as a 1,000 pound water tank, floating down the Coeur d’Alene river towards the lake. It occasionally washed up on shore, and often onto peoples’ property. Whenever the water level rose, it washed back out again. Over the course of 16 years (starting around 2001), it made its way down to lake Coeur d’Alene. Along the way, though (likely around 2008), someone found it and decided to add some white dots on the sides of it to turn it into a giant die.
Finally, the die completed its journey when it washed up on the shore in Downtown CDA in March 2017, ready to puzzle tourists and citizens alike. Had someone placed it there overnight? Who made it? Where did it come from?
Now, this die sits between the CDA Resort and Fort Sherman Park, on display for all to see.
Conclusion: A City of Art
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho is full of art if you look around. There’s giant eagle feather statues along Northwest Boulevard, giant alliums near McEuen Park, and the aforementioned painted electric boxes. A lot of care has been put into beautifying the city and making it a nice place to visit!
There’s a database of all of the public art, which also lists the artists and the concepts behind their work. If you’re traveling here and get curious about any of them, check it out! I can’t talk about all of them, so I focused on the statues in Downtown CDA with the stories that I’ve learned as a local resident.
If you already plan on visiting CDA, you should try to come when we have one of our big annual events! If you’re here for the art, Art on the Green will especially pique your interest. And make sure to stop by the museum!
