One day recently, Don Morice, an enthusiastic volunteer at the museum, commented, "Say, I was out working in the valley and the mosquitoes were after me. It reminded me of a story in the county history book about mosquitoes. I think you should write about mosquitoes." Always looking for relevant material, I inquired, "Whose story was it?" Don replied, "I don't recall, but there were always lots of mosquitoes." I asked Curator Sue if mosquitoes were listed in the Twyla Stone Index.

If you are not familiar with the Twyla Stone Index, I will share that it is an amazing supplement to the county history book. Twyla felt the index in the history book, which lists all the family names, was not complete and set about to create a total index. Sometime after the original history book was printed, Twyla went page by page and indexed every proper name, person, place, and thing in the history book, typing a substantial volume. Only a few copies were sold, including one copy in the museum reference library. Recently, the Stone family gave rights to the index to the Boundary County Historical Society, which plans to publish Twyla's index along with a similar index for Volume 2. Sue Kemmis has indexed the second volume. The scope and value of the index once again bit so to speak when Sue went to the Twyla Stone Index. Mosquitoes are mentioned forty-one times in the "History of Boundary County, Volume 1".

Granted, most of the mosquito references are brief, one-word nouns, as part of a larger landscape. "Prior to serious reclamation of the Kootenai valley, beginning in 1921, the valley floor was a labyrinth of cottonwood trees, lakes, mud, shallow waters, mosquitoes and numerous treed islands."(p.13). On page 15 Paul Flinn paints a daunting picture, "Few are the places which could match numbers and appetite of Kootenai Valley mosquitoes. Over-flowed valley lands made the habitat ideal and there never seemed a better breeding place for mosquitoes than this valley. Cloud after cloud of the insects would descend on people and livestock. Horses suffered miserably with mosquitoes in ears, eyes, and nostrils. Strips of "gunny sacks" were often tied to harness in order for horses to swish away insects." From the Ellen Hawkins Davis family story, "Lee and Rhodes attended high school in Bonners Ferry. They drove a horse and buggy to school each day, in spring mosquitoes so thick you could swing a pint jar and catch a quart of mosquitoes"(p. 251).

Methods for coping with the mosquito population were unique and varied. From the Gudbaur family story, "The currants I remember best as they would ripen just about the time the mosquitoes were in full bloom. There were three kinds of currants: red, black, and white. My two brothers and I would have to pick the things, and for the outing, we would don long-sleeved shirts and top the whole things off with a screened affair to protect our faces from the buzzing skeeters. We thought it would be nice to have one like Dad's. His had a little door where his mouth was. Mother had made the thing and it was fixed with the little door so he could smoke his pipe."(p.305). Joan Selover remembered " that during the spring high water times it was one big lake from the mountains to the railroad tracks and from Porthill to Bonners Ferry as the valley had not yet been diked. Mosquitoes were not just an occasional nuisance, but something to be reckoned with! One kept a smudge-can outside the screen door so the family dared go out and in. One carried a smudge along to milk the cows and doused oneself with citronella or be eaten alive." (p.504) On page 164 Mayme Wiggington recalled "If you wanted to work in the garden when the mosquitoes were bad, you put paper under your stockings, more than they could bite through, or put on overalls and tied the legs down. You wore long sleeves, tied down, and something on your head. What you couldn't cover you applied citronella to, such as your face. That was an insect repellent. You kept a smudge burning at the door to keep mosquitoes out of the house. Mosquitoes don't breed in running water; just in stagnant water. We'd put a little oil in the pools, usually kerosene."

The final bit of Boundary County mosquito trivia is in the Wright family story. In 1899, William Wright bought 320 acres in Paradise Valley from the Great Northern Railway. "About 1910 he built the largest barn in Paradise Valley with only a mule for help. He put a cupola on top as a lookout for strangers and a place to get away from the mosquitoes. He changed the name of the valley from Mosquito Flats to Paradise Valley."(p.574)

Thus ends our journey through Mosquito misery. Thanks to Don Morice and the Twyla Stone Index, the impact of a tiny pest on the daily lives of residents in old Boundary County has been revealed.

The Boundary County Museum, located at 7229 Main is open Tuesday -Saturday 10-4.