The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My Public Portal AboutSchoenhut, C. L.Qr-//tM/5 _ 3`S/e/ Chief still watches over Cascf de by Terry Smith After holding so many offices in his lifetime, it's only fitting that Courtney Larry Schoenhut holds "office" every morning for one or two hours in the Chief Lounge in Cascade. A resident of the area since 1927, Schoenhut is no stranger to offices of whatever kind. C.L. Schoenhut He has been deputy assessor, assessor and justice of the peace for Valley County as well as an executive officer of the Idaho Title Assn. for 20 years. He was born in 19e5... maybe. "You know, when you get to be 86, your mind starts to wander and you're not as sharp as you used to be," he said. Taking the bait, the Lstener objected. Humor sparkling, , Schoenhut snapped back,"Who said I was 86? Did I say I was 86? I sand I was born in 1905." His name, also, is subject to in- terpretation. Early in his life someone, teachers maybe, told him not to use his first name, Courtney, iecause it wasn't a Christian name. Schoenhut used his: middle name, Larry, until he came tti Cascade where a friend asked him ;about his first name. A:• "Like a damned fool I said Courtney, and theytve been calling me that ever since,"•he said. His mother had half Sioux blood, said Schoenhut, adding: "We're the ones that killed of Custer." When the one -quarter Sioux came to Cascade May 12, 1927 , the town was merely another station for the veteran forest service worker. He had worked for " the service in most of the western states, Schoenhut said, and when he reached Cascade, it was to be his summer headquarters after wintering in Emmett. He ended up meeting and sub- sequently marrying Hilma Norton, the county treasurer, and has "been here ever since. Well, almost ever since. The Great Depression of 1929 forced him to hire back on with the forest service, which sent him down to Boise to work with the CCC. "When the depression really hit us, I never took a Sunday off after that; I worked," he said. "I was scared to death I'd starve to death. "In Cascade there were two restaurants going night and day during the depression." Mac Mafune and Charles Stiburek both ended up feeding everybody in the county free. "Or it ended up being free whether anybody wanted it that way or not," he added. Mafune originated Mac's Cafe and Stiburek, the Stiburek Bakery. "Mac was known all over the state for his chicken -fried steak," said Schoenhut. He added that Stiburek was "one of the best candy makers in the state." At one time, according to Schoenhut: r,. ....Schoenhut recalls ;verybodyin town was down in the cement of, Stiburek's Bakery pan- ig gold. They were getting color, so I expect ' !y ,were getting something." Ile bakery was across the 'street; - )m The Chief, which Ed Magden yijrished building in 1946. . `When they found out the dam was C o ing in, they started the place," said t:afune. His cafe occupied The Chief location for awhile. "Magden bought the Chief sign for $50, and you could probably sell it for $5,000 today," the former cafe -owner said." The huge head -dressed Indian profile, hanging out from the Chief Lounge, Hotel and Cafe, is one of the more conspicuous landmarks of main street Cascade. Mafune said the sign came from an old out -of -business service station down the street. Another former occupant of The Chief location was the Boston Cafe, which was there when Schoenhut arrived in 1927. A Chinese man ran the Boston Cafe and served Chinese food. The man's place later burned down. When he came to Cascade, said Schoenhut, "the oldest businessman was about 25 years old. "There were a lot of young people. They had plays. They had one of the best baseball teams in this part of Idaho." In the winter Cascadeans had dif- ferent manners of fighting cabin fever. "You couldn't go anywhere," . said Schoenhut. "That's why the four -team basketball league was so successful." At one point most of the businessmen quit the Cascade Chamber of Com- merce and formed the Cascade Athletic Club because "we didn't think they were doing anything. Although the club played a lot of basketball in the community hall basement, it also collected money and started plowing the road through to Donnelly. Also, Schoenhut said: "They skied with , barrell staves • around here... another form of suicide." The conventional skiers usually went up to McCall, he added. Admittedly not much of a hunter, Schoenhut said, "The first year I was here we went hunting down on French Creek near Burgdorf. We were lucky. We didn't get anything." Of course, people always had indoor activities to occupy themselves. "There were always two or three poker games going on," said Schoenhut. Referring to Prohibition, he said, "People didn't seem to pay any more attention to it than people elsewhere." "I was county assessor. I went into Yellow Pine on the job. I walked into a place where a guy was making moonshine. The rumor spread all over town that I was a federal agent. They kidded me about that for years." Main Street Cascade in the winter of 1930. Pioneer home in Cascade. Intermountain State Bank was moved from Crawford to Cascade Oct. 15, 1915. Picture above was taken in 1916.